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Gravett Award: best crop of entries in years

David Mairs
By David Mairs
8th June 2025

Ptolemy Dean, one of the country’s finest architects, described this year’s entries to a CPRE Kent-sponsored award as the best in recent years.

The Gravett Architectural Drawing Award is given for the best observational drawings of buildings or structures produced over the past year by an undergraduate at Kent School of Architecture and Planning.

Mr Dean, who chaired the judging panel and is a former Kent College pupil, said he was pleased to see the school, part of the University of Kent at Canterbury, stressing the importance of hand-drawing as a means of understanding historic buildings, which is the objective of the award.

Two awards were made – one to first-year students and the other to second- and third-years. Raquel Williams took the honours in the first group and Josiah Barker in the second.

Looking through the candidates’ sketchbooks and presentation work, the judges at Friday’s presentation said: “Raquel’s work showed increasing boldness and innovative use of colour, which we found compelling.  She also showed a refreshing versatility in her choice of subject.

“Josiah’s sketches were meticulously prepared with great attention to detail and with style. He had chosen a range of subjects, from a historic townscape to well-observed architectural details of individual buildings.”

Raquel and Josiah share the £300 prize given for the award, which is sponsored by CPRE Kent’s Historic Buildings Committee and named after Kent historic-buildings enthusiast Kenneth Gravett, who died in 1999. It both rewards excellence among students and encourages the recording of existing buildings through hand-drawing.

John Wotton, HBC chairman, was present at Friday’s event to present certificates and cheques, while two other first-year students, Patryk Olbryo and Alexandra Marinova, were highly commended for their submissions.

View from the Marlowe Theatre bridge, by Josiah Barker (pic Clive Bowley)

 

Judges join winner Josiah Barker… Ptolemy Dean is holding a self-portrait of Raquel Williams (pic Graham Horner)
Raquel Williams's impression of Canterbury Cathedral nave (pic Clive Bowley)