Karla Roman Travel Bursary 2025

Open to students of architecture, interior design and related built environment subjects in the UK – the bursary will award a single applicant £2,500 to travel from June to November this year as part of their education or wider studies.

The award was set up in 2018 and is named after the architect Karla Roman who worked at the Shoreditch-based practice and was killed while cycling to work in 2017.

LOM director, Richard Hutchinson said: ‘Karla was an extraordinarily talented colleague who quickly became a vital part of our team, set for a very bright future. Her loss was felt deeply by us all. Establishing this bursary in 2018 in Karla’s name was a way to honour her memory and to help expand the horizons of other aspiring designers.’

Previous winners have travelled to South East Asia to learn about sustainable development and learning traditional bamboo construction techniques, and to Sweden to study contemporary timber construction methods and a variety of landscapes.

Farid Abdulla, a previous bursary recipient, said: ‘Experiencing a change of environment facilitated a cognitive shift and a clarity of thought, particularly regarding my career as a designer and urbanist.

‘I discovered layers of imagination that I will continue to nurture, as well as an appreciation for where best to place myself when I finish my studies. The bursary allowed me to have a beautiful experience that has forever changed me.’

Another previous winner of the award, Eleanor Hyde, said: ‘The opportunity to travel to a country with a very different culture from the UK has proved to be an invaluable experience to my thinking as an architect, informing my design approach, broadening my knowledge and helping to shape my way of thinking in the future.’

As well as the UK, Karla worked in Italy and in her native Brazil. She travelled to build her architectural knowledge, and the Karla Roman Travel Bursary was established to enable other architecture students to do the same.

The bursary is open to all UK and international students at any stage of their studies, studying architecture or similar as a full or part-time undergraduate or postgraduate student.

The selection criteria will focus on creativity with financial need also being taken into account. Carbon emissions and the potential benefits for the human and natural environment will also be taken into consideration in evaluating submissions.

Applicants should submit a CV along with a reference letter and a 500-to-1,000-word proposal describing their individual circumstances and how their studies would benefit from the travel bursary.

Proposals should a description of where and when you would intend to travel, and an outline budget.