In this issue: Timothy Soar revisits winners of the 2024 AT Awards documenting them as they are now, having stood the test of time; we hear from architects and clients on what made their projects so successful; Tom Bloxham reflects on 30 years of Urban Splash and Fernando Sordo Madaleno on Mexico City.
The cover of AT335 features the National Theatre which Haworth Tompkins refurbished as part of the ‘NT Future’ programme – work that saw the project named as a winner in the 2024 AT Awards. (Photo Tim Soar)
This issue celebrates the winning projects in the 2024 Architecture Today Awards for buildings that have stood the test of time, and captures some of the conversations that have been prompted by the awards. We have particularly enjoyed the reunions between architects and clients; not just a chance to reminisce, but a reminder that for the client, the project’s completion was not so much an end point as a beginning; the start of a relationship with their building that is still very much alive.
Take Sarah Dunning, the client for Gloucester Services designed by Howells. The project won countless awards on its completion but, as she says, “Ten years ago we hadn’t proved the concept. We feel we’re some way down the line with it now.” Or Jo Eke, from Sulis Hospital by Foster + Partners, who explains how the building has lent itself to extension, allowing the hospital to offer increased support to the NHS. Or Urban Splash, which set up shop in Timber Wharf, designed with Howells more than 20 years ago, and has stayed there ever since. Or Paul Jozefowski from the National Theatre, currently grappling with the challenge of building on the success of Haworth Tompkins’ NT Future project to make the theatre fit for purpose for the next 25 years.
The Architecture Today Awards are not only an opportunity to learn from clients’ experience, but also to salute their foresight; to recognise the lasting value of decisions that were taken years ago and to celebrate a successful relationship between architect and client. Entries for the 2025 awards are now open at architecture today.co.uk/at-awards/. What better excuse to pick up the phone to an old client; to catch up on your project’s progress; and perhaps to hatch new plans?
Inside the January-February 2025 issue of Architecture Today:
Specially commissioned up-to-date photography of the winners in the Architecture Today Awards – Timothy Soar travels up and down the country to capture the winning projects in the test of time awards as they are today.
Glenn Howells, Sasha Bhavan and Ian Ritchie are just some of the architects who discuss their award-winning projects with collaborators and clients, and discuss the way the buildings have stood the test of time.
Tom Bloxham looks back on 30 years of Urban Splash – Tom Bloxham explains how Urban Splash defied the naysayers to create a successful business out of breathing new life into buildings that had been written off as having passed their sell-by date
My kind of town – Fernando Sordo Madaleno explains how Mexico City’s melodramatic, multi-layered city has been shaped by a history of cataclysmic events.
