Architecture student wins top national prize

Winning design: Dr. Riaan Els, director of the Carl & Emily Fuchs Foundation, congratulates UCT's Mariet Willemse on winning a Fuchs Prestige Prize

Mariet Willemse of UCT's School of Architecture, Planning and Geomatics has been named as one of three winners of the new Carl & Emily Fuchs Foundation's Prestige Prize in architecture.

Valued at R50 000 each, the award comes with the highest prize money for any architectural student competition in the country.

Seven students competed for prizes during a 24-hour design exercise held at the University of the Witwatersrand. The three winners must use their prize money to further their studies in architecture. They also have to present a lecture on their work at the annual Architectural Students' Conference, and publish an article on an architectural topic of their choice.

This new competition for students in South Africa aims to reward sustained academic excellence in architectural education. Students who obtained the highest average for their BAS degrees and enrolled for the BAS(Hons) programme are eligible.