The City of Glasgow Eimear Kelt Medal for Architecture 2021
Tiia Partanen is awarded the City of Glasgow Eimear Kelt Medal for her project 'The Cloud Cooperative: Towards a New Internet'.
Today, in the Web 2.0., private corporations and powerful governments hold a monopoly over all flows of information – by owning the infrastructure of the internet (the data centres, the broadband networks, the ISPs) they own the data. With our private information sold to the highest bidder and with one person’s yearly email correspondence costing 0.6 tonnes in carbon dioxide – the system, as we know it, requires an overhaul.
At its core, the commoditization of data has created a fundamental asymmetry in power between institutions (who know everything) and individuals (who know nothing): The Cloud Cooperative was created to correct this power imbalance, to give people power over their own data. Starting with a pilot project in Edinburgh, the Cooperative proposes a phased evolution towards a decentralized internet. Members are provided with access to secure cloud storage and anonymous peer-to-peer browsing: their data is processed and stored within infrastructure that is transparent, local, and community-owned
The Eimear Kelt memorial City of Glasgow Medal is awarded annually by a panel of professional judges on behalf of Glasgow City Council to the best project by a student of the Department of Architecture. The presentation normally takes place in the City Chambers, attended by friends, family, councillors, and the Lord Provost of Glasgow.
Tiia's project panels can be seen in our Showcase Awards section
See a selection of previous medal winner's project panels in our awards Gallery.
