Accelerate Launches 2019/20 Online Exhibition

We are incredibly proud to launch the Accelerate 2019/20 exhibition, which brings together work made by all of our participating students this year. This online exhibition is a celebration of diversity, both in the young people whose work is shown and in their thoughts, ideas and curiosities. The online format gives these young people the opportunity to reach a global audience, and share their ideas, experiences and drawings with more people than ever before.

Every year, Accelerate provides a platform for students from under-represented backgrounds to discover what architecture is like at university and beyond, but it is always extra special when the students create something beautiful along the way — and that has certainly happened this year.

Some standout pieces include Mariam and Ismail’s collaborative drawing of the Barbican and its surroundings. Together with their architect mentors at BDP, Mariam and Ismail have taken this year’s theme of ‘dichotomies’ to the limit, extracting and drawing moments of ‘old/new’, ‘light/dark’ and ‘inside/outside’ among many others.

Mariam and Ismail’s drawing of the Barbican

Nadir’s colourful sketch, made while at Squire & Partners is an accomplished analysis of his curiosities. When thoughts are so quickly translated into squiggles on a page, they are often discarded, or lost within sketchbooks, but Nadir’s doodle is big, bold and bright.

And Emily’s sketchbook pages are encouragement for us all to keep drawing. We could have chosen many more pages, which is testament to her commitment to the discipline.

Sometimes it is easy to forget that these young people are just 16-18 years old. We are sure that they will go on to do great things in the future, but for now we want to celebrate what they have already done.