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Meet the team behind the design and creation of the award which will be presented to the 2026 Student Impact Award winners.
This year’s winning award design was submitted earlier this year by second year BA (Hons) Architecture student Ranad Almajed. Ranad’s initial design draws on her own architecture studies and reflects the city’s skyline, history, and centenary.
The awards have been made by the Technical Resources team based in the Eldon 3D Workshop here at the University of Portsmouth, overseen by Ranad herself and Nicola Crowson, Associate Head (Students), Portsmouth School of Architecture, Art & Design.
I thought of combining architecture with the award design called the Rising City. The rising forms in the design represent Portsmouth as a coastal city shaped by the impact of its students over the past 100 years.
The abstract city skyline reflects the city’s maritime heritage and its urban city identity. The composition forms the number 100, marking Portsmouth’s century as a city this year.
Celebrating outstanding achievements
The Student Impact Awards recognise and celebrate the impact of students and alumni in Portsmouth and beyond.
With 14 award categories, previous winners include mental health advocates, local and global entrepreneurs, interactive historical content producers, and a former President of the Psychology Society.
Ranad's initial drawing of the award
Initial drawing submitted by Ranad
Prototype produced in the Eldon 3D Workshop
We’ve worked with Ranad throughout the process, sharing images of the production phase, making sure the award is representative of the early designs which were submitted by Ranad and talking her through the different processes that we were using.
Workshop bench to inspiring award
The awards use sustainable materials, including reclaimed timber.
The base of the award will be made from old wood working benches which were used in university workshops but are now past their useful life as benches. Steve Oliver, Senior Specialist Technician producing the awards, hopes to leave some of the markings from the timber’s previous life as a woodworking bench on the underside of the award’s base to tell its continuing story.
I was part of the panel to select the award design from a technical perspective to be able to work out a design which could be manufactured within our facilities.
We really liked Ranad’s Rising City design with the reflection which makes the ‘100’ when you move it around. It was also something that would be achievable for us to manufacture within the Eldon 3D Workshop.
We played around with different shapes and sizes, and came up with this prototype and drew up a CAD file which we could use for milling. The black part of the prototype is milled and will be made from reclaimed timber then stained black.
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