Architecture Today editor Isabel Allen reflects on the highlights of 2024.
Photograph by Richard Bryant/ARCAID
Of all the buildings we published in 2024, the standout has to be John Pardey’s revisit of Turn End, the exquisite house and gardens designed by Peter Aldington for himself and his wife Margaret. Modest in scale and budget, it stands as perhaps the most perfect example of a perfect marriage of building and landscape, and of architecture that stands the test of time. Completed in 1967, the house has cared for – and been cared for by – Peter and Margaret as they raised a family, and is still their home today.
Turn End is one of the projects that inspired Architecture Today to launch its awards for buildings that stand the test of time. So there was a neat symmetry in the fact that the winner of the residential category in this year’s awards was one of its neighbours, Hollick & Bucknall House, and that the architects, Proctor & Matthews, were recommended for the job by Peter Aldington some 25 years ago. The project, along with the other winning buildings, will be published in a special issue of Architecture Today – complete with up-to-date photography by Timothy Soar – in February next year.
The most nerve-wracking – but also the most rewarding – aspect of Architecture Today’s year, was seeing the Regenerative Architecture Index (RAI) take shape. Launched as a partnership between Architecture Today and UK Architects Declare, the Index was launched with clear intentions – to pool collective knowledge, and to benchmark practices by their regenerative policies, actions and working practices as opposed to profitability and size and to – but only the haziest notion of how this might be achieved. The subject seemed too vast and too complex to distill into a clear structure and a concise set of questions. Accusations of greenwashing seemed inevitable. Expecting practices to be generous with their knowledge and open about their failings felt like an impossible ask.
Yet somehow or other, the Index crystallised into a – more or less – coherent programme. Even more miraculously, architectural practices of every size (plus the occasional and extremely welcome entry from an engineer or client) submitted their entries. As a result, we were able to publish a milestone issue of Architecture Today – a compendium of best practice, and an in-depth commentary on the challenges and achievements involved in the quest to move towards regenerative architecture.
You can view all of the responses, in their entirety, in the newly-launched live online platform regenerativearchitecture.org. The front-runners in every category were announced at a surreal-but-spectacular celebration at The Bottle Factory in Peckham, where rock legend, climate activist and professional polymath Brian Eno flitted effortlessly between discussing the state-of-the-nation with Michael Pawlyn, and judging a competition for the most regenerative hat.
Entries for the RAI 2025 are now open. Please take part if you can.
My picks of 2024:
The 2024 Architecture Today Awards for buildings that have stood the test of time
We’ll be publishing video presentations by the teams behind all the winning projects in the New Year. But in the meantime here’s a sneak preview of Tom Bloxham from Urban Splash. The company received an Outstanding Contribution Award in recognition of their 30-year track record of giving existing buildings a new lease of life.
Photograph by Jim Stephenson
Sunspot by HAT Projects
HAT Projects’ carefully tuned decorative shed strikes a balance between utilitarian good sense and a playful pop sensibility while giving Jaywick Sands in Essex the key spaces that it lacked.
Read Charles Holland’s review of Sunspot
Photograph: The Paul Rudolph Institute for Modern Architecture
Boston Government Service Center
While many of Paul Rudolph’s high-maintenance public buildings have faced demolition, one of his most confounding architectural statements stands as an enduring testament to his confrontational style.
Read Ian Volner’s review of Boston Government Service Center
Photograph by Agnese Sanvito
Marks Barfield’s Materials Library
Julia Barfield, Ian Crockford and Thomas Henderson Schwartz discuss how the Climate Emergency is reshaping the practice’s approach to design, construction and materiality.
Read about Marks Barfield Architects’ materials library
Photograph by Jason Orton
Farmworker’s House by Hugh Strange Architects
Hugh Strange Architects has combined domestic and agricultural typologies to produce a carefully considered courtyard house that complements its setting on the north Cornish coast.Â
Know your worth
Félicie Krikler, former director at Assael Architecture and RIBA Council member, outlines a strategy for boosting profitability, diversity and job satisfaction, and explains why underselling is selling out.Â
Read Félicie Krikler’s article
Photograph by Jack Hobhouse
Gateway West/Gateway Central
A pair of high-quality civic-minded office buildings by Gort Scott and Allies and Morrison mediates between a fragmented past and a more connected future at London’s White City.Â
Read Claudia Lynch’s review of Gateway West and Gateway Central
TNG Youth & Community Centre by RCKa
Dieter Kleiner from RCKa reflects on the evolution and long-term impact of Sydenham’s TNG Youth & Community Centre completed in 2013 and a winner in the 2023 Architecture Today Awards. Kleiner is joined by Shaun Suter, one of the original team of youth workers, and Rashan MacDonald who explains how being involved in shaping the project at 13-years-old had a transformative effect on his life.
Watch Dieter Kleiner, Shaun Suter and Rashan MacDonald discuss the TNG Youth & Community Centre
