Kochi student wins Charles Correa Gold Medal at Mumbai ceremony

Radhakrishnan M.S., a student at Kochi’s Seed APJ Abdul School of Environmental Design, received the 28th Charles Correa Gold Medal at Tarq Gallery in Mumbai on October 22.

His thesis, *Energy Commons: Reimagining energy infrastructure as a place for civic engagement*, proposed turning essential but usually restricted energy infrastructure into a place for shared public life. The annual medal, started in 1998, recognises undergraduate architecture theses engaging with challenges in the built environment.

This year’s theme was “Equitability through Design”. Nandita Correa Mehrotra, director of the Charles Correa Foundation, said students had examined access to space, shelter, infrastructure and common resources.

The programme also launched *The State of Architecture — Practices and Processes in India, A Research Framework*, published by Architecture Foundation India. Its authors and speakers discussed how caste, gender, environment and equity shape architecture, alongside the effects of economic, cultural, political and ecological change.

Manu Viswam E of Trivandrum’s College of Architecture received an honourable mention for *Urban Scar to Social Commons*, a project centred on reclaiming a disused industrial landscape for shared civic use.