The RSA awards 2022, revealed today, feature a series of ingenious ideas to improve our lives and spearhead innovation and imagination

When is a train station more than just a train station? So asks a team of Loughborough students. Their resulting design, a concept called Roots, scooped up one of the coveted RSA awards 2022 (the Royal Society of Arts’ annual student design awards), which have just been announced today. Focusing on the many UK stations that form part of our daily commutes but may not be classed as ‘grand’ or historically significant, the winning team – comprising Isabel Poland, Issie Bickerstaff and Lucy Tew – drew inspiration from the RSA awards’ partnership this year with Network Rail for the category dubbed Transformation Station, reimaging new uses for these spaces and helping to transform them into catalysts for communities to thrive. 

The RSA is an established institution, known to support talent and inspire change and innovation through its rich and diverse network and programme of events. Its annual awards are a case in point, as the organisation takes into account key issues of inclusion and accessibility through what is the world’s longest-running student design competition. Past winners have gone on to roles such as chief design officer at Apple (Jony Ive), the director of city strategy for the City of Melbourne (Kate Dundas), and the former head of innovation at Nike (Richard Clarke).

In this case, a series of modular units designed by 7N Architects for a Network Rail competition last year were offered to the students in the Transformation Station category to help develop their proposals. The winners’ response was the Roots hub, ‘a collection stand and deposit area based in the train station, which links to a local meal kit delivery service targeted at commuting students. Local residents submit recipes to the service and ingredients are sourced from the marketplace, keeping the community directly involved in the project.’ The concept addresses issues of community and integration, creating something design-led and tailor-made for that particular section of the population. 

Beyond Roots and the Transformation Station challenge, the RSA awards 2022 span a variety of categories and winners, touching on topics around health, homes, play, travel, waste, and the use of steel. The Roots team will receive the RSA Fellows’ prize of £2,000, and an awards ceremony to celebrate all winners and participants will take place at RSA House in London on 29 June 2022. §

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