2018 Project of the Year: RICS Awards, London

Building Conservation

14 Fournier Street, Spitalfields, Tower Hamlets

Julian Harrap Architects have completed an impressive restoration of 14 Fournier Street. The house was built in 1726 by joiner and woodworker, William Taylor. The project involved refurbishment, with repairs to the historic fabric, and sympathetic modernisation. The architectural aim for the project was to bring the house to present day standards, address the very serious structural issues and present a comfortable home, whilst retaining the evidence of history, structural distress and severe wear and tear through almost three centuries.

The project was delivered by: Julian Harrap Architects LLP, Fullers Builders

Commercial

White Collar Factory, Old Street

White Collar Factory is the result of an eight-year research project, it comprises of a six-building complex at Old Street Yard including offices, studios, incubator space, restaurants and apartments set around a new piece of public realm, with a sixteen-storey tower at its heart. Together, these 27,200 square metre buildings provide a bold new marker for Old Street as well as creating a new, more permeable section of the city that references the alleys and passageways of the historic urban grain.

The project was delivered by: AECOM, Allford Hall Monaghan Morris, Multiplex

Community Benefit

Nordoff Robbins, Highgate

Nordoff Robbins, the largest independent music therapy charity in the UK, has refurbished an existing building in Highgate to become the world’s first purpose built facility for music therapy. Its flagship centre embodies the ethos that music breaks down the barriers of illness and enables everyone to find a voice. Designed by Bradley Van Der Straeten, the centre has been developed to help change the lives of vulnerable and isolated people through the practice of music therapy.

The project was delivered by: Malcolm Hollis, Bradley Van Der Straeten Architects, City Heights

Highly Commended: Crossway Church, Southwark

The project was delivered by: Mott MacDonald, van Heyningen and Haward Architects, Osborne

Design through Innovation

The Bridge Theatre, Tower Bridge

The Bridge Theatre is a new commercial Theatre in London, the first of large scale for 40 years, built for the new London Theatre Company founded by Sir Nick Hytner and Nick Starr who formally ran the National Theatre. The theatre has a 900-1000 audience flexible format auditorium designed by Haworth Tompkins in collaboration with the client team and Tait Stage Technologies. The auditorium is ground breaking both in its design and construction.

The project was delivered by: Bristow Johnson & Partners, Haworth Tompkins, Rise Contracts

Infrastructure

Ruskin Square MSCP, Croydon

The Ruskin Square MSCP, an existing 2468 square metre, 1960s concrete frame building forms a major component of the Opportunity Area Planning Framework adjacent to East Croydon main railway station now providing a first class multistorey car park, fully refurbished and repaired for the public as part of the wider Ruskin Square development, the first phase of which has been developed by Croydon Gateway Ltd Partnership: a joint venture partnership between Stanhope plc and the Schroders Real Estate Fund.

This project was delivered by: AECOM, Potter Church & Holmes Architects, Lendlease

Regeneration

Woodberry Down, Finsbury Park

Woodberry Down in Hackney is one of the London’s largest estate regeneration projects providing place-shaping, social and economic change on an inspiring scale. The concepts of placemaking and people sit at the heart of the 30-year development project, which on completion in 2035 will see 1,890 existing homes replaced by over 5,500 mixed-tenure, new build homes: 1,479 have been delivered to date, along with 2.61 acres of award-winning parkland and new amenities.

The project was delivered by: Berkeley Homes, Hawkins Brown

Residential

Royal Albert Wharf, Newham

Situated in the heart of the Royal Albert Basin, phase one of Royal Albert Wharf is part of a superb phased development that will ultimately provide over 1,500 new homes and commercial premises as part of the wider Docklands regeneration. The development has been designed around three distinct character areas; Dockside, Riverfront, and Residential Heart, and offers a unique residential setting and outstanding community amenities to an otherwise underused brownfield land and largely unpopulated part of East London.

The project was delivered by: Galliford Try Partnerships, RMA

Tourism & Leisure

The Royal Academy of Music Theatre and New Recital Hall, Marylebone

The Royal Academy of Music’s Theatre and new Recital Hall project has created two distinct, outstanding performance spaces for Britain’s oldest conservatoire.

The overall concept seamlessly integrates the two quite different, exceptional performance spaces within the historic context of the Academy site. The Theatre, designed for both opera and musical theatre productions, now forms the heart of the Academy. The Recital Hall above exploits the last major area into which the Academy could expand, provides state-of-the-art recording facilities.

The project was delivered by: Equals Consulting, Ian Ritchie Architects, Geoffrey Osborne Ltd