The winners have been announced in the inaugural Architecture Today Awards for buildings that stand the test of time.

The Architecture Today Awards, sponsored by Amtico, Schueco and SIG, represent a cultural shift away from celebrating newness and towards a focus on longevity. In stark contrast to most awards programmes, the Architecture Today Awards has only considered projects that have been in use for at least three years and which can demonstrate a strong track record for delivering on their environmental, functional, community and cultural ambitions.

Awards – fabricated by VMZINC – were given out in nine categories: Workplace; Mixed Use & Retail; Healthcare; Residential; Religion & Culture; Education; Hospitality & Leisure; Infrastructure, Landscape & Public realm; International, and an Editor’s Award. The jury also awarded a special commendation to Cressingham Gardens Estate by Lambeth Borough Architects Department in recognition of the fact that it represents the best of the 1970s public housing projects and has helped to forge a strong community that has successfully fought plans for the demolition of the estate.

Video presentations from all 31 finalists are available to view as a shared learning resource, detailing the lessons that can be learnt from the way buildings adapt, evolve and perform.

Winning projects

Education

Project: Cockcroft Building, University of Brighton
Architect: FBM Architects
Completed: 2017
Photo: Richard Chivers

Judges comments:
“In the foggy world of ‘adaptive use’ this project presents a very simple yet well executed re-design approach. It offers hope for many buildings in the UK and western Europe, an exemplar approach, execution and highly deserving of an award.” Hanif Kara

“It is wonderful to see that the beautiful original structure can be so expressively revealed and enhanced.” David Partridge

“This is a very clever reinvention of a rather good looking and well considered post war education facility – but one that was fraught with many challenges. What the architects have done is an exemplar of what I like to call reinvention; all very much in vogue today. The project, however, is distinguished because it was in fact done a few years back when the vogue was but emerging, and most educational projects were designed as much as a shiny image for the front cover of a prospectus as for student inhabitation. Cockcroft, a reinvention of a brave new invention, has proven to be ahead of its time.” Simon Allford

Healthcare

Project: Clock View Hospital, Liverpool
Architect: Medical Architecture
Completed: 2015
Photo: Jennie Webb

Judges comments:
“A mental health facility located in a troubled district of Liverpool, Clock View is a very secure facility not that different in brief to a prison. And yet it connects well with its neighbours presenting a welcoming white-yet-warm domestic architecture that has an appropriate civic presence that both welcomes visitors and helps to calm residents. Its well planted gardens have matured beautifully and offer delight to all who pass through and by.” Simon Allford

“If any form of architecture can transform the quality of life then it is in the medical sphere. The judges were particularly impressed by the attention given to the experience of friends and relatives visiting the hospital. The step change from the previous building was remarkable. This is the architecture of dignity and humanism.” Peter Bishop

“The scheme has proven that the taking of real care with the way that vulnerable people use a building, can truly stand the test of time.” David Partridge

Hospitality & Leisure

Project: The Standard Hotel, London
Architect: Orms
Completed: 2019
Photo: Timothy Soar

Judges comments:
“The Standard Hotel is an example of the careful insertion of a hotel inside a building that was originally built as offices. It is also an extension of the existing building transforming it into a landmark and giving it a larger scale which is more in tune with its Victorian neighbouring buildings. It is a wonderful example of building on top of an existing building reminiscent of cathedral building.” Farshid Moussavi

“More than 90% of the structure has been retained while flexibility and adaptability have been baked into the building’s future with the use of lightweight partitioning that allows rooms to be flexed or removed should any of the building revert to office space. Energy performance is optimised with passive and active technologies. Overall, the project is a fantastic demonstration of the benefits of refurbishment in delivering sustainable developments without compromising on design.” Lee Mallett

Infrastructure, Landscape & Public Realm

Project: Thames Barrier Park, London
Architect: Patel Taylor Architects and Allain Provost
Completed: 2000
Photo: Phil Riley

Judges comments:
“The most refreshing and convincing aspect of this project is that it needed an imagination that surpasses what most of us are used to in order, not only to conceive a unique design, but more importantly to spend so many years holding onto the key principles that would only become evident over time. I applaud all concerned as often ‘design’ is value engineered out in many infrastructure scale projects.” Hanif Kara

“Designed in the 1990s, this is still one of London’s most exciting pieces of landscape. It is also a rare example of the power of landscape to mould the city around it. The simplicity of the design is beguiling. Actually it is a wonderfully complex composition with the central diagonal sunken garden providing a rich sheltered space that contrasts with the openness of the rest of the park in the way that a walled garden might sit next to open parkland. Over the 25 years since its completion the landscape has matured yet the original design concept still holds. This is an exemplar that we should still be learning from.” Peter Bishop

“Once a fledgling oasis in a sea of hardcore, the park has helped bring forward and define a better standard of urban design and dwelling around it. A great example of the axiom ‘build it and they will come’ and in this case one can add they will build better too!” Simon Allford

Mixed Use & Retail

Project: Alex Monroe Studio, London
Architect: DSDHA
Completed: 2012
Photo: Dennis Gilbert/VIEW

Judges comments:
“The craft and care given to this tiny studio is testament to the commitment of the client and architect and gets the most out of this small end of terrace site. This is a beautiful building that brings new life and much needed makers space to this central London location.” Sarah Allan

“The narrative around the use of exposed structural timber throughout gives this project a strong poetic feel to the spaces created with a discreet relationship to the light and views outside. More than ten years on, this pocket site sets an example of durable use of low carbon materials with utmost creativity in the smallest of urban plot sites, a skill to be celebrated.” Marion Baeli

“We shape our buildings, and then they shape us”, as Churchill once said of the debating chamber of the House of Commons. A tiny studio, workshop and showroom have served to define Alex Monroe’s work as a jeweller over the years.” Deyan Sudjic

Religion & Culture

Project: Snape Maltings, Suffolk
Architect: Penoyre & Prasad
Completed: 1999
Photo: Peter Cook/VIEW

Judges comments:
“Sunand Prasad offered a masterclass in how buildings can learn at Snape Maltings. This was already a pioneer of adaptive re-use when Derek Sugden of Arup transformed the maltings into a world-class performance space for Britten and Piers in the 60s. Penoyre & Prasad skilfully enhanced the venue, functionally, aesthetically and culturally in ways that have not only enhanced the audience experience over the last ten years, but have also contributed to an upgrade to Grade II* listed status.” Ben Derbyshire

“This project, an adaptative re-use of a previous great Malt House, stands as a proof that the sensitive engineering approach on this project (both structural and MEP), make it an exemplar resilient project to be celebrated.” Marion Baeli

“It’s an inspiration to see how collaboration between the whole design team resulted, not in grand interventions but modest and essential alterations creating spaces that everyone can access and enjoy.” Sarah Allan

Residential

Project: Abode, Great Kneighton, Cambridgeshire
Architect: Proctor & Matthews Architects
Completed:2018
Photo: Tim Crocker

Judges comments:
“The ‘green lanes’ concept illustrated in the masterplan is clear to see in the completed development. This project demonstrates the importance of considering the role of landscape and planting at the earliest stages of the masterplanning process and the value that an understanding of nature and urban design can bring to residential development.” Sarah Allan

“A masterplan should be an idea, rather than an attempt to design a very large piece of architecture. Great Kneighton is based on several impressive ideas that succeed in making somewhere out of what could easily have been nowhere.” Deyan Sudjic

“Proctor & Matthews’ housing at Abode was a bravura performance of sensitive reinterpretation of Cambridgeshire village vernacular forms and spaces from the start. A decade on, the design amply manifests its sustainable credentials with homes that are well loved, robust and flexible, and a lush public realm revealed in before and after images that burst with increased biodiversity.” Ben Derbyshire

Workplace

Project: Wessex Water Operations Centre, Bath
Architect: Bennetts Associates
Completed: 2001
Photo: Peter Cook/VIEW

Judges comments:
“It is a best-case example of how all architects should have been thinking at the time, and in many ways, are still catching up.” Farshid Moussavi

“This project demonstrates a clear lineage of Bennetts Associates work in learning from previous projects to create a mixed-mode low-energy office campus which, unfortunately, is still an exemplary model today.” Asif Din

“When it was completed the building achieved the highest BREEAM rating for a commercial office building, attaining standards comparable to low-carbon targets being set today in 2023. The building also trialled the Building Research Establishment’s new Envest software to minimise lifetime embodied carbon – the first UK building to do so on a large scale. The fact that the owner says he wouldn’t change a thing shows that this is very much a building that has stood the test of time.” Lee Mallett

International

Project: University of Amsterdam
Architect: Allford Hall Monaghan Morris
Completed: 2017
Photo: Timothy Soar

Judges comments:
“The University of Amsterdam is a wonderful example of a conversation between old and new, between two architectural practices across a wide span of time. It is bold, yet sensitive to the urban setting as well as the original design. It shows us that preserving what exists does not need to deny us of our contemporary needs and aspirations and that buildings can be approached as works in progress.” Farshid Moussavi

“This is a bold adaptive transformation of a part-built masterplan that was not fit for purpose. The alterations create a useful campus that creates the right moves to reintegrate the university back into the city.” Asif Din

“AHMM worked with the university for eight years to hone plans to remodel City Architect Norbert Gawronski’s 1964 megastructure, strengthening connections with the city and its canal system. AHMM adapted their own Sustainability Toolkit reviews to achieve desired outcomes across three key categories of People, Carbon and Energy, and Ecology. The remodelled ‘Open Campus’ opened in 2017: a new chapter for the 58-year old campus, and that of the 400-year university.” Lee Mallett

Editor’s award

Project: New Court, Trinity College, Cambridge
Architect: 5th Studio
Completed: 2016
Photo: Timothy Soar

Judges comments:
“The opportunity for design research that draws in micro scientific approaches is rare – this team identified an opportunity to take this on and created a rigorous approach to challenging conventions around conservation. The application of the research, and the impact on the project, should and will be replicated. We should be grateful for the team’s willingness to share this work.” Hanif Kara

“William Wilkins’ New Court has already lated over two centuries. It has even had the difficult Grade 1 Listed accolade bestowed upon it. This project addresses a vital design question: when the outside and inside are both listed, where does the wiring, plumbing and insulation go? This team has delivered a sympathetic yet critically intelligent model for creating Banham’s well-tempered environment in a way that met with Historic England’s approval. This is a 21st century reinvention of what Cedric Price termed a ‘medieval castle with 13amp plugs’.” Simon Allford

The judging process

The winners were drawn from a shortlist of 32 finalists selected by a panel of technical experts measuring key areas of performance criteria, including construction approach, environmental performance, user comfort and well-being, accessibility, inclusivity and legibility, adaptability and flexibility, facilitation of sustainable lifestyles, robustness and resilience, biodiversity and natural capital, social impact, civic pride and sense of place, and contribution to shared learning.

Finalists were then invited to make the case for their project at a day of live crits in front of a jury including:

Sarah Allan, Head of Architecture at the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities
Simon Allford, RIBA President and Executive Director AHMM
Marion Baeli, Partner, PDP
Nana Biamah-Ofosu, Co-founder, Studio NYALI
Peter Bishop, former Director Design for London
Ben Derbyshire, Chair, HTA and RIBA Past President
Asif Din, Sustainability Director, Perkins&Will
Roger Harrabin, Environmental Analyst, BBC
Hanif Kara, Co-founder and Design Director, ATKII
Despina Katsikakis, Executive Partner, Global Head of Total Workplace, Cushman & Wakefield
Matt Kennedy, Associate Director, Carbon and Climate Lead, Arup
Farshid Moussavi, Founder, Farshid Moussavi Architecture
David Partridge, Chairman, Argent Related
Deyan Sudjic, curator, editor and writer and Director Emeritus of the Design Museum
Amin Taha, Chairman, GROUPWORK
Heather Topel, Director of Development, Grosvenor

The judging was chaired by AT Editor Isabel Allen, Catherine Burd of Burd Haward Architects and Lee Mallett of Urbik.

Watch out for the May/June issue of Architecture Today for coverage of the winning projects accompanied by specially commissioned up-to-date photography by Timothy Soar.