Not many architecture students get an opportunity to see their design come to life on an international scale, let alone someone from a tiny island in the Caribbean, but Caymanian Chantal Banker can claim that honour.
The 28-year-old aspiring architect and her team’s winning eco-friendly and sustainably designed mile markers debuted at the London Marathon on 2 Oct., the first update of the markers in the race’s 39-year history.
The West Bay resident celebrated the use of her design, which had been minimally modified, at the prestigious event three years after it took top honours at the London Marathon Mile Marker competition.
“At that time [2019], it took them around two hours to assemble and dismantle the mile markers, so they asked [teams] to create a design that was innovative, that was fun, that was eye-catching, but also had the ability to reduce that time,” she told the Cayman Compass in a Zoom interview on 15 Nov.
The design she and her team proposed allowed the markers to be assembled and dismantled in about 10 minutes, she said, calling that “a massive difference”.
Just before the pandemic hit, Banker competed in the contest along with her university teammates, Athis Rashid, Haider Bokhari and Davina Lyn.
The competition was held to celebrate the first national Stephen Lawrence Day in partnership with the UK charity of the same name. Lawrence was murdered at age 18 in a racially motivated attack in southeast London on 22 April 1993. As well as being an aspiring architect, he was a talented runner and competed in the 1988 Mini London Marathon.
Banker said the contest was a great opportunity for students to showcase innovatively designed markers for the marathon.
Despite the design being created in 2019, it couldn’t be featured until this year due to the pandemic putting marathons on hold.
The markers debuted at the London race, and Banker said seeing her design become reality was an exciting achievement and wonderful experience.
Recycled products
Banker’s team got the winning nudge because of its sustainability element.
They wanted to use recycled plastics to create the marker and also have it 3D printed.
“There’s a lot of waste at the London Marathon so we actually use the waste from the previous [races] to incorporate within this design,” she said, noting it encompassed sustainability, while also telling the story of the history of both the mile markers and the London Marathon.
The marker used four tonnes of plastic that also included waste from beaches in Dorset, Devon and Cornwall collected by Keep Britain Tidy volunteers, according to a TCS London Marathon article. The markers are expected to be used in future marathons.
Banker added she feels honoured to represent Cayman at the level of the London Marathon.
During the design-development stage, she said, there were even talk of the design possibly setting a world record for having the most 3D-printed elements in a single event. That verification, she said, is still pending.
Vision of affordable homes for young Caymanians
She has loftier goals, however.
With the haunting images etched in her memory from surviving Hurricane Ivan in 2004, Banker set out on a mission to become an architect and design homes in Cayman capable of withstanding anything nature throws their way.
“[Hurricane Ivan] just made me… question and… observe architecture a bit more because in the aftermath of Hurricane Ivan, I remember walking outside… and… my house, a very humble home, being intact. But then I looked around and I saw high-rise hotels completely destroyed,” Banker said.
She has set her sights on not only making sturdy homes, but also sustainably designed ones, as well as helping to deal with the housing crisis Cayman is facing.
Banker is working on building on her architecture skills while at UK firm Kilmartin Plowman & Partners Architects. She expects to become fully qualified in two years.
It has been a seven-year journey overall, but she is nearly finished and eager to begin pursuing her dreams.
Top on her list is helping young Caymanians like herself achieve the goal of home ownership.
She said it saddens her to see stories like people living in container homes or opting to leave Cayman because they cannot afford to live here.
“I like to give back to my community, especially the local community, not only in the UK but I would love to do something for the Cayman Islands,” she said, adding that she had already earmarked family land in West Bay she would like to use for a housing development later down the road.
Being environmentally conscious, Banker is also looking at ways to incorporate sustainable measures into her designs, as well as “to see how I can branch out and maybe buy more land… within the Cayman Islands to actually help people my age and also the future generation have some kind of [affordable] housing… they can call their own.”
Noting that affordable housing doesn’t need to be fancy but doesn’t have to “look like a shack”, while it could also be sustainable, she said, “I know I can make it look more suave or more modern. [It’s] using local materials or… something that people may see as cheap, [such as] a ship container, but making it look very modern in a way that it doesn’t look like an affordable house, but it is.”
Banker said there were moments where she felt like she would not fulfil her dreams, and recalls not getting a scholarship to finish her studies.
She said she relied on her relationship with God and her family for strength and, after praying, she was blessed with 14 scholarship offers.
She encourages others to keep trying, and if pursuing a career such as architecture, “even if you don’t have the grades for whatever reason, you can still make a name for yourself. You can be something in life. Everyone is a winner. You just have to like see that potential within yourself and always be consistent, always take action.”
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