McKAY STUDENT MEDAL 2020 | Award Winners

The JR McKay Silver Medal is awarded annually to the best graduating student from the Part 1 MA/BA programme at ESALA. This year, as students graduated in the midst of the pandemic and the annual degree show was not able to go ahead, a longer shortlist of students were put forward for the award.

After some difficult judging by the EAA Council, the 2020 McKay Medal was awarded to Katie Munro, for her project ‘Errol Community Pottery and Weaving Centre’. The circumstances around awarding the prize have been very different this year, but Katie and her medal have finally been united!

Katie Munro with the J R McKay Silver Medal

Sonakshi Pandit, whose project ‘Urban Ca[r]talyser: A Reconsideration of Value Regimes through Architecture’ was also shortlisted for this year’s medal, has been awarded an RIBA Award for Sustainable Design in this year’s President’s Medals. These are prestigious national awards, and recognise the best design projects from across the country each year.

Urban Ca[r]talyser: A Reconsideration of Value Regimes through Architecture - Sonakshi Pandit

Congratulations to Katie and Sonakshi, and to all the shortlisted students for this year’s award. The standard of work produced by this year’s graduating students was extremely high, despite the difficult circumstances in which they finished their degrees, and the EAA has been proud to recognise their achievements through the McKay Medal.