img(height="1" width="1" style="display:none" src="https://www.facebook.com/tr?id=2939831959404383&ev=PageView&noscript=1")

Reaching the firmament

Words:
Eleanor Young

Rising stars celebrate their moment in the sun

So the stage was set. Unlike many awards ceremonies this was a winners’ party. Lost was the unbearable tension, the knife edge of winning or losing. Instead a sense of barely contained celebration filled the space.

The inaugural cohort of the RIBA Journal’s Rising Stars, in association with Origin, had come together in a studio space alongside the dark dock walls of Wapping in East London. Each Rising Star had their supporters, nominators, referees, partners, there was even a parent. Hosting the awards the RIBA Journal’s Eleanor Young laid out how great work by design professionals could often remain hidden especially when many were progressing through larger firms as well as having the option of setting up on their own. Here both types of achievers were represented and around them each group talked among themselves.

Then, as partner and sponsor Ben Brocklesby of Origin presented them with a nominal bottle of fizz, the Rising Stars emerged, glowing, just a little, at the pleasure of recognition. 

  • RIBAJ Rising Stars 2012 with the RIBA Journal's Hugh Pearman and Eleanor Young sitting far left in front of Roger Hawkins, plus Ben Brocklesby from Origin far right.
    RIBAJ Rising Stars 2012 with the RIBA Journal's Hugh Pearman and Eleanor Young sitting far left in front of Roger Hawkins, plus Ben Brocklesby from Origin far right. Credit: Duncan Smith
  • And 'mortar boards' into the air.
    And 'mortar boards' into the air. Credit: Duncan Smith
12

In the second half of the evening Roger Hawkins of Hawkins\Brown took to the stage to talk about his own career and some of the lessons he had learnt along the way. The talk came truly to life when the questions started, with chairman and editor Hugh Pearman hopping on and off the stage with great energy and the microphone to reach eager questioners. We learnt about plans and impetuosity, and the simple question of the great mistake was answered with alarming honesty as Hawkins admitted to swerving the seemingly radical recommendations of a colleague some time back. ‘Be ambitious,’ he urged the Rising Stars.

And then the finale. A group shot. As the Rising Stars gathered they found common threads, issues, problems, camaraderie, the start of friendships maybe. Lined up for the shot they posed properly before general agreement that the animation of the event needed an outlet - a moment of throwing up those imaginary mortar boards to the ceiling as they ‘graduated’.

Congratulations again to RIBAJ Rising Stars 2016: Ed Dale-Harris, Dan and Max Zielinski , Brendan Sexton , Shireen Hamdan, Philip Graham, Alex Scott-Whitby, Bethan Knights, Rhys Jones, Tszwai So, Steven Kennedy, Charlotte Knight and Eliot Postma.


 

RIBA Jobs

Latest

9 July 2025 from 9am to 11.15am

RIBAJ Spec: Offices and Workspace Design webinar

24 June 2025

Designing for Neurodiversity webinar

In all, Emily Marshall may have photographed more than 1,000 homes – but this house in the South West, gradually tended to by a pair of families, stopped her in her tracks

This home in the South West, gradually tended to by a pair of families, stopped Emily Marshall in her tracks

This affordable and easy to install bathroom solution for residential and commercial projects doesn't compromise performance or quality

Affordable, easy to install bathroom solution doesn't compromise performance or quality

With scenography by OMA, the second edition of the event is a fascinating exploration of what temporary architecture could mean in the modern Middle East

With scenography by OMA, the event's second edition gives a boost to Saudi Arabia in the soft power game