RIBA award winners nearly halved

Andrea Klettner

Scotland: Bogbain Mill, Maryburgh by Rural Design

Source: Andrew Lee

Institute re-evaluates entry system to eliminate ‘soft’ awards as Stirling Prize longlist is cut from 97 to 59

The RIBA will hand out almost half the number of RIBA Awards this year, admitting that it had been too soft judging entries in the past.

A total of 59 buildings, including nine in Europe, are named on the 2012 Stirling Prize longlist, compared to 97 last year.

Tony Chapman, RIBA head of awards, said: “We felt our RIBA Award was not worth as much as it once was, so we re-evaluated that.”

He said awards were given to borderline cases meaning there were “a number of ‘soft’ RIBA Awards”.

This year was the first time practices could enter projects for the RIBA Awards and the RIBA Regional Awards simultaneously. This has resulted in 739 entries, approximately 100 more entries compared to last year.

 “Having created the one-point entry system we could look at the value of an RIBA Award and we saw that it has decreased by 50% over the last 10 years,” said Chapman. “We felt it was important to maintain a standard.”

The most named practice on this year’s awards list is Stanton Williams, BD’s 2011 Architect of the Year, gaining three awards for the Sainsbury Laboratory at the University of Cambridge, the Hackney Marshes Centre in east London and the new Central Saint Martins campus at King’s Cross.

David Chipperfield received two awards for the Hepworth Wakefield and the Turner Contemporary in Margate, while Dixon Jones was lauded for its Exhibition Road project. Newcastle-based Xsite Architecture won an award for its work on the Toffee Factory.

Jonathan Hendry, last year’s YAYA winner, won an award for the Caistor Arts and Heritage Centre in Lincolnshire.

RIBA president Angela Brady said: “The judges were delighted to see so many well considered, crafted and innovative projects, and the use of beautiful materials; these projects are truly exciting and inspiring.”

Maggie’s Centres once again featured among the winners, including OMA’s in Gartnavel, Glasgow, and Kisho Kurokawa’s in Swansea.

The 2012 Olympic Stadium, designed by Populous, and Glenn Howell’s housing scheme in Swindon for Kevin McCloud also made the cut.

European winners included Robin Lee Architecture’s Wexford County Council Headquarters and Rogers Stirk Harbour and Partners Las Arenas in Barcelona.

 

The 50 UK RIBA Award winners:

SCOTLAND

NORTHERN IRELAND

NORTH EAST

Regional Award winners

NORTH WEST

Regional Award winners

YORKSHIRE

Regional Award winners

WALES

Regional Award winners

WEST MIDLANDS

Regional Award winners

EAST MIDLANDS

Regional Award winners

EAST

Regional Award winners

SOUTH WEST & WESSEX

Regional Award winners

SOUTH

Regional Award winners

SOUTH EAST

Regional Award winners

LONDON

Regional Award winners

 

European Union RIBA Award winners:

 

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