COMPLEX designs by a Huddersfield architecture student have earned him a top award.

Isaac Barraclough, who is at the University of Huddersfield, scooped the main prize at the Royal Institute of British Architects Yorkshire Student Awards 2010.

And he drew his inspiration from a fantasy legend.

Designed to celebrate and reward the talent and excellence of the region’s architecture students, a panel of industry experts judge the work of undergraduate and postgraduate students from all four regional schools of architecture.

This year, five students were recognised by the institute with awards for their high quality, imaginative and well-resolved schemes and it was Isaac who took the most coveted of all the honours.

The judges awarded Isaac both Gold Medal and Best Presentation in the ‘Part II Postgraduate Category’ with his work ‘The Cult of the Infinite’.

A spokesman for the judges said: “Described as abstract in concept and incredibly ambitious, we felt Isaac’s comprehensive narrative was exquisitely related through elaborate text and beautiful illustrations.

“We were moved by the energy and emotion conveyed by his illustrations.”

Isaac said: “It is hard to explain specifically how it all came about.

“I never really set out to produce the work that I did, it just happened. I was going to produce something community based, a small self-contained unit which was going to look at conventional aspects. But as the year went on it grew into something else.”

He said he based his designs on the concept of ‘The Book of Sand’, where a community formed a sacred cult around the book and its limitless contents.

“This idea got right into my head. I thought something like this would really hold a community together, it would trap them all and they wouldn’t be able to escape from it.

“I got obsessed with the whole idea. It was six months’ work which became something I would never have set out to do in the first place; it just took control and went where it wanted to go.”

Isaac, who currently works for successful architecture practice Healey Associates, has also had his work entered into the international RIBA President’s Medals competition.

He will find out the results in December.