The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has announced the 34 winning projects of its RIBA International Awards for Excellence 2026 (from a shortlist of 52), recognising the world's best new architecture across 15 countries. From a carbon-neutral furniture factory in Norway to a performing arts centre inside one of the world's largest refugee settlements in Uganda, this year's cohort reflects the full breadth of what architecture can achieve when it rises to meet the challenges of our time. All of the winners are now in contention for the prestigious RIBA International Prize, to be announced at a ceremony in London on 15 October 2026.

Several themes run through this year's selection, which serves as a snapshot of the concerns and ambitions that define architecture in 2026.

Breathing new life into old structures

One of the most striking threads is the imaginative reuse of existing buildings. In Kristiansand, Norway, Mestres Wåge, Bax and Mendoza Partida have transformed a former grain silo into a contemporary art museum, Kunstsilo. In Berne, BHSF Architektur & Städtebau's Transformation Warmbächli converts a disused Chocolat Tobler warehouse into cooperative housing.

David Chipperfield Architects and Arquitectonica have reimagined a historic Shanghai neighbourhood as Rockbund, a new cultural district. And in Jingdezhen – China's porcelain capital – two abandoned ceramic factories have been reborn as the Taoxichuan Ceramic Culture Industrial Park, by Jie Zhang, Beijing An-Design Architects and THUPDI.

Designing for a changing climate

Climate-responsive design has always been central to good architecture, but it carries particular urgency in 2026. In Courthézon, France, Studio Mumbai and Studio Méditerranée’s Château de Beaucastel winery relies entirely on natural airflow and shade for cooling. Parikrama by Spasm Design Architects, in Nandgaon, India, uses shaded walkways and natural ventilation to counter intense regional heat. On Australia's exposed coastline, Wardle's Burnt Earth Beach House uses handmade terracotta to create a resilient, multi-generational family home.

In Ho Chi Minh City, VTN Architects' Urban Farming Office wraps its façade in greenery – cooling the building while also growing food in the urban core. Perhaps the boldest sustainability statement of all comes from Norway, where Bjarke Ingels Group's The Plus is a carbon-neutral furniture factory and public park built from local timber, which cuts energy demand by up to 90 per cent through solar power and rainwater harvesting.

Architecture in service of community

Several winners demonstrate architecture's capacity to strengthen the communities it serves. Hassell's Bidi Bidi Performing Arts Centre brings a dedicated cultural space to the Yumbe District of Uganda, home to one of the world's largest refugee settlements. In Sydney, Fjcstudio's Darlington Public School weaves indigenous heritage into a contemporary learning environment. Woha's Brac University in Dhaka transforms a former landfill into a vibrant, climate-conscious campus. And Schmidt Hammer Lassen's Shanghai Library East reimagines the public library as an open, connective landscape which functions as a gathering place for the city while housing 4.8 million books.

Awards group chair Neil Gillespie captured the spirit of the selection: ‘These projects demonstrate a confidence in architecture's ability to create delight and dignity while working within existing constraints – whether environmental, social or economic. Rather than relying on spectacle, they show the value of thoughtful, enduring design that is rooted in context and capable of enriching everyday life.’

The Riba International Prize shortlist will be announced ahead of the ceremony on 15 October.

The RIBA International Awards 2026 shortlist has landed, unveiling a truly global celebration of architectural excellence. The biennial award's list contains 52 projects, hailing from a whopping 18 countries and five continents.

Who made the RIBA International Awards 2026 shortlist?

The award candidates represent a broad range of architectural typologies, from cultural and public spaces to education work, housing and infrastructure. The projects range from a grain silo-turned-art museum in Norway, Kunstsilo, to a mosque in Bangladesh and from a post-hurricane infill housing model in Mexico – Kon-tigo – to Paris' biggest timber-framed structure, Wood Up.

Meanwhile, many of the world's most well-known contemporary architecture practices feature in the list, including David Chipperfield Architects (UK/Germany), Foster + Partners (UK), Snøhetta (Norway/USA), Hassell (Australia), WOHA (Singapore) and Studio Mumbai (India).

Neil Gillespie, Awards Group Chair, said: 'The RIBA International Awards for Excellence celebrate incredible diversity and creativity across the world. These projects show how architects can respond to complex social, cultural, and environmental challenges, from revitalising communities and preserving heritage to pioneering sustainable and technologically innovative solutions. They demonstrate the power of architecture to connect people, strengthen identity, and create inclusive, resilient places for future generations.'

The winners will be announced on 11 June 2026.

The RIBA International Awards 2026 shortlist

• Architects' Studio, O'Donnell + Tuomey, Dublin, Ireland
• Beijing Library, Snøhetta, East China Architectural Design & Research Institute, Beijing, China
• Beijing Performing Arts Center, Schmidt Hammer Lassen, and Perkins & Will, Beijing, China
• Bidi Bidi Performing Arts Centre, Hassell, Yumbe District, Uganda
• BRAC University, WOHA, Dhaka, Bangladesh
• Burnt Earth Beach House, Wardle, Anglesea, Australia
• Chapel of Music, Vector Architects, Qinghuangdao, China
• Château de Beaucastel, Studio Mumbai & Studio Méditerranée, Courthézon, France
• Church of the Living God, Angelo Candalepas and Associates, Hurstville NSW, Australia
• Darlington Public School, fjcstudio, Sydney, Australia
• Dokebi Platform, Plot Architects, Seoul, Korea
• DY Patil Centre of Excellence, Foster + Partners, Maharashtra, India
• Foreign Language School Affiliated to Longhua Academy of Educational Sciences, Unitinno Architectural Technology Development Company Limited, Shenzhen, China
• Gold Creek, Brian Steendijk, Glenn Murcutt in collaboration, Brookfield, Brisbane, Australia
• Green Hill (transforming closed technological industrial remains into an open and shared ecological complex), Tongii Architectural Design (Group) Co, Ltd, Shanghai, China
• House of Memories, Studio Gravitas in collaboration with Eleemente & Bodh Design Group, Tumkur, India
• Jingyang Camphor Court, Vector Architects, Jingdewzhen, China
• KinderKunstLabor, Schenker Salvi Weber, St. Pölten, Austria
• Kon-Tigo, Manuel Cervantes Estudio, Guerrero, México
• Kunstsilo, Mestres Wåge, BAX, Mendoza Partida, Kristiansand, Norway
• Mezcal Production Palenque, Estudio ALA I Armida Fernández and Luis Enrique Flores, Jiquilpan de Juárez, Michoacán, México
• Monospinal, Makoto Yamaguchi Design, Taito-ku, Japan
• Multi-Disaster Reduction Engineering Complex, Tongji Architectural Design (Group) Co, Ltd Jiading District, Shanghai, China
• Nedarag Guesthouse, Next Office [Studio of Architectural Research & Design], Sistan and Baluchestan province, Iran
• Oh Ho Residence, Play Architecture, Bangalore, India
• Parikrama, Spasm Design Architects, Nandgaon, India
• Ras Houses, Sanjay Puri Architects, Ras, Rajasthan, India
• Revitalization of Village Heritage in Yong’an Village, College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Tongji University, Dali City, China
• Rockbund Shanghai, David Chipperfield Architects (Historical Buildings), Arquitectonica (New Buildings), Shanghai, China
• Royale Belge, Caruso St John Architects and Bovenbouw and Architectuur with DDS+, Watermael-Boitsfort, Brussels, Belgium
• School at Joram, Arunachal Pradesh, India, Studio Advaita, Joram village, Arunachal Pradesh, India
• Service Station Under Wuning Road Bridge, Suzhou Creek, Atelier Z+, Shanghai, China
• Shanghai Library East, Schmidt Hammer Lassen, Shanghai, China
• Shenzhen Energy Ring, Schmidt Hammer Lassen, Gottlieb Paludan Architects, Shenzhen, China
• Sondara Gurukulam, Studio Advaita, Domri, Dist Beed, India
• Štvanice Footbridge in Prague, Petr Tej, Marek Blank and Jan Mourek, Atelier Bridge Structures, Prague, Czech Republic
• Taoxichuan Ceramic Culture Industrial Park, Jie Zhang, Beijing An-Design Architects, THUPDI, Jingdezhen City, China
• Tenjincho place, Hiroyuki Ito Architects, Tokyo, Japan
• Terra Cotta Workshop, Tropical Space, Quang Nam, Viet Nam
• The GEAR, KAJIMA DESIGN, Singapore, Singapore
• The Plus, BIG - Bjarke Ingels Group, Magnor, Norway
• The Porter House Hotel, Angelo Candalepas and Associates, Sydney, Australia
• The White Renovation, Olgoo Architects, Tehran, Iran
• Transformation Warmbächli, BHSF Architektur & Städtebau, Zurich / Munich, Berne, Switzerland
• Urban Farming Office, VTN Architects, Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam
• West Wusutu Village Community Center in Hohhot, Inner Mongolian Grand Architecture Design Co., Ltd., Hohhot, China
• Wood Up – 132 housing units, a climbing gym and a neighbourhood café in Paris 13th, LAN - Local Architecture Network, Paris, France
• WVDM Living Lab, Maker architecten, Brussels, Belgium
• Yaoli Village Courier station, SuiPingYiLi Architecture Studio, Nanping, China
• YIMBY (Yes In My BackYard) – social and urban infill project, MAKER architecten, Kortrijk, Belgium
• Z33, Francesca Torzo Architetto, Hasselt, Belgium
• Zebun Nessa Mosque: A Spiritual-Social Space between Land and Water, Saiqa Iqbal Meghna / Studio Morphogenesis Ltd., Savar, Dhaka, Bangladesh

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Irish architect Níall McLaughlin has been awarded the 2026 Royal Gold Medal by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), recognising his positive impact across architectural thinking, writing and education. During a career of more than 30 years, McLaughlin’s work within architecture’s religious, educational, health and housing contexts has attracted consistent praise – he was honoured as a Royal Academician in 2019, and a Stirling Prize winner in 2022.

Níall McLaughlin is awarded the 2026 RIBA Royal Gold Medal

'A humble visionary, his dedication to architecture as an art and professional practice has left an enduring mark on the discipline – one that will undoubtedly transcend trends and time,' remarked RIBA president Chris Williamson, chair of the award jury, which also included 2025 Royal Gold Medal recipient Kazuyo Sejima of SANAA.

Reflecting on his body of work in an interview with Wallpaper*, McLaughlin explains, 'I think what binds these buildings together is this need for architecture to create meaning for communities, and to help hold communities together through framing their communal experience. A building is the frame that allows that community to thrive.'

For McLaughlin, who studied architecture in Dublin and established his own practice in London in 1990, the key to this is empathy, an emotion and skill that he believes defines the origin of architecture. His process is grounded in listening and research, which enable him to then imagine and craft a ‘world’ of moments for an individual, which speak to the humanity shared by a community.

His own immense personal curiosity enables him to observe the world far beyond its physical qualities. He translates the abstract sensations of daily rituals, as much as his memories of transcendent historical architecture, into buildings to share with others.

When designing the Bishop Edward King Chapel in Oxford (2013), he materialised the grounding yet uplifting sensation of flying a kite. When designing The New Library for Magdalene College in Cambridge (the Stirling Prize 2022 winner), he imagined how walls can disappear around you under the magic of a good book.

'Empathy and intersubjectivity are absolutely central to our discipline, you have to have the confidence to imagine a world for other people, and at the same time, a degree of humility,' he says, which lies in accepting the limitations of empathy.

While working on the Alzheimer’s Respite Centre in Dublin (2011), McLaughlin spent ten years trying to understand the experience of people with dementia. It was impossible to comprehend, yet the emotive weight and scientific knowledge of trying resulted in an exhibition at the Venice Biennale in 2016, 'exploring the extraordinary miracle of how we place ourselves in space and time'.

'Other people might not experience the world the way that I do, but you can test that through the design process,' he says. 'We [architects] have to hold a very broad and diffuse range of desires, needs, aspirations and problems together, and make something coherent out of the maze of information that’s produced by any project.'

Rather than impose his own ideology on that information, he allows ideology to emerge from those insights. 'I think of practice as an ordinary activity, and theory as a rumination of that activity that is often a hard-earned lesson, because it’s engaged with the world.'

For McLaughlin, teaching provides that necessary balance between practice and theory. He has held the position of professor of architectural practice at the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London, for more than 25 years. With the complexity, high stakes, and often adversarial conditions of construction today, he describes how this engagement, as well as maintaining a fulfilling, positive culture for his students and employees, is essential.

In the face of today’s complexity, McLaughlin returns to the 'basic little molecules of interaction that help build communities'. In a visit to Darbishire Place (2014), the Peabody housing estate in London’s Whitechapel (nominated for the 2015 Stirling Prize), he might quietly observe parents in their daylight-filled, well-ventilated kitchens with one eye on their children outside in the playground. 'The interesting thing about architecture is that it is both subliminal and has a huge impact on our ability to thrive.'

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www.niallmclaughlin.com

The 2025 RIBA Asia Pacific Awards have been announced, marking the launch of the organisation's brand new accolade, entirely dedicated to excellence in architecture in the region. These honours follow hot on the heels of the – also new – 2025 RIBA Middle East Awards, which were published in November.

The inaugural RIBA Asia Pacific Awards and their ten categories were conceived to reward impactful, mindful architecture – and the winning schemes have just been revealed at a gala ceremony during the RIBA Architecture Festival Asia (RAFA) in Shenzhen.

The 2025 RIBA Asia Pacific Awards

RIBA president Chris Williamson said of the event: 'The RIBA Asia Pacific Awards celebrate the extraordinary creativity and leadership of architects across this dynamic region. The winning projects are diverse in scale and context but share a common goal: to design for people, place, and planet. They exemplify architecture’s power to tackle complex challenges and inspire meaningful change.'

The RIBA Asia Pacific Awards winners

Adaptive Reuse Winner & RIBA Member Award & Urban Regeneration Award: Taoxichuan Ceramic Culture Industrial Park

Created by Beijing An-Design Architects & THUPDI (Jingdezhen, China), this is an ambitious masterplan set in the heart of China’s 'porcelain capital'. The project cleverly mixes new builds with adaptive reuse to minimise its carbon emissions.

AI Powered Design Award: Rui Xue Multi-Hall

Rui Xue Multi-Hall is the work of China's Tongji University (Chengdu). A rural timber structure, it takes its cues from melting snow, blending craftsmanship with modern robotic fabrication.

Design for Living Award: House of Memories

This project is a collaboration between Studio Gravitas and Eleemente & Bodh Design Group (Karnataka, India). The multigenerational home was designed as a modern take to the traditional ‘Thotti Mane’ courtyard style.

Future Projects Award: Qianhai Museum

Set on Shenzhen's waterfront and designed by Architectural Design and Research Institute of SCUT Co (Shenzhen, China), the project represents a new cultural landmark for the city, spanning art, nature, and technology.

Mixed Use Award: CapitaSpring

The brainchild of Bjarke Ingels Group, led by Bjarke Ingels, CapitaSpring stands 280 meters tall in Singapore, offering an urban, vertical oasis. Its levels are home to more than 38,000 plants.

Social Architecture Award: West Wusutu Village Community Center in Hohhot

This scheme was conceived by Inner Mongolian Grand Architecture Design Co (Hohhot, China) and it brings a beloved beating heart to a small village – to be enjoyed by visitors of all ages.

Sustainability and Resilience Award: BRAC University

BRAC was designed by WOHA (Dhaka, Bangladesh) and transforms a former waste ground into a busy educational hub through a carefully layered design.

Temporary Architecture Award: Seaside Pavilion on Chai Shan Island

This waterside pavilion, created by GN Architects (Zhoushan, China), may not be a permanent piece of work, but it single-handedly breathes new life into a disused dock, swaying in the breeze and welcoming visitors.

The RIBA House of the Year 2025 has just been announced. The institute has been drip-feeding the seven nominated houses over the past few weeks, showcasing each design on the British TV show Grand Designs and building up to tonight’s big reveal; and the winner is Izat Arundell’s Caochan na Creige, a masterfully sited self-build house on a remote site in the Outer Hebrides.

Step inside the RIBA House of the Year 2025, a masterful self-build in the Outer Hebrides

Designed and built by architects Eilidh Izat and Jack Arundell for their own use, and developed along with local contractors and building materials, the house was the unanimous choice of the judging panel, chaired by architect David Kohn.

RIBA House of the Year 2025: Caochan na Creige by Izat Arundell

‘Caochan na Creige addressed every issue – challenging climatic conditions, the relationship to vernacular architecture and a tight budget – with a rare mixture of sensitivity and boldness,’ says Kohn.

Alongside Kohn were judges Gill Lambert of AOC, Amalia Skoufoglou of O’Sullivan Skoufoglou Architects and Livia Wang, creative director at Van Gogh House London.

‘[The house’s] enigmatic form, recalling large castles and defensive structures, belies its intimate scale,’ Kohn continues. ‘All these things make it an exemplary home which will have much to contribute to future debates around domestic architecture in rural contexts.’

The six other shortlisted houses for RIBA House of the Year 2025

Hastings House by Hugh Strange Architects

The house, which was also shortlisted for this year's RIBA Stirling Prize (losing out to Appleby Blue Almshouse by Witherford Watson Mann) follows on from earlier domestic projects like the house reconfiguration in Peckham, south London.

An existing extension was replaced with a series of galvanised steel units that step the multi-terraced rear garden. Each of these new rooms is given large timber sliding doors, while the existing retaining wall is paired with a new concrete slab yet retains the scars of use over the centuries. It’s a series of interventions that enhances the original house without scouring the site of its history, with contemporary materials and details providing a strong contrast to what went before.

Triangle House by Artefact

Artefact Studio’s Triangle House, which Wallpaper* featured last year, is a playful but pitch-perfect take on the traditional suburban home. With an unprepossessing 1950s house as a starting point, the architects have extended the floorplan with a rear garden wing and created an explosion of colour throughout the rest of the property. Materials include triangular blue blocks and a warm yellow ceiling, with a specialist gardener creating an exterior planting scheme to add to the warm, tropical feeling.

Amento by James Gorst Architects

This new house by James Gorst and his team occupies a plot long earmarked by the owners as a place to downsize their empty nest. The brief called for a futureproof single-story dwelling that didn’t succumb to traditional bungalow iconography and could be adapted and occupied as the owners grow older.

Jankes Barn by Lynch Architects

From the exterior, this traditional barn in rural Essex looks much like it was before Lynch Architects undertook a sensitive but extensive restoration. The heart of this project is the original timber structure, which has been preserved and given fresh life as the focus of the full-height living space.

The architects retained the original barn doors, now framing a glazed screen, while restored elements are paired with new oak insertions. The latter are left squared off and new, unlike their time-worn counterparts, with timberwork overseen by local expert and master carpenter Dr Joseph Bispham.

Housestead by Sanei + Hopkins Architects

This experimental UK home was designed as a ‘laboratory for a living prototype’. Housestead, designed by Sanei + Hopkins (and also owned by the couple, who are partners in work and life), was conceived as the personal residence of studio co-founders Amir Sanei and Abigail Hopkins, and their family of seven. The project is idyllically set within the Suffolk Coast & Heaths Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), situated within the grounds of a generous, 400-acre estate.

London Brut by Pricegore Architects

This robust and handsome 1960s Chelsea townhouse has been given a modern makeover by London architects Pricegore, preserving the tough character of the original architecture and adding functionality, texture, colour and even an element of brutalist charm. Located in Chelsea, the modernist terraced house spent many decades under its original ownership before the current clients bought it in 2020. Pricegore was appointed to give the structure its first major overhaul since it was built by Morgan and Branch Architects.

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IzatArundell.com

The 2025 RIBA Middle East Award winners have just been announced, the inaugural honorees in one of the organisation’s two new territory accolades.

The new RIBA awards, launched this year as part of the UK institution's International Awards expansion, focus on two territories – the Middle East and Asia Pacific – freshly added to its prestigious roster. As revealed today (5 November), nine buildings share the 2025 RIBA Middle East Award top spot, while the Asia Pacific winners will follow in a few weeks.

The 2025 RIBA Middle East Award winners

These Middle East awards, which will be celebrated at an event on 7 November 2025 during Dubai Design Week, were created to put a spotlight on the region's creativity and pioneering architecture. The winners span from the world’s first purpose-built women-only mosque in Qatar, to the world’s largest city park, in Riyadh. Scroll down for the full list.

Discover the winners

• Adaptive Reuse Winner: The Serai Wing, Sharjah – Bait Khalid Bin Ibrahim by Anarchitect
• Design for Living Winner: Al Wasl Plaza, Dubai – Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture
• Future Project Winner: King Salman Park, Riyadh – Gerber Architekten is leading a joint venture with two engineering partners, Buro Happold, and Setec
• RIBA Member Winner: Buhais Geology Park Interpretive Centre, Al-Madam Plan – Hopkins Architects
• RIBA Member Winner: Expo 2020 Thematic Districts, Dubai –Hopkins Architects
• Social Architecture Winner: Al-Mujadilah Center and Mosque for Women, Doha – conceived by Her Highness, Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro
• Sustainability & Resilience Winner: Jafar Centre, Dubai College, Dubai – Godwin Austen Johnson
• Temporary Architecture Winner: Singapore Pavilion, World Expo 2020, Dubai – WOHA
• Temporary Architecture Winner: World Food Waste Teahouse: Arabi-an, Dubai – Mitsubishi Jisho Design

RIBA's new awards: an explainer with president Chris Williamson

We caught up with RIBA president Chris Williamson to discuss the institution's new territory awards – their significance, the RIBA International Awards expansion, and how to submit.

Wallpaper*: Why establish The Asia Pacific Award and the Middle East Award?

Chris Williamson: The establishment of these awards marks an exciting new chapter for RIBA’s international engagement. Both the Asia Pacific and the Middle East are regions of extraordinary architectural ambition and diversity, where innovation, heritage and rapid transformation coexist. Launching these regional awards is part of RIBA’s mandate to celebrate design excellence wherever it is found and to be a supportive platform to projects that address pressing global challenges in their local contexts.

These awards are the first phase of our expanded international awards programme, recognising the architectural creativity shaping two of the most dynamic parts of the world today. They create new pathways for projects to gain global recognition and contribute to RIBA’s long-term aim of connecting architects across regions through shared learning, sustainability, and cultural exchange.

W*: What were you hoping to see in the submissions and shortlists?

CW: This year’s process was led by our Middle East and Asia Pacific Award jury panels, whose collective expertise and regional insight have been invaluable in shaping the results.

We hoped to see work that truly reflects the spirit of its place and understands its cultural, climatic and social context while pushing the boundaries of architecture. Both the Asia Pacific and Middle East shortlists deliver exactly that.

They demonstrate how architecture is addressing universal challenges, climate change, urbanisation, and social inclusion, through intelligent and contextually attuned design. What stands out is how architects are drawing on tradition, technology and local materials to create spaces that not only respond to their environments but actively enrich them.

W*: Are there specific highlights and innovations that you would flag as exceptional from the two shortlists?

CW: The juries’ assessments revealed rich and diverse forms of innovation across both regions. In the Middle East, [winning] projects such as the Al-Mujadilah Center and Mosque for Women in Qatar were recognised for advancing new social models through architecture, spaces that integrate spiritual, educational and communal functions in ways that reflect contemporary shifts in society. The King Salman Park masterplan in Riyadh was also commended for its scale and ecological ambition, transforming the city’s public realm and setting new benchmarks for urban sustainability.

In the Asia Pacific [shortlist], the jury identified a distinct movement toward socially and environmentally responsive design. BRAC University in Dhaka exemplifies this with its flood-resilient, low-energy campus that connects learning with nature and community. The Shenzhen Energy Ring reimagines industrial infrastructure as public architecture, turning a waste-to-energy facility into an expressive civic landmark.

As observed by the jury, these projects reflect a regional shift toward architecture that is both technologically advanced and deeply responsible to people and place.

W*: What does the foundation of these two new awards mean for the other RIBA awards’ categories, such as the International Awards, for instance? How do the new honours sit within the RIBA awards cycle?

CW: These new regional awards represent an evolution of RIBA’s International Awards. They strengthen the entire awards ecosystem by providing a more localised and inclusive structure for recognising excellence.

All built projects from the Asia Pacific and Middle East Awards will be eligible to progress towards the RIBA International Prize in 2026, the world’s most eminent prize for architecture.

This creates a more layered, global awards journey, recognising regional talent first before elevating the very best projects to an international stage. It adds depth, context and diversity to the International Awards cycle, ensuring that significant architecture from every region is celebrated, understood and showcased worldwide.

W*: How are the new awards judged, and what do architects need to submit?

CW: The prestige of the RIBA Awards rests on the rigour and integrity of the judging process. Every built project, regardless of size or style, is visited and analysed by an architect with extensive knowledge of the specific region, ensuring that our awards are grounded in first-hand assessment.

The new regional awards follow the same principles. Each jury comprises award-winning architects with deep experience working in the respective regions, capable of evaluating projects within their cultural, climatic and economic contexts.

For this cycle, architects were asked to submit projects they’ve completed between 2020 and 2024 and provide supporting sustainability data. Entries span up to ten categories, from Adaptive Reuse and Social Architecture to AI-powered Design and Sustainability & Resilience.

Ultimately, we assess design excellence in its broadest sense: how a project meets its brief, serves its community, responds to climate, and contributes positively to its environment and future generations.

riba.org

The RIBA Stirling Prize 2025 winner has just been announced: Appleby Blue Almshouse by Witherford Watson Mann Architects has been crowned the best building of the year. The social housing complex for over-65s was awarded the UK's top gong at a dedicated ceremony this evening, praised for its 'radical' and 'gentle reimagining of later living as a collective experience'.

Judging the RIBA Stirling Prize 2025

The shortlist this year was especially rich and varied – featuring a national icon, private homes and anything in between. Judging the buildings to select the winner might have been a challenge – yet, Ingrid Schroder, who is director of the Architectural Association (AA) School of Architecture and served as the chair of the RIBA Stirling Prize jury this year, highlights that 'every project is valued on its own merits'.

She adds: 'We have an amazing ten-point list that includes issues of sustainability, of response to context, of kind of social and public function, and we weigh all of this up, and I think what's really reflected in the winner is a sense of [its] being an incredible place to be.'

'To judge the Stirling is a huge responsibility,' Schroder stresses. 'It is calling out the "something exceptional" within the world of architecture. And then, of course, because we build within a wider society, it has repercussions. It does send a message.'

Asked what an award like this might signal for architecture today, Schroder says, 'I think it's less about the winner than it is about the spectrum of the shortlist. It is the diversity that is the most significant single signal for architecture today, and the capacity to think across a broad set of scales and briefs; to recognise what is important, critical and exemplary within the world of architecture at the moment.'

RIBA Stirling Prize 2025 winner: Appleby Blue Almshouse

Appleby Blue Almshouse is situated in Bermondsey, south London. The housing development for over-65-year-olds responds with immense thoughtfulness to the challenge of people wanting to stay in the city, and neighbourhoods they know and love, as they get older – offering a blueprint for later living.

The project was delivered by United St Saviour’s Charity (which will manage the block in perpetuity), Southwark Council and developer JTRE. It was conceived to give older people more choices in terms of retirement living than simply being 'pushed or incentivised to the city’s edge or the coast', explained Stephen Witherford, co-founder of Witherford Watson Mann Architects, the practice behind the building’s design, when we interviewed him for a story as the scheme launched in 2023. Martyn Craddock, CEO of United St Saviour’s added at the same time: 'We wanted something that was definitely not your typical sheltered housing block.'

Witherford Watson Mann previously won the Stirling in 2013, for Astley Castle. The studio was also shortlisted in 2023 for the Courtauld Institute of Art and in 2019 for Nevill Holt Opera.

RIBA Stirling Prize 2025 shortlist

Alongside the eventual winner, a refreshed national treasure (the home of Big Ben), a medical innovation centre, a 21st-century education building, and two innovative private homes also featured on the shortlist for the RIBA Stirling Prize 2025.

Elizabeth Tower by Purcell

Hastings House by Hugh Strange Architects

London College of Fashion by Allies and Morrison

Niwa House by Takero Shimazaki Architects

The Discovery Centre (DISC) by Herzog & de Meuron / BDP

More RIBA awards

• United St Saviours Charity won the RIBA Client of the Year Award 2025 for Appleby Blue Almshouse
• Appleby Blue Almshouse by Witherford Watson Mann Architects won the RIBA Neave Brown Award for Housing 2025
• Sheerness Dockyard Church by Hugh Broughton Architects won the RIBA Reinvention Award 2025
• St Mary’s Walthamstow by Alex Spicer at Matthew Lloyd Architects won the RIBA Stephen Lawrence Prize 2025

Announced in the same ceremony, the four aforementioned RIBA awards celebrated different architectural expressions and key elements that are important to the development of the built environment.

The RIBA Reinvention Award jury chair and managing director at Marks Barfield Architects, Julia Barfield, said of the category she headed: 'Fifty-one per cent of RIBA UK award winners this year are for refurbishment or conservation projects. The Reinvention Award aims to boost this further by shining a light on the most exceptional and truly transformational reinvention projects because this is the direction of travel that our industry needs to go in – reducing waste, reusing materials and retrofitting – instead of demolishing.'

riba.org

A fashion homage

Nick Vinson, contributing editor

On Sunday, I flew to Milan to attend the 50th Anniversary of Giorgio Armani – a black-tie event held at the Pinacoteca di Brera. The evening featured the late designer’s final collection for spring/summer 2026, shown in the cloisters, as well as the opening of the exhibition Giorgio Armani. Milano, per amore, which showcased 133 historical looks representing his five-decade career, displayed among the artworks in the upstairs galleries. The night concluded with a chic dînatoire.

Some of Armani’s favorite models, including Gina Di Bernardo – who walked his shows in the 80s and 90s and was a face of his iconic ad campaigns shot by Aldo Fallai – returned to the runway, accompanied by a live performance from pianist Ludovico Einaudi. Mr. Armani passed away on 4 September – naturally, the details of this event were planned months in advance, and every aspect was personally approved by him (as was his way). His design team followed his wishes to the letter.

I enjoyed rubbing pagoda shoulders with Cate Blanchett, dressed in Armani Privé, as well as Glenn Close – but the real treat was seeing Richard Gere and Lauren Hutton (dressed in a white silk smoking jacket) sitting side by side in the front row. Earlier that same week, I had rewatched American Gigolo, made in 1980 when the Giorgio Armani brand was just five years old – a notable beginning to the designer's long relationship with Hollywood. Richard Gere’s now 45-year-old outfits, supplied by the then-young designer, still look perfect today. In the film, Gere wears several versions of a two-pocket shirt – I’d kill to wear them now. That is the essence of Giorgio Armani’s timeless and enduring style.

A Stirling Prize preview

Ellie Stathaki, architecture & environment director

In the architecture world, October means Stirling Prize, and the announcement of the award for the UK's best building of the year is fast approaching. In anticipation, and to explore projects and themes, I was invited by the RIBA to chair a panel discussion among the six practices on the 2025 RIBA Stirling Prize shortlist at the Barbican this week. It was such a privilege to take on the task, hear more about all the projects and chat about what they mean for their clients, wider communities and the architecture world beyond. Big thanks to all involved. Can't wait for the 16th October, when the top gong is revealed.

A flavour journey

Tianna Williams, staff writer

abc kitchens was Monday night’s dinner spot, nestled on the ground floor of The Emory on Old Barrack Yard. Weaving through polished corridors, the restaurant opens up with high ceilings and tarnished wood, inspired by naval architecture and concealed from the outside world behind a glistening glass façade. Designed by Rémi Tessier and featuring artworks by Damien Hirst, the restaurant boasts modernity and elevated sophistication. The kitchen is helmed by chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten, and the menu offers an assortment of dishes inspired by Mexico, Asia, and Europe.

The evening began with a cucumber martini, swiftly followed by an array of table snacks, from sweet pea guacamole to green chickpea hummus. For starters, I would recommend a selection of fresh salads, such as the crispy cabbage and kale Caesar salad. I find decent Mexican food hard to come by in London, but the BBQ pork tacos – garnished with pickled pineapple and Fresno chili relish – had a fun Californian spin. To finish, the light and zesty coconut panna cotta with tropical fruit was divine.

A city sojourn

Sofia de la Cruz, travel editor

Last week, I spent an eventful 24 hours in Antwerp, a sojourn I’ll remember for a long time. I was invited by the city’s fashion museum, MoMu, to see its new exhibition ‘Girls. On Boredom, Rebellion and Being In-Between’, a multidisciplinary exploration of girlhood’s cultural significance through works by artists such as Sofia Coppola, Louise Bourgeois, and Alice Neel. Afterwards, I tried to squeeze in as much as possible, visiting photography institution FOMU, eating a ‘croque vegan’ at the steel-clad cafe Tinsel, and browsing the multilayered Ann Demeulemeester store. A chiaroscuro piece from the Belgian designer’s beautiful Serax collection has now joined my ever-growing mug collection.

A design deep-dive

Anna Solomon, digital staff writer

I spent the better part of this week in València, where the balmy 25-degree weather was a welcome last hurrah for summer. Or, it would have been, had I not been sequestered in a gigantic expo hall on the city’s outskirts for the duration of my stay. The occasion was Feria Hábitat València – Spain’s leading fair for furniture, lighting, home textiles and interiors. I was there to take the pulse of contemporary Spanish design.

My biggest takeaway was that furniture design seems moving beyond just visual appeal, emphasising instead clever, customisable features (invisible to the naked eye, of course). Invisible tabs reclined seats; connections between infinite modular configurations were hidden; and new materials allowed furniture to move between indoor and outdoor use. The old trade-off between style and function? A thing of the past.

A cultural exploration

Jamilah Rose-Roberts, social media editor

Earlier this week, a friend of mine received tickets to the ICA for the launch of Liz Johnson Artur's new book, I Will Keep You in Good Company. The book gathers pages from more than twenty of Johnson Artur's handmade workbooks, begun in the early 1990s – part diary, part experimental playground. Through layering, annotating, and collaging, they chart the evolution of her photographic language and her way of processing both images and life.

The evening began with screenings of three short films: Real Times (2018), Black Balloon Archive (2016), and Afro Russia (2019). Each expanded on themes running through her work, from Black British history and resistance to the complexities of others’ mixed African/Black and Russian heritage. Watching them together was a reminder of how Johnson Artur's practice navigates identity, community, and the politics of belonging with a rare tenderness and clarity.

Following this, there was a conversation with designer Martine Rose and Johnson Artur, drawing out the intersections between art, fashion, and cultural memory, before the night closed with a book signing. While the films are not currently available to view, I Will Keep You in Good Company can be found online or at the ICA.

Art in Athens

Gabriel Annouka, senior designer

Whilst in Athens, I visited Sylvia Kouvali, a gallery housed in a converted industrial space in Piraeus, which I had first encountered at Condo London back in January. Inside, Haris Epaminonda's retrospective, VOL. XXXIII, plays with space with both mischief and precision. Built walls hide objects, images flirt with each other in stacks, and a video plays in an enclosed space you can only spy through a small porthole. The rooms are intimate, slightly unruly, and composed of fragments of memory, books, and history. Nothing is ever complete; everything feels deliciously on edge.

A revived legacy

Bill Prince, editor-in-chief

On Friday, I popped in to see La France de Bernard Buffet at Opera Gallery in Mayfair. Co-curated by my friend and colleague Nick Foulkes, it demonstrates one of the reappearing acts of the last few years: the rehabilitation of a French post-war figurative artist at one stage thought lost to the vagaries of fashion.

We are all intrigued by the way our culture overwrites itself at regular intervals, from silent movie stars to the polymath artists of the music hall era, we find ourselves drawn more to the forgotten than to the ritually trumpeted. Buffet was once one such casualty. Now, thanks to the work of Nick and co-curator Giulia Lecchini, deputy director at Opera Gallery London, no longer.

A talent showcase

Charlotte Gunn, director of digital content

Last night I attended Abbey Road's annual Music Photography Awards, held in the renowned Studio One and Two. A couple of legends in the field – David Bailey and Anton Corbijn – received the Lifetime Achievement and ICON awards, respectively. But it was exciting to see the wealth of emerging talent on show. We loved Melissa Gardner's winning photo of Lava La Rue.

A joyous launch

Anna Fixsen, US editor

Fun fact: my middle name is Joy. So when Marc Jacobs launched his JOY artist capsule collection, in which the designer tapped creatives David Shrigley, Derrick Adams and Hattie Stewart to design a series of happy bags and accessories, I was all aboard. Last night, the brand had plenty to celebrate, including the launch of the JOY Soda Shop at The Standard, Highline and the premiere of Fairyland, a new coming-of-age film set amid the AIDS crisis directed by Andrew Durham and produced by Sofia Coppola. Beneath festive umbrellas and cheeky decor by Adams, Stewart and Shrigley (I was partial to his ‘Joy is Bananas’ coasters), guests – including Coppola and her daughter, Romy Mars – sipped daiquiris, noshed on fries and caught up with fellow creatives. Because if there’s anything we need in this moment of uncertainty, it’s an excuse for a good time.

RIBA, the Royal Institute of British Architects, unveils today a new brand identity, created in collaboration with branding design studio Johnson Banks.

The new identity speaks of the institute's push for modernity, as it prepares to celebrate its bicentenary in 2034. It includes a bold new sans-serif font replacing the slim, serif typography of the old logo, and a novel colour scheme based on a brighter shade of red.

'Rebranding an esteemed organisation such as RIBA has to be done with great care – ensuring it remains relevant and resonant in a changing world, while also acknowledging and respecting its history,' says Michael Johnson, creative director and founder of Johnson Banks. 'That’s why we’ve brought key assets – like its famous red – to the forefront and retained the historic crest. But it needed a more modern brand, and clearer voice – and that’s expressed in its new narrative and a bold new logotype that puts the RIBA name front and centre.'

The logo design is inspired by 'the spaces and connections between walls and structures', and the RIBA crest, depicting two lions and a chevron-adorned column, has been updated as a discreet silhouette. Over the next few months, the new logo will be shared across all RIBA assets and merchandise.

'The rebrand will be more than just a new look; it will be a powerful statement of our intent as an outward-looking, purposeful cultural institute,' says RIBA president Chris Williamson. 'RIBA must remain relevant and essential to architects and practices across the globe, grow its membership among those early in their careers, and advocate on behalf of its members.'

The rebrand is part of the Institute's House of Architecture initiative, which includes an unprecedented plan to upgrade its digital infrastructure, improve access to its collection and carry out a refurbishment of its historic headquarters. Located at 66 Portland Place, the Grade II*-listed building was opened in 1934 and houses a gallery and bookshop; currently closed for refurbishment, the renovated building will be defined by improved access to its spaces in a quest to make architecture more accessible to all.

'It’s been over a quarter of a century since RIBA last considered its brand – with its 200th birthday approaching in 2034, it’s the perfect time to position our brand for the future,' adds Jack Pringle, chair of RIBA board. 'The upcoming rebrand is bold, creative and in-step with the digital world.'

The RIBA Stirling Prize 2025 shortlist is here, revealing a list of six buildings, all now contenders for this year's top architecture gong – the best UK building for 2025.

Established in 1996, the award is widely acknowledged for its prestigious status, highlighting the country's finest architecture. The highly respected accolade is traditionally announced in October and has in the past included a major London infrastructure scheme, the Elizabeth Line (2024), and a residential and nursing facility, the John Morden Centre (2023). This year's winner will be revealed in a ceremony at the Roundhouse in London on 16 October 2025.

Explore the RIBA Stirling Prize 2025 shortlist

The shortlist spans scales and typologies – from private homes to community living in later life; and from a pharmaceutical giant's headquarters in Cambridge (designed by one of the most recognisable names in contemporary architecture – Herzog and de Meuron) to the restoration of a British landmark, the home of Big Ben. Scroll down to pick your favourite, before the jury announces theirs.

Appleby Blue Almshouse by Witherford Watson Mann Architects

Appleby Blue Almshouse in Bermondsey, south London is a social housing development for over-65-year-olds that responds with immense thoughtfulness to the challenge of people wanting to stay in the city, and neighbourhoods they know and love, as they get older. The project, which was delivered by United St Saviour’s Charity (which will manage the block in perpetuity), Southwark Council and developer JTRE, was conceived to give older people more choices in terms of retirement living than simply being 'pushed or incentivised to the city’s edge or the coast', explains Stephen Witherford, co-founder of Witherford Watson Mann Architects, the practice behind the building’s design.

Elizabeth Tower by Purcell

You may know it more as the home of Big Ben, the instantly recognisable London landmark. The Elizabeth Tower was completed in 1859, designed by architect AWN Pugin as part of his work for the Houses of Parliament building. It has since been restored every 30 or so years. Heritage specialist Purcell led the latest refresh, which has been praised by the Stirling jury: ‘This latest programme of restoration was planned to rectify previous mistakes and extend the cycle of future repair works. This project is a veritable masterclass in conservation and craftsmanship. The most comprehensive programme of works in the more than 160 years since the tower was built, it represents an astonishing achievement in upgrading and preserving this monument for the benefit of future generations.'

Hastings House by Hugh Strange Architects

A respectful renovation of a 19th-century structure, Hastings House by Hugh Strange Architects breathes new life into an ageing hillside home. The building has been sensitively refreshed to 21st-century standards through raw but honest materiality and a sturdy, yet minimalist feel. Functionality meets modern aesthetics in this Victorian reimagining with a timber-framed addition.

London College of Fashion by Allies and Morrison

Set in the heart of Queen Elizabeth Park in Stratford, London College of Fashion by Allies and Morrison is a 'vertical campus'. Catering to the needs of some 6,000 staff and students, the building's minimalist, gridded exterior gives way to a high-drama interior, filled with swirling concrete staircases and a flexible, flowing interior. The jury explains: 'The resulting building bills itself as the tallest higher-education building in the UK, and offers stunning views. This vertical legibility is reinforced by a material language: three materials are rigorously applied throughout – concrete for the structural skeleton, maple for the parts of the building one can touch, including doors and details such as integrated window seats, and dark metal for soffits and services.'

Niwa House by Takero Shimazaki Architects

'Niwa' means 'garden' in Japanese, and this home surely embodies its name – offering at the same time a masterclass in accessible residential design. The project, created by Takero Shimazaki Architects for a family that includes a wheelchair user, needed not only to address the clients' current circulation and mobility requirements, but also to ensure smooth use in the future, too. The single-storey structure includes 'carefully designed and located courtyards that puncture the lower level and flood the bedrooms and circulation areas with natural light, creating lovely vignettes of gardens and sky. The quality of light throughout the home is breathtaking,' the jury explains in its citation.

The Discovery Centre (DISC) by Herzog & de Meuron / BDP

Relatively low, finely carved and elegant-looking, this new research and development hub is part of the Cambridge Biomedical Campus (CBC) and designed by Herzog & Meuron for pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca. Modern on the inside, subtle on the outside, The Discovery Centre's design credentials cleverly belie its size. This and a need for flexibility were key drivers for the design, explains Herzog & Meuron partner Stefan Marbach: ‘We wanted to consciously keep the building low, at three floors, to ensure there are easy connections within. Because of the round shape, it never feels too big. At the same time, it's a landscape of different situations.'

When SANAA's Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa were announced the winners of the RIBA Royal Gold Medal 2025 in February this year, the accolade felt a well-deserved fit. The Japanese duo have defined the architecture scene far beyond their home country since the turn of the century, and were acknowledged by the RIBA for their work in reshaping 'the global design landscape, creating spaces that bring simplicity, light and elegance to the fore'. We caught up with the pair in London, ahead of their Royal Gold Medal 2025 evening of celebration at RIBA's headquarters on Portland Place, today (1 May 2025).

Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa: in their own words

When winning an award for excellence and overall achievement in a field, such as the RIBA Royal Gold Medal, one might expect to be prompted into reflection and introspection – around work, past, present and future. Yet, on seeing the physical confirmation of this award, the SANAA pair were struck instead by a sense of responsibility. Sejima says: 'We saw the RIBA wall, carved with the names of past winners, including Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe, and saw how our name is now carved there, sculpted in stone, and we felt so honoured. In Japan, it would be written somewhere, but the reality of this carving was so impressive. We are also feeling great responsibility.'

Architecture awards can be complex beasts, and judging them brings out sometimes more questions than answers, as 2024 RIBA Gold Medal winner Lesley Lokko highlighted in January, when reviewing the past year for us. For Sejima and Nishizawa, an award, in a similar way to architecture itself, brings together the physical and the conceptual space, and this duality deserves acknowledging. Sejima explains: ‘Architecture is about the physical space, and to have the media to celebrate this physical realm is very important. Of course, architecture also has another aspect to it, which is very abstract.’

In a busy year that saw them launch several projects – from a pavilion at the Expo Osaka 2025, to an Alaïa store in Paris, the Edward and Joyce Linde Music Building at MIT, and New Kagawa Sports Arena in Japan – it was the last one that perhaps best represents where their mind is currently at. The scheme, in Kagawa prefecture, comprised three different smaller arenas and an expansive and complex programme – and being in '[renowned local architect Kenzo] Tange’s place', Kagawa, was equally important to the pair too. They were challenged to reach their design solution and are happy to have achieved a way for the building 'to communicate with its surroundings', in a way that brings harmony to the wider environment and the experience of architecture.

It is this sense of connection, fluidity and continuity that stands out in SANAA’s often ethereal-looking work and, unsurprisingly, it is something the pair value tremendously too. Nishizawa explains: 'There are two kinds of architecture. There is one that divides and protects what is inside and what is outside. And then, there is the one that creates continuity between the landscape and the building.' In this context, SANAA stands firmly in the latter camp.

It feels like a take that might resonate with more people in their country. Sou Fujimoto has spoken about looking at the world, and architecture within it, as a forest, and it's an approach he took when masterminding the Osaka Expo 2025 site. Osaka and Tokyo (where SANAA is based) might be very different settings, but they both need more connection with green spaces, Nishizawa points out.

The architects highlight that every piece of work they do, and every piece of feedback they receive, inspires them to reflect on their work – its development and values. The RIBA win becomes part of a wider journey in which they hope to evolve.

As for slowing down? 'The good thing about being an architect,' Nishizawa says, 'is that you never have to retire.' There's always more on the horizon for the pair, and the current to-do list includes a complex, multi-layered project in Taiwan, which combines a museum and a library ('They are both about learning,' Sejima highlights), and a new school on the island of Inujima.

The other great thing about being an architect is that you can always look forward, try new ideas and build – 'construct' – things, Sejima says. And her business partner agrees: 'Architecture can be very complicated. The start, especially, is always very nice, a great place of hope. Architecture is special as it can show you the future, and help move forward.'

Their talk tonight will touch on all this, and their work around hamorny and continuity – and indeed, hope.

sanaa.co.jp

architecture.com

SANAA has been revealed as the winner of the RIBA Royal Gold Medal 2025. The collaborative practice of Japanese architects Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa has been leading in its field with its ethereal, user-centric designs, which can be found in their native country and across the globe. The accolade, one of architecture's highest honours internationally, is presented on behalf of His Majesty the King and has been offered to SANAA for their 'work to reshape the global design landscape, creating spaces that bring simplicity, light and elegance to the fore,' the RIBA explains in a statement.

RIBA Royal Gold Medal 2025 winner: SANAA

The studio has been honoured with the RIBA Royal Gold Medal 2025 for its expert place-making and commitment to crafting architecture that inspires connection and collaboration. The studio responded to the announcement, saying: 'We are delighted and very honoured to receive the Royal Gold Medal. We have always believed that architecture can transform and repair environments, helping us to relate to our surroundings, nature and each other.

'Throughout our careers, we have tried to make spaces that bring people together, inviting them to imagine new ways of living and learning collectively.  Architecture is always teamwork, and we are very grateful to everyone that has given us opportunities to develop these ideas over the years, and to all those people that have worked tirelessly with us to realise them. This is a very happy moment for us, thank you.'

Starting their joint practice in 1995, just a year before Wallpaper's own launch in 1996, the studio was honoured in our 20th-anniversary issue in 2016. A version of the article celebrating the work of its founders, originally published in our October 2016 edition and featuring an interview with Sejima, follows below. It highlights the studio's important contribution to the global architecture field.

SANAA: an appreciation

By the early 1990s, Kazuyo Sejima already had experience at Toyo Ito’s office, her own studio and a Young Architect of the Year award from the Japan Institute of Architects under her belt. But it was after setting up SANAA with Ryue Nishizawa in 1995 that her career really took off, upscaling to major cultural commissions which transformed the duo into an international go-to choice for mesmerizingly barely-there, ethereal architecture.

Their signature style of strong shapes and clean lines that at the same time appear flowing and delicate has helped define 21st-century Japanese architecture. It is all about the experience for SANAA, although priorities have shifted somewhat since the early days of the practice.

‘Our designs are not driven by what you can do with architecture itself, but by an interest in the way people experience space as a relationship between programme, city and surrounding landscape,’ Sejima says. ‘In the past, I would try to understand the overall character of a building’s environment and use this abstract idea to develop a design. Today, I try to create spaces that are more precisely adapted to the variable character of a neighbourhood.'

The practice has produced gems such as the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa, the Rolex Learning Center, the Louvre-Lens and Grace Farms. The SANAA-designed New Museum in New York (2007) and the Zollverein School in Germany (2006) added to their international portfolio.

From there, commissions and honours poured in; from SANAA’s Serpentine Pavilion in London in 2009 and Sejima's appointment to direct the 2010 Venice Architecture Biennale to their joint Pritzker Prize win in the same year, and participation in the Rolex Mentor scheme in 2012.

The latter also flagged up their interest in nurturing young talent; Sejima has been involved in teaching since the early 2000s. ‘Young people come up with new ideas constantly – and this can, of course, be exciting,’ she says. ‘But I have recently realised there are things we can imagine only as we grow older, making these relationships very effective during a design process.’

Now approaching 70 and 60 respectively, Sejima and Nishizawa show no sign of slowing down. More recent projects include La Samaritaine department store in Paris; the Hitachi City Hall in Sejima's home prefecture of Ibaraki; and the Inujima Art House Project, aimed at encouraging people to settle on the small island in the Seto Inland Sea. Their New Kagawa Sports Arena in Japan is expected to open later in 2025.

sanaa.co.jp

Six Columns in south London just won RIBA House of the Year 2024. London-based architecture studio 31/44 often works with tight, under-used or unloved urban plots, transforming them into spectacular homes that serve their residents through a quiet brilliance that stands out but doesn’t shout its genius. Architect and practice co-founder William Burges’ own home, Six Columns, is a case in point - and one so expertly executed that it battled off stiff competition from the shortlist's other five brilliant homes to win the UK’s most prestigious accolade in the field.

The project in south London was led by Bruges – he and studio co-director Stephen Davies were flagged in the Wallpaper* Architects Directory 2016 for their flair as an emerging firm. They have gone from strength to strength ever since, picking up the Manser Medal and RIBA National and Regional Awards along the way.

RIBA House of the Year 2024 winner: Six Columns

The RIBA House of the Year 2024 is more than just another feather in the studio’s cap. Conceived and designed as Burges’ own home, it is a project that is personal and richly layered, crafted through a deep understanding of its users’ needs and benefiting from unique insight into the four-strong family’s past, present and future. As a result, it fits its residents ‘like a snug glove’, states the citation of the jury (a group made up of architects and experts that includes this writer). At the same time, ‘the space allows [each of] their personalities to shine through.’

It is a home created to fit the family’s changing needs, with built-in flexibility and a future-facing approach (the upstairs children’s bedrooms can double as guest rooms once they move out, and the cosy loft at the top can be a bedroom, study, or gaming room, depending on requirement). It’s a building located in an awkwardly shaped urban plot, comfortably, accomodating the design difficulties it presented. It sits on a narrowing, sloping trapezoidal site, the structure twisting and stepping down from the street and garden level to make the most of orientation and preserve the users’ and neighbours’ privacy.

Architectural references abound in this home that blends brutalist architecture with creative details, such as pink mortar that matches the Tudor Black bricks’ tones, different levels, a stepping wall, a wild garden and green marble panels. Exposed brickwork, spruce wood and concrete make up a palette that is warm and textured, producing rooms that feel at once snug and expansive.

‘From the quirky arrangements of its six columns [which the building is named after - and which nod to Berthold Lubetkin’s 1930s modernist house Six Pillars on the nearby Dulwich Estate], to the loose-fit wunderkammer (cabinet of curiosity) that wraps around primary structures, the home is full of personal references expressed in a simple yet refined manner without a hint of being forced, whilst turning challenging constraints into advantages with admirable technical confidence,’ the jury citation continues. ‘And from the moment we entered, we were taken by its homeliness.’

On top of this, it is a project that, for its creator, is live and ever-evolving. Burges told writer Clare Dowdy when she reported on the house for Wallpaper* in May 2024: 'The ethos behind the design is that it will always remain unfinished, its interiors a loose fit that can adjust to future requirements and tastes.'

architecture.com

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The RIBA International Prize 2024 has been announced, with Modulus Matrix: 85 Social Housing in Cornellà, designed by Peris + Toral Arquitectes in Barcelona, crowned as the overall winner. A longlist of 22 buildings, all RIBA International Award for Excellence 2024 winners, went on to compete for the top gong. A shortlist of three from those – the other two are Jacoby Studios by David Chipperfield Architects Berlin and Lianzhou Museum of Photography by O-office Architects – meant the jury had a tough time ahead, deliberating to pick the cream of the crop; a difficult job, considering the inspiring cross-disciplinary collection of candidates.

RIBA International Prize 2024 winner

Modulus Matrix: 85 Social Housing in Cornellà designed by Peris + Toral Arquitectes, Spain

The RIBA's bi-annual award casts its net far and wide, in search of the world's (and its cycle's) best building. RIBA President Muyiwa Oki described the Peris + Toral Arquitectes work as 'inspiring', adding that it's 'a strong example of the ways in which architects can create new and implementable solutions to the common challenge of creating housing for all'.

Working with a mass timber structure and sustainable architecture principles, the building achieves low CO₂ emissions. Conceived to be adaptive and inclusive the scheme was praised by the jury for its matrix of homes organised around a central courtyard. The six-storey building of 85 homes near Barcelona was loosely inspired by the architects' research into films of Japanese director Yasujirō Ozu who explored daily family life.

Marta Peris and Jose Toral, co-founders of Peris + Toral Arquitectes, said: 'Winning the RIBA International Prize is a recognition of many years focused on housing that provides new ways of living. We are very proud of the positive feedback from residents of Modulus Matrix. Some were unsure about features like entering through a terrace, having an open kitchen at the centre of the home, and equal-sized rooms without corridors, but their perspectives changed after living in the space. Now they feel this way of living better adapts to their needs. Their first-hand experiences provide valuable insights into how housing around the world can evolve.'

The award was founded to reward a structure that demonstrates 'visionary thinking, originality, excellence of execution, and makes a distinct contribution to its users, surrounding environment and communities', the RIBA explains.

RIBA International Prize 2024 shortlist

Jacoby Studios, Paderborn, Germany, by David Chipperfield Architects Berlin

In the medieval town of Paderborn, Germany, David Chipperfield Architects Berlin has reinvented and extended existing buildings – a chapel and 17th-century cloister – to create a new HQ for a family business. New concrete and timber elements repair existing stone and brick walls, and are left exposed in a delicate and harmonious patchwork of old and new.

Lianzhou Museum of Photography, Lianzhou, China, by O-office Architects

Set on the site of an old sugar mill in the relatively remote, southern Chinese city of Lianzhou, this museum is a large complex comprising a refurbished warehouse and a new element. It was praised in the 2021 RIBA International Awards cycle, but couldn't be visited at the time due to the pandemic, so was re-entered for this cycle.

architecture.com

The RIBA House of the Year 2024 is an award that celebrates the best of residential architecture. The typology's relatability and omnipresence are what makes it such a critical genre, and this an award that is always hotly contested; and contested it shall be this year too, as the shortlist has just been announced, revealing the six houses that will battle it out for the top gong.

RIBA House of the Year 2024: the shortlist

The offering this year spans rural and urban, old and new, minimalist and richly decorated – but all deeply layered and thoughtful solutions to each of their individual conditions. The shortlist consists of Farmworker’s House in Cornwall by Hugh Strange Architects; Peckham House in London by Surman Weston; Eavesdrop in Sussex by Tom Dowdall Architects; The Hall in Kent by TaylorHare Architects; Plas Hendy Stable Block in Monmouthshire by Studio Brassica Architects; and Six Columns in London by 31/44 Architects.

‘A house can be many things – this year’s shortlist shows the breadth of possibilities. From rural contexts to tight urban sites, including fine craftsmanship and intergenerational living among other driving forces – all these houses are essentially about the people who live inside. Together the shortlisted exemplars offer scalable solutions to the urgent issues of today – displaying care towards sustainability and social changes, including the revival of historic buildings which don't negatively impact the natural environment. We were impressed by the ambition of both the architects and clients to meet the challenge of the contemporary home,' wrote jury chair Je Ahn in his citation.

2024 RIBA House of the Year: the shortlist

Farmworker’s House, Cornwall, by Hugh Strange Architects 

A working farmhouse set in the green expanses of Cornwall, this home looks deceptively simple. Planned on an L-shaped arrangement, curling around a serene courtyard, this is a rural home made in honest, simple materials – thick masonry walls of monolithic clay blocks with textured lime render – and a straightforward brief; to be the home of the worker that looks after the adjacent farm.

Peckham House, London, by Surman Weston 

This new Peckham house is an excellent demonstration of how skill, patience, and hard work can come together to get an urban infill off the ground. Mastering the art of its project type is a rite of passage for architects in crowded, high-priced cities like London. The new-build home was designed by Surman Weston, founded by Tom Surman and Percy Weston in 2014 and featured in our 2020 Architects’ Directory. In 2022, Surman Weston won the RIBA Stephen Lawrence Prize for its well-mannered and restrained space for the Hackney School of Food, with other recent projects including a smart Surrey pool house. The Peckham House was not only designed by the firm, but developed, funded and substantially built by the office as well.

Eavesdrop, Sussex, by Tom Dowdall Architects 

Space to breathe, accessibility and ageing, wellbeing and a connection to nature; these have all been themes in this family home for a couple who often host and entertain their adult children and their families. The project features a green courtyard at its heart and elegantly flaunts a range of bespoke design details, such as its pronounced roof overhang which inspired its name.

The Hall, Kent, by TaylorHare Architects 

The transformation of a run down, Grade II-listed 16th-century residence in the Kent Downs was praised for its delicate and sensitive design work. Finely crafted bespoke details are matched by discreet new elements and restored older parts, which all come together to form a busy and functional family home that is perfectly tailored for its residents.

Plas Hendy Stable Block, Monmouthshire, by Studio Brassica Architects 

Another Grade II-listed structure on this list is this revived Arts & Crafts stable block in Monmouthshire, which now forms part of the living quarters of a wider estate belonging to the same family for decades. Simple materials, a contextual approach and fun detailing that nod to the scheme's historical roots make this house a joy to explore.

Six Columns, London, by 31/44 Architects

For this Crystal Palace house, 31/44 Architects have worked their magic on yet another under-used plot (a practice speciality) – this time for themselves. Six Columns is the new family home of the firm’s co-founder Will Burges. The 1,640 sq ft house sits on the site of a big side garden in the south-east London district. Its design is informed by its semi-detached neighbours, the family’s previous experience of open-plan living, and Burges’ memories of buildings visited and studied. He explains that this wasn’t 'a conscious collage, but as an architect you accumulate baggage'.

The winner of the RIBA House of the Year 2024 will be announced on 3 December.

architecture.com

The shortlist for the 2024 RIBA Reinvention Award has just been announced. It puts forward four exceptional projects for the country's top gong when it comes to ambition and excellence in the realm of reuse in architecture.

This accolade was specifically designed to recognise ‘achievement in the creative reuse of buildings to improve their environmental, social, or economic sustainability. It aims to shine a light on “retrofitting”, increasing the longevity and energy efficiency of existing buildings, and reducing the need for demolition and new construction,' the RIBA explains in its statement.

Muyiwa Oki on the 2024 RIBA Reinvention Award and reuse in architecture

With the spotlight on reuse in many ways today, given its critical role in our efforts towards sustainable architecture planning, as well as the UK's ageing, period housing stock, it becomes more timely than ever to talk about the role of building redesign. We caught up with RIBA President Muyiwa Oki to discuss more in an exclusive interview – plus, scroll further down to find out more about this year's shortlist.

W*: What excites you about this particular award? What makes it special?

MO: The shortlist is a spectrum of works across the UK, projects that vary in typology or scale – what speaks to me is that reinvention is not just about façade treatment. It’s about thinking how a building can be used. Look at Park Hill, a brutalist architecture landmark, which has stayed as such, but [the architects behind its reinvention] also looked at how it is used. This reworking has the community at heart so that people can enjoy space. Architecture is about making the built environment easier to use and more compelling.

The whole idea of reinvention is different from the idea of landmarks and listed buildings. Obviously, some buildings need to be protected for the future as heritage, but others are not protected, yet still need to be used for years to come. So, we need a way to bring them into the 21st century.

W*: The shortlist this year spans multi-family housing, community spaces, workspace and mixed-use buildings – can reinvention be applied to anything?

MO: Yes, anything and everything. My aim is partly to bring balance to this conversation about reinvention against new build. You can be a hugely successful architect if you do only reinvention projects, just as if you did only new projects. And all these important skills are worthy of celebration.

W*: Is this award about celebrating the old and our valuable heritage, or about looking to the future? I see some of the buildings on the shortlist are listed.

MO: It’s a balance. That’s why the criteria are fairly loose. It is about bringing buildings to modern or current use. It’s about how to bring a community, the end user, into the conversation, and reimagining how people will use the [buildings].

W*: Beyond the buildings on the shortlist for this year, what constitutes for you a great example of reinvention?

MO: One thing that pops into mind is The Standard in London. It is a hotel by Orms Architects. I like the way they added the extension to the top and completely transformed it into a centre for London, I go there quite often. It has been a successful way of breathing new life into an old brutalist architecture building and it doesn’t feel out of place either.

W*: Is there a building you’d like to see reinvented in the future?

MO: Obviously, our own headquarters at 66 Portland Place, so watch this space. We are working towards getting it done for our bicentenary in 2034.

W*: What would you like to see more of in the architecture world?

MO: Reinvention is necessary but it is not the silver bullet. I’d also like to see more reduction of carbon emissions and look into the different elements of the role of construction. In my day job [Oki works as a senior architectural manager at Mace], for example, we do a lot of research on prefab concrete cassettes and how they can help bring down the overall emissions in a building.

W*: Do you think architects need to be bolder when it comes to reinvention?

MO: Yes – but, for example, in Shrewsbury Flaxmill Maltings, the first iron frame building, the way Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios created a meadow around it increased its usage and [making] it an open-plan office is giving life to a historic building in a subtler way. It tells a story about its past.

It's again about the balance. Over the years and through my education and experience, the most sought-after commissions were about new buildings. But, for example, the reinvention of King’s Cross [London] made a huge difference to its area, and with these projects, you need to take the entire community with you. By having an award that looks specifically at that, we make it even more special and more meaningful than ever.

2024 RIBA Reinvention Award shortlist

Park Hill Phase 2

Park Hill is Europe's largest listed structure, sitting on a hill that overlooks Sheffield city centre. This project marks the completion of the ongoing regeneration programme's second phase by Mikhail Riches, which saw internal spaces modernised and the addition of balconies and energy efficiency strategies.

Croft 3

This new community dining hall was born of the transformation of an old barn into a restaurant and social centre on the picturesque hills of the Isle of Mull in the Inner Hebrides, UK. Titled Croft 3, it was created by the emerging London-based architecture studio Fardaa, headed by founding architect Edward Farleigh-Dastmalch.

Shrewsbury Flaxmill Maltings

An existing historic structure in Shrewsbury received a full refurbishment by Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios. The original building is celebrated as the world’s first iron-frame building, nicknamed the ‘grandparent of skyscrapers’. Now it contains a new leisure destination with a visitor centre and café.

The Parcels Building

The building originally on this Oxford Street site in London was an increasingly outdated 1957, mixed-use, office and retail structure in urgent need of reimagining. Now, a refresh by Grafton Architects has completely transformed it with a new façade and vibrant interior programme.

The 2024 RIBA Reinvention Award winner will be announced during the Stirling Prize ceremony on 16 October 2024 in London.

architecture.com

The 2024 RIBA Stirling Prize winner has just been announced, with London's Elizabeth Line crowned as the UK's best building project of the year. The prestigious accolade, widely considered one of the highest honours in its field, was presented tonight, 16 October 2024, in a formal ceremony in Camden's Roundhouse.

The state-of-the-art transport network, named in honour of Queen Elizabeth II, the Elizabeth Line runs from Reading and Heathrow to Essex and south-east London. It’s an extraordinarily complex architectural feat – a collaboration between Grimshaw, Maynard, GIA Equation and Atkins – masked by an elegant simplicity, the RIBA jury pointed out.

Importantly, the scheme embraces a sustainable architecture approach too, through its inclusive design and strategies such as passive cooling at platform level to reduce the need for mechanical heating, and escalator motion sensors that minimise energy waste.

Muyiwa Oki, RIBA president and jury chair, said: ‘The Elizabeth Line is a triumph in architect-led collaboration, offering a flawless, efficient, beautifully choreographed solution to inner-city transport. It’s an uncluttered canvas that incorporates a slick suite of architectural components to create a consistent, line-wide identity – through which thousands of daily passengers navigate with ease.

'Descending into the colossal network of tunnels feels like entering a portal to the future, where the typical commuter chaos is transformed into an effortless experience. This is architecture of the digital age – a vast scheme that utilises cutting-edge technology to create distinctive spatial characteristics and experiences. It rewrites the rules of accessible public transport, and sets a bold new standard for civic infrastructure, opening up the network and by extension, London, to everyone.'

The 2024 RIBA Stirling Prize winner: tour the Elizabeth Line

The Elizabeth Line is the most significant contribution to London’s transportation network in over 20 years – courtesy of Atkins, Grimshaw, GIA Equation and Maynard. All the stakeholders in this multi-billion-pound enterprise have played a very long game, whether they’re developers, architects, engineers, councils, or transport organisations.

Neill McClements, partner at Grimshaw, spoke to Wallpaper* on behalf of the winning team: 'When we first started we were struck by how the stations and platforms might feel claustrophobic. We wanted to make people’s journey as joyful as possible. Using lighting we wanted to celebrate that sense of scale and also a calm, accessible environment where people can feel safe and secure in their journey.'

The first plans for what became known as Crossrail (and was subsequently named the Elizabeth Line in 2016) were mooted back in 1974, although plans for major cross-capital train tunnels date back to the 1940s. The perseverance has paid off. The line, serving Londoners and visitors to the capital since its opening in May 2022, has now scooped the top spot in the 2024 RIBA Stirling Prize.

McClements continued: 'In our discussions with the engineering and tunnelling team, we realised how the tunnels were formed and that we can actually curve the routes between tunnels to ease the junctions, and let people see around corners - it makes it safer and helps people move. It ended up creating the Line’s distinctive design, the fluid lines of the tunnel but it came out of a desire to make the experience more comfortable. We spoke about frictionless, effortless movement. We hope it takes the stress out of moving for all.'

The Grimshaw architect underlined how important inclusivity was for the entire team, and how they worked extensively with accessibility groups, creating full-scale mockups of sections (which was possible thanks to the design’s modularity) to get feedback on their design during the process. Additionally, he highlighted the important collaboration element between the numerous engineers, consultants, station designers and architects involved - which makes The Elizabeth Line a truly collective feat.

2024 RIBA Stirling Prize: the shortlist

The winning design was among six shortlisted projects, which span a range of typologies, in London, Dorset and Sheffield. This list was born from the 26 2024 RIBA National Awards, which were revealed in July this year. Here are the five runners-up.

Chowdhury Walk, London, by Al-Jawad Pike 

Chowdhury Walk by Al-Jawad Pike is a development that repurposes under-used Hackney Council land to create new council homes for the community. 'Overall, Chowdhury Walk is an elegant piece of architectural and urban design, providing new homes that are successfully knit into their context – satisfying both resident and passer-by,' writes the jury in its citation.

King’s Cross Masterplan, London, by Allies and Morrison and Porphyrios Associates

This pioneering masterplan by Allies and Morrison and Porphyrios Associates set a new bar in city-making – King's Cross has been a contemporary exemplar of its typology. The jury wrote: 'The developer client was able to set goals for all the buildings and spaces, with reduction of energy demand, use of a district energy centre, decarbonisation, and energy procurement goals all embedded in the design briefs. Ten of the new buildings are BREEAM Outstanding. Combined with the carbon savings through retention and renovation of the historic buildings, it all makes for a robust sustainability narrative. King’s Cross Masterplan is a global exemplar in how to make a community of places which supports human activity, maintains an urban identity, and is supple enough to accommodate inevitable change.'

National Portrait Gallery, London, by Jamie Fobert Architects and Purcell

The summer 2023 reopening of London's National Portrait Gallery was one of the most highly anticipated relaunches of the year. The popular cultural attraction, set right in the heart of the capital, was reimagined by a team led by Jamie Fobert Architects and conservation specialist Purcell, with a new design that saw the institution's previously increasingly unfit quarters opened up in a generous and subtly luxurious new home. Architect and studio head Jamie Fobert said at the time: 'Hopefully, we have now achieved a much better balance between the building and its collection.'

Park Hill Phase 2, Sheffield, by Mikhail Riches

The ongoing regeneration of the much-discussed Grade II*-listed, brutalist Park Hill estate has completed its second phase, courtesy of Mikhail Riches. Writes the jury, in its citation for the project: 'The first phase of the project stripped the building back to its frame and used bright colours to create a distinctly modern appearance. In contrast, Phase 2 is a “lighter touch”, retaining more of the existing built fabric and employing more subtle colours to blend the complex into the landscape. These colours, referencing the nearby Peak District, are used on the balcony reveals and flat entrances, giving each flat its own identity while keeping the character of the overall building.'

Wraxall Yard, Dorset, by Clementine Blakemore Architects

A sensitively restored dairy farm offering inclusive holiday accommodation, a community space, and an educational smallholding, Wraxall Yard was created by Clementine Blakemore Architects. 'You could spend a long time here and keep finding new things. The touch of the designer feels light, the changes between materials are very natural, and the interfaces between buildings and landscaping are well considered. Most of the internal spaces are open to the rafters, but there are subtle changes in scale: from the two-storey elevation facing the car park, through a tall breezeway entrance porch, into the more intimate courtyard bounded by single-storey holiday cottages. Inside, the cottages retain a rustic feel with exposed trusses and glossy concrete floors,' reads the jury citation.

2024 RIBA Reinvention Award winner: Croft 3

Tonight’s Stirling Prize reveal also included the 2024 RIBA Reinvention Award announcement, scooped by Croft 3 – a new community dining hall born of the transformation of an old barn into a restaurant and social centre on the picturesque hills of the Isle of Mull in the Inner Hebrides, by architects Fardaa.

This accolade was specifically designed to recognise ‘achievement in the creative reuse of buildings to improve their environmental, social, or economic sustainability. RIBA president Muyiwa Oki told us in an exclusive interview earlier this autumn: 'The whole idea of reinvention is different from the idea of landmarks and listed buildings. Obviously, some buildings need to be protected for the future as heritage, but others are not protected, yet still need to be used for years to come. So, we need a way to bring them into the 21st century.'

Fardaa founder, Edward Farleigh-Dastmalchi, spoke to Wallpaper* about the project, what he hopes for it, and what he learned from the process: 'So many of these wonderful structures are scattered around the landscape and they have been long disused, but they are so picturesque and they bring character. I like [the project's] ambiguity, I like it if people are not entirely sure without looking in a lot of detail about whether this is a new or old building, where that line is. I suppose it’s best if people don’t think about that much at all. I hope they go in and take in the incredible view and eat at the incredible restaurant that was already there, and not really think about the building at all.'

'In this project, we wanted to do as little to the landscape as we can, because there’s so much embodied carbon tied to groundworks. I am not sure we were that conscious of this when we started the process so now this is one of the things I have learned, and where I will start on in future projects.'

The 2024 RIBA Reinvention Award shortlist included Park Hill Phase 2; Shrewsbury Flaxmill Maltings; and The Parcels Building.

More awards revealed during tonight's event include: Wraxall Yard in Dorset by Clementine Blakemore Architects, winner of the 2024 Stephen Lawrence Prize; Chowdhury Walk in Hackney by Al-Jawad Pike, winner of the 2024 Neave Brown Award for Housing; and Shakespeare North Trust and Knowsley Metropolitan Borough Council, winner of the 2024 Client of the Year Award for Shakespeare North in Prescot by Helm Architecture.

architecture.com

The 2024 RIBA National Awards have been announced, revealing 26 projects that have received this year's gong. The schemes, located up and down the UK and spanning a wealth of scales, typologies and styles, range from an urban masterplan (King’s Cross) and a new transport network (The Elizabeth Line), to a house in the Cornish landscape (Farmworker’s House) and a repurposed dairy farm (Wraxall Yard).

Celebrating the year's finest new architecture, the awards touch upon themes of restoration and adaptation of existing structures; and materials and construction, in particular involving examples with a sustainable architecture twist.

'The sheer breadth of work is quite astounding, with large infrastructure schemes sitting alongside high-quality detailed smaller projects. This is a testament to the standard of architecture in the UK right now, as we maintain a sense of ambition and consider how design must evolve to meet future needs,' says RIBA president Muyiwa Oki.

2024 RIBA National Awards: the list of 26 winners

West Midlands

Shrewsbury Flaxmill Maltings

This refurbishment of a historic structure into a new leisure destination was led by Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios.

South

New Temple Complex

A domed temple boasts an impressive arrival sequence that leads from secular to ritual spaces, designed by James Gorst Architects.

Yorkshire

Park Hill Phase 2

The ongoing regeneration of the much-discussed Grade II*-listed, brutalist estate has completed its second phase, courtesy of Mikhail Riches.

London

Battersea Power Station

The restoration and transformation of an architectural landmark Battersea Power Station on the banks of the River Thames was a key recent London project by WilkinsonEyre.

Bradbury Works

Bradbury Works is the refurbishment and extension of an existing affordable workspace building by [Y/N] Studio.

King's Cross Masterplan

This pioneering masterplan by Allies and Morrison and Porphyrios Associates set a new bar in city-making – King's Cross has been a contemporary exemplar of its typology.

National Portrait Gallery

A significant transformation by Jamie Fobert Architects and Purcell revitalised the historic spaces of the National Portrait Gallery in central London.

Paddington Elizabeth Line Station

A welcome and much-needed addition to London's transport network, the Elizabeth Line Paddington Station by Weston Williamson + Partners is bright and airy.

Royal Academy of Dance

The RAD’s new home on the ground floor of a new residential tower was designed by Takero Shimazaki Architects with Atomik Architecture.

Six Columns

Six Columns is a considered Crystal Palace house designed as a family home by 31/44.

Thames Christian School & Battersea Chapel

A complex project, the Thames Christian School & Battersea Chapel is a six-storey building that provides the church and school with a new community hall and sanctuary by Henley Halebrown.

The Black and White Building

The Black & White Building by Waugh Thistleton is a pioneering project out of wood and the tallest engineered timber office building in central London.

The Elizabeth Line

The Elizabeth Line is easily the most significant contribution to London’s transportation network in over 20 years – courtesy of Atkins, Grimshaw, GIA Equation and Maynard.

The Arbour

The Arbour in the heart of Walthamstow Village is a set of ten homes on a constrained backland, brownfield site and was designed by Boehm Lynas and GS8.

Chowdhury Walk

Chowdhury Walk by Al-Jawad Pike is a development that repurposes under-used Hackney Council land to create new council homes for the community.

South west and Wessex:

Wraxall Yard

A sensitively restored dairy farm offering inclusive holiday accommodation, a community space, and educational smallholding, Wraxall Yard was created by Clementine Blakemore Architects.

Bath Abbey Footprint Project

Repair, conservation work and much-needed new facilities at the centre of the Unesco City of Bath were at the heart of this brief, executed by Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios with a multidisciplinary team.

Farmworker's House

The single-storey courtyard Farmworker's House is considerate of the surrounding rural landscape and was designed by Hugh Strange Architects.

North East

Auckland Castle, Tower and Faith Museum

A series of urban and historic interventions for the restoration of a 900-year-old Grade I-listed Castle resulted in the new Auckland Castle, Tower and Faith Museum by Níall McLaughlin Architects.

East Midlands

Alfreton Park Community Special School

Alfreton Park Community Special School was designed by Curl la Tourelle Head Architecture for pupils aged three to 19 with special educational needs and disabilities.

East

Dining Hall, Homerton College, Cambridge

The new Dining Hall at Homerton College in Cambridge has become the focal point in the student community's social and cultural life, thanks to its clever design by Feilden Fowles.

WongAvery Gallery

A new music practice and performance space for Trinity Hall, Cambridge, WongAvery Galler was crafted by Níall McLaughlin Architects.

Beechwood Village

The co-designed modular, contemporary neighbourhood of Beechwood Village is the work of Pollard Thomas Edwards and Outerspace.

Royal Incorporation Architects Scotland

The Fruitmarket Gallery

The much-loved Edinburgh gallery has been reinvented and enlarged by Reiach and Hall Architects; welcome to the new Fruitmarket Gallery.

North Gate Social Housing

The North Gate urban social housing scheme has been designed by Page\Park architects to suit the needs of older residents.

RSUA

House on Redbrae Farm

A rural dwelling that is both local and foreign, traditional and modern, House on Redbrae Farm was designed by McGonigle McGrath.

architecture.com

The RIBA International Awards for Excellence 2024 have been announced, with the 22 winners providing a worldwide showcase of ‘exemplary architecture’, and spanning from sustainably minded schools to secluded private homes and a sculptural subway station entrance.

Together, emphasises RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects), the winners comprise standout architectural responses to contemporary social, cultural and environmental challenges – whether climate change, architectural re-use, or building for wellbeing and community – that represent a shift in the way buildings are conceived and constructed.

All 22 winners now go forward to compete for the RIBA International Prize 2024, to be announced in November this year. Here they all are – pick your own favourite for the overall prize.

RIBA International Awards for Excellence 2024: the winners

Light plays across the jali brickwork and remarkable cylindrical forms of the Shah Muhammad Mohsin Khan Mausoleum, by Sthapotik in Manikgonj, Bangladesh. Completed in the grounds of a family home to remember the client's father, this space of contemplation – striking and simple in its use of a single material, and full of allure – is open to the wider community.

Designed to foster appreciation of creative arts while responding to local risk of fire and flood, the Bundanon Art Museum & Bridge in New South Wales, Australia, comprises an underground art gallery and collection storage and a remarkable 165m ‘bridge'. The former is built from concrete to resist fire, while the latter is set above a gully, its structure allowing floodwaters to rise and pass beneath the learning centre, bedrooms and dining spaces that it contains.

Like a game of architectural peekaboo, the playful rebuilding of a school in rural Iran – Jadgal Elementary School by DAAZ Office in Sistan and Baluchestan – features a circular walled site with naturally ventilated classrooms around a central playground that also serves as a community space. Insulated concrete formwork meets local earthquake legislation, while local earth clay creates a flood-protective finish and is easy to repair.

At this rug-making facility – Green Field Factory in Bangladesh by Nakshabid Architects – workers' wellbeing is front of mind with extensive gardens and planting. The façade is covered in greenery that creates shade and filtered natural ventilation indoors, enhanced by pools that cool air as it passes through. The rooftop and surrounding outdoor spaces encourage socialising.

In Sydney, Punchbowl Mosque by Angelo Candalepas and Associates is a careful – and ‘magical’, notes its citation – insertion on a small suburban plot. The mosque is one of the first buildings in Australia to use a new low-carbon, high-fly ash concrete, made using a waste product of steel manufacturing, while its design encourages natural ventilation. Seen here, a circular, layered opening in the concrete roof reveals a timber dome seeming to float above a ribbon of natural light.

An example of reuse that captures the romance of the existing structure, Veemgebouw by Caruso St John Architects transforms a 1940s industrial storage building in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, into a vast, mixed-use complex, including a food market, a car park, energy-neutral apartments and maisonettes, as well as office space.

Housing, retail and cultural spaces combine in this revitalised city block, Morland Mixité Capitale – part of the wider ‘Reinventer Paris’ project – by David Chipperfield Architects Berlin and CALQ, which remodels and extends a 1964 16-storey administrative tower and two nine-storey wings.

Hailed in its citation as ‘a unique and pioneering model for urban village renewal’, ARCity Office’s Six Bricolage Houses in Nantou Ancient City, Shenzhen, China, sees six self-built houses by villagers given micro-updates and modifications by the architects. Old meets new in ‘bricolage architecture’, as the addition of cantilevers and the partial cutting of walls, for example, open up space, bring in natural light and create a connection to the outdoors.

Sharanam Centre for Rural Development by Jateen Lad, in Tamil Nadu, India, has transformed a desolate site into an inspiring and inclusive community centre and gardens, with sustainable architecture and innovation at their heart. The architect used recycled and local materials, including red soil, which was pressed into bricks, and contractors, and trained locals in building techniques; the project was completed with zero waste.

Liknon, on the Aegean island of Samos in Greece, is K-Studio’s sensitive restoration of a terraced landscape and construction of a new visitor centre at a vineyard by K-Studio (whose previous projects include the Costa Navarino Residences in the Peloponnese). The single-storey building is set into the hillside and maximises the connection with the land.

Thapar University Learning Laboratory by McCullough Mulvin Architects in Patiala, India, is geometrically bold – comprising three red Agra sandstone-clad towers, each set around a central atrium – and sensitive to the harsh local climate, with architectural shading from a massive canopy, and natural ventilation encouraged by cooling pools of water.

David Chipperfield Architects Berlin completed the conservation-led refurbishment of the city's Neue Nationalgalerie, an icon of the International Style designed by Mies van der Rohe in 1968, with a view to keeping ‘as much Mies as possible’ while also making enhancements to the building’s performance.

Located in Portugal’s Azores, Adega Pico Winery & Hotel by DRDH Architects and Sami Arquitectos, is at one with the natural and cultivated elements of its surrounding volcanic landscape. Almost receding into its Unesco World Heritage Site backdrop, the project is built of the lava rock that is also used for the manmade terraces of the vineyards and topped with sculptural concrete beams.

The Engineering Laboratories at Pontificia Universidad Javeriana are designed by Juan Pablo Ortiz Arquitectos and TALLER Architects to encourage a sense of wellbeing and a connection with the surroundings, in the foothills of the Andes in Colombia. The project combines retrofitted and new structures, and features a focus on natural light, greenery including a vertical garden, and views to the landscape.

Of timber-frame construction, using no welded joints, Modulus Matrix - 85 Social Housing in Cornellà, Barcelona, by Peris + Toral Arquitectes, comprises socially rented homes in a courtyard setting, with a design intended to foster neighbourliness and a sense of community.

A preservation project that includes remnants of imperial ceramic workshops, Jingdezhen Pengjia Alley Compound by Beijing AN-DESIGN Architects in Jingdezhen City, China, retains and reveals layers of history for new generations of visitors.

In the medieval town of Paderborn, Germany, David Chipperfield Architects Berlin have reinvented and extended existing buildings – a chapel and 17th-century cloister – to create a new HQ for a family business. New concrete and timber elements repair existing stone and brick walls, and are left exposed in a delicate and harmonious patchwork of old and new.

In the Valle de Bravo, southwest of Mexico, Casa Catarina, a single-family home by Taller Hector Barraso, blends effortlessly with its natural surroundings, featuring stone and rammed earth walls, timber-beamed ceilings and volcanic rock floors. Volumes are staggered to accommodate the sloping site, while the house features spaces that maximises indoor-outdoor living.

College Hampate Ba by Article 25 is the refurbishment of an existing school in Niamey, Niger, using locally sourced materials, to create a new, low-carbon and passively ventilated school that offers a subsidised education to low-income families.

Another education project deserving of the RIBA nod, the Bioclimatic School in Guécélard, France, by Atelier Julien Boidot, brings a unifying extension to a kindergarten and primary school, that takes inspiration from local agricultural buildings in its choice of unfinished materials. It comes with solar chimneys – rectangular roof projections that contain large south-facing windows and vents – to create natural ventilation in classrooms.

The rebuilding of a subway station entrance, Jahad Metro Plaza by KA Architecture Studio in Tehran, Iran, creates a local landmark and a social public space. Mesh arches clad in 300,000 bricks made from local soil are sculptural, welcoming and low-budget.

Its exterior defined by a bold matrix of concrete and voids, the new Student Centre at India’s Ahmedabad University, by Stephane Paumier Architects is LEED Platinum-certified to boot. A concrete frame and brick partition infills act as heat sinks, helping to create a cool and comfortable environment for students to spend time in. Other sustainable features include water recycling, a solar roof, windows that are set deeply to avoid glare and heat, and a sewage treatment plant that maintains the central forest.

architecture.com

With its latest exhibition, ‘Raise the Roof: Building for Change’, the Royal Institute of British Architect (RIBA) seeks to confront uncomfortable truths. RIBA’s HQ at 66 Portland Place in London serves as a powerful nucleus for its members, architects, and design enthusiasts. However, inside the 90-year-old Grade II*-listed building, several problematic British Imperialist features exist.

RIBA presents ‘Raise the Roof: Building for Change’

Focusing on race, identity, and colonialism the show unpacks the divisive Jarvis Mural and Dominion Screen, two works that live at RIBA’s HQ. Designed by sculptor Denis Dunlop, the Dominion Screen, housed in the Henry Florence Memorial Hall, is a 20-panel wood installation depicting the people, animals, and resources the British Empire brutally exploited. 

The Jarvis Mural, painted by artist Edward Bainbridge Copnall and on show in the Henry Jarvis Memorial Hall, portrays indigenous people as primitive natives, inferior to Imperial Britain. 

Addressing these troubling depictions, RIBA commissioned creatives Esi Eshun, Giles Tettey Nartey (also featured in the recent Wallpaper* Class ’24 exhibition in Milan), Thandi Loewenson, and Arinjoy Sen to produce new work that responds to the pieces for ‘Raise the Roof: Building for Change’.

Designed by architecture practice Msoma Architects and creative studio Plan B, the exhibition starts by giving visitors the history of 66 Portland Place. As you walk around the green- and brown-toned show, you will learn about colonialism and British Imperialism before seeing the four commissioned works. ‘This exhibition addresses a history that has forged and shaped the world we live in today,’ says RIBA's exhibitions curator Margaret Cubbage. 

The first commission visitors will see is architectural researcher Thandi Loewenson’s Backlight, a response to the Jarvis Mural. With the help of London-based creative Zhongshan Zou, Loewenson has created an evocative graphite mural with an accompanying essay that speaks to Imperial Britain’s violent resource extraction, labour exploitation and racism.

Adjacent to Loewenson’s work is architect Giles Tettey Nartey’s black wood furniture made from the same Quebec pine as the Dominion Screen. A collection of 17 stools,  Assembly invites visitors to sit, discuss and respond to the different symbols that make up the imperialist screen. ‘We hope that visitors feel comfortable to contemplate and reflect on the importance and need for decolonisation,’ says Cubbage.

Architectural designer Arinjoy Sen, meanwhile, has created The Carnival of Portland Place, an illustrative installation that aims to challenge problematic imperial narratives. Addressing the Jarvis Mural through his piece, Sen seeks to challenge outdated systems of power and bring marginalised stories to the foreground. 

‘As part of decolonising architecture, it helps to educate and raise awareness to the injustices and power dynamics that forged the world we live in today,' says Cubbage. 

At the end of the show, visitors can watch Esi Eshun’s powerful 15-minute film. Titled The Vanishment, her video carefully blends audio with archival imagery to unravel the stories behind the Jarvis Mural. Her work seeks to unpack some of the structures, indigenous groups and power dynamics that make up the mural.

‘Raise the Roof: Building For Change’ is RIBA’s attempt to address the colonial narratives deeply rooted in the fabric of 66 Portland Place. Through these four creative interventions, the professional body has carefully reflected on parts of its building and created a space for progressive dialogues about British Imperialism. Cubbage concludes: ‘We see the exhibition as the first step in the process of decolonising the building and the RIBA Collection.’ 

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For 2024 RIBA Gold Medal recipient Lesley Lokko, 2023 was an amazing year. The Ghanaian-Scottish architect, educator, author and curator delivered the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale to great acclaim (including her main show, themed Laboratory of the Future); she worked on launching from scratch the Africa Futures Institute (AFI), a pioneering architecture research institute and school; and continued with her fiction writing, with a new book coming out soon. 

Her pursuits were not only fruitful and critically acclaimed feats in their own right. They also put her in the spotlight for 'democratising architecture'. As announced earlier in January 2024, she has been hailed by the 2024 RIBA Honours Committee as a 'clarion call for equitable representation in policies, planning, and design that shape our spaces'. 

'Lesley Lokko is a true agent of change who has successfully shifted the dial and pioneered a more equitable approach to architectural education, dialogue and discourse. By acknowledging and encouraging diversity of thought and embracing a broad range of cultures and perspectives, she has shown us how architecture can reach its full potential,' said RIBA President, Muyiwa Oki. 'Through her work as an educator, author, and curator, she offers us hope for the future of architecture – a profession and practice that welcomes and delivers for people from all walks of life.' 

2024 Royal Gold Medal for Architecture: a celebration

Last night, at a celebration at the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) London headquarters, Professor Lesley Lokko OBE formally received the 2024 Royal Gold Medal for Architecture. The event was accompanied by the launch of an exhibition on Lokko's work and global contributions to architecture, which sits alongside the institution's latest exhibition, 'Raising the Roof,' which critically explores the RIBA HQ building through themes such as gender, race and imperialism. 

We caught up with Lokko, to find out what this award means to her, what her plans for the future are, and more. 

Lesley Lokko on her 2024 RIBA Gold Medal 

W*: Congratulations! What does the RIBA Gold Medal mean to you?

LL: This may seem like a simple question, but actually, I think for most people it's quite complex. On the one hand, there's an incredible sense of gratitude, a feeling of having been seen in a very particular way, which is both personal and professional. To me, particularly so, because my subject matter has never really been considered central to architecture. Something like this is an enormous validation of its centrality. It's also a very deep, cultural recognition.

W: What is the role of awards in the architecture field?

LL: You know, somebody asked me this question about 15 years ago in South Africa, which doesn't have quite as many awards [as there are in the Global North]. The absence of awards is also tied to the absence of a kind of critical culture and critical discussion around architecture. There, and probably it's the same in most places in Africa, the architectural profession is very small. So, in a sense, you never really get the opportunity to understand how your work is viewed. Having lived and worked in places where there is no awards culture, on balance, I would have to say they are a good thing. Peer recognition is very different from any other kind of recognition. To be valued, understood and seen by your peers is quite rare. 

W*: The recognition comes as the culmination of an extremely busy couple of years for you – the logistics and conceptual work of planning the Venice Biennale and a new school... Looking back, how will you remember this time? 

LL: I don't think I'll ever recover from it! The past two years have been of a kind of intensity that I think I just didn't see coming. You're absolutely right to talk about the organisational and logistical side of it because for me, way beyond the conceptual and creative side, it was the logistics and the organisation that nearly killed me. It made me keenly aware of the 'back-of-house' of architecture, which is the stuff that very few of us actually see. Every new thing takes energy and commitment that I just never fully understood or appreciated before.

W*: What have you learned? It could be something you’d now know to do differently or something you unexpectedly discovered and celebrated. 

LL: The net result of having done all of this is overwhelmingly positive. I seem to remember my father saying: 'You will have to work twice as hard, just to keep up.' The question of labour, gender and race, I think, has been a really interesting three-way triangle for me for all of my work life. It's not just about the amount of hours one has to put in, it's about one's kind of cultural relationships, to labour as a Black woman. You are expected to be resilient, to have a forbearance. What I've learned is that to resist that, you have to be quite selfish. You have to have the ability to say no and that is often also counter to the way that you've been cultured or raised. I think another thing my father said was to always be polite, be nice, be friendly. 

W*: And do things seem to be slowing down now? 

LL: It's been three years now since I started work on the school, and I’ve learned a huge amount. I've learned that it is almost impossible to build the kind of transformational culture which I'd always hoped the school would have, via Zoom. It's just not possible. The AFI was three months old when the biennale was announced. And so, resources just pivoted away from the setting up of a school, and now we're coming back to it – but in a very different way. And actually, what I really like to do is teach. What I've been doing over the past three years has been administrating and fundraising, being an HR manager and a finance manager, and almost everything except teaching. So in the next years, I'd like to get back into the classroom. And by the end of this year, we will also have announced a new set of programmes.

W*: What else is on your mind? 

LL:  I have one novel that I'm working on and it's coming out later this year. It's quite different from what I've written before. I'm very excited about it. Venice will feature, and there will be a death. 

architecture.com

Green House by Hayhurst & Co has been crowned the RIBA House of the Year 2023 winner. The home, located in Tottenham, London, and its fun and innovative approach to the everyday, impressed the judges – who picked it among a strong shortlist of six houses, spanning from a Devonshire cow shed transformed into a creative family home, to a characterful Scottish new-build. 

RIBA House of the Year 2023 winner: Green House by Hayhurst & Co

The project, a reimagined typical terraced house, works with a constrained urban plot in a small alleyway in north London. The structure’s new exterior, clad in polycarbonate panels and wrapped in dense planting, makes for a discreet, and compact family home, perfectly calibrated to its client’s needs and the site conditions. 

Inside, thanks to some clever architectural sleights of hand, open spaces and large windows make for a riad-inspired green oasis of an interior. It was described by RIBA’s jury as a ‘domestic greenhouse’ and ‘extraordinary ordinary house’.  

The home's biophilic design take allows a daily life among nature, while practical solutions to spatial issues (curtains act as dividers and screens and planting ensure levels of privacy and ventilation can be easily adjusted), make for a practical family space.

Jury chair Dido Milne said of this year’s winner: ‘Green House, affectionately known as the ”Tottenham riad” is a true oasis within the city. It is both airy and cosy, bold yet respectful of its neighbours. Your eye is simultaneously drawn upwards to open sky and down and out across the living room to  greenery.

'The close architect and client relationship, with a joint desire to deliver a truly sustainable home, is evident in all of the design decisions and details. On a confined urban site, the house was delivered to a tight budget with an economy of means – and it remains richer for it.  Nowhere do you feel the site or budget was restricted. It feels luxurious, homely, deeply private and relaxing. It’s an extraordinary ordinary house and a remarkable collaboration.’

RIBA House of the Year 2023: the shortlist

Cowshed (South Devon) by David Kohn Architects 

Last year David Kohn Architects won the 2022 RIBA House of the Year with Red House, and they have made the shortlist again with Cowshed, an unconventional family home. Nestled on an existing farmstead in Devon, the home/artists studio is a celebration of an agricultural outbuilding being repurposed into an inspiring, creative space. Built on the foundations of using simple honest materiality, the 1970s agricultural structure has been retained, with the home’s wooden beam skeleton proudly on show. Large arched windows reflect the owner’s artwork, and original concrete footings provide a welcomed balance of the existing and the repurposed, injecting fun colour into the stripped-back structure.

Hundred Acre Wood (Argyll and Bute, Scotland) by Denizen Works

A home that seems new, yet old, Hundred Acre Wood blends into its idyllic setting of Loch Awe. Thoughtfully constructed over an eight-year period, Denizen Works defines slow architecture. Hunkered into the banks of the Loch, the home is characterised by its sculptural exterior paying homage to baronial castles and tower houses of Scotland. An ode to the client's hatred of television, the textured walls are made from crushed TV screens, and offer a glimmer of erosion to the building, which adds to the ancient feel. Sheltered from the elements, the thick walls provide a fortress for the owner to admire the views from the large windows overlooking the Scottish wildlife. 

Made of Sand (Devon) by Studio Weave 

Unlike the name, Made of Sand is mostly constructed of a heavy timber frame, Western Red Cedar cladding, and panels of Douglas fir, creating a space that connects with the surrounding Blackdown Hills. The two-story annexe by Studio Weave, extends a traditional Devonshire stone cottage that embraces local craftsmen and traditional methods during its construction. Although a contemporary design, the use of local natural materials exposed both internally and externally, creates a calming environment to rest and recharge. 

Middle Avenue (Farnham) by Rural Office 

Nestled on a corner plot in a garden suburb of Farnham, Middle Avenue is an adaptable family home with a nod to late 19th-century architecture. The attention to detail is evident through the details in crafted red clay Keymer tiles, and a steeply pitched roof and white gables. The new building has replaced an inter-war bungalow in the Surrey village, with detailing that has earned its place on the shortlist. 

Saltmarsh House (Isle of Wight) by Niall McLaughlin Architects  

With uninterrupted views scaling the Isle of Wight, Niall McLaughlin Architects, the winners of the RIBA Stirling Prize 2022, have created Saltmarsh House which overlooks Bembridge Harbour. The delicate steel-framed pavilion and intricate glass details, add a sense of lightness that blends into its surroundings- as if designed to be in nature. Although the exterior is eye-catching the interior and simplistic repeated patterns give a subtle nod to minimalist architecture. The pyramidal copper roof adds to the delicacy, with large open windows taking in the cascading views. 

architecture.com 

The Royal Institute of British Architects' architecture film screenings, ‘RIBA Film Nights’, has launched, exploring, during the summer, the relationship between architecture and film. Showing at the RIBA headquarters at 66 Portland Place in London, the series launched on 29 June 2023 as one of the final events of the London Festival of Architecture (LFA) 2023, the annual month-long celebration of architecture that takes place every June and this year explored the theme ‘In Common’.

Architecture film screenings at the RIBA this summer

The evenings invite viewers into the uniquely personal perspectives of three separate contemporary practitioners (Clara Kraft Isono, Jim Stephenson and Elettra Fiumi, each present for a post-screening director’s Q&A or panel discussion). The trio have used the immersive medium of film in different ways to share and communicate their own stories, viewpoints and experiences of architecture. Their work shows how film is vital to understanding and thinking about architecture, through documentary, in-person interviews, archival footage, artistic reflections or conceptual expression – and how film brings people together and starts conversations. 

The opening evening presented Bawa’s Garden, a film which follows protagonist director Clara Kraft Isono, a filmmaker, architect, AA alumna and former RIBA Council member, on her search for Tropical Modernist architect Geoffrey Bawa’s ‘lost’ garden of Lunuganga in Sri Lanka, whilst telling the story of his life and work. Described as a ‘docudrama’ and ‘travelogue’, the film – which premiered at Raindance Film Festival in the UK in October 2022 – combines dreamlike narratives with conversations with Bawa’s collaborators and scenes of his rarely visited buildings. 

For the second evening (6 July 2023), Jim Stephenson, architectural filmmaker and photographer, curates a series of short films exploring observation and travelogues. This evening is linked to the RIBA’s current London architecture exhibition of film work by Stephenson, titled ‘The Architect has Left the Building’, which presents a dual-screen film installation of Stephenson’s archives over 15 years, documenting the everyday reality of people using architecture in the UK in projects by the likes of Grafton, Carmody Groarke and Jamie Fobert. 

Another very personal approach to film, Radical Landscapes (screening 11 July 2023 and originally premiering 15 June 2023 at Biografilm festival, Bologna) explores director Elettra Fiumi’s father Fabrizio Fiumi’s role in the 9999 group, a collective of radical architects based in Florence working in the 1960s and 1970s alongside Archizoom and Superstudio. Following her father’s death, Fiumi discovered ‘reels of mysterious Super 8 film footage among his possessions’, which prompted her to explore his life and work and revive the 9999 group’s avant-garde philosophy through archival footage, contemporary interviews and actualisations of unmade projects. 

architecture.com 

Professor Yasmeen Lari, the architect who scooped the RIBA Royal Gold Medal 2023, one of her field’s most prestigious honours, has been honoured with a celebratory dinner this week in London. Lari, who was announced as the award recipient about a month ago, is globally respected for her ongoing work on zero-carbon self-build concepts for displaced populations. 

The accolade, which was personally approved by His Majesty The King, recognises outstanding contribution to the architecture profession worldwide. Past Royal Gold Medallists include Balkrishna Doshi (2022), Sir David Adjaye OBE (2021), Dame Zaha Hadid (2016), Frank Gehry (2000), Lord Norman Foster (1983), Frank Lloyd Wright (1941) and Sir George Gilbert Scott (1859). 

Yasmeen Lari: RIBA Royal Gold Medal 2023 

Lari's work and professional trajectory are remarkable. The first registered female architect in her home country of Pakistan, she studied in the UK before going back to work in Karachi in 1964, establishing her studio, Lari Associates. She went on to develop a range of contemporary buildings, from single-family houses (including her own) to large-scale schemes that define the country’s urban landscape to this day. Examples include several government, business, and financial institutions, such as the Pakistan State Oil headquarters. 

The architect retired, before returning to practice in 2000, focusing her efforts on sustainability and housing in the realm of humanitarian work. The Heritage Foundation of Pakistan, which Lari co-founded with her husband, Suhail Zaheer Lari, in 1980, is a pioneer in designing housing for disaster relief, creating some 50,000, mostly self-build, dwellings. 

'I was so surprised to hear this news and of course totally delighted! I never imagined that as I focus on my country’s most marginalised people – venturing down uncharted vagabond pathways – I could still be considered for the highest of honours in the architectural profession,' said Lari, when she heard the news about the RIBA Gold Medal 2023. 

‘RIBA has heralded a new direction for the profession, encouraging all architects to focus not only on the privileged but also humanity at large that suffers from disparities, conflicts and climate change. There are innumerable opportunities to implement principles of circular economy, de-growth, transition design, eco-urbanism, and what we call Barefoot Social Architecture (BASA) to achieve climate resilience, sustainability and eco justice in the world.’

Part W, the action group championing gender equity in the built environment, were heavily involved in Lari's nomination for the 2023 award – with Alisha Morenike Fisher from Migrant’s Bureau writing the documentation, and Hilary Satchwell, founding member of Part W putting it forward. Their contribution was part of their The Alternative List campaign, striving for ‘greater recognition of the contribution of women to the field of architecture.’

‘As one of my mentors since 2018 and one of the reasons environmental needs have been at the forefront of how I hope to design, Yasmeen Lari continues to inspire, advocate and design for our changing climates and land. It has been a privilege from day one to learn from Lari, her work through barefoot social architecture and I hope more recognition for her work enables further attention of what is currently happening with housing issues, displacement and natural disasters in Pakistan,’ says Fisher. 

‘It was an honour to chair the committee that selected Yasmeen Lari. An inspirational figure, she moved from a large practice centred on the needs of international clients to focussing solely on humanitarian causes. Lari’s mission during her “second” career has empowered the people of Pakistan through architecture, engaging users in design and production. She has shown us how architecture changes lives for the better,' stated RIBA president Simon Allford, when the award was announced. 

‘Lari’s work in championing zero carbon and zero waste construction is exemplary. She has reacted imaginatively and creatively making affordable projects that address the real and often urgent need for accommodation, and basic services, but with generosity and an eye for the potential of everyday materials and crafts to make architecture at all scales. Her way of working also sets out to address the physical and psychological damage caused by major natural disasters – disaster that sadly inevitably will be ever more prevalent in our densely populated and climate challenged planet.'

architecture.com 

The 2022 RIBA House of the Year is a hotly contested gong and highly anticipated moment in the annual architecture calendar. Homes from all across the UK compete for the coveted title, a process which the public can experience through a series of televised judges' visits, starting weekly from Wednesday 16 November. Seven homes will be named for the final shortlist, with the culmination of the show being the crowning of the winner in the final episode. The big announcement will take place on 7 December, and we can't wait. In preparation, and to refresh our memories ahead of the event, here's the longlist of the 20 homes that will battle it out for the prestigious 2022 RIBA House of the Year. 

2022 RIBA HOUSE OF THE YEAR SHORTLIST

Derwent Valley Villa (Derbyshire) by Blee Halligan

The Derwent Valley, a green, rural landscape of floodplains and rolling hills in the UK's Derbyshire, is the picturesque setting for this modernist-inspired house by architecture studio Blee Halligan. The new-build family home not only pays homage to its environment, through its red brick that references local cotton mills, and low, modest forms that work harmoniously with the nature around them in a ‘living in a garden' approach; its design is also intrinsically tied to the passing of one of the clients mid-project due to illness, and celebrates their favourite views. The clients wanted to make the most out of the project’s generous site, its light, views and green gardens. ‘The strategy was to deconstruct the building and extend the plan through the site, so as to maximise the experience of “living in a garden”. The building defines a variety of linked garden spaces, each of different scale, orientation and outlook,' say the architects, led by studio founders Greg Blee and Lee Halligan. Read more. 

House at Lough Beg (Northern Ireland) by McGonigle McGrath

Set in Ballyscullion Park, on the shores of Lough Beg in mid Ulster, House at Lough Beg (Northern Ireland) by McGonigle McGrath blends an idyllic location with contemporary architecture. The newly created, self-build house took some ten years to complete, but the result, a balance between the local vernacular (the client wanted something reasonably 'inconspicuous') and modern minimalist architecture, is worth it. 

Leyton House (London) by McMahon Architecture Ltd

Located on a narrow plot – a former Second World War bomb site – in east London, Leyton House is a contemporary brick dwelling designed by London-based practice McMahon Architecture. Defined by its finely detailed timber structure, suspended on a monolithic masonry plinth, it is a bold departure from its neighbouring Victorian counterparts and ‘a subtle sanctuary and a retreat from the bustle of the street’, says the practice’s founder Louise McMahon. The client, filmmaker and writer Max Barron, wanted a home that he could live and work in, and which could easily be altered in the future. ‘I’d always dreamed of building my own house, an obsession inherited from my dad. But I never thought I’d get the chance, still less in London,’ he says. The brief for the three-level home was to optimise the potential of the tight infill site, while providing the necessary space for the client’s current and future needs. ‘Within a small plot, we wanted to create as many spatially dynamic moments as possible,’ says the architect. The key to unlocking the site was to integrate subterranean quarters. Read more. 

Mere House (Cambridgeshire) by Mole Architects

Mere House by Mole Architects is an exemplar of sustainable architecture. Located in rural Cambridgeshire, the home for a private client, a retired headteacher, is an upside-down passivhaus construction. This means the home's main living areas, including a family room, the kitchen and the master bedroom, are placed on the top floor, which offers long views of nature and plenty of light. Meanwhile, a spare bedroom, utility spaces, and study are found on the more introverted ground floor. 

Mews House Deep Retrofit (London) by Prewett Bizley Architects

A typical London mews house has been transformed into a spacious modern home with this project – the Mews House Deep Retrofit by Prewett Bizley Architects. Low-energy and sustainable, the new home is the result of a complete stripping out of the old mews structure with only external elements retained. At the same time, lots of timber, an abundance of natural light, and clever volume carving inside make for a contemporary home with strong eco-credentials. 

Mountain View (London) by CAN

An Edwardian semi-detached house in south London got a radical makeover, courtesy of architecture studio CAN. The project, playfully bringing together block colours, unusual details and a staged mountain scenery top, belongs to practice founder Mat Barnes and his family of four; which made the daring decisions somewhat easier, even though, Barnes explains, ‘in a way my wife served the client role, tempering ideas that were too impractical or downright absurd'. The project was bold in more ways than one, as it was created extremely fast, during the pandemic and while the family were expecting their youngest child. The house, which they acquired as a bargain in an almost derelict stage, became their home immediately upon purchase in August 2019, and they lived in it during the renovation, which was completed in autumn 2020, only a few months after their youngest's birth. Although living there with a young child was stressful, Barnes recalls, ‘moving in for a time helped us to see what we wanted from the renovation'. He adds: ‘I think [the speed we needed to move at] resulted in more daring decisions (material and colour wise) because there wasn’t the opportunity to talk ourselves out of it.' Read more.

Norfolk Barn (Norfolk) by 31/44 Architects and Taylor Made Space

London-based architecture practice 31/44 is used to getting the most out of tight, urban spaces. Its Red House, in East Dulwich in south London, picked up a RIBA London Award and a Manser Medal, and No.49, in Lewisham, won a RIBA National Award. ‘We’re used to doing very difficult sites that have a direct relationship with perhaps 30 neighbours,’ says 31/44 director Will Burges. So designing a house in the English countryside, in what was the remains of a piece of industrial architecture, was ‘slightly liberating’, he adds. ‘It was just about the preservation of the immediate environment.’ Burges and his team were commissioned by a London-based family to create a weekend retreat in a tiny Norfolk hamlet. Luke and Klara Hawes had spotted a disused grain store, sitting between other farm buildings and a listed parish church. The area was familiar to Luke as he had grown up nearby. Before starting the work, ‘we spent two summers in a camper van in the field, getting a feel for the land’, he says. Read more.

Ostro Passivhaus (Scotland) by Paper Igloo

Ostro Passivhaus by Paper Igloo has already scooped a RIAS Award 2022 – can it go further and grab the coveted 2022 House of the Year title too? The Scottish private home is a true labour of love. Not only was it meticulously created using sustainable passivhaus techniques, but it was also built by the architect owners themselves over a period of eight years during evenings and weekends. 

Peeking house (London) by Fletcher Crane Architects

This minimalist home is a two-bedroom abode in Ealing, London. Its architects used a simple exterior palette of grey brick, black timber and tubular metalwork, which inside translates to exposed brick and timber, and clean white walls. Large windows frame the urban context using the vistas as a living canvas against the interior’s calming feel. ’The simplicity and rawness of finishing are carried through to the internal spaces, where brick walls, ash joinery, terrazzo tiles and delicate metal balustrades contribute to a comprehensive vision,’ say the architects.

Ravine House (Derbyshire) by Chiles Evans + Care Architects Ltd

The architects and owners of Ravine House in Derbyshire drew inspiration from the classics and in particular, Frank Lloyd Wright. Architecture studio Chiles Evans + Care Architects painstakingly updated, restored and expanded an existing 1967 house to create this modern home, which bridges old and new, and offers a brand new garden room, from which the owners can enjoy the richly verdant garden outside. 

Seabreeze (East Sussex) by RX Architects

There are several elements that make Seabreeze in East Sussex, by RX Architects, stand out – perhaps its colour, a cheerful light pink, is the most instantly impactful one. The experimental home sits right on the coastline, overlooking sand and sea, and responding to its natural context's colours and shapes through minimalist architecture and large windows. 

Suffolk Cottage (Suffolk) by Haysom Ward Miller Architects

The architects' own home, Suffolk Cottage in Suffolk by Haysom Ward Miller Architects, is a masterful reimagining of a four-bedroom former labourer's cottage. The creators and clients, Liz and Tom Miller, mix old and new homes to weave together the necessary spaces needed for this warm, 21st-century family home. Unpretentious and elegant, this piece of residential architecture might just be the winner. 

Surbiton Springs (London) by Surman Weston

A slanted reference to the mock Tutor style ubiquitous to suburbs nationally, Ditton Hill House celebrates local architectural vernacular in a contemporary way. The steel, pure white exoskeleton (a nod to the local Surbiton train station, an art deco masterwork designed by James Robb Scott) sets this home apart from its neighbours, enhancing the suburban locale. The client, founder of a bohemian fashion brand, asked for a contemporary house with an industrial aesthetic that went further than the minimalist open-plan box typology. Surman Weston answered by introducing an increasingly warm material palette through the home. Timber floors underfoot and soft plaster walls act as counterpoints to the steel roof and floor decks that run throughout. The exposed decks add texture to the interior palette – a modern interpretation of exposed Tudor timber beams. Read more

The Cowshed (Dorset) by Crawshaw Architects LLP

Crawshaw Architects has given a new twist to traditional library architecture with this re-invented out-building in Dorset, UK. Adjoining a Grade II-listed Georgian farmhouse and water mill, the new library is housed within a transformed former cowshed and farm equipment store. Architect Aidan Crawshaw, the London-based studio’s founder, was commissioned to transform a substantial portion of this long brick building into a library and office space, with the intention of creating a home for a substantial collection of historic books on Palladian architecture. Crawshaw, working with his colleague Pandora Dourmisi, chose to preserve the proportions and form of the original farm building. The library is based around a long central arched nave flanked by a pair of aisles containing the book stacks, a modern interpretation of classical proportions. These not only reference the Palladian book collection but were constructed using carpentry and metal-working methods that hark back to the building’s days as part of a working farm. Read more

The Den (Scotland) by Technique Architecture and Design in collaboration with Stallan-Brand

At a mere 90 sq m, The Den by Technique Architecture and Design in collaboration with Stallan-Brand is possibly the smallest of all entries. The Scottish home by the Glasgow practice takes two small, damp flats and transforms them into a comfortable and functional one-bedroom home wrapped in a skin of well-insulated metal cladding. Inside, plywood joinery becomes a key protagonist. 

The Dutch Barn (West Sussex) by Sandy Rendel Architects Ltd

This elegant reimagining of a former working barn finds new freedoms within a simple industrial framework. The architect Sandy Rendel has garnered plenty of experience working within the planning constraints and social eccentricities that shape the modern English landscape, following up lengthy stints at the studios of both James Gorst and Tony Fretton with setting up his own office in 2010. In 2016, the studio’s South Street house in Lewes, perched on the edge of the South Downs, won a RIBA award and was shortlisted for the Manser Medal for best completed house in the UK. This new project sits amidst existing gardens in West Sussex, a well-loved and much-visited horticultural destination. The original structure was a derelict Dutch barn, a familiar rural form with open sides and a corrugated iron roof that no longer served a functional purpose on the site. Rendel and his team had to play a canny game with the planning authorities, invoking a clause that allowed the conversion of disused agricultural buildings into dwellings. ‘It was an exercise in trying to ensure the raw form and character of the original barn was maintained and not over domesticated,’ Rendel explains, with the key challenge being to preserve these qualities whilst also making a well-insulated, comfortable and spacious place in which to live. Read more

The Garden Studio (Norfolk) by Brisco Loran and James Alder Architect

A Victorian house in Norwich’s Golden Triangle got a modest, yet thorough refresh in this new scheme by Brisco Loran and James Alder Architect. Named The Garden Studio, the project comprises a single-storey roof extension and the replacement of a side garage. This fairly low-cost scheme breathed new life into the old structure, adding contemporary notes, plenty of light, connections to the rear garden, and minimalist architecture to this historical family home.

The Library House (London) by Macdonald Wright Architects

This aptly named project in London takes its name from its next-door structure – you guessed it, a library. The Library House by Macdonald Wright Architects is a modern two-bedroom home adjacent to the neighbouring Edwin Cooper’s Library. Light-toned brick, Corten steel screens, minimalist architecture notes, and passivhaus standards mix in this small but perfectly formed piece of residential architecture. 

The Parchment Works (Suffolk) by Will Gamble Architects

A grade II-listed double-fronted Victorian house in Suffolk received a 21st-century makeover in this imaginative restoration and redesign by Will Gamble Architects. The Parchment Works expertly combines old and new, while keeping the ruin and the bones of a cattle shed attached to the house. Inside, a minimalist, modern home transcends eras through a palette of muted colours and simple materials, such as wood and brick. Parts of the historical structure were left visible, helping to tell the story of this clever extension project. 

The Red House (Dorset) by David Kohn Architects

This eye-catching, new brick house in rural Dorset, feels at home in its verdant setting, while standing out with its creator's bold design approach. The Red House by David Kohn Architects features a collection of details that make for a creative and fun structure; such as bold colour accents, playful highlights in specific building elements, and a graphic approach in the brickwork. The home could be called eccentric, but it is also in fact a deeply utilitarian and pragmatic piece of residential architecture – and also bags of fun in the process. 

architecture.com

‘Long Life, Low Energy: Designing for a circular economy’, the latest exhibition to open at RIBA's London headquarters on Portland Place takes a much-discussed issue – namely sustainable architecture – and dissects it in a disarmingly clear and simple way. No mean feat, considering how complicated and multi-layered designing eco-consciously can be. But this show has it all – case studies, numbered sections and a straightforward, accessible breakdown of strategies and steps an architect can take in order to bring a piece of building design closer to that coveted net-zero result. 

‘Long Life, Low Energy’ at RIBA

Curated by Pete Collard, the show 'demonstrates how the principles of the circular economy can help create more sustainable, net-zero architecture for the future’, the RIBA website explains. And the exhibition’s sections do that quite effectively. 

There is a section on working with low-tech methods, embracing plant-based materials such as ultra-sustainable cork, sourcing elements through urban mining and making the most of being hyper-local. 

Circular design and reuse also take a prominent role – as examples of the scale of the Battersea Power Station and Park Hill show. But there are smaller, 'everyday' gems that do just that too, such as Alma-nac's House Within A House. 

Meanwhile, a stance against demolishing existing buildings and saving what can be saved and adapted bolsters ‘Long Life, Low Energy’s environmentally friendly thesis. 

The exhibition is relatively small in scale, but its premise and content feel rich and layered. 'RIBA’s Built for the Environment report shows that 40 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions are attributable to buildings and construction, consuming about 50 per cent of all raw materials worldwide in the process. 

‘In addition, over 50,000 buildings are demolished each year across the UK, many of which could have been repurposed. The circular economy offers ways to reduce these unsustainable figures, seeking to eliminate waste by reusing buildings and their material components wherever possible,' the RIBA writes of the show. 

architecture.com

One of architecture's highest accolades, the prestigious RIBA Stirling Prize, is an eagerly awaited moment in the industry's collective calendar; and the shortlisted buildings for the 2022 RIBA Stirling Prize have just been revealed, working up our anticipation for the big winner announcement later this year. 

From a net-zero redevelopment of a 1980s office block to education buildings, affordable housing, cultural and community spaces; and from London to Cambridge and Falkirk, Scotland, the awards this year explore issues around the current climate crisis, reuse and adaptation of existing buildings, as well as the value of community. Flexibility and the urban realm also appear strongly in the shortlist, which feels less about grand architectural gestures, and more about subtle, functional, everyday design for all. 

2022 RIBA Stirling Prize shortlist

• 100 Liverpool Street, London by Hopkins Architects
• Forth Valley College – Falkirk Campus, Scotland by Reiach and Hall Architects
• Hackney New Primary School and 333 Kingsland Road, London by Henley Halebrown
• Orchard Gardens, Elephant Park, London by Panter Hudspith Architects
• Sands End Arts and Community Centre, London by Mæ Architects
• The New Library, Magdalene College, Cambridge by Níall McLaughlin Architects

‘As we grapple with housing, energy and climate crises, these six projects give cause for optimism, each offering innovative solutions to the challenges of today and the future. From major capital-city regeneration programmes to new visions for higher education, they all share the ambition to deliver generous architecture fit for a low-carbon future,' says RIBA president Simon Allford. 'Four of our shortlisted schemes provide new spaces to interact and learn. These formal and informal settings – schools, colleges and community centres – epitomise how to design for sustained community benefit. They are joined by ambitious new housing developments on compact and complex sites that set a benchmark for investment in high-quality, desirable urban homes. All six buildings are informed by close consultation and collaboration with clients, contractors and the community. The result: outstanding and welcoming architecture that lifts the spirit of all who engage with it.' 

The winner of the 2022 RIBA Stirling Prize will be announced on Thursday 13 October 2022 at RIBA's London headquarters.

INFORMATION

architecture.com

Every year the RIBA celebrates the best new designs in the UK, and the RIBA House of the Year announcement is always close to our heart, putting the spotlight on the architectural typology we are all using the most – homes. Now, the time has come for the reveal of the 2022 RIBA House of the Year longlist. Featuring larger homes, such as Norfolk Barn by 31/44 Architects and Taylor Made Space, and Derwent Valley Villa by Blee Halligan, as well as more boutique propositions, such as The Cowshed by Crawshaw Architects LLP, the longlist signals that the process to crown the country’s finest residential design in the single-family house category for 2022 has now begun. 

There are plenty of stand-outs on this year’s list, which spans the whole country. There is the highly sustainable architecture of the Ostro Passivhaus by Paper Igloo in Scotland; the first new build of an emerging, female-led London studio with Leyton House by McMahon Architecture Ltd; and the creative reimagining of existing urban fabric, such as Surbiton Springs by 2020 Wallpaper* Architects Directory entrants Surman Weston. There are playful designs and minimalist compositions, family homes, and weekend retreats, ground-up new constructions and smart extensions.

2022 RIBA House of the Year longlist

Anticipation will now grow till the autumn, when the shortlist, and eventually, the winner will be announced. Dates and timings are still to be confirmed, but as in previous years, the gradual reveal will take place on UK television screens, as part of the seventh series of Channel 4’s Grand Designs: House of the Year.

INFORMATION
architecture.com

The 2022 RIBA National Awards have just been revealed, crowning 29 UK buildings as the year's finest selection of architectural projects. The winners include works that span different parts of the country, and tackle many scales and typologies; yet they are united by common threads of innovation, sustainability, and a focus on community-building. 

The list of winners – which is diverse in many ways but falls short when it comes to racial diversity and gender balance – spans projects such as the redesign of a traditional village pub in North Yorkshire (The Alice Hawthorn); a remodelled London landmark (BFI Riverfront); fabulous family homes (House at Lough Beg in Northern Ireland is a striking example); a net-zero-carbon office building in the City of London (100 Liverpool Street); a viewing tower in Suffolk (Sutton Hoo); and the UK’s first secondary school to achieve ‘Passivhaus’ eco status (Harris Academy Sutton). 

2022 RIBA National Award winners 

• 100 Liverpool Street by Hopkins Architects (London) 
• Aisher House, Sevenoaks School by Tim Ronalds Architects (South East) 
• BFI Riverfront by Carmody Groarke (London) 
• Creek House, Cornwall, by Seth Stein Architects Ltd (South West) 
• Forth Valley College – Falkirk Campus by Reiach and Hall Architects (Scotland)
• Guildford Crematorium by Haverstock (South East) 
• Hackney New Primary School and 333 Kingsland Road by Henley Halebrown (London) 
• Harris Academy, Sutton, by Architype (London) 
• Hawley Wharf by Allford Hall Monaghan Morris (London) 
• High Sunderland by Loader Monteith (Scotland) 
• House at Lough Beg by McGonigle McGrath (Northern Ireland) 
• Ibstock Place School Refectory by Maccreanor Lavington (London) 
• Kiln Place by Peter Barber Architects (London) 
• LB Southwark SILS3 by Tim Ronalds Architects (London) 
• Lovedon Fields by John Pardey Architects (South) 
• Magdalene College Library by Niall McLaughlin Architects (East) 
• Masters Field Development by Niall McLaughlin Architects (South) 
• Orchard Gardens, Elephant Park, by Panter Hudspith Architects (London) 
• Quarry Studios by Moxon Architects (Scotland) 
• Sands End Arts and Community Centre by Mæ Architects (London) 
• St John's Church, Hackney, by Thomas Ford & Partners (London) 
• Suffolk Cottage by Haysom Ward Miller Architects (East) 
• Surbiton Springs by Surman Weston (London) 
• Sutton Hoo by Nissen Richards Studio (East) 
• The Alice Hawthorn by De Matos Ryan (Yorkshire) 
• The Fratry by Feilden Fowles (North West) 
• The Mitchell Building at Skinners' School by Bell Phillips Architects (South East) 
• The Parchment Works by Will Gamble Architects (East Midlands) 
• Winsford Cottage Hospital by Benjamin+Beauchamp Architects (South West) 

RIBA president Simon Allford says: ‘At a time when we need to bring people together and plan for a sustainable future, this year’s RIBA National Award-winning buildings offer much hope. This is a powerful collection of buildings that show, despite the economic, political and social turmoil of the last few years, how great architecture can emerge even in challenging conditions. As we start to settle from the pandemic, I am particularly encouraged by the number and quality of new buildings designed to foster community. From local cultural hubs to reinvigorated accessible arts venues, these projects demonstrate the power of good architecture to lift spirits and enhance lives.

‘I’m very pleased to see new and innovative solutions to meet the ever-growing demand for high-quality, energy-efficient homes, showing what can be achieved by forward-thinking clients. It is particularly inspiring to see the UK’s first secondary school to achieve ‘Passivhaus’ eco-accreditation amongst our winners – a benchmark for investment in sustainable education buildings. I congratulate every client, architect and construction team for their achievements.'

INFORMATION

architecture.com

Kashef Chowdhury/Urbana’s Friendship Hospital in Bangladesh has scooped the prestigious RIBA International Prize 2021. The institute’s award casts its net wide, celebrating outstanding, international works that ‘demonstrate design excellence and social impact’. The winning project, led by NGO Friendship, does just that. Not only does it provide functional and considered architectural space for important health services to the local communities of Satkhira in southern Bangladesh, but it also employs sustainable architecture to do so. 

The award’s jury praised the design and its architects on the principles of care and humanity that sit at its very heart. Jury chair Odile Decq said: ‘Friendship Hospital embodies an architecture of humanity and protection that reflects the Friendship NGO’s philanthropic mission to provide dignity and hope to communities through social innovation. Kashef Chowdhury/Urbana has achieved a building designed with a human touch which is deftly integrated with its surroundings and celebrates local, and traditional crafted materials. The hospital is relevant to critical global challenges, such as unequal access to healthcare and the crushing impact of climate breakdown on vulnerable communities. It is a demonstration of how beautiful architecture can be achieved through good design when working with a relatively modest budget and with difficult contextual constraints. This hospital is a celebration of a building dedicated to humans.’

RIBA International Prize 2021 winner

The NGO, a long term client of Urbana, approached the principal, Kashef Chowdhury, in 2005 for a hospital design. ‘The budget was so limited when we began the project that Runa Khan, the founder and executive director of Friendship, said to me: “There is no money. You can't have fun,”’ Chowdhury recalls. Nonetheless, the result is poised, fit for its context and socially responsible. ‘[It is] a calming, quiet place which would aid in healing minds and bodies,’ the architect adds. 

The site is on former agricultural land, where rising sea levels meant that it had slowly moved away from its former use and had been converted into shrimp fisheries. It is this water element that becomes a central theme to the new design, represented by a canal that runs across the hospital campus. Apart from its striking visual appearance and the symbolic and physical connection it provides to the land and its history, the water also acts as a separator between the inpatient and outpatient units of the hospital, helping with volume arrangement and wayfinding. Meanwhile, a clever water collecting and controlling system means that fresh rainwater and seawater don't mix, while water is also used to naturally cool down the site.

Urbana had worked with Friendship to convert the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior II into a hospital boat in the past – so the typology was not new to the Bangladeshi architecture studio. Here, Chowdhury and the Urbana team responded with a sober, graceful design made using a limited palette of all-local materials: handmade bricks, mahogany and polished concrete terrazzo flooring. A series of buildings and courtyards are interspersed, providing ventilation and places for visitors to sit, rest and gather; there is a selection of spaces that are open and public, and others that are more private and secluded. Covered colonnades ensure shade and aid natural cooling.

‘It started life as a hospital, and grew to be a space for the resting of minds and the calming of souls,’ says Chowdhury. ‘[I was inspired by] the twin urgencies to build well for the care of humanity and to respond to the changing climatic conditions affecting the area, namely rising sea levels.’

The RIBA International Prize 2021 offers visibility and recognition to valuable, necessary work and showcases architecture at its best. As to what this award means for Urbana? ‘That a project from a remote fringe area should meet such interest at the centre of architectural discourse shows there is inspiration for all who seek to rise with urgency to the care for humanity and the care for our natural environment on a planetary scale,’ Chowdhury says. Practical, in tune with its environment and crucial to its community, the hospital is ‘built for longevity’, says the RIBA.

As part of the International Prize announcements – which see RIBA honour young talent in the field alongside new work by established architects – Iran’s Hooba Design Group was named as the RIBA International Emerging Architect 2021 for the studio’s Kohan Ceram central office building in Tehran.

INFORMATION

architecture.com

kashefchowdhury-urbana.com

Balkrishna Doshi has just been announced as the recipient of the prestigious 2022 Royal Gold Medal for Architecture. The coveted gong has been awarded to the established and widely acclaimed Indian architect through the RIBA and by personal approval by Her Majesty The Queen – it is the UK’s highest architectural honour, announced annually and celebrated around the world by the architecture and design field. Balkrishna Doshi, who also won the 2018 Pritzker Prize and was interviewed in his Ahmedabad home by Wallpaper* in 2009, is one of the world’s most respected architects in his field.

‘I am pleasantly surprised and deeply humbled to receive the Royal Gold Medal from the Queen,’ says Doshi. ‘What a great honour! The news of this award brought back memories of my time working with Le Corbusier in 1953, when he had just received the news of getting the Royal Gold Medal. I vividly recollect his excitement to receive this honour from Her Majesty. He said to me metaphorically, “I wonder how big and heavy this medal will be.”  Today, six decades later I feel truly overwhelmed to be bestowed with the same award as my guru, Le Corbusier – honouring my six decades of practice. I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to my wife, my daughters and most importantly my team and collaborators at Sangath, my studio.’

The Royal Gold Medal for Architecture is given to an architect or studio once a year, in recognition of lifetime achievement, and an overall body of work. Doshi has been prolific, with works that span decades and mix global and local traditions. Examples include Shreyas Comprehensive School Campus (1958 – 63), Ahmedabad, India; Atira Guest House (1958), Ahmedabad, low cost housing; the Institute of Indology (1962), Ahmedabad, a building to house rare documents; Ahmedabad School of Architecture (1966, with additions until 2012 and renamed CEPT University in 2002), which focused on creating spaces that promote collaborative learning; Tagore Hall & Memorial Theatre (1967), a 700-seat brutalist auditorium in Ahmedabad; Premabhai Hall (1976), Ahmedabad, India, a theatre and auditorium; Indian Institute of Management in Bangalore (1977 – 1992), a business school; Sangath (1981), the studio for his architecture practice, Vastu Shilpa. 

‘It was an honour and a pleasure to chair the committee in selecting Balkrishna Doshi as the 2022 Royal Gold Medallist. At 94 years old, he has influenced generations of architects through his delightfully purposeful architecture. Influenced by his time spent in the office of Le Corbusier, his work nevertheless is that of an original and independent thinker – able to undo, redo and evolve. In the 20th century, when technology facilitated many architects to build independently of local climate and tradition, Balkrishna remained closely connected with his hinterland: it’s climate, technologies new and old and crafts,’ said RIBA president Simon Allford. ‘Balkrishna Doshi’s outstanding contribution to the art of architecture, the craft of construction and the practice of urban design establish him as a most deserving recipient of this award and I greatly look forward to him being presented with the medal next year.’

INFORMATION

sangath.org

architecture.com

The Royal Institute of British Architects’ Inclusion Festival (the second of its kind, running 18 – 26 November 2021) is back this week with a special twist; get ready to tune into RIBA Radio, a new, live broadcast dedicated entirely to exploring issues around inclusion and diversity across the architecture field. Spearheaded and hosted by RIBA's director of inclusion and diversity Marsha Ramroop, the radio show will span seven days, with four hours of live broadcasts each day, promising compelling discussion and a wealth of useful information around one of the most important issues of our times. 

‘With 30 years of experience in broadcast journalism and expertise in inclusion and cultural intelligence (CQ), creating a radio station felt like a fantastic opportunity to provide far-reaching support and resources for members to help them fulfil their Inclusion Charter commitments and, indeed, encourage more to pledge their support,’ says Ramroop. ‘I am hopeful it will be a platform that will broaden the reach of these important conversations, allowing us to share not only the work we’re doing, but to hear how we and the profession can do more.'

RIBA Radio: debates, interviews and music

Ramroop will not hit the airwaves on her own. A wide selection of guests have been called to join the conversation. The idea is to create a valuable, accessible resource for all to listen to, learn from and be inspired by. Guests will include, among many others, author on diversity, inclusion, race, feminism and bias Dr Pragya Agarwal; science journalist Angela Saini; Baroness Doreen Lawrence; architect Sumita Singha OBE; architect Annette Fisher; and architect, activist and Archiboo Award winner Amy Francis-Smith. 

Launching on 18 November 2021 and including rich, informative segments on everything from race to disability, gender, menopause and the value of data and statistics, RIBA Radio aims to push the agenda on inclusion with its exciting new programme. The mix will include debates, pre-recorded interviews and music, all of which will live beyond 26 November, when the live broadcast ends.

‘The speech content of the radio station will be saved and made available for continuous access beyond the end of the live broadcast. It will also be repeated from 1pm – 5pm each day after the live broadcast,' says Ramroop. ‘We are looking into developing a podcast to ensure we can supplement and update the content that will be shared across the seven days.'

INFORMATION

RIBA Radio will be live 9am - 1pm daily 18 - 26 November 2021

architecture.com

Grafton Architects’ Town House at Kingston University London has been crowned the winner of the 2021 Stirling Prize. The coveted accolade, which was announced this evening at a dedicated event inside the Basil Spence-designed Coventry Cathedral, marks the 25th RIBA Stirling Prize cycle, and presents the Irish studio's Shelley McNamara and Yvonne Farrell with one of the most highly respected architecture awards.

The lush ceremony was part of Coventry’s UK City of Culture 2021 celebrations. The winners fought off stiff competition from a number of worthy structures, as seen in the 2021 RIBA Stirling Prize shortlist. The shortlist also included 15 Clerkenwell Close, London, by Groupwork + Amin Taha Architects; Cambridge Central Mosque by Marks Barfield Architects; Key Worker Housing, Eddington, Cambridge, by Stanton Williams; Tintagel Castle Footbridge by Ney & Partners; and William Matthews Associates; and Windermere Jetty Museum, Lake District, by Carmody Groarke.

2021 Stirling Prize winner: Town House at Kingston University London, Grafton Architects

‘What is architecture?’ asked Grafton Architects’ Yvonne Farrell, as she walked through the brightly lit halls of the studio’s newly completed building at Kingston University, giving us a tour when the building opened in early 2020. ‘It is a place for social interaction,’ she added a moment later. Community was a key factor in the design decisions of RIBA Gold Medal-winning Grafton Architects, which won the commission to create a structure to – rather unusually – combine a library and dance studios under a single roof. Welcome to Town House – the newest addition (named after an existing building on the site) to the world-class academic institution in London’s south-west. 

It was, in fact, this intriguing combination – the need for vibrant dance spaces next to discreet reading rooms – that attracted the Dublin-based architects, who were selected to design the project from a five-strong shortlist following a competition in 2013. ‘It was the juxtaposition of these two extremes that we found extraordinarily interesting,’ explains Farrell, who heads the practice together with Shelley McNamara. This, and the idea of creating a space for the local community – both students and permanent Kingston residents – were the two pillars that shaped Grafton’s vision for the design. 

Stepping inside, their intention becomes instantly apparent through the sheer openness of the building – both physical and symbolic. There are no barriers towards the street, so anybody can walk in and stroll around the library or get a coffee at the canteen. It was important for both architects and client that the building felt welcoming to all. ‘Generosity of scale and spirit form part of the university,’ says Farrell.

What the judges and Grafton Architects said

The judges praised the building's openness, collaborative approach, functionality and originality. ‘Kingston University Town House is a theatre for life – a warehouse of ideas. It seamlessly brings together student and town communities, creating a progressive new model for higher education, well deserving of international acclaim and attention,' says 2021 RIBA Stirling Prize jury chair Lord Norman Foster. ‘In this highly original work of architecture, quiet reading, loud performance, research and learning, can delightfully co-exist. That is no mean feat. Education must be our future – and this must be the future of education.'

‘We imagined a place where students would feel at home,’ say Farrell and McNamara. ‘This building is about people, interaction, light, possibilities. It is about connecting to the community, the passer-by, an invitation to cross the threshold; a three-dimensional framework with layers of silence and layers of sound. Space, volume and light are the organisers. The building’s edges are not boundaries but active gathering spaces, terraces, galleries. Being outside under the big sky is always just a few steps away. Kingston University gave us this educational vision which we translated into a spatial open matrix. We are absolutely delighted the Kingston Town House has won the prestigious Stirling Prize.’ 

INFORMATION

architecture.com

graftonarchitects.ie

The 2021 RIBA Stirling Prize shortlist is one of those points in the annual architecture calendar that the whole field awaits at the edge of their seat – and this moment has just arrived. The institute announced today its nominees for this year’s prestigious architecture gong – one of the industry’s highest honours – and what an exciting bunch this group of structures is. Standing out for their quiet determination, respectful approach and excellent design, the shortlist of six buildings features works by Carmody Groarke, Grafton Architects, Groupwork + Amin Taha Architects, Stanton Williams, Marks Barfield Architects and William Matthews Architects.

The projects address issues such as key worker housing, infrastructure and sustainability, promising some great debate around the future of architecture. ‘The 2021 RIBA Stirling Prize shortlist demonstrates the innovation and ambition that lies at the heart of exceptional architecture. As we navigate major global challenges, from a global pandemic to the climate emergency, this shortlist demonstrates the critical role that UK architects play in creating thoughtful and sustainable places and spaces,’ says RIBA president Simon Allford.

The rich list guarantees some stiff competition for the award, the winner of which will be announced on 14 October 2021 at Coventry Cathedral, as part of the UK City of Culture 2021 celebrations. For now, scroll down to meet the candidates and decide on your favourite – time to place your bets! 

The 2021 RIBA Stirling Prize shortlist

15 Clerkenwell Close, London, by Groupwork + Amin Taha Architects

This mixed-use development, a stone's throw from Clerkenwell Green in central London, caused quite a stir when it launched in 2017. The highly bespoke, crafted piece of architecture is made using limestone structural columns and beams – quite an unconventional approach. The structure is also visible on the front façade. ‘15 Clerkenwell Close is brave, ambitious, highly innovative and bespoke, where risks have been taken and have paid off, resulting in a truly imaginative, intriguing and astonishing work of architecture,’ says the jury.

Cambridge Central Mosque by Marks Barfield Architects

Having already scooped a RIBA Regional Award, Regional Project Architect of the Year, Regional Client of the Year and Regional Building of the Year, now this mosque is going for gold. The religious building is designed to house some 1,000 worshipers and its low, discreet volume doesn't dominate within its quiet, residential area. Stepping inside, though, the story is different as a magnificent composition of timber ‘tree’ structures is unveiled, which supports the roof and rooflights. ‘Social and environmental sustainability were central to the competition-winning scheme and have been delivered. The intent was to produce a building that is in accord with the spiritual belief that humanity’s role is as a responsible custodian of nature and should minimise its carbon footprint,’ the jury states.

Key Worker Housing, Eddington, Cambridge, by Stanton Williams

‘The urban approach of “loose” interconnected courtyards is very successful and creates a delightful series of spaces,’ begins the jury citation for this harmonious design. There is soft and hard landscaping and a range of building blocks of apartments creating not just housing – but a community. A friendly scale and tactile materials make this a warm and welcoming space. ‘Overall the sequence of buildings and spaces between them is a delightful example of how a rigorous approach to form, materials and details can create a harmonious environment and make a great place. Eddington is emerging as a fascinating example of place creation and urban planning and this Key Worker Housing scheme has helped to establish a high benchmark for forthcoming phases,’ the jury concludes.

Town House at Kingston University, London, by Grafton Architects

‘What is architecture?’ asks Grafton Architects’ Yvonne Farrell, as she walks through the brightly lit halls of the studio’s newly completed building at Kingston University. ‘It is a place for social interaction,’ she replies a moment later. Community was a key factor in the design decisions of RIBA Gold Medal-winning Grafton, who won the commission to create a structure to – rather unusually – combine a library and dance studios under a single roof. Welcome to Town House – the newest addition (named after an existing building on site) to the world-class academic institution in London’s southwest. Stepping inside the openness of the building is both physical and symbolic. There are no barriers towards the street, so anybody can walk in and stroll around the library or get a coffee at the canteen. It was important for both architects and client that the building felt welcoming to all. ‘Generosity of scale and spirit form the part of the university,’ says Farrell.

Tintagel Castle Footbridge by Ney & Partners and William Matthews Associates

Visitors to Tintagel Castle in Cornwall used to have to climb up and down 148 steep and narrow steps to get from one side of what remains of the castle to the other, frequently getting stuck in logjams in warmer months. Now the new Tintagel Castle Footbridge across the 58m gorge means people, and wheelchairs, can get across in seconds while enjoying dramatic views through rugged cliff promontories out to sea. ‘It isn’t one bridge, it is actually two half bridges,’ clarifies Laurent Ney, founder of Belgium-based structural engineering consultancy Ney & Partners that designed the bridge with London-based William Matthews Associates. The bridge is indeed made up of two independent 33m-long cantilevers that project out and almost meet in the middle (spoiler alert: two pins actually connect the two halves but are almost invisible, and there is a very real gap of around 4cm that expands and retracts with the cold and heat). Additional writing: Giovanna Dunmall

Windermere Jetty Museum, Lake District, by Carmody Groarke

If mention of the Lake District conjures up images of grand waterfront villas, Great British summer holidays, and lush, greenery against a backdrop of snowy peaks – that would be correct. Yet that’s not all this scenic part of the UK has to offer. ‘Windermere has this incredible tradition of the sublime and the picturesque, paintings and poetry,’ says architect Andy Groarke, one half of London-based firm Carmody Groarke. He continues talking about Cumbria’s strong industrial heritage – where quarries and shipbuilding featured heavily; an aspect of this idyllic part of the world that remains lesser known. But that’s about to change. Enter, the Windermere Jetty. The museum, entirely dedicated to lake boats, sits on the grounds of an older structure and institution – the Windermere Steamboat Museum, which started off as a private collection. Fast-forward about 30 years and the Steamboat Museum had to close due to lack of funds – the existing structures were in dire need of maintenance, parts becoming unsafe for the public. Lakeland Arts took over the museum a year later and led the launch of an international competition for a new home for the 40-boat-strong collection, so that it can open to the public once again.

INFORMATION

architecture.com

The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has just announced its winners for the 2021 RIBA International Awards for Excellence, and it is a rich and diverse list. From cultural destinations to infrastructure, healthcare designs and private homes, the winning list celebrates great building design in all its forms. 

The awards are of the world’s key architectural recognitions, and the 16 winners were rigorously judged by a panel who visited every single building. This year, the winning designs are spread across 11 countries. 

Winners of the RIBA International Awards for Excellence 2021 include: 

• Expansion of the University Hospital of the Santa Fe de Bogotá Foundation, Colombia, by El Equipo Mazzanti/Giancarlo Mazzanti
• Artist’s Retreat at Pittugala, Sri Lanka, by Palinda Kannangara Architects
• Lianzhou Museum of Photography, China, by O-office Architects/Jianxiang He & Ying Jiang
• Alila Yangshuo hotel, China, by Vector Architects
• Amorepacific Headquarters, South Korea, by David Chipperfield Architects Berlin
• Friendship Hospital Satkhira, Bangladesh, by Kashef Chowdhury/Urbana
• James Simon Galerie, Germany, by David Chipperfield Architects Berlin
• Kohan Ceram Central Office Building, Iran, by Hooba Design Group
• Renovation of The Captain’s House, China, by Vector Architects
• The National Memorial For Peace And Justice, USA, by Mass Design Group
• The Polygon Gallery, Canada, by Patkau Architects

‘The 2021 RIBA International Awards for Excellence are presented to an ambitious and diverse range of projects from a wide range of established and upcoming architects’ practices. It is particularly important to be considering excellence in architecture at this time – in this fast-changing world, where governments, clients and society need the skills and insight of architects,' says RIBA president Alan Jones.

‘Our global awards show how well-considered, well-delivered and well-performing architecture has the immense potential to improve lives and communities. We are very pleased to be able to celebrate some of the most innovative, ingenious and impactful architecture in the world – designed by some of the most talented architects of our time.’

‘The RIBA International Awards for Excellence take place every two years and aim to ‘recognise the most significant and inspirational projects around the world’. The awards are judged by a panel of eminent personalities in the field, this year including Lu Wenyu of Amateur Architecture Studio, and Dorte Mandrup of Dorte Mandrup. The culmination of each cycle is the announcement of the coveted RIBA International Prize 2021, which will take place in November 2021.

INFORMATION

architecture.com

The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has unveiled a new platform on Google Arts and Culture. The platform launches with 15 online stories free to view, from the creation of New York’s Central Park to a deep-dive into the aesthetically-pleasing Picturesque movement.

Stories take a wider look at cultural shifts, dissecting the impact of popular culture and inviting contributions from architects. The just-launched Civic Architecture in Modern Ghana topic takes six civic buildings from the Republic of Ghana as a focus, tracing their development from the time of late imperialism through to the present day through the works of Jane Drew, Maxwell Fry, Lindsey Drake and Sir Denis Lasdun. Sir David Adjaye’s designs for a new Cathedral for Accra are also included in a timely nod to Adjaye, who is the 2021 recipient of RIBA’s Royal Gold Medal. Footage from an interview between him and Lesley Lokko, who is starting an architecture school in Ghana, is included in the channel.

The rich diversity of content includes some never-before-exhibited objects, including landscape designer Sir Humphrey Repton’s drawings and business card, private photographs from architects, portraits, parks and garden designs. Other highlights include original drawings by Ernö Goldfinger, Étienne-Louis Boullée and Toyo Ito. The work of Walter Gropius, Pier Luigi Nervi, Kenzo Tange and Diller Scofidio & Renfro are just some of the featured projects from RIBA’s collection which are looked at in closer detail on the channel.

‘This new partnership with Google Arts & Culture creates a great opportunity to inspire and delight a global audience and to showcase our unique treasures. We look forward to curating more online experiences and exhibitions, to illustrate the impact and importance of design and architecture, throughout the ages and around the world,’ says RIBA CEO Alan Vallance. Adds Amit Sood, director of Google Arts & Culture: ‘RIBA has one of the world’s leading architecture collections and inspires and supports global architectural talent as we look to designing the future.’

INFORMATION

artsandculture.google.com

The RIBA has presented Sir David Adjaye OBE with the Royal Gold Medal for architecture. The Ghanaian-British architect was announced to be the coveted accolade's recipient for 2021 this past September. Adjaye set up his studio in 2000 and has since produced an exceptional body of work. He has been influenced, he says, by ‘contemporary art, music and science to African art forms and the civic life of cities'. 

The honour's ceremony was broadcasted in a digital event across the globe, reaching from London to Accra (where the architect is currently located), the US and India. The beautifully presented event took place yesterday evening and included messages and congratulations from leading figures in the industry and beyond, from Theaster Gates (who was recently announced to design the 2022 Serpentine Pavilion) to Balkrishna Doshi and President Barack Obama. Meanwhile a discussion between Adjaye and Adjaye Associates associate principal  Lucy Tilley tracked the architect's journey so far and touched upon several of his current, prestigious works, such as the National Cathedral of Ghana. 

Widely acknowledged as one of the world’s highest honours for architecture, the Royal Gold Medal is approved personally by Her Majesty The Queen. Its recipient is a person or group of people ‘who have had a significant influence either directly or indirectly on the advancement of architecture,' explains the RIBA. Adjaye has certainly done so, through critically acclaimed work that bridges history, community, debates about cities and urbanity and the arts, with a contemporary aesthetic – from the 2004/2005 Idea Stores in London, two community libraries, to the more recent Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, DC (2016).

‘It’s incredibly humbling and a great honour to have my peers recognise the work I have developed with my team and its contribution to the field over the past 25 years,' said the architect at the award's announcement. ‘Architecture, for me, has always been about the creation of beauty to edify all peoples around the world equally and to contribute to the evolution of the craft. The social impact of this discipline has been and will continue to be the guiding force in the experimentation that informs my practice. A heartfelt and sincere moment of gratitude and thanks to all the people who supported the journey to get to this moment.'

The multi-award winner, who counts among his gongs the Best New Public Building at the 2020 Wallpaper* Design Awards for Ruby City in San Antonio, was knighted in the 2017 New Year Honours for services to architecture (following an OBE in 2007), and is continually going from strength to strength. Current work at his Accra, London and New York studios includes 130 William, a high-rise residential tower in New York’s financial district;  the Princeton University Art Museum in Princeton, New Jersey in collaboration with Cooper Robertson; The Abrahamic Family House, an interfaith complex in Abu Dhabi; the UK Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre, London led by Adjaye Associates, with Ron Arad Architects as Memorial Architect, and Gustafson Porter + Bowman as Landscape Architect; and the National Cathedral of Ghana in Accra. 

‘Through his work as an architect Sir David Adjaye speaks confidently across cultures, disciplines, politics and continents. His body of work is global and local, finely attuned as it reflects and responds to context and community, climate and culture,' said the 2021 RIBA Honours Committee. 

INFORMATION

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Set within a countryside estate, surrounded by water and mature trees, Green House was designed by Devon based David Sheppard Architects. Located in the small town of Tiverton, in the country's south west, this is a house created sensitively around its context and quietly in peace with its surrounds – and it is the final project to be added to the RIBA House of the Year shortlist for 2019. 

Appearing at first as a triangular wedge in the landscape, but then perceived as more rectilinear from other angles, the building had to negotiate a steep slope, to which it owes its quirky outline. The architects cleverly navigated this challenge by freeing the volume's form from traditional shapes and helping it blend into its environment with larch cladding, minimalist dark window frames and a green roof. The timber exterior has been sourced from the estate, making this construction process a very local affair.

Inside, a piano nobile at the heart of the volume – the middle level – features full height glazing with dramatic, long views over the site. Bespoke deep window seating is placed at branch level, looking down onto the ponds. Up a staircase, a similar library seat makes for the perfect reading nook, and the bedrooms have been strategically arranged with privacy in mind.

Design specialists Pringle & Pringle worked on the interiors, using materials such as fine plaster and ply veneer to sculpt the space.

‘This is a crafted building created by an intuitive mind,' said the RIBA House of the Year jury of Green House. ‘It appears on the landscape as an organism that has moulded itself to its environment. It rests upon the topography to dramatic effect. This is a wholly original house.' 

However, in the end, was the house's overall dynamic form that really intrigued the jury: ‘The external experience of the house changes as you move around it, there being no attributable front or back.' 

INFORMATION

davidsheppard-architects.com

Nestled in the rolling hills of the South Downs National Park in Sussex, Nithurst Farm appears almost as something out of a fairy tale. It's not just the - undeniably - dreamy natural scenery that inspires such feelings. The new-build house, designed by architect Adam Richards as his family home, is far removed from your usual country cottage - feeling unusual, yet oddly familiar, invoking images of castle turrets and romanesque cathedrals.

Its inception was fittingly romantic and bursting with heady cultural references. ‘There is an 18th century tower nearby, built as an architectural folly, which can be seen from the top windows of the house, so we make reference to this', says Richards. ‘In terms of context, the woods around represent the world of chaos, while my house’s south elevation presents an image of order’. Further references, he explains, range from the formal architecture of Blenheim Palace architect Sir John Vanbrugh, to Paul Nash's ‘Mansions of the Dead' (the house's south facade hints strongly to the formal arrangements in the painting) and the Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky. 

Created in structural concrete with a thick brick skin and a black zinc roof, the structure is a stepped volume with distinct arched windows that add drama and a sense of motion to the design. This outline also echoes the hills around the building, making it fit just right into its soft, leafy surrounds.

Inside, an unexpectedly modest side door (which in fact is the main entrance into the house) opens up to lofty ceilings that create a cathedral-like feel in the main living areas. ‘I like the idea of this compression and then release into the open plan space', says Richards. 

‘Part of the thinking behind this house is built around the idea of a journey in Tarkovsky's film Stalker,' he continues, ‘which is about the journey the characters take to enter a forbidden zone. And somewhere there is this special room, where all their wishes might come true. Just before it is an antechamber with tall concrete walls, and our main space is based on that antechamber. The film’s special room is about coming into harmony with the world - and in a way, building your own house is a version of that, so I thought why not make that the key thing?’

This comprises a flowing, mostly open plan ground level that unites a family room, kitchen, two separate dining areas, a study and a children’s playroom tucked away on one side. Everywhere around are raw concrete walls, softened by a timber floor and warm furnishings. A certain sleekness is cleverly maintained by hiding auxiliary spaces, like the pantry, behind sliding doors. Richards explains: ‘The antechamber is also a bit like a church and at one end you'd have the access to heaven. So here we have the Bouroullec Clouds, which represent that in the space. The modular elements' arrangement here are in turn based on the sky in a Tiepolo painting.’

The bedrooms (including a generous master suite with his-and-hers bedrooms and bathrooms, two children’s rooms and three guest suites) are stacked in the tall end of the house, over a more formal living room. The latter is richly decorated with artwork and curiosities collected by the family. Large openings look out towards the gardens and woods beyond, effortlessly bringing the outside in and framing picture-perfect vistas. A few quirkily angled staircases up and you reach the bedrooms - the master is at the very top, enjoying a stunning view of the fields and treetops. 

Even though the family had only recently moved into the house when this visit took place, it feels pleasantly lived in, full of life and the stuff that fills it. And the work is not quite fully done yet. There are plans to convert a couple of outbuildings in the property into a studio and event space, to work, entertain guests in and potentially use for exhibitions or artists' residences. There is a new chapter to this fairy tale coming soon.

INFORMATION

adamrichards.co.uk

The finely crafted Pocket House in south London designed by Tikari Works has been shortlisted for the RIBA House of the Year 2019 award. On the site of a former car garage, the architects created a spacious two-bedroom house spread over three floors complete with courtyard and front garden. Wallpaper* selected Tikari Works for the Architects’ Directory 2019, our annual directory of emerging practices to watch.

To solve the problem of the restricted site, the London-based studio founded by husband-and-wife team, Nicola and Ty Tikari, switched the usual domestic plan upside-down – the bedrooms are at basement level and kitchen and dining are located on the ground floor level, where you enter the house.

The beauty of the house is that the lower space doesn't feel subterranean at all. The clever floor plan, generous lightwell, minimal walls and recessed doors forge an open-plan arrangement that breathes in air, light and even views.

The RIBA judges noted the concise material palette used across the project. While exposed, the brick, timber and concrete are finished precisely, celebrating the natural textures and surfaces of the materials. The refined detailing and high quality joinery contribute to the calm atmosphere that descends over the house. On the exterior, a unique timber screen balances daylight and privacy, while sculpturally setting this house apart from its brick neighbour

Another element of the project that impressed the judges was how the architects designed and developed the house, acting as the main contractor as well as the architects. This resulted in value for money, as well as the high degree of control over the quality that shines through on a visit to the Pocket House.

‘Every aspect of family life has been carefully considered and accommodated with warm and welcoming interiors,’ say the judges. Read more about the architects and the Pocket House here.

INFORMATION
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The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has revealed the grand jury for the 2020 RIBA International Prize. Led by Odile Decq, the selection includes Es Devlin as lay juror, Jeanne Gang, Rossana Hu and Gustavo Utrabo.

This year the jurors show a great breadth of skills within the architecture profession and a diverse spread of international experience. French architect and urban planner, Decq, is currently working on a residential project in Barcelona. Practicing in the US is Gang, founding partner of Studio Gang, headquartered in Chicago. From Shanghai, is Rossana Hu, founding partner of Shanghai based Neri&Hu. While London based Es Devlin OBE, artist and stage designer, will bring her international, creative lens to the selection process.

Representing the previous edition of the RIBA International Prize is architect Gustavo Utrabo, principal at Estúdio Gustavo Utrabo. Utrabo was the winner of the 2018 RIBA International Prize and Emerging Architect Prize for Children Village by Aleph Zero. Wallpaper* interviewed Aleph Zero’s Utrabo and Petro Duschene in 2018 after the prize was awarded. What made their project special was its strong social purpose and the collaborative nature of the design process.

‘The RIBA International Prize is a beautiful initiative that aims to recognise great architecture on a global scale by way of an insightful process. I’m looking forward to being part of it and discovering meaningful approaches to space, society and the environment that contribute to our collective future,’ says Utrabo.

As well as celebrating architecture that shows design innovation, sustainable technologies and meaningful social impact, the biennial RIBA International Awards also takes the opportunity to celebrate future talent with the RIBA International Emerging Architect Prize, that recognizes individuals practicing for up to 10 years. Then there’s also the RIBA International Awards for Excellence that awards 20 outstanding, boundary-stretching buildings.

In next year, the jury will visit the four shortlisted projects (as yet to be announced) in person to experience the construction, atmosphere and impact of the buildings: ‘The RIBA International Prize has an incredibly important focus – to discover the best architecture for a better life – and I look forward to travelling the world to find a worthy winner,’ says Decq.

This prize is a chance for RIBA to look beyond the UK. It’s open to any qualified architect for buildings, of any size and budget, anywhere in the world (apart from the UK). Entries to the prize close 31 October 2019, and the winner will be announced November 2020.

INFORMATION

architecture.com

Few awards have us on the edge of our seat like the RIBA Stirling Prize. The annual gong, given out by the renowned British institute, is one of the highest honours in architecture and this year's winner has just been announced; the Goldsmith Street council estate in Norwich, designed by Mikhail Riches with Cathy Hawley, scooped the prize. 

The worthy winner, revealed at a celebratory dinner and ceremony tonight in London, was praised by the judges for its modesty and architectural brilliance that combines sustainability in both environmentally and social sense. The complex meets rigorous ‘Passivhaus’ environmental standards, and comprises some 100 ultra low-energy homes for Norwich City Council, arranged in rows of two-storey house, bookended by three-storey flats.

The project won against some pretty tough competition from no less than five other, notable schemes: London Bridge Station by Grimshaw; The Weston at Yorkshire Sculpture Park by Feilden Fowles; Nevill Holt Opera by Witherford Watson Mann Architects; Cork House by Matthew Barnett Howland with Dido Milne and Oliver Wilton; and The Macallan Distillery and Visitor Experience: Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners.

‘Goldsmith Street is a modest masterpiece,' say the judges, a panel chaired by Julia Barfield. ‘It is high-quality architecture in its purest most environmentally and socially-conscious form. Behind restrained creamy façades are impeccably-detailed, highly sustainable homes – an incredible achievement for a development of this scale. This is proper social housing, over ten years in the making, delivered by an ambitious and thoughtful council. These desirable, spacious, low-energy properties should be the norm for all council housing.' 

INFORMATION
architecture.com

In a year rich in Bauhaus inspired offerings, as institutions across the globe celebrate 100 years from the foundation of the famous German school, it might be hard to catch the public's attention. Yet the latest show at London's RIBA headquarters, ‘Beyond Bauhaus: Modernism In Britain 1933-66', succeeds in stealing the spotlight with a show that explores what Bauhaus' principles meant for Britain. 

Featuring rare treats and information on lesser-known projects of the era, such as drawings produced during a short-lived partnership between Walter Gropius and Maxwell Fry, the exhibition focuses on the British legacy of three Bauhaus émigrés – Walter Gropius, Marcel Breuer and Maszlo Moholy-Nagy. Using the few years (1934-37), when all three were in Britain, as a springboard, ‘Beyond Bauhaus' delves into drawings, photography, film and illustration to uncover how the movement inspired and influenced, and eventually changed British architecture.

‘It is a survey of what was happening in British architecture at the time’, explains RIBA curator of exhibitions Pete Collard. It is about these modernist ideas that travelled from Europe ‘and how they gestate and developed here.’ 

Chilean architecture firm Pezo von Ellrichshausen's ingenious exhibition design is crucial to that. Taking what effectively is a show of archival material – mostly two-dimensional prints of photography and drawings – and giving it a third dimension is one mean feat, but the studio's clever set up of coloured pillars and cut out peep-holes does the trick, attracting the eye and helping you move through the show.

 

In terms of content, the exhibition is divided – quite discreetly – into three parts. The first section ‘doesn’t contain built projects', says Collard. ‘It is more about the excitement about this new movement,’ and takes the visitor through theoretical schemes and visionary but unbuilt work, following the teachings and networks of those three Bauhaus tutors. 

In the second part of the exhibition however, this changes. 'Chapter two is all about the house,’ explains RIBA curator of photographs Valeria Carullo. The journey here guides us through buildings in the domestic scale, but also looks at interiors and furniture. Maxwell Fry's Sun House and Connell, Ward and Lucas' High and Over House are among the offerings.

Finally, chapter three expands and zooms out to look at the larger scale, including projects such as multi-family housing, healthcare and education, focusing on the point when pioneering modernist ideas went beyond private houses and involved the public sector and more sociologically-minded work. ‘This section is much about the legacy of those ideas and opportunities that hadn’t had the chance to be put into action as yet,’ says Collard.

A four-month programme of events has been curated to accompany the show, spanning film screenings, talks and workshops.

INFORMATION

‘Beyond Bauhaus’ is on view at the Architecture Gallery, RIBA, until 1 February 2020

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Launching with the announcement of its Grand Jury Chair, the new cycle of the RIBA International Awards has just commenced. French architect Odile Decq has been revealed as the head of the different judging panels that will select the acclaimed group of honours for 2020. 

The RIBA International Awards for Excellence (20 stand-out buildings from around the world) comprises the RIBA International Prize (the single best of them all) and the RIBA International Emerging Architect Prize (a recognition for the shortlist's young guns). Presented every two years, and now on their third edition, the British institute's awards have been gathering pace. Past winners include celebrated, worthy works, such as the Children Village school complex in Brazil by Aleph Zero and Rosenbaum, and UTEC (Universidad de Ingeniería y Tecnología) in Lima, Peru by Grafton Architects. 

Seeking to reward excellence in architecture, in particular highlighting work with a social and community value that stretch the boundaries of contemporary architecture and what can be achieved through building design, the International Awards stand out in the global architectural prize calendar. Spanning established practices and young pioneers from all corners of the earth, the aim is ‘to discover the best architecture for a better life', says Decq.

And while the RIBA is a British based institution, these awards are open to any qualified architect in the world for a building outside of the UK, of any size and type of budget, the organisers hasten to clarify. Let the submissions begin.

INFORMATION

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The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has announced its 54-strong list of the best buildings of the year – the 2019 National Award winners. The awards, which have been presented since 1966, recognise the UK's best new constructions and provide an insight into trends across the industry. ‘Our 2019 RIBA National Award-winning buildings are innovators and mould-breakers,’ said Ben Derbyshire, RIBA president of the winners.

We noted plenty of ambitious cultural destinations on the list, which have allowed institutions to evolve and expand with well thought out and beautifully-designed solutions. These include a visitor centre for the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, The Weston, designed by Feilden Fowles and an extension for Kettle’s Yard in Cambridge by Jamie Fobert Architects. There are also award-winners that have elevated and enlivened whole areas in their wake – V&A Dundee by Kengo Kuma, the Television Centre refurbishment by Allford Hall Monaghan Morris and Coal Drops Yard by Heatherwick Studio, for example.

RIBA highlighted trends such as ‘the restoration and regeneration of listed and historic buildings’ seen across the winning buildings. Within this trend, exemplary projects include the restoration of Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s Art Deco tea rooms in Glasgow, the refurbishment of the listed 1960s brutalist Preston Bus Station and a revamp of the residential Great Arthur House by John Robertson Architects. These projects each show how British cultural and architectural history can be preserved, modernised and celebrated through new design.

‘Despite the political and economic challenges of recent years, our 2019 RIBA National Award winners show that UK architecture is highly adaptable, immensely talented and as community-focused as ever. I am particularly heartened that more than one third (20 of 54) of our winners have creatively adapted existing buildings. Given the scale of the global environmental challenge, we must encourage sustainable development and investment in buildings of the highest quality – projects that will inspire and meet the needs of generations to come,’ said Derbyshire.

Out of the 54 buildings selected, we saw some of our favourites cropping up – 6a's South London Gallery Fire Station, the Secular Retreat in Devon by Mole Architects with Atelier Peter Zumthor, and the Macallan Distillery in Scotland by Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners have all been featured in over the past year.

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An elegant modesty characterises John Pardey’s houses. They are subtle, sophisticated buildings, grounded and integrated into the landscape, inspired by the natural aesthetic of 1960s Scandinavian design. Pardey has always made his own way and now, after patient years building up his own practice, his work is becoming increasingly sought after. A series of houses on the south coast of England and in the New Forest, which are undoubtedly among Pardey’s best, take his reputation for soft, considered modernism to a wider audience.

‘It has been a long haul,’ said Pardey. ‘But that’s part of the pleasure now. By the time the work starts coming in, then you really know what you are doing. I’ve never liked the idea of doing what other people are doing. I have to do my own thing. Most architects over-design houses and make them too involved with contemporary fashion. I don’t want to do that. My ultimate goal is to design a timeless building. That’s my Holy Grail.’

The Watson house in the New Forest, not far from Pardey’s own home and offices, achieves just that ambition. Discreetly set back among woodland, within a rural enclave inhabited by many period and pastiche homes, the house is low-slung, long and slender and takes the form of a crisp, single-storey pavilion clad in sweet chestnut, sitting within the forest landscape. Like all of Pardey’s houses, it both respects its context and surroundings and responds to them.

‘The clients told me that they wanted to live close to nature,’ Pardey says. ‘That sticks in my mind and that was their brief. They wanted one big, open space to live in, privacy for their own quarters, and then another wing for their two teenage children and guests. We came up with the idea of sitting the house almost on the ground, just floating above nature, so that it didn’t interrupt it.’

With bedrooms positioned at opposite ends of the house, the core of the home is devoted to the open-plan dining room, kitchen and sitting room, with a wall of slender ‘Kolumba’ bricks that also forms a fireplace, creating a natural focal point. (The bricks were developed by the Danish firm Petersen in cooperation with Peter Zumthor for the Swiss architect’s Kolumba museum in Köln.) With banks of glass to either side, this key space is enveloped by views of the woodland, and has a sense of warmth and homeliness created by the use of earthy materials.

‘The fireplace anchors the house,’ says Pardey. ‘All of our houses have fireplaces and without one I think there’s a kind of sterility. It’s that Frank Lloyd Wright idea of the hearth as the home, which Richard Neutra also did so well. It’s a wonderful domestic gesture.’

It’s the quiet reverence for countryside and context, the splicing of natural materials with up-to-the-minute technology, and the subtle and common sense green agenda woven into his designs that make Pardey’s houses so seductive. They are warm and comfortable, yet also tailored, practical and hard-working. They are designed, in other words, with real people in mind rather than as grand gestures or ostentatious styling.

‘The house has exceeded our expectations,’ said Pardey’s New Forest client Charles Wilson. ‘There were things that we could never quite envisage – like the fireplace – until we saw them. The practice has created something very special and unique for us and the lightness of the house on the landscape is critical. Seeing the house lit up at night is a fantastic way to appreciate the proportions of the building and the way it just seems to float.’

Pardey’s approach echoes that of Australian architect Glenn Murcutt, with his houses holding to that famous Murcutt maxim of ‘touching the earth lightly’. More than this, Pardey has long admired Murcutt’s working method of keeping his practice small and rooted, while spreading his influence – through the quality and originality of the work itself – nationally and internationally.

‘When I first came out of college I won a competition and spent the money on a trip to Australia,’ Pardey says. ‘Murcutt had only one house published then, but I thought this is what it’s all about. So I wrote to him and then phoned him when I got to Australia and he asked me to come around for lunch. I spent the day with him and it was like being with an evangelical preacher – he was so passionate about his work.

‘The kind of grounded working model that Murcutt follows has always been in my head. I’ve always wanted to practise from somewhere beautiful, like the New Forest, but work on a national level, anywhere and everywhere I can.’

The New Forest was also where Pardey grew up, with his father Eric, who was another huge influence. A carpenter and joiner, Eric Pardey worked on building high-speed torpedo boats, made with plywood hulls, during the war. He then became a joiner and craftsman, able to turn his hand to almost anything from a cabinet to a roof. Pardey would spend most Saturdays on site with his father and assumed for a long time that he would follow his father’s path into joinery.

But the legendary De Stijl architect Robert van’t Hoff changed his mind. The architect of the Villa Henny – one of the earliest houses built completely out of reinforced concrete – moved to the UK in the 1920s and happened to be Pardey’s neighbour in New Milton, and a good friend of his father’s. ‘Robert kept giving me books about architecture,’ says Pardey, who wrote a dissertation on van’t Hoff while studying architecture at the Polytechnic of Central London. ‘He got me into it and that’s what started me off.’

After college, Pardey turned down a job with James Stirling, suspicious of the whole idea of big brand architects. He joined PRP Architects instead, but within four years had left to start his own firm in 1988, based in London at first, but then moving back to the New Forest, having taken on teaching work in Portsmouth to help fund building up the practice.

‘I did whatever it took and it was tough,’ says Pardey. ‘There was never a plan B and I have never had a big, grand idea about being an architect, partly because of my background. I am just another worker.’

Another mentor was Danish master Jørn Utzon, architect of the Sydney Opera House, with whom Pardey had a long friendship before his death in 2008. Pardey wrote a book on Utzon’s two houses in Majorca, Can Lis and Can Feliz, spending a good deal of time with Utzon.

‘I was convinced he was a genius, but he was also very down to earth, very funny. He cared about his family more than anything,’ says Pardey. ‘And for me, if I could have been an architect at any time, any place, then it would have been in Denmark in the 1960s. That was the high point and I love that kind of work. It’s very human and uses lots of natural materials, but it’s also very modern.’

Pardey’s newly completed Pooley House, on Hayling Island near Portsmouth, was directly influenced by Utzon’s Can Lis. Like Can Lis, the Pooley House, which was designed for two devoted windsurfers, faces the sea and the view is everything. Also, like Can Lis, the design of the house would succeed or fail on how the architecture responded to the seascape. ‘When you are in the living room of Can Lis, you feel as though you are being shot out of the windows towards the horizon, but at the same time everything on the horizon seems to be drawn into the room,’ says Pardey. ‘You are both pushed and pulled, and it’s the same thing with the house on Hayling Island.’

Among the challenges Pardey faced in designing the two-storey Pooley House was dealing with such a narrow site slotted between neighbouring houses, and facing up to the need to protect the house from tidal surge and flood risk. Pardey raised the house on a brick plinth, locating the bedrooms on the lower level. The house then opens up dramatically on the upper level, with the open-plan living room projecting outwards to the sea in the form of a crafted box timber-lined with red cedar inside and out. As with the Watson House, there is an emphasis on craftsmanship, finishing and detailing, but without the expensive gadgets.

‘The clients wanted it to feel like a beach house and I had been hankering to do a timber-lined room for ages,’ Pardey says. ‘It is very Scandinavian and very warm, which I like. The living room is a sleeved tube – like a camera obscura – pushing out into the harbour.’

Looking at Pardey’s two new houses, it’s little wonder the practice has become best known for these careful, character buildings, tied to a geographical place, although the firm’s portfolio includes many larger scale residential and commercial projects as well.

‘The houses are maybe half of what we do, but the lessons you learn from designing houses are the key ones, Pardey says. ‘You can learn everything about a city plan from a house. It applies to everything. It’s the hardest thing to do for an architect, even though people might think that it’s the easiest.’

New commissions include houses in Wales and Norfolk, as well as the Home Counties and the south coast. Pardey is enjoying spreading his wings, with a project in Florida also on the cards. Unlike Murcutt, he has no hesitation in taking his work abroad, but you can always expect a certain integrity, a certain modesty to Pardey’s buildings. No matter where he is working, one feels he will carry on doing his own thing.

‘It’s all about scale,’ says Pardey. ‘I’d love to do an office building and an art gallery, but I don’t want to do enormous, blanket corporate projects. There’s an instinctive side to it. If you think too much, then you end up copying other people or being trapped inside some kind of fashion statement. I do put a great deal of thought into the projects I undertake, of course, but it’s like painting. If you think all the time, then you can’t paint. You just have to get on and do it.’

As originally featured in the January 2011 issue of Wallpaper* (W*142)

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the John Pardey Architects website

Young Brazilian practice Aleph Zero has been awarded the 2018 RIBA International Prize for its school project, Children Village, in Northern Brazil.

The gong, which is awarded to the best building every two years, had a strong list of contenders, including a university building in Budapest by O'Donnell + Tuomey, a Tokyo music school by Nikken Sekkei, and the Vertical Forest tower in Milan by Boeri Studio. Yet the Brazilian school, designed by Aleph Zero in collaboration with Rosenbaum for the Bradesco Foundation, won the jury over for its thoughtful design that will improve the lives and wellbeing of its students.

We met with Aleph Zero's Gustavo Utrabo and Petro Duschene to discuss their winning project Children Village. 

W*: Congratulations. When you heard you won, what was your first reaction? 
AZ: We were amazed. As a fairly young practice, we thought that the RIBA International Prize was out of our reach and assumed that it was only given to world-renowned architects. We deeply wanted to win, but when it happened we couldn’t quite believe it – it will take a while to process.

W*: Tell us a little about what winning this award means to you? 
AZ: It’s the ultimate recognition of our dedication to architecture, which would not have been possible without the many professors and colleagues that have helped and collaborated with us, to whom we are immensely grateful. It appears that the issues that interest us, while deeply linked to local problems, reverberate beyond national boundaries. Winning this prestigious prize brings great responsibility and we are committed to continuing our work in a responsible and energetic way.

W*: Could you give us some context for this project? How did it come about? 
AZ: It came to us through an invitation from the designer Rosenbaum, who had the first contact with the client. We spent ten days together at the school and the surrounding areas, gaining a better understanding of the local context and, more importantly, establishing a bond between the students and the new building. In doing so, we hoped to increase the students’ sense of belonging in the future dormitory.

W*: What makes this project different? 
AZ: Undoubtedly its strong social purpose. The Bradesco Foundation has a longstanding commitment to promoting quality education in Brazil, which transcends educational parameters and uses architecture as a means for transformation. This is very rare in Brazil. Secondly, this was a very collaborative project involving an outstanding team of architects, designers, engineers and, of course, the children themselves.

W*: What was the inspiration behind the design?
AZ: Perhaps more than inspired, we were highly aware of the local conditions. We tried to propose an architecture with a strong connection to the site and to the community, while using a coherent construction method that was affordable and could be assembled quickly to meet the demands of the brief. We were inspired by the children’s energy and imagination and we wanted the building to provide enough shade for them to play in comfort and safety, in a place where temperatures can reach up to 40 degrees centigrade.

W*: What was the single most important thing you had to address through your solution? 
AZ: To help increase the children’s sense of belonging. Living away from their families for a week or longer, it was difficult for them to feel at home within the existing dormitories which they shared with many other students. We achieved this through the use of locally-sourced materials, the scale – which allowed for more privacy and play – and also evoking and referencing the peoples’ culture in the building. 

Another important issue that we dealt with was the proximity of the site to any big urban centre. As everything was so far away, we designed a building that we could pre-fabricate and assemble as quickly as possible. The entire timber structure was prefabricated near São Paulo, using CNC machines, while the bricks (the heaviest part of the building) were prefabricated on the construction site.

W*: What else are you working on at the moment?
AZ: We are doing some competitions, a community centre for indigenous people in Xingu, a place close to the Amazon Forest and another Children Village with Rosenbaum for the Bradesco Foundation.

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Aleph Zero website

A timber clad family home, tucked away by a lake on the West Highlands of Scotland has won RIBA House of the Year. Designed by Cambridge-based Haysom Ward Miller Architects, the house was praised by the judges as ‘an exemplar of its genre', due to the ‘care in the design and in the building of this house'. 

The near-200 sq m structure follows local vernacular, using timber and pitched roofs (yet without trying to copy existing buildings, hasten to add the architects), cutting a discreet figure against the rich and natural Scottish landscape. Set by the water, the building feels modern yet also ‘of its place', seamlessly integrating with its setting and using the context to inform both material and volumetric choices.

On top of its highly contextual approach, the house was designed to be completely off-grid and environmentally friendly. Most of the construction used prefabricated elements, so as to minimise the impact of a building site on the surrounding land. At the same time, the house is serviced by its own water supply, electrical system and sewage treatment. 

The project's three main minimalist volumes are wrapped in highly insulated SIP panels, while the Scottish larch cladding was charred using ‘a variation of the traditional Japanese shou-sugi-ban technique to achieve both naturally varied colouring and improved durability', explain the architects; which is, in fact, a fitting example of how the house's modern design combines both a contemporary aesthetic and key sustainability values that helped to ensure its place on the RIBA shortlist.

INFORMATION
For more information visit the website of Haysom Ward Miller Architects

The search for Britain's best house is not limited to new-build structures; in fact, given the country's rich historical fabric, a huge proportion of the UK's built environment involves the reworking of existing structures, from sensitive restorations to complete and bold reimaginings of older buildings. The Coastal House by London-based 6a architects, which joins the RIBA House of the Year shortlist, belongs to the former category. 

Set among the leafy countryside of South Devon, by a picturesque coastal path, the project involved the redesign of an early 20th-century home. Deciding upon saving the existing building and adding elements where needed – from an external wrap of insulation, to architectural gestures and surfaces that work with and enhance the original structure – the architects have composed an interior that artfully blurs old and new. 6a’s signature style of light touches and refined restrain is applied throughout, reminding of the studio's other works, such as the recent South London Gallery annex design. 

While the exterior reveals little, the interior has been entirely gutted and reimagined. New openings have been cut out of the volume and an atrium now centres the design. Within this atrium sits a winding timber staircase that spans the building's three storeys. Lit from above this space acts as the heart of the circulation, opening up into internal balconies that look down to the living areas below and bedrooms above.

The curated selection of materials includes a maple handrail, oak rake balustrades, and poured in-situ concrete to create a pleasingly domestic, yet textured and well articulated environment. Large, strategically placed windows connect this tactile interior to the outdoors, framing views of the Dan Pearson designed gardens outside, and longer vistas of the nature beyond, bringing this impressive residential reinvention in direct dialogue with its surroundings

INFORMATION
For more information visit the website of 6a Architects

Tonkin Liu’s ‘Old Shed New House’ in the British agricultural wilderness of Yorkshire is ‘part country cottage, part classical villa’. The house, inspired by nearby silver birch trees and the simple shed typology, has been nominated for the RIBA ‘House of the Year’ 2018 prize.

Designed for a couple seeking a quiet spot for their retirement, the three-bedroom house which includes a library and gallery within it, was also required to be energy efficient and low cost. The architects identify the house to the typology of a shed – the timber cladding and triangular roof make the house look simple, yet it is a sophisticated, highly crafted home and a ‘container for a lifetime collection of books and art’.

The foundation of the house was based upon a shed that existed on the site on the edge of a small village. While the steel frame and ground slab were repurposed and enlarged, the original form was retained.

The location was discovered by the couple’s son, an architect at Tonkin Liu, who worked on the house. He echoed the landscape throughout the design; the long, double-height shape of the gallery speaks to the tree-lined approach to the house, while the library with its mirror-backed shelving is reminiscent of the silver birch trees outside.

Nature makes an impression on the construction of the house where timber is the dominant construction material – timber louvres extend to limit solar gain over the south-facing library, while the façade features irregularly cut larch cladding shot-blasted and stained white and layered between galvanised steel fins.

Double-height spaces segued by single-height rooms filled with light, as well as the galvanised steel and smooth timber joinery, elevate this house to the status of a villa. The light, airy palette of subtle grey tones, concrete screed floor and white shaded timber creates further space, while the practical elements such as the staircase, utilty room and storage are folded behind the long gallery.

The Royal Institute of British Architects 2018 ‘RIBA House Of The Year’ award will be announced on 28 November 2018

INFORMATION

For more information, visit the Tonkin Liu website and the RIBA website