Thursday05 December 2013 Architect of the Year Awards 2013 3 December 2013 By Amanda Baillieu A record level of entries reflects architects growing optimism within the profession after years of uncertainty The Architect of the Year Awards are 10 years old hardly any age at all yet in this time we have witnessed a huge shift in architects fortunes from the heady days of 2006 to the depth of the recession in 2009. The darkest days are over, fortunately, and the indications suggest steadily growing confidence and projects springing back to life. The RIBA s recent Future Trends survey recorded that architects workloads have grown by 11% over the past year the first annual rise since 2009. Architecture s long lead-in time means the buildings entered this year are likely to have had their gestation in more difficult times. But every recession has a silver lining and for architects there has proved to be more than one. First is the phenomenal number of practices lured abroad by the 2008 economic crisis; second is the rise of a new generation often working within complex urban environments on small budgets; and finally, we have seen the emergence of refurbishment, a sector which used to be overlooked for prizes but as this year s Stirling Prize winner demonstrates so well can be as powerful as new-build when the architects understand the spirit of the building they are dealing with. The Architect of the Year Awards are unique in that they are the only ones that recognise a body of work. But we also try to reflect what is happening on the ground, adding a new category if we feel it is a sector attracting the best architecture and equally, we don t shy away from dropping awards if we feel standards aren t high enough. This year we received a record level of interest with 260 practices submitting. As ever, we are very grateful for all the judges time and hard work. We also thank you, the architects, for your continued support of BD. The awards evening also included a charity raffle in honour of Maggie s Cancer Caring Centres, with prizes including a Tolomeo Lamp donated by Artemide and signed books donated by Rogers Stirk Harbour & Partners. drmm s Alex de Rijke Sadie Morgan Philip Marsh, drmm GOLD AWARD: Architect of the Year: de Rijke Marsh Morgan The Schueco Gold Award is presented annually to the practice that the judges deem to have made the most significant contribution to British architecture over the past year. The practice is selected from the winners in the Architect of the Year categories; it s our award for the best of the best. This year, the Schueco Gold Award is being presented to de Rijke Marsh Morgan Architects, in recognition of its contribution to the education sector. The practice has already been widely recognised for its work on the refurbishment of Kingsdale School a pioneering project on its completion in 2004 and for its Stirling Prize-nominated extension to Clapham Manor Primary School. The past 12 months have seen the completion of drmm s first entirely new schools: the St Albans Academy and Four Dwellings Primary Academy, both in Birmingham. Delivered as part of the now cancelled Building Schools for the Future programme, both buildings demonstrate the practice s ability to maintain an unparalleled level of spatial and technical innovation in the face of highly restricted budgets.
At a time when the value of bespoke school design has been challenged by the government s enthusiasm for standardised models, drmm s work makes an important contribution to the argument that no two schools are the same. Exeter Royal Academy for Deaf Education by drmm Architects Education Architect of the Year (nursery to secondary): de Rijke Marsh Morgan In addition to the completion of its two schools in Birmingham, 2013 also saw drmm secure planning permission for the Exeter Royal Academy for Deaf Education a school that has been custom-designed around the particular challenges of teaching profoundly deaf children and integrating them with the wider community. Focused around a timber gridshell-supported ETFE dome, the project draws on research that the practice undertook for the Department for Children, Schools & Families as part of its exemplar schools programme. Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios Hawkins Brown Mitchell Taylor Workshop Nicholas Hare Architects Penoyre & Prasad The Australian Institute for Nanoscience in Sydney designed by Jestico + Whiles Education Architect of the Year (6th form university): Jestico & Whiles Jestico & Whiles submitted three very different projects, all of which were developed to a high standard. From its competition-winning project for the Australian Institute for Nanoscience in Sydney to its refurbishment of an Edwardian building in Lincolns Inn Fields for the London School of Economics, the firm demonstrated an aptitude for dealing with a wide range of scales and contexts. Its Graphene Research Institute for the University of Manchester, currently under construction, answers a highly innovative brief with an architectural treatment that promises to create a new landmark in the city. Allford Hall Monaghan Morris Arup Associates BGS Architects Hawkins Brown John McAslan & Partners
Source: Jack Hobhouse The Ortus Centre at Maudsley Hospital by Duiggan Morris Architects Public Building Architect of the Year: Duggan Morris Architects With its first completed public building the Ortus centre at Maudsley Hospital in south London Duggan Morris has made a major contribution to a sector that is not renowned for its commitment to design quality. Built outside the usual NHS procurement framework, Ortus conveys a generosity and permanence that truly warrants its description as a public building. With ongoing projects for Richmond Adult Community College and a sports and swimming pool complex for a special needs girls school in Buckinghamshire, Duggan Morris is quickly establishing itself as a practice capable of designing public buildings whose spatial and material character is of a rare quality. Allford Hall Monaghan Morris Erect Architecture Niall McLaughlin Architects Pringle Richards Sharratt Wilkinson Eyre Architects Source: David Adjaye David Adjaye s interior of the Smithsonian Institute International Breakthrough Architect of the Year: Adjaye Associates With projects in Qatar, India and Gabon, Adjaye Associates enjoys a portfolio of work as widespread as that of any architect in the UK. However, it is in the United States that the firm has established a particularly visible presence. The practice has already completed the Museum of Contemporary Art in Denver and a string of libraries and one-off houses, but its profile is set to rise significantly with the imminent completion of its competition-winning scheme for the National Museum of African American History & Culture. The judges said: The US market is one of the toughest in the world to break into but to do this via a competition win for one of the top three cultural institutions in the world is a remarkable achievement.
Allford Hall Monaghan Morris And Architects Haptic Architects Studio Seilern Architects Waa Karakusevic Carson Architects Colville Estate Housing Architect of the Year: Karakusevic Carson Having established a large workload almost entirely based in the London housing sector, Karakusevic Carson is drawing plaudits not just for the scale of its work but for its ambition too. Following the completion of Bridport House in 2012, the firm is now well advanced on the redevelopment of the remainder of Hackney s Colville Estate the next phase of which is set to involve the construction of 925 homes. Karakusevic Carson also has a number of exemplary low-rise developments under way, including a new street in Enfield and the first phase of housing set to be built on the perimeter of London s Olympic Park. Duggan Morris Maccreanor Lavington Mae Architects Peter Barber Architects Proctor & Matthews Source: Killian O Sullivan Valentine Place by Stiff + Trevilion Office Architect of the Year: Stiff & Trevillion The past year has seen the completion of this long-established practice s largest UK office developments to date: 1 Valentine Place on Blackfriars Road in Southwark and a major project for Derwent on Pentonville Road in Islington. Both schemes demonstrate Stiff & Trevillion s ability to make considered contributions to the city which nonetheless recognise their fundamentally background character. With planning permission now granted for substantial projects on London s Sloane Street in Kensington and Paul Street in Shoreditch, the practice is fast emerging as a major player in the London office scene. The judges said: The winner designs offices for Jo Normal and company that don t have in-house gyms and swimming pools, and does it extremely well.
5plus Architects Allford Hall Monaghan Morris Faulkner Browns Architects John McAslan & Partners Orms Tottenham Public Room, a 150,000 community space designed by Gort Scott Small Project Architect of the Year: Gort Scott Building on a research project commissioned by the mayor of London into the capital s high streets, Gort Scott has undertaken a series of small but transformative projects in deprived boroughs on the city s periphery. In Wembley it has completed a WC faced in a filigree wrapping of water-cut metal, while on Tottenham High Street it created within a programme of just five weeks a temporary community space. The judges were particularly impressed by the practice s ability to think in terms of both detail and urban strategy. AY Architects Dualchas Architects Ian McChesney Matt Architecture Studio Octopi Source: Gareth Gardner Google s Campus London offices by Jump Studios. Interior Architect of the Year: Jump Studios Offering services not just in interior design but also graphics and branding, Jump Studios has developed a formidable portfolio of projects in the office, exhibition and retail sectors.
The judges were particularly impressed by its work for young technology companies, such as the Google-sponsored Campus for start-ups near Silicon Roundabout in east London. The Google Campus is a good example of how the practice really understands the brief of creating low-cost offices for young start-ups, and its success means it is now being rolled out by Google in other locations, the judges said. Archer Humphryes Architects Buckley Gray Yeoman David Kohn Architects Gensler Moxon Architects Source: Tim Soar Patel Taylor s Eastside City Park in collaboration with French landscape architect Allain Provost. Masterplanning Architect of the Year: Patel Taylor In Eastside City Park, Patel Taylor has completed Birmingham s first new park for over a century a project that is already proving a vital catalyst in enabling the city s wider regeneration. The linear park has been elegantly conceived both as a route and as a series of episodic spatial experiences to which the surrounding development can respond. The firm was also responsible for establishing the landscaping guidelines for the Athletes Village at the Olympic Park in east London work which has imbued the very large spaces framed by the masterplan with a much-needed intimacy. Hall McKnight Architects Hawkins Brown Levitt Bernstein Associates Studio Egret West Vogt Landscape Source: Tim Crocker Slip House, London by Carl Turner Architects One-Off House Architect of the Year Carl Turner Architects Built on a vacant site alongside a terrace in Brixton, south London, Carl Turner Architects Slip House stood out for the judges as the single most accomplished residence submitted for this category. Faced in cast glass panels, the property which Carl Turner built for his own family strikes a highly distinctive presence without overbearing the adjoining Victorian houses. The firm s Stealth Barn also impressed for the skill with which it incorporated an existing structure and the care with which cheap materials had been detailed to transformative effect.
Featherstone Young Hudson Architects Liddicoat & Goldhill Simon Gill Architects Studio Seilern Architects Source: Morley Von Sternberg Peter Barber s Employment Academy in Camberwell. Refurbishment Architect of the Year: Peter Barber Architects Although best known for its work in new-build housing, Peter Barber Architects has also developed a strong track record in the creative reuse of existing buildings. The judges were particularly impressed by its work on the recently completed Employment Academy in Camberwell, a project that involved the refurbishment and extension of a late arts & crafts building by ET Hall. In its picturesque composition and use of powerfully modelled brick-work, the new work engages the old in a considered dialogue, said the judges. DSDHA Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios Hawkins Brown John McAslan & Partners Jonathan Woolf Architects/Bharat Patel IE Class of 2013 Scholarship: Elli Farrant, Kingston University Elli Farrant was chosen as this year s recipient of a year-long scholarship to IE School of Architecture & Design in Madrid. BD s Class of 2013 graduates were invited to compete for IE s master s business programme, which is geared towards starting and managing an architectural practice. Farrant s thesis project was inspired by a photo she found of a wooden shack atop a nondescript Venetian housing building, which turned out to be a synagogue inside the city s original Jewish ghetto. She proposed to enlarge the footprint of the former ghetto in Cannaregio to the north-west of the city beyond its original strict limits and create a new courtyard of buildings for metalworking. Campos are social spaces that allow Venetians to gather. By reintroducing workshops and residential accommodation, the project is focused on rebuilding the working city, Farrant said. IE School of Architecture & Design is a standalone extension of the IE Business School (www.ie.edu).
2013 awards judges AYA Clive Dutton, Consultant, Newham Council; David Glover, Aecom; Owen Hopkins, Royal Academy of Art; Seema Manchanda, Wandsworth Council; William Palin, Spitalfields Historic Buildings Trust; Neil Porter, Gustafson Porter; Malcolm Reading, Malcolm Reading Consultants; Vicky Richardson, British Council; Tim Ronalds, Tim Ronalds Architects; Nick Rogers, Taylor Wimpey YAYA Pete Baxter, Autodesk; Rachel Haugh, Ian Simpson Architects; Richard Meier, Argent Group; John Tuomey, O Donnell & Tuomey Architects; Richard Wentworth, artist 0 Follow @bdonline 28.4K followers Like 112 Related Company Resources Dry glaze railing system The TAPER-LOC System is the simple way to install glass railings and balustrades. Related Company Resources Keep ahead with the leading building design industry companies Related Company Resources The single resource for all your building design industry needs Related Company Resources The latest building design trends from companies within the industry Desktop Site Mobile Site