RIBA London awards winners: Alexandra Palace, London Bridge station and The Ned shortlisted for national architecture awards

The winners of the Royal Institute of British Architecture's Regional Awards will now be put forward for the national awards next month.
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Aneira Davies21 May 2019

Alexandra Palace, London Bridge station and The Ned are among the new London buildings shortlisted for the RIBA National Awards 2019.

Winners of the RIBA London Awards were announced at a ceremony tonight. Those who made it will now be entered into the UK-wide awards in June.

The winning architecture projects include the upgrade of London Bridge station as well as the meticulous conservation of both Alexandra Palace and The Royal Naval College’s Painted Hall.

Director of RIBA London, Dian Small, said the range of project types this year was eclectic and diverse, incorporating public sector housing projects, school extensions and conservation projects, which celebrate the very best new buildings in London.

"2019 winning projects range from a one-bedroom private house which spans the length of two private garages to one of the busiest train stations in the country," she said.

"Once again, all winning buildings demonstrate the extremely high standard of design quality in London and the breadth of its architectural output.”

As well as being shortlisted for the national awards, some of the 47 London projects awarded 2019 RIBA Regional Awards also received special commendations for their conservation or sustainable work.

Further special awards were awarded to the below London buildings:

Alexandra Palace – RIBA London Conservation Award

The East Wing of Alexandra Palace has benefitted from a £27 million restoration by design practice Feilden Clegg Bradley.

The regeneration has retained the unique character of the historic space and opened up the 19th century theatre, back in use after 80 years of neglect. Furthermore, the two main spaces have been carefully restored.

The Painted Hall – RIBA London Conservation Award

Grade I-listed The Painted Hall was designed by Sir Christopher Wren in 1696 and is one of the most important Baroque painted interiors in Europe.

The £8.5 million conservation project undertaken by Hugh Broughton Architects took two years and has reversed years of decay, creating a new entrance and welcome space and opening up the vaulted King William Undercroft, which has been fully revealed for the first time in 100 years.

A stone floor, bespoke joinery and glazed screen were installed to protect the hall, while 3,700 square metres of painted surfaces have been painstakingly conserved in the process.

Battersea Arts Centre – RIBA London Client of the Year Award

Designed by E W Mountford in 1893, the Grade II-listed Battersea Town Hall has been home to the arts centre since 1974.

After a 12 year restoration by Haworth Tomkins, it has now been transformed into a community space that celebrates the building’s notable history and involvement in the suffragette movement and forms a new creative space.

There’s now a new outdoor theatre space, rooftop garden, 35 performance spaces and a creative hub in the basement, while the Grand Hall, which was partially destroyed in a fire in 2015, now boasts an open plywood lattice effect roof, new ceiling panels and doors.

London Bridge station – RIBA London Building of the Year

The £1 billion makeover to regenerate and streamline London Bridge station for Network Rail has been the biggest railway upgrade since Victorian times.

Construction took over five years to complete, with the building works being undertaken while the station remained open. It was finished in January 2018.

Following the overhaul by Grimshaw architects, the station now features a huge 15-platform concourse bigger than the pitch at Wembley, fully accessible facilities and remodelled tracks to allow more trains to travel through London. Its smart new brick frontage can be admired from Tooley Street.

Max Fordham House – RIBA London Sustainability Award

This mews house in Camden, a collaboration between physicist and engineer Max Fordhams and bere:architects, includes plenty of sustainable details.

The house features insulated automatic shutters designed to reduce heat loss.

Its most impressive feature, however, is that it gathers and conserves heat throughout the year to prepare for the colder months, meaning there’s no need for a heating system.

The concept is being tested in the hope that it can provide an efficient heating system for low-cost housing projects.

Richard Tubb of EPR Architects for The Ned – RIBA London Project Architect of the Year

Soho House's stylish hotel and venue with restaurants, bars and leisure facilities, The Ned is housed in a Grade I-listed building originally designed by Sir Edwin 'Ned' Lutyens in 1939.

EPR Architects were instructed to act as lead designers in the conversion of the former Midland Bank.

Sensitively restored interiors, including stone spiral and marble staircases, original boardrooms and bank vaults, complement modern additions to reception areas and all 252 guest rooms.

Torriano Primary School STEM Lab – RIBA London Small Project Award

When architects Hayhurst and Co remodelled an existing two-storey turret to create a STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) ‘activity lab’ for a Kentish Town school, they opened up the space to its full advantage and extended into the roof.

Clever details for the reimagined space include a main activity zone with plywood ‘portals’ to encourage practical teaching, while a new plywood staircase leads to a small mezzanine so students can overlook their projects from above.

Meanwhile, fold-down demonstration desks and shelving nooks maximise the use of space in the STEM lab, while a new roof terrace creates a space where students can grow plants.

All winning buildings are now in the running for the RIBA National Awards, where winners will be announced on Thursday 27 June 2019.