The Norman Foster Foundation are proud to share that project on the ‘hidden footprints of AI infrastructure’ has won the 2025 RIBA Norman Foster Travelling Scholarship. The winner, Arham Khan of the Kamla Raheja Vidyanidhi Institute of Architecture and Environmental Studies (India), was awarded the scholarship for his research proposal 'Clouds Without Rain.'
‘The judging panel was impressed by the range and quality of all 80 submissions’, Norman Foster said in a statement about the winner. ‘Our deliberations were rigorous – initially, we focused on the narrative of the entries but on further interrogation, Clouds Without Rain emerged as a clear winner owing to its excellent visual clarity and clear descriptive text. The winning entry really brought to life the significance of data centers in terms of their environmental and community impact, and we look forward to seeing the outcomes of Arham’s research in this area as a result of winning the scholarship.’
As well as deciding this year's scholar, the judging panel commended the entries of:
- ‘Emergent Informal Ecologies: Considering alternate ways of living that derive and respond to the overconsumption of resources and the excess of ‘waste’’ by Theodore Galvin, nominated by the Norwich University of the Arts (UK)
- ‘Drowning cities’ by Jana Sami, nominated by the Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport - Cairo campus (Egypt)
- ‘Learning from conflict-affected urban landscapes’ by Līna Nijazi, nominated by Riga Technical University (Latvia)
The 2025 judging panel comprised:
- Norman Foster, Lord Foster of Thames Bank (Founder and Executive Chairman, Foster + Partners; President, Norman Foster Foundation)
- David Jenkins (Publisher, Circa Press; Trustee, Norman Foster Foundation;)
- Muyiwa Oki (RIBA President 2023 to 2025; Senior Architectural Manager, Mace)
- Sumita Singha OBE Dr (hc) (Founding Director, Ecologic Architects; Educator; Author; Trustee, Commonwealth Association of Architects; RIBA Councillor and Board Member)
- Richard Dilworth (Equity Partner, Foster + Partners; Trustee, Norman Foster Foundation)
- Narinder Sagoo MBE (Senior Partner, Foster + Partners)
First established in 2006, the scholarship, supported by the Norman Foster Foundation, is now in its eighteenth year and is intended to fund international research on a topic related to the survival of our towns and cities, in a location of the student’s choice. Past RIBA Norman Foster Scholars have travelled through the Americas, Europe, Africa, South East Asia, the Middle and the Far East.
Past recipients of the RIBA Norman Foster Travelling Scholarship:
- 2024:Thomas Warren, London Metropolitan University, UK
- 2023: Martha Pomasonco - University of Lima, Peru
- 2022: Hana Sapherson – Royal College of Art, UK – ‘Zero: direct air capture infrastructure and the future of zero carbon societies’
- 2021: Weronika Zdziarska – Politecnico di Milano, Italy – ‘Don’t Stay Out Alone: addressing women’s perception of safety and freedom in cities by design’
- 2020: Iulia Cistelecan – London School of Architecture, UK – ‘Life Between Shelters: Refugee camps of today becoming cities of tomorrow’
- 2019: Siti Nurafaf Ismail – University of Malaya, Malaysia – ‘Architecture of Humility’
- 2018: Steven Hutt – University of Greenwich, UK – ‘East of Eden’
- 2017: Chloe Loader – University of Lincoln, UK – ‘Emerging Cities: Sustainable Master-Planning in the Global South’
- 2016: Abel Feleke – University of Western Australia – ‘Weaving the Urban Fabric: Examining the Significance of Community’
- 2015: Charles Palmer – University of Sheffield, UK – ‘Cycling Megacities’
- 2014: Joe Paxton – Bartlett (UCL), UK – ‘Buffer Landscapes 2060’
- 2013: Sigita Burbulyte – Bath University, UK – ‘Charles Booth Going Abroad’
- 2012: Thomas Aquilina – University of Edinburgh – ‘Material Economies: Recycling Practices in Informal Settlements Along African Longitude 30’
- 2011: Sahil Bipin Deshpande – Rizvi College of Architecture, India – ‘Sanitation: A Case Study across Eight Metropolises’
- 2010: Andrew Mackintosh – Robert Gordon University, UK – ‘In Search of Cold Spaces’
- 2009: Amanda Rivera – University of Bio Bio, Chile – ‘Ancestral Cities, Ancestral Sustainability’
- 2008: Faizan Jawed Siddiqi – Rizvi College of Architecture, India – ‘The Role of Public Transport in Shaping Sustainable Humane Habitats’
- 2007: Ben Masterton-Smith – Bartlett (UCL), UK – ‘Emerging East: Exploring and Experiencing the East Asian Communist City’
