Congratulations to the 2026 cohort of Sutton Trust Summer School students!
Just over three weeks ago, nineteen Year 12 students went on a whirlwind journey through architecture as an education, practice, and profession.
Through a brief which called for a new boathouse sited in Coe Fen, the students were introduced to a range of design development strategies and skills, including site surveying, site observation, drawing, and model making to imagine a proposal. Students were encouraged to develop designs that framed the site both visually and conceptually, while also responding to their site analysis, resulting in an impressive range of wonderfully varied but carefully thought-out proposals.
Whilst students were immersed in the collaborative culture of an architectural studio, they were also given industry insights from guest lecturers, Wei Shan Chia and Dr Jane Hall, 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 , Yiming Zhou (March) and Delfine Lang (MArch) with Hélène Solvay (Design Fellow and PhD) serving as academic lead.
Well done, architects-in-the-making!
Sutton trust design development process; mapping the city.