Tom Dutton of Halliday Clark is awarded the RIBA Presidents Medal
RIBA President’s Medals 2024 | Celebrating talent and promoting excellence in architectural education.
Tom Dutton joined Halliday Clark Architects in September 2024 after completing his masters degree at the University of Liverpool.
We are trilled to announce his achievement alongside his fellow students, Bethany Clarkson, Xhesika Biçaku, and Sam Beckwith Flint - congratulations to you all!
Their Part 2 project The Consumption of Landscape: A Grand Tour for the 21st Century has received the Silver Medal Nomination for the RIBA President’s Medals 2024.
The Project Team at the RIBA ceremony in December 2024.
Left to Right | Tom Dutton, Bethany Clarkson, Xhesika Biçaku and Sam Beckwith Flint.
Photograph(s) by © Scott Kershaw, courtesy of the The Royal Institute of British Architects
Studium Urbis | The Consumption of Landscape: A Grand Tour for the 21st Century
The thesis reflects on the consumption of landscape: consumption through urban development and consumption through human experience. Focusing on the increasing pressure on Rome from mass tourism and speculative construction, it proposes to re-design a landscape that balances modern tourism needs with historical preservation, re-interpreting the tradition of the Grand Tour. Tracing back the itineraries of 17th and 18th century European aristocracy, and of modern visitors alike, the project proposes a decentralised approach to tourism in order to ease the strain on the city’s historic centre.
Rome’s abandoned ‘ring' of 19th-century forts - planned and built after the Eternal City was made capital of Italy in 1871 - is the basis for an alternative strategy imagining a contemporary Grand Tour. The fort on Via Appia Antica and its surroundings are proposed as a new attraction for visitors, blending historical significance with contemporary needs. Drawing from influential historical analysis on landscape design, from the Acropolis to Stowe, the landscape of the site integrates strategies to enhance the visitor experience while safeguarding the existing heritage. The architectural program is inspired by both the place and the needs of contemporary tourism, enhanced through intelligent, adaptive reuse and sustainable agriculture.
Studium Urbis explores the current unsustainable tourism of Rome and proposes an architectural response which facilitates diverse new ways to tour the city. Deep research into the Grand Tour, Rome’s ring of abandoned 19th century forts, and the history of wine on the Via Appia have informed a design which provides a contemporary cultural offering with sensitivity to heritage which promotes tourism with which Rome can thrive.
View their Instagram Rethinking tourism in Rome for more in depth information and images of their project progression.
Watch their supporting film for 'The Consumption of Landscape: A Grand Tour for the 21st Century' by Sam Beckwith-Flint, Xhesika Biçaku, Bethany Clarkson and Thomas Dutton, nominated by the University of Liverpool (UK) for the 2024 RIBA Silver Medal.
Students
Sam Beckwith Flint
Xhesika Biçaku
Bethany Clarkson
Tom Dutton
© The Royal Institute of British Architects / Scott Kershaw @riba.
You can view their entry on the RIBA website also.
