Winners revealed for AJ Architecture Awards 2023 – Architect's Journal

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AJ ARCHITECTURE AWARDS 2023
22 November 2023 · By Fran Williams
The AJ is delighted to reveal the winners of this year’s AJ Architecture Awards’ enterable categories, which celebrate the very best in architecture across the UK
Below are the winners in 20 of the enterable categories ranging from Civic to Workplace, Culture to Refurb and Housing to Leisure.
All projects in this year’s awards were completed between January 2022 and July 2023. Every shortlisted building was visiting by a panel of judges, who rigorously assessed them against a wide range of criteria. These include design quality from use of materials and detailing to spatial ‘delight’, build quality, programme, user experience and contribution to their context or neighbourhood. In addition, assessing sustainability and building performance has been absolutely key to the process, from an evaluation of the project’s whole-life carbon, to its approach to biodiversity and future adaptability.
The winners were announced at a special gala event at the Hilton Metropole, London on Wednesday 22 November 2022, hosted by comedian Simon Evans. The expert judges who visited every shortlisted scheme in each category included Eleanor Fawcett of Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation, Sahiba Chadha of Cullinan Studio and engineer Webb Yates co-founder Steve Webb.
Also on the judging panels was Sumita Singha, Daisy Froud, Russell Curtis, Eva Jiřičná and former AJ architecture editor Laura Mark.
The AJ Architecture Awards also include three special prizes drawn from the other category winners and chosen by the AJ editorial team to honour exceptional projects and practices – which were also announced on the night. In addition to Architect of the Year and Design of the Year, this included The Manser Medal – AJ House of the Year category honouring the very best in domestic design of an individual dwelling.

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Studio Weave’s Lea Bridge Library Pavilion, a 250m² timber extension to the Grade II-listed Lea Bridge Library in east London, was described by the judges as a ‘clear winner’ of the Civic Project of the Year award; an ‘almost flawless’ architectural jewel which makes the most of an unpromising site to the rear of the existing Edwardian building.
‘There are only really two [additional] rooms, but the way the functionality of the space works and the way it integrates with the landscape outside makes it feel much bigger,’ said one judge. ‘It’s small enough to be very intimate but the way the space has been orchestrated also makes it flexible.’
Addressing the changing role of libraries, the extension is conceived as a place for the community to work, learn, socialise and gather, a civic asset for the London Borough of Waltham Forest that underlines the importance of well-made public buildings. The judges admired its harmonious engagement with the listed library and adjacent Friendship Gardens and highlighted how well used by the local community this accessible and welcoming space already is.
‘I think this has been done with real love,’ another judge commented. ‘If you look at the way timber has been used internally, it’s beautifully and very simply detailed. And the budget was not extravagant. They’ve done a lot with it.’ WH
Location London E10 • Completion June 2023 • Construction cost £711,000 • Gross internal floor area 250m² • Client London Borough of Waltham Forest • Engineer Timberwright • Services engineer NPS London • Annual carbon emissions Not supplied • Operational energy use 52.34 kWh/m²/yr
 

Credit: Tim Crocker
This unusual project was praised as a ‘shining example’ of teaching farmers and the wider community about regenerative farming and for embodying this ethos of sustainability throughout its design.
Located in the Cotswolds, FarmED is conceived as a demonstration farm to promote regenerative farming techniques, which use an eight-year crop rotation to increase soil health. Three larch-clad buildings are arranged around a courtyard to provide space for events, conferences and FarmEAT, the farm’s dining room for local, low-carbon eating. The farm incorporates a micro-dairy, an agricultural scheme to supply produce to the local community and a heritage orchard.
‘It has built its own little community that thrives from the building,’ said judges, who praised the quality of collaboration between architect and client.
‘The spaces were really generous, robust and welcoming. The detailing externally and internally was excellent, with a reduced palette of materials that echoed the simplicity of the landscape. It’s very much of its place,’ one added.
The project uses natural materials, including timber, Cotswold stone and sheep’s wool insulation. The performance of the building envelope surpasses current Part L standards by 20 per cent on the walls, floors and roof. PB
Location Shipton-under-Wynchwood, Cotswolds • Completion September 2022 • Construction cost £1.6 million • Gross internal floor area 873m² • Client Cotswold Seeds • Engineer O’Brien & Price • Services engineer Project Design Services • Embodied carbon 656 kgCO₂/m² • Operational energy use 25 kWh/m²/yr
 

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In a richly diverse shortlist, encompassing buildings for religious and non-religious communities, this beautifully considered project for The White Eagle Lodge, a rural retreat that draws together spiritual healing practices, clearly stood out. The judges applauded how it subtly reframed immemorial concepts that have underscored the history of buildings for faith, such as relationship with landscape, orientation, processional routes and conventions for prayer and worship. These were intelligently synthesised to create an architecture that is simultaneously dramatic, yet modest and moving; contemporary, yet rooted in tradition with its use of archetypes, notably a dome and cloistered courtyard. Sacred geometry is also invoked, with doors located at each cardinal point and the centre of the temple bisected by an ancient ley line.
The judges were full of praise for ‘how it makes you feel’ – how materials, space and light were skillfully choreographed to engender a sense of peace and connection with the numinous. The framing of landscape through the quartet of doors joins together building, site and nature, and the geometry of the roof, with its central oculus, captures a changing play of light, amplified by shadows rippling over irregularly laid planes of brick.
Environmentally, the scheme has a resonance beyond the thoughtful relationship with its setting, reusing the concrete of a previous structure in its foundations, while early analysis of embodied carbon resulted in a predominantly timber structure. Overall, it represents a highly sensitive reading of and response to a brief that has produced an exceptional piece of architecture. CS
Location New Lands, Liss, Hampshire • Completion October 2022 • Construction cost Undisclosed • Gross internal floor area 585m² • Client The White Eagle Lodge • Engineer Eckersley O’Callaghan • Services engineer Skelly & Couch • Annual carbon emissions 25.9 kgCO₂/m² • Operational energy use 51.16 kWh/m²/yr
LJ Works and Loughborough Farm Community Garden by Public Works and Architecture 00
The project brings together industry, growing and community action as a supportive ecosystem to address systemic social issues and take control of local regeneration. The jury admired these ambitions and the way in which the buildings were designed to emphasise the industrial, agricultural, and community-led nature of the project. This in turn dictated materials and construction methods. Different profiles of corrugated cladding celebrate the repetitive language of mass manufacturing. Part of the scheme was constructed using the WikiHouse system via community workshops. CS
 

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Originally designed by George Aitchison and located on the edge of Holland Park, Leighton House dates from 1866 and was home to the painter Frederic Leighton. Now Grade II*-listed, it is a remarkable Victorian period piece, with the floridly ornamental Arab Hall, designed by Leighton, at its heart. BDP’s restoration and refurbishment includes a new entrance, gallery, learning centre and café, as well as improved accessibility in the form of a helical staircase and lift, giving one of London’s most characterful yet hitherto neglected museums an invigorating new lease of life.
The judges were impressed by the skill and subtlety of the scheme, especially how it unlocked spaces and functions, enabling the house to operate more effectively as a visitor attraction while preserving its historic allure. Key to the project is a new basement set beneath the entrance to accommodate a climate-controlled archive and gallery. It also connects with and activates the building’s existing basement, which now includes a learning centre.
As well as the project’s deft spatial planning, the judges also admired how thoughtful solutions were devised to address challenges presented by the historic fabric. For example, Leighton’s winter studio has been carefully restored, its Georgian wired glass replaced by ultra-thin insulated glazing set in the original frames, as heavier double-glazed units could not have been supported by the existing metalwork. While the architectural approach celebrates Leighton’s affinity for ornament, epitomised by the richly coloured faience tiles that indicate a new entrance, it also demonstrates care and rigour. CS
Location London W14 • Completion October 2022 • Construction cost Undisclosed • Gross internal floor area 775m² • Client Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea • Engineer BDP • Services engineer BDP • Annual carbon emissions 25.15 kgCO₂/m² • Operational energy use 194 kWh/m²/yr
 

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It is estimated that by 2050 people over 65 will comprise a quarter of the UK population, requiring a greater focus on devising more appropriate forms of housing. Enabling older people to enjoy fulfilled, independent lives has clear health and wellbeing benefits, easing pressure on medical and social services. Based on the familiar typology of the London mansion block, deconstructed and reframed for the current era, this project is a response to the need to rethink housing for active older people who want to live in well-apportioned individual dwellings but also feel part of a community that is not a conventional retirement village nor sheltered housing scheme.
The judges admired the way the project sought to conjure a complex and varied interior landscape through an unorthodox honeycomb arrangement of spaces. As people age, their horizons can shrink, so the idea that they can retreat into a generously scaled and spatially stimulating domestic realm has an obvious resonance. The judges also thought the reworking of the mansion block typology showed immense material and tectonic finesse. Sharply faceted brick volumes emerge from a rusticated base of rounded and chamfered bays, conveying a reassuring sense of solidity while also engaging in a dialogue with the surrounding Victorian villas.
The only caveat in an otherwise outstanding scheme was the decision by the developer to omit the winter gardens originally planned for each of the 29 flats, which would have enhanced the sense of experiential variety and added an enlivening touch of greenery to the elevations. CS
Location London NW3 • Completion April 2022 • Construction cost Undisclosed • Gross internal floor area 7,260m² • Client Pegasus Life (part of Lifestory) • Engineer Symmetrys Engineering • Services engineer Max Fordham • Annual carbon emissions Not supplied • Operational energy use 38.27 kWh/m²/yr
 
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Judges applauded the ‘astonishing’ ingenuity of this restoration, which breathed new life into a fire-ravaged retail building in the historic centre of Belfast. ‘It has brought a much-loved local landmark back into use,’ said the judges, who were impressed at how the architects had overcome highly complex technical challenges, at speed, and to ‘tremendously’ high sustainability standards.
Bank Buildings, a Grade B1-listed Victorian department store, was severely fire-damaged in August 2018, with the loss of the original floor and roof structures, leaving the masonry façades still standing but in a precarious state. Rather than demolish and redevelop, client Primark embarked on a £100 million restoration to stabilise and repair the surviving façades and build new behind. The result provides increased retail accommodation, including a spectacular top floor with rear views of the building’s distinctive clockface.
Judges were impressed at how the architects had meticulously restored the façades of dressed sandstone, granite and brickwork, while improving energy performance with the addition of significant levels of insulation and double-glazing. They also singled out the integration of a new roof that replicates the original, and the accommodation of different movement between the new internal structure and the surviving original façade. Other technical challenges included the construction of a new basement to house a sprinkler system and the diversion of a river culvert.
The restored building has an EPC rating of B, compared with its previous E rating, reflecting a 30 per cent reduction in energy use. PB
Location Belfast • Completion October 2022 • Construction cost Undisclosed • Gross internal floor area 13,556m² • Client Primark Stores • Engineer DBFL Consulting Engineers • Services engineer Metec Consulting Engineers • Annual carbon emissions 17.22 kgCO₂/m² • Operational energy use 100.34 kWh/m²
 
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‘It was understated, but I was blown away by it,’ said one judge of this project, singled out as the clear winner in the category. A new mixed-use teaching and accommodation block, it was particularly praised for how its design principles were clearly followed through in the finished building. These included the design’s response to climate change, being the first fully certified mixed-use Passivhaus college building in the city. It is fully electric with a flexible CLT structure and material choices balancing robustness, embodied carbon concerns and end of life recycling.
The ambition for high-quality placemaking was evident, too, in what one judge described as its ‘really successful integration with landscaping and site’. ‘It responds to the language in an historically significant context, fitting into it while making its own identity,’ said another. What they found particularly impressive was how it combined ‘Passivhaus design with rich architectural form’ and the quality of finish: ‘It’s D&B and they weren’t novated client-side, but one wouldn’t have guessed.’
Ecology and biodiversity strategy was evident from how the building was fitted onto its tight site without the loss of significant trees. New trees and habitats such as swales and wildflower meadows were also planted and green roofs installed.
The feature most commented upon was how wellbeing, accessibility and inclusion of students was put centre stage. All the rooms and interior design are wheelchair-friendly, having ‘a real sense of home’ and thoughtful details, even down to storage. ‘These were by far the best student bedrooms and accommodation that we saw,’ said one judge. RGW
Location Cambridge • Completion August 2022 • Construction cost Undisclosed • Gross internal floor area 2,965m² • Client Lucy Cavendish College • Engineer Smith and Wallwork • Services engineer Max Fordham • Annual carbon emissions 24.3 kgCO₂/m² • Operational energy use 58 kWh/m²/yr
 

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The judges were immensely moved by this housing scheme. Not only is it unique to its place, built to Passivhaus standards and well-resolved, but ‘it has gone over and above on its social approach,’ they said.
Bluebird is the outcome of a five-year programme between local charity HARP and its long-term architects SKArchitects to increase and improve accommodation provision for people experiencing homelessness in Southend-on-Sea. It provides 50 additional bed spaces in a retrofitted terrace and new build gas-free mews-style housing development to the rear. ‘It’s architecturally really lovely housing for people who wouldn’t usually get that,’ said the judges.
‘It is a development not driven by spreadsheets, which is unusual,’ they said. The six small-scale communal homes are clad in clay tiles in a subtle variation of colour to create a sense of rhythm, identity and ownership in each. The bespoke debossed tiles highlight the amount of care that went into the finishing touches of the project.
The judges summed it up as ‘pretty and lovely, meeting the needs of its users and done at a good price’. ‘It sets a precedent,’ they added, not only in its social and environmental credentials but by catering for everyone in need. ‘It strikes the right balance between safety and security,’ they concluded. ‘We love the idea that the client had a vision and just set about doing it. This is a scheme that could be replicated in so many ways on different sites to respond to an issue not commonly addressed.’ FW
Location Southend-on-Sea • Completion November 2022 • Construction cost Undisclosed • Gross internal floor area 988m² • Client Homeless Action Resource Project (HARP) • Engineer Not supplied • Services engineer Max Fordham • Annual carbon emissions Not supplied • Operational energy use 43 kWh/m²/yr (regulated)
 

Credit: James Newton
The judges were hugely impressed with all aspects of Stephen Taylor Court, a Passivhaus development of 84 homes for graduates, fellows and their families designed by Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios for King’s College, Cambridge. ‘On every level, from site planning to detailing, it embedded the collective knowledge of the practice. It’s really well planned, well executed and well detailed,’ they said, describing it as a ‘very confident’ building.
The development consists of three brick-clad residential crescents and a villa around an open courtyard, with a common room, library and launderette facilities provided in an extended lodge. Judges applauded the ‘simple and elegant’ arrangement and the attention paid to the quality of accommodation of both the cluster and individual flats, and the communal areas. They also enjoyed the project’s sympathy with its conservation area context, which is known for its Arts and Crafts houses. ‘They worked very cleverly with a minimal palette and made it speak to the surrounding street,’ they said.
Designed with a 100-year lifespan, the all-electric development has a lightweight CLT structure that acts as a carbon store, which also reduced the concrete requirements for the foundations. PB
Location Cambridge • Completion September 2022 • Construction cost Undisclosed • Gross internal floor area 4,556m² • Client King’s College Cambridge • Engineer Smith and Wallwork • Services engineer Max Fordham • Embodied carbon <0 kgCO₂/m² • Operational energy use 40 kWh/m²/yr
 
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As a development of 157 homes for private sale and affordable rent, Lion Green Road confounds London’s conventional urban grain of streets and squares, conceived instead as a series of pavilions disposed around a sloping parkland site. Beyond the obvious formal and material qualities of its architecture, the judges thought the scheme a highly assured and inventive piece of placemaking. Distinguished by irregular façades, the pavilions tactfully shape and structure a communal landscape, creating both openness and enclosure as well as cementing a sense of community. Rotating the pavilions avoids the problem of ‘backs’ and ‘fronts’, so all elevations are equally privileged and the height difference, between five and seven storeys, makes space to accommodate key views and tree canopies.
The judges liked the fact that the flats, arranged in groups of six in a pinwheel formation on each floor, were dual-aspect, although the complex plan did throw up some eccentricly shaped storage spaces, which might have practical limitations. Nonetheless, they praised the expressiveness of the architecture, with its crisp brick detailing, generous loggias and connection with the landscape, seeing it as emblematic of the ambition to creatively challenge and rethink what might have ended up as just another vernacular housing block.
Despite their clear admiration for the project, the judges noted it was still awaiting occupation, so patterns of use and inhabitation and their relationship with and impact on the architecture – a critical test of any scheme – were yet to be established. CS
Location Coulsdon, London CR5 • Completion March 2023 • Construction cost Undisclosed • Gross internal floor area 12,260m² • Client Brick By Brick for Croydon Council • Engineer Symmetrys (pre-construction), JFP (post-construction) • Services engineer Max Fordham (pre-construction), CDP (post-construction) • Annual carbon emissions 14.07 kgCO₂/m² (regulated) • Operational energy use 16 kWh/m²/yr (regulated)
Dockley Apartments by Studio Woodroffe Papa and Poggi Architecture
Comprising 111 apartments arranged around a central courtyard, together with commercial, restaurant and retail spaces at ground level, this scheme also plays a part in regenerating the neighbouring railway arches along the Low Line walking route in Southwark. Dark brick cladding and a steel rainscreen draw upon the locale’s industrial history. The judges liked how the distinctive faceted form, a response to mature trees on the site, broke up the building’s mass and how the permeable ground floor engaged with and animated its surroundings. CS
 

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The Elizabeth Line, which opened in May 2022 after 12 years of design, construction and delivery, is the most significant upgrade of London’s transportation in decades. Connecting Reading and Heathrow in the west to Shenfield and Abbey Wood in the east via the city centre, it is projected to carry 200 million passengers a year.
While the architecture of each individual station responds to its local context, once you descend to platform level a familiar design language becomes apparent, expressed though elements such as cladding, lighting, signage, furniture and platform edge screens. Overseen by Grimshaw in collaboration with engineers and manufacturers, the line-wide design was tested and prototyped before being applied by each station architect, producing an elegant series of modular design solutions which wowed the AJAA judges.
‘They have thought about every single element of the whole space in an intelligent way,’ said one judge. ‘It was really clever; so much thinking was put into it.’ Other judges admired the ‘incredible’ lighting and the sense of wonder and beauty all the elements together manage to engender.
‘I absolutely love the aesthetic of it; it reminds me of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey when they’re running in the centrifuge,’ said one.
Looking at the category as a whole, the judges expressed disappointment at the level of thought and effort put into tackling embodied carbon emissions, expressing the hope that use of natural and reused materials will soon become mainstream in infrastructure because of their low-carbon properties. WH
Location London • Completion May 2022 • Construction cost £18.9 billion • Gross internal floor area N/A • Client Crossrail (TfL) • Engineer Arup • Services engineer Atkins • Annual carbon emissions Not supplied • Operational energy use Not supplied
 
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Having opened towards the end of last year, Manchester’s first new park in 100 years – and the most extensive of the projects on the shortlist – is the first completed phase in the £1.5 billion Mayfield masterplan, which aims to create a mixed-use neighbourhood in the city centre on former industrial land next to Piccadilly railway station.
The judges were struck by the way the client team of the public-private Mayfield Partnership – consisting of developer U+I, Manchester City Council, Transport for Greater Manchester and LCR, the government’s placemaking expert – had used the 2.6ha park as a catalyst for the new development and demonstrated how nature can be integrated into the city centre.
At the heart of the park is the resurrected River Medlock – one of Manchester’s three main watercourses – which after more than 50 years underground has been opened up, which the jury thought worked ‘logically’ with the newly created greenspace.
It is hoped that Mayfield Park will help the city meet its target of becoming net zero by 2038. Materials have been recycled and reused during construction to save more than 240 tonnes of CO₂.
A ‘very successful project overall,’ said the judges. ‘It’s a lovely new park.’ FW
Location Manchester • Completion September 2022 • Construction cost £23 million • Site area 6.5 acres • Client Mayfield Partnership (U+I, Manchester City Council, Transport for Greater Manchester, LCR) • Engineer Civic Engineers, Buro Happold • Services engineer N/A • Annual carbon emissions Not supplied • Operational energy use Not supplied
Strand Aldwych by LDA Design
This project sees the Strand in central London, which is lined with some of the city’s most important institutions, made car-free. Partly because of the pandemic, what was once a heavily trafficked thoroughfare has been transformed with planting, seating and cycle stands. Although in part it is an experiment which will adapt as people continue to use the space, the judges said it ‘set an example’. ‘This is really about placemaking taking our public realm back from the car,’ they said. FW
 

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Judges in this category had fulsome praise for DLM Architects’ The Bathing Pools in Guernsey, which they described as very well thought-out and a ‘true community building’. However, it was the Ravelin Sports Centre, which provides sports facilities for both the University of Portsmouth and local people, which emerged as the clear winner.
The project, the first to be completed within the university’s £400 million estate masterplan, provides a 25m eight-lane swimming pool, an eight-court sports hall, a 175-station fitness suite, multifunctional studios, climbing and bouldering facilities, two flexible squash courts, a ski simulator, teaching facilities, physio and office space.
To encourage participation, the building features uninterrupted glazing on the ground-floor plane, while the lack of barriers and turnstiles internally encourages passers-by to wander through the centre and witness swimming and other activities. The building is fossil fuel-free in operation and has achieved an operational energy consumption of less than 100 kWh/m²/yr – a level of performance unmatched by any other equivalent sports centre in the UK.
The judges praised the pairing of different materials, such as terracotta external cladding and the internal timber soffits, while remarking on the unusually close collaboration between the architect and service engineers.
‘The plan of the building, the programme and how the architect has integrated everything are incredibly successful,’ one said. Another admired how locals had already embraced the Ravelin Centre.
‘It was full of school kids and families,’ they observed following their visit. ‘It really felt like local people had adopted it, which isn’t the case with a lot of university facilities.’ WH
Location Portsmouth • Completion September 2022 • Construction cost £57 million • Gross internal floor area 11,300m² • Client University of Portsmouth • Engineer Mott MacDonald • Services engineer Max Fordham • Embodied carbon 1,232 kgCO₂/m² • Annual carbon emissions 21 kgCO₂/m² • Operational energy use 94 kWh/m²/yr
 
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Judges felt this major rework of the underbelly of a viaduct next to Borough Market, transformed into new retail streets, galleries and commercial office space, was inspired and very successful in what it set out to do, particularly given the difficulty of the site.
‘It’s stitched-in really well to Borough Market,’ said one. ‘It has unblocked a constipated site, unlocking something that previously did not exist,’ commented another. ‘To do all that, working around Network Rail, is very impressive.’
The judges liked especially how the project ‘remade the grain’ of the city, drawing on medieval plans to establish new routes. ‘It has crafted a whole new neighbourhood,’ was one judge’s comment, while another said: ‘From an urban response perspective, this win hands-down. It’s so convincing in the big, simple moves it makes.’
They appreciated also the subtlety and sensitivity with which the new has been blended in with the existing brick viaduct structures and retained a ‘gritty, textural’ feel appropriate to the area. ‘The variety of the new-build is clever, even when using the same brick,’ said one. ‘While not modest in scale, it’s not pumped-up either,’ was one observation. ‘They really pulled it off,’ concluded another judge. ‘Quite blown away by it: a bit of a gem.’ RGW
Location London SE1 • Completion January 2022 • Construction cost Undisclosed • Gross internal floor area 16,400m² • Client MARK • Engineer Evolve • Services engineer Meinhardt Group • Annual carbon emissions 140 tCO₂/yr • Operational energy use 43.92 kWh/m²/yr
Battersea Power Station Phase 2 by WilkinsonEyre
The revitalisation of this London landmark was commended for the sheer scale and complexity in the mix of uses and programme that had been woven into and accommodated within its shell. They range from retail to residential to event and leisure and office uses – the latter including Apple’s new European HQ. ‘It’s like a dream student project,’ said one judge. ‘The section is amazing: like early Koolhaas,’ observed another. In particular, the creation of amenity spaces and gardens for the housing units on the roof was praised. ‘Amazing how it has all been resolved,’ was one comment. RGW
 

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Judges praised this modest, demountable kiosk as ‘outstanding’ and the clear winner in the Project under £500,000 (up to £300,000) category.
Among a disparate shortlist, judges were looking for hard-working projects that added the best value for their clients. Located near London Bridge station, Sanchez Benton’s ‘meanwhile use’ scheme transforms a leftover site on Holyrood Street to provide a kiosk with its own vertical garden. In addition, the intervention incorporates infrastructure to support public life, such as a public water supply and an electricity pillar to power events such as future street markets.
‘It’s a positive catalyst for potential change,’ said judges, who were also impressed with the collaborative team effort, the broader regeneration vision and the commitment to circular economy principles and end-of-life considerations – the kiosk is designed to be fully demountable at the end of its 10-year use on the site.
Inspired by a nearby alleyway garden, the timber structure is topped by four planters that descend in terraces towards the street. The blank back wall is utilised for a trellis as well as a large ‘Holyrood’ steel sign for added visibility from both the street and passing trains. The project also includes an accessible WC and a waste store serving not only the kiosk but the public realm and adjacent offices.
‘It’s really rigorous in all respects and turned a lot of practical considerations into something quite elegant,’ said judges. ‘It’s very well-considered, both architecturally and in how it should be used.’ PB
Location London SE1 • Completion July 2022 • Construction cost Undisclosed • Gross internal floor area 30m² • Client Southwark Council • Engineer Price & Myers • Services engineer Not supplied • Annual carbon emissions Not supplied • Operational energy use Not supplied
 

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Corner Fold House is an impressive marker of emerging east London practice Whittaker Parsons’ thoughtfulness and skill. The judges were wowed by how the ingenious design had helped ‘unlock an unpromising site, in a tough location, with lots of constraints’.
Forming a ‘smooth but not pastiche’ bookend to an existing terrace in Peckham, south London, the 88m² home, costing £350,000, sits on a narrow 3.9m-wide site between a substation and the clients’ former family home. The couple wanted to downsize as they neared retirement, freeing up their traditional Victorian terraced house next door, where they had lived for 20 years.
Red brick and in-situ concrete parapets, sills and lintels make up the skin of the new scheme’s ‘beautifully designed’ sculpted, chamfered form. Inside, an oak staircase creates a robust spine to the house, serving its south-facing habitable rooms, which are split over three floors.
‘The clients have got bang for their buck,’ said the jury. ‘Externally it looks like quite a small, humble building. But it seems so much bigger when you get inside – and that’s down to the clever layout and the clever architecture.’
Separately, the judges also wished to give a mention to HPA Architects’ timber-framed treehouse accommodation at Another Place, The Lake – a hotel on the shores of Ullswater in the Lake District.
They said: ‘This is a smashing job. The architects have actually made something really, really lovely.’ RW
Location London SE15 • Completion May 2022 • Construction cost £350,000 • Gross internal floor area 88m² • Client Rick and Hannah O’Shea • Engineer Price and Myers • Services engineer N/A • Embodied carbon 518 kgCO₂/m² • Operational energy use 67 kWh/m²/yr (regulated)
 
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‘This is the obvious but fair choice,’ said the judges, selecting this retrofit of a former 1957 office building into a co-working space for The Office Group on Oxford Street as the winner out of a diverse shortlist of varying scales and budgets.
They praised the scheme for being ‘clever’ and ‘well-executed’ and, considering the M&S Oxford Street controversy, for setting a precedent of what they described as ‘responsible anti-decay’ for London’s busiest high street. ‘It shows how you can save a building and yet give it a different and better identity.’
The existing retail and office accommodation of the building has been renewed and extended in addition to a new Portland Whitbed limestone skin added to the façade’s lightweight structure of CLT and steel – whose depth and projection (passive measures for limiting solar gains) the judges loved, as well as the innovative structure and detail required in its construction. They deemed the technical detailing of attaching the new façade to the retained slabs ‘exceptional’ and done in a way that hadn’t been seen before.
This had been facilitated through the careful removal of the building’s existing masonry façade to allow full reuse of the structural frame, foundations and cores. Expressed precast stone lintels are tied back and supported from the structure through bespoke hugging brackets around existing perimeter columns – the handset stone in turn sits onto the expressed lintels.
‘Almost what you can’t see is the most impressive about this scheme,’ said the judges. ‘The team have really thought imaginatively about taking this building into another use and life.’
‘No one can argue that this isn’t a really good piece of architecture,’ they added. FW
Location London W1 • Completion March 2022 • Construction cost Undisclosed • Gross internal floor area 5,450m² • Client Duke Street Property • Engineer Elliott Wood • Services engineer Buro Happold • Annual carbon emissions Not supplied • Operational energy use 99 kWh/m² (predicted)
 

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In another broad category extending from early years to secondary level schools, Alfreton Park Community School made a powerful impression on the judges. As a school for pupils aged between three and 19 with special educational needs and disabilities – 80 per cent are wheelchair users – the challenge was to create a secure, welcoming and inclusive learning environment, with a consciously non institutional feel.
The site is located close to an existing cluster of buildings providing care to the people of Derbyshire with special needs, forming part of a campus-like enclave in a parkland setting.
The judges thought this an extraordinary project with ‘a real calmness about the place’, derived from strong, simple architectural ideas, executed with confidence and sensitivity. A single-storey pitched roof, like a great barn or tent, structures spaces and activities, ranging from formal lessons to trampolining and physiotherapy. All classrooms have sheltered play spaces and views of the parkland, connecting pupils with nature.
The potential for incidental interaction is encouraged through the provision of breakout spaces along the wide corridors, designed to provide resting places for pupils while allowing views into classrooms. Throughout, colour is used as a wayfinding device, as well as to lift mood. Visiting on one of the hottest days of the year, the judges were impressed by the scheme’s highly effective environmental control, achieved through building orientation, large overhanging eaves and natural ventilation. They were also impressed by its robustness and ability to cope effortlessly with intensive levels of daily use. CS
Location Alfreton, Derbyshire • Completion March 2022 • Construction cost £13.2 million • Gross internal floor area 3,000m² • Client Derbyshire County Council • Engineer Price & Myers • Services engineer Method Consulting • Annual carbon emissions 20.4 kgCO₂/m² • Operational energy use 98.64 kWh/m²/yr (regulated)
 

Credit: Jake Curtis

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‘This is a real architectural endeavour, one that has challenged itself, pushed itself and delivered more,’ summed up one judge of Waugh Thistleton’s Black & White Building, a flexible, shared workspace building in Shoreditch that is also the tallest engineered-timber building in London.
Its hybrid structure comprises a beech laminated veneer lumber (LVL) frame with CLT slabs and core and its innovation in terms of structure and materials was commended by judges: ‘This building is not just a one-off project – it’s part of a research journey, a model that can be replicated,’ observed one.
This fresh thinking/approach was also commended in the working environment it creates – workspaces with no structural internal partition walls for easy adaptation to future needs. ‘This is hybrid working culture R&D,’ commented one judge.
Others praised the ‘generosity’ and openness of its interior spaces, while noting too the cleanness of its detailing and finish. ‘It’s very pared-down and refined – the common areas are exemplar and the upper garden space is beautiful.’
Judges were also impressed by the architect and their relationship with the ‘savvy’ client. Summing up, one judge said: ‘A very good example for other practices who want to follow.’ ‘It’s a project that really made the most of the opportunity,’ concluded another. RGW
Location London EC2 • Completion November 2022 • Construction cost Undisclosed • Gross internal floor area 4,480m² • Client The Office Group (TOG) • Engineer Eckersley O’Callaghan • Services engineer EEP • Annual carbon emissions 13.6 kgCO₂/m² • Operational energy use 63.1 kWh/m²/yr
Bradbury Works by [Y/N] Studio
Building on an earlier rework by HawkinsBrown, this refurbishment and extension of a Victorian building as affordable workspaces was commended by judges as intelligent retrofit on a budget. ‘Incredibly clear diagram and generous approach to reuse of the existing,’ was how one described it. With two floors added and a new polycarbonate skin transforming access decks into connective terraces, its design was judged ‘simple and smart.’ Facing onto Dalston’s Gillett Square, judges also liked how it engaged with the public realm and felt ‘incredibly grounded’ in its site. ‘It sets a key agenda as to how we need to pivot as a profession,’ said one. RGW
 

Credit: Tim Soar
This project in the Edinburgh Park business district was praised by judges as a radical and appealing approach to the post-Covid workspace, demonstrating deep thinking around public spaces and ‘how to improve and maximise the experience for everyone’.
1 New Park Square is the first in a series of new offices designed by AHMM for the Dixon Jones-masterplanned Edinburgh Park located on the Western fringes of the Scottish capital. Framing a new civic square designed by Gross.Max, the building features an impressive array of social spaces, including a café, restaurant, music venue and a 200-seat conference centre with flexible office spaces and generous floor-to-ceiling heights intended to improve daylighting, thermal comfort and reduce energy use over time.
Judges said 1 New Park Square was ‘doing so much good that others are completely missing’, thanks to the ambition of its client and architect. One said the connection between the building’s interior and the outdoor and green spaces ‘was really beautifully done’ with a ‘manner and simplicity that made it easy for me to connect’.
The decision to embrace an informal rather than formal reception area configuration and the all-encompassing focus on wellbeing throughout were also acclaimed. MF
Location Edinburgh EH12 • Completion March 2022 • Construction cost £21.5 million • Gross internal floor area 10,730m² • Client Parabola • Engineer Woolgar Hunter • Services engineer Hulley & Kirkwood • Annual carbon emissions Not supplied • Operational energy use Not supplied
The Featherstone Building by Morris+Company
The Featherstone Building by Morris+Company for Derwent London was highly commended by judges for its ‘exquisite’ detailing and sympathetic façade, which sits well within its context – delivering a ‘fantastic bit of architecture’. Located in London’s Old Street office district, the Featherstone Building has transformed a prominent corner block with a range of heights and features a deep brick façade, offering passive shading and generous windows echoing the architecture of nearby Victorian warehouses. Judges said the building was ‘cleverly articulated’ and delivered a light-filled working environment, where they would ‘like to spend a while’. MF
 

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