AA alumni Wing Nga Tam and Zhuo Chen have been awarded the RIBA Research Fund 2024

AA alumni Wing Nga Tam and Zhuo Chen have been awarded the RIBA Research Fund 2024 for their research proposal titled Right to Repair: Reforming Towards Collective Maintenance and Care in Social Housing.

The research challenges the decay of London’s Boundary Estate as a typical outcome of viewing buildings as one-off transactions. It explores how integrating building-as-process principles into the mainstream building industry can enhance UK housing stock and local economies, and investigates how current provider-customer housing repair and retrofitting approaches can be reformed by involving the community in new roles and practices.

In addition to the year-long engagement with the residents and local community, the research builds on the author’s respective AA Diploma projects (2023) – Caretakers; Stones Against Diamonds and A Tale of Two Panels – which share common themes of care, maintenance and community involvement in architecture.

Click here to read more about the winning entries and the RIBA Research Fund.