Aedas aims to advance standards with new student bursary

The new collaboration with the University of London's (UeL) School of Architecture and Visual Arts, will give postgraduates the chance to be mentored by an experienced architect at Aedas' London offices.

According to a practice spokesman, the scheme will 'interweave industry and academia' and will help students 'develop a computational tool for professional application [helping] them to establish how the theory works in practical use in an architectural practice.'

The project has been spearheaded by Aedas' computational designer, Christian Derix, who is also a part-time lecturer on the UeL's MSc computing and design course.

He said: 'While the students get crucial guidance and the chance to test drive their tools and theories on live architectural projects, the architects gain new design perspectives and will therefore raise the general design standard in the office as well as their expectations towards design teams.'

The new mentoring scheme will also offer students the opportunity to move on from a master's degree to an Aedas-supported Phd program.

The practice is developing similar programmes in China and Hong Kong.

by Richard Waite