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GOKALP KALFA
AwardManchester School of Architecture

BIOcatalyst Wins the Future Spaces Foundation 2025 Student Design Competition

The five-member BIOcatalyst team smiling in a Manchester School of Architecture studio in front of their framed competition boards, with Gökalp Kalfa seated in front

A team from the Manchester School of Architecture has won the Future Spaces Foundation 2025 Student Design Competition, organised by Make Architects. The competition asked students to explore the theme of "Evolution" through design.

The winning project, BIOcatalyst – "Evolution by Design: Asphalt to Soil", imagines streets as living systems that change over time. Starting from the city's most basic layer, its roads, it proposes a gradual shift from asphalt to soil that reconnects fragmented green spaces and lets nature take back its place in the city. Rather than a sudden revolution, the project treats evolution as gentle, inevitable growth: a city that breathes, heals and grows greener with time.

The team, Gökalp Kalfa, Prajesa Urip, Catalina Cheptene, Alicia Angelica Harjono and Ruilin Qi, thanks the Future Spaces Foundation, Make Architects, the Manchester School of Architecture and the B.15 Modelmaking Workshop for their support, and the jury, Peter Greaves, Sara Veale, Nicolo Bencini, Harshita Mathur and Cecilia Lindström, for their feedback.