RIBA ANNOUNCES ITS NATIONAL AWARDS FOR 2023

[ON 22 JUNE the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) announced the 30 winners of the 2023 RIBA National Awards for architecture. The awards, which have been presented since 1966, recognise the UK’s best new buildings and provide insight into the country’s architecture, design and social trends. The 2023 awards are sponsored by Forterra.

From an intricately patterned extension to a listed synagogue that is the Manchester Jewish Museum (pictured) and a fish bone-shaped bridge in a community park – Swing Bridge – to the remodelling of a theatre to create an immersive cabaret experience in The Kit Kat Club, this year’s winning projects showcase the extraordinary breadth and brilliance of UK architecture today.

Key themes among this year’s award winners include building communities in a post-pandemic world and modelling sustainability.

Building communities in a post-pandemic world

This year’s awards feature a range of generous buildings that enrich their communities, creating opportunities for people to connect.

The University of Warwick’s Faculty of Arts brings students from all arts disciplines together under one roof for the first time, offering dynamic and open spaces that foster collaboration. The John Morden Centre in Greenwich provides older people with homes, stimulating social spaces and care facilities, and in north east London, Lea Bridge Library Pavilion extends an Edwardian public library to provide an engaging new community café space overlooking a garden.

In Birmingham, a development of mews houses enclose a communal garden, deliberately blurring the boundary between private and public space to promote a sense of community. In east London, an innovative and affordable live/work model provides resident artists with spaces to deliver free creative programmes for the neighbourhood.

The refurbishment and extension of a gym in London’s Holborn has created a more accessible and visible community building and two award winners form part of a wider regeneration plan in London’s Camden: Central Somers Town Community Facilities and Housing includes a post-school club and adventure playground, while Edith Neville Primary School replaces a dilapidated 1970s building and extends the surrounding parkland.

Modelling sustainability

RIBA’s National Awards continue to evolve to encourage best practice in sustainable development. All the projects have been ‘in use’ for at least one year and have submitted data demonstrating their environmental performance.

Examples of sustainable design and development include the regeneration of the Agar Grove Estate in Camden, described as being ‘on track’ to becoming the UK’s largest Passivhaus scheme. An extension to a traditional 17th-century longhouse set in the Brecon Beacons is an exceptional example of using locally sourced materials and workmanship, designed to minimise environmental impact; and in the historic Woolwich Arsenal a series of Grade Two-listed buildings have been reinvented as a flexible arts venue.

Commenting on the winning projects, RIBA president Simon Allford said: “At this time, when building collaboratively and working towards a sustainable future are paramount, the 2023 RIBA National Award winners offer a rich source of inspiration. Each project looks, in its own way, to address both its client brief and the wider role architecture can play in serving society.

“Among the winners are a number of projects that offer a model for an architecture that is more widely responsible. These buildings intelligently illustrate the potential of well-designed spaces to bring people together and, ultimately, architecture’s power to change our world for the better.

“Our awards are a marker of progressive excellence in sustainable design, very much aligned with our wider commitment to a low carbon future. These are examples of forward thinking and ingenuity that raise the bar for us all.”

The full list of 30 winners are available to view on the RIBA website at www.architecture.com q