University of Bath student Yukta Chegu has won the 2026 RIBA Norman Foster Travelling Scholarship for research exploring what global construction can learn from India’s informal material salvage economies.

Yukta Chegu, University of Bath (photo: Yukta Chegu).

The Royal Institute of British Architects has awarded the 2026 Norman Foster Travelling Scholarship to University of Bath student Yukta Chegu for her project, Rubble Futures: Mapping India’s Informal Salvage Economies as Blueprint for Global Circular Construction.

Chegu will travel to major cities across India, with a particular focus on Bangalore, to investigate systems for recovering, reusing and recirculating construction materials. Combining orientation, fieldwork and critical analysis, the research will examine how these practices operate and consider what lessons they might offer for the transition towards more circular forms of construction in the UK and Europe.

The project addresses a growing challenge for the built environment as the construction sector seeks to reduce carbon emissions and waste, and make more effective use of existing materials and resources.

The scholarship celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. It was established by Norman Foster in partnership with RIBA, inspired by his own experience after winning the President’s Silver Medal in 1959 and using the prize money to travel across Europe to study cities and buildings first-hand. Since its inception, the scholarship has supported emerging architects undertaking international research into the future resilience of cities and communities.

Rubble Futures. Mapping India’s Informal Salvage Economies as Blueprint for Global Circular Construction.

The 2026 judging panel comprised Norman Foster, founder and executive chairman of Foster + Partners and president of the Norman Foster Foundation; architect and educator Amin Taha; RIBA President Chris Williamson; Architecture Today editor Isabel Allen; Richard Dilworth, equity partner at Foster + Partners and trustee of the Norman Foster Foundation; and David Jenkins of Circa Press, also a trustee of the Norman Foster Foundation.

Yukta Chegu said: “I am honoured and grateful to have been selected as the winner of the 2026 RIBA Norman Foster Travelling Scholarship. I would like to thank the University of Bath for nominating me, and the judging panel of the scholarship for this incredible opportunity. The scholarship will enable me to undertake research for my project ‘Rubble Futures: Mapping India’s Informal Salvage Economies as a Blueprint for Global Circular Construction.’ This will involve gathering first-hand information on India’s informal construction re-use systems to translate them into actionable strategies for more sustainable, circular construction practices globally.”

Lord Foster, Founder and Executive Chairman at Foster + Partners and President of the Norman Foster Foundation, said: “Travel has the power to transform the way we see the world and challenge established assumptions. My own architectural journey was shaped by the opportunity to study buildings, cities and cultures first-hand, and this scholarship is intended to provide the same experience for future generations. Yukta’s research addresses one of the defining challenges of our time: how to create a more sustainable built environment through the intelligent reuse of resources. By learning from innovative practices in India, her work has the potential to inspire new approaches to circular construction around the world.”