Judge’s Comments
01 Commercial unbuilt
Winner: Coal Chutes
Although set in the commercial category, the project explicitly puts the community first. It operates according to the architect’s 5 sustainable de-growth principles that align perfectly with the client’s aspiration to have a light, locally sourced, affordable workspace scheme. We commend the project for its successful efforts in thoroughly implementing local materials, reusing existing structures and providing ample space for the community to inhabit with their own activity.
02 Commercial built
Winner: First White Cloth Hall
The project incorporates a listed heritage building which is restored, repaired and extended. The new additions present a clear hierarchy between the old and the new. The contemporary does not override the existing but ensures equal dignity, highlighting the monumental and the original. In this way, the new provides knowledge of the past.
03 Multi-residential Unbuilt
Winner: Phoenix Works
The project has a compact, clean, simple internal scheme and elegant appearance. The unit floorplans are functionally well resolved. Particularly impressive are the collective spaces and amenities. The attention to their design results in a high-quality domestic environment that enhances a sense of community. Additionally, the quality materialisation of the interior and the façade with the bay windows exude exceptional dignity and appeal.
04 Multi residential Built
Winner: Campus East Gateway Student Residences, University of York
The building is well embedded in the campus and its landscape. The attention given to framing the views and enhancing the relationship with the surrounding pastoral landscape is a remarkable feat. The architectural expression is clear and rational, and the material detailing in brick and concrete gives it refined sophistication.
05 One off unbuilt
Winner: Moor House
The category was full of high-quality projects, but this project stood out with its soft and almost dreamy presentation that immediately communicates the house’s atmosphere. The project draws from the local vernacular architecture and does so in a sensible yet contemporary way, resulting in a rich mixture of materials, textures and light. Even in this design phase, it shows attention to detail expected from later execution stages. The functional distribution in the floor plan is well resolved.
06 One off unbuilt
Winner: Project 465 The Firs Bowdon
The family house extension presents itself well to the public through an elegant elevation from the street. The sleek gabled volume clad in dark brick on top of a concrete base is a simple yet powerful gesture, brilliantly attached to the old structure with a refined glass link.
07 Community unbuilt
Winner: The Iron
An appealing architectural folly that sits beautifully in the landscape. Its complexity is hidden in the execution, which we hope to encourage by giving this accolade. Achieving the wanted texture, sloping of the walls, as well as the sharpness of the edges is quite a feat in construction—an extremely promising project.
08 Community built
Winner: Yoko Ono Lennon Centre
The distribution of spaces is brilliant – stacking the auditoriums results in a compact footprint and allows for a good connection with the campus. The appearance of the Centre is fitting to its programme – it is immediately recognisable by the brick colour and intricate details but imposing in the simplicity of the overall volume.
09 Small project
Winner: Photographers studio
As an annexe to the main house, the studio assumes its character in the same material and volume. However, detailing and appearance communicate the presence of a contemporary aesthetic, both on the outside and inside. Extremely well executed.
10 Future Architect
Winner: Benjamin Carter
The selected project balances well between the ever-present economic and environmental demands for reinvention and retention. The design chooses to diversify the homogeneity of the existing camps by bringing in new functions complementary to the existing architectural typologies. New additions are placed where necessary and coherently connect to the existing complex. Seeing this level of mature thinking and presentation at a student level is impressive.
