Hermes 2012 wins Steadman original

A Newcastle-based architect, Sebastian Messer, has won the UK’s most creative architectural competition, GEZE UK’s ‘An Entrance to London’, with his entry ‘Albion Awaits Hermes 2012’.

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At a thrilling awards lunch in London, Ralph Steadman joined renowned architect Sir Terry Farrell, Architect’s Journal features editor Rory Olcayto and GEZE UK’s managing director Andrew Hall, to present Sebastian with an original artwork created by Ralph Steadman.

“I’m surprised and slightly amazed that my work caught the eye of the judges. Ralph Steadman is a hero of mine so it’s a real honour to win,” said Sebastian. “My entry was inspired indirectly by Ray Harryhausen’s ‘Jason and the Argonauts’ and, to a great extent, by Sir Edwin Lutyens’ extraordinary ‘Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme’.

“The Entrance to London was always intended to be satirical, so the proposal had to be utterly believable, but each move had to be undermined by the next. I wanted to incorporate as many symbols of London as possible, which is why it had to be made of Routemaster buses. The 2012 Olympics feels like it is a bookend with the Millennium celebrations, as if we are all waiting for it to be over before we can start the 21st Century afresh, hence ‘Albion awaits Hermes’. In Homer’s Iliad, Hermes is also a psychopomp, a conductor of souls to the underworld, and I never could resist a good pun."

GEZE UK’s managing director Andrew Hall commented: “This has been an intriguing, interesting and inspiring competition for us all. We judged all the finalists on the creativity, originality and architectural interest of their entries and were delighted by the high standard of them all. As a panel, we felt Sebastian Messer submitted a weird, inspiring, multi-layered yet academic entry, which captured our imaginations and was a very worthy winner.”

Ralph Steadman congratulated all six finalists and presented each one with a signed, limited edition poster of his work. In his speech, Ralph also marked the death of his friend, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas author Hunter S. Thompson, who committed suicide four years ago to the day of the awards.

Run in association with the Architect’s Journal, the unique competition attracted interest from hundreds of architects from across the world and entries ranged from the political to the bizarre, including many fascinating visions for London.

Sebastian is a senior lecturer in Architecture at Northumbria University and a founding member of Studio MWM. Sebastian studied at the Mackintosh School of Architecture, Glasgow and the Bartlett, University College London graduation in 1998. He registered as an Architect in March 2000.