The Trustees of the Jonathan Speirs Scholarship Fund (JSSF) have announced the recipients of its 2016-2017 scholarships: Eleanor Connolly of the Royal College of Art, London and Martyna Marciniak of the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London. This year’s awardees were selected from “…an extremely high caliber” of entries, noted the press release. Contributing to the scholarship committee’s selection was both recipients having “…a clear understanding of the importance of light in architectural design” and their interest in exploring the subject of light and human perception and emotion.
Ms. Connolly will use the scholarship to complete her thesis, and work with Grymsdyke Farm, a workshop and living space for architects, artists, and designers located in the village of Lacey Green in Buckinghamshire, England. Ms. Marciniak will put her scholarship toward the creation of models and prototypes needed to complete her final architectural projects at university, and to provide support for an internship at a lighting design firm.
The ability to offer two scholarships this year was due to a significant donation from Lucifer Lighting. “This was alongside the contribution they made in their role of Benefactor,” said John Roake, chairman of the JSSF said in a press statement. “We are also extremely grateful as ever to all our Benefactors, Sponsors, Contributors, and Supporters who regularly make donations to the fund.”
June 18th marks five years since Jonathan Speirs’ passing and the creation of the Fund to honor his legacy.
In his update statement on the JSSF website, fund chairman John Roake wrote, “We promised that his [Jonathan’s] legacy would be continued through the JSSF and we are very appreciative of the support from family, friends, colleagues and companies that continue to support the Fund each year. …. We now have a small and international community of five scholars at the beginning of their careers who we hope with the help of the JSSF will go on to great things – which was always our ambition. These are the beneficiaries of the Scholarship but we also want to encourage the other candidates in their endeavors and studies as the quality of submissions have been diverse, interesting and stimulating to critique.
Updates on past recipients and their current work can be found on the “Scholars” page on the JSSF website.
The JSSF’s mission is to provide support to students of architecture who wish to enter the architectural lighting design profession. Funding is made possible thanks to the generosity of donations made by companies and individuals in the architecture, lighting design, and engineering communities. The scholarship intends to make one award each year until 2023.
