Jury citation<\/p>\n
Amanda Eessa and Mary Anne Yosef, the joint winners of the 2026 Student Prize for the Advancement of Architecture, provide an exemplar of how to collaboratively advance architecture \u2013 encouraging engagement and dialogue among their colleagues while promoting the virtues of architectural design.<\/p>\n
Eessa and Yosef, who commenced at Western Sydney University as one of the first cohorts of the university\u2019s architecture program at a time that coincided with COVID-19 lockdowns, went on to co-found the Beyond Architecture Student Club (BASC) while also participating in SONA (for which Yosef served as Western Sydney University\u2019s 2024 representative). At BASC, Eessa and Yosef established and edited the architectural publication In Due Time as a platform for student work and voices.<\/p>\n
Their collaboration and support for one another show the benefit of working together to shape a strong culture centred on connection, encouragement and genuine peer support. In addition to leading their community, they have themselves actively contributed to exhibitions and co-written articles for The Sydney Morning Herald and the NSW Chapter\u2019s Architecture Bulletin. Eessa was also a finalist in the 2024 NSW Housing Pattern Book Design Competition.<\/p>\n
The jury applauds Eessa and Yosef\u2019s outstanding contribution to the advancement of architecture among their student cohort, the wider community of Western Sydney, and beyond.<\/p>\n
Jury<\/p>\n
David Wagner (chair) \u2013 Australian Institute of Architects National President Elect | Atelier Wagner<\/p>\n
John Ting \u2013 John Ting Architect<\/p>\n
Ellie Munn \u2013 GHD Design<\/p>\n
Kirsten Day \u2013 University of Melbourne<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jury citation Amanda Eessa and Mary Anne Yosef, the joint winners of the 2026 Student Prize for the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":668314,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[449,458,459,64,63,460,134],"class_list":["post-668313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-design","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=668313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668313\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/668314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=668313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=668313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=668313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}