Submitted by M.L. R. Grove on Tue, 26/08/2025 - 13:26
Congratulations to the 2025 cohort of Sutton Trust Summer School students!
This year’s summer school took eighteen students to the Paradise Nature Reserve in Cambridge to design a new bridge. Proposals ranged from high-tech modular schemes to romantically crafted designs, each presenting a convincing structural rationale to bridge across the water, but no two alike.
Students developed drawing skills, practiced model-making, and explored a range of design strategies while immersed in the collaborative studio culture of architecture schools. The programme also hosted two guest lecturers, Elise Limon and Albane Duvillier, who shared their career paths and experiences of professional life after studying architecture.
The University of Cambridge has worked alongside the Sutton Trust to deliver Year 12, subject-specific, residential Summer Schools for over twenty years. The Sutton Trust is a philanthropic organisation which pilots and part-funds initiatives aimed at improving access to universities and professions.
The Department of Architecture hosts a Sutton Trust Summer School (STSS) each August. The primary ambition is to introduce students to studio education through the completion of a modest design exercise. Skills workshops and one-on-one desk critiques are offered to support students in designing a structure of their own, and the summer school culminates in a friendly design review on the last day.
This year’s summer school was co-taught by graduate students Juliana Biancardine (MAUS) and Hélène Solvay (PhD), with Assistant Professor Dr Sofia Nivarti serving as academic lead.
Well done, architects-in-the-making!
