This year’s Small Project of the Year finalists include a private residence, a youth centre, a creative arts hub and an architect’s own office
The winners of the Building Magazine Small Project of the Year category will be announced at the Building Awards, which will be held on Wednesday 2 April at the Grosvenor House hotel in London. To see the shortlists for all categories and to book tickets, go to: www.building-awards.com.
Number 23
Architect MATT Architecture
Client Matt White
Contractor MI Builders
Submitted by MATT Architecture
Value £0.52m
The London terraced street is one of the most ubiquitous urban typologies in the capital. Most retain the recognisable Victorian characteristics of bay windows and pitched roofs but this new-build house added to the end of one such terrace radically reinterprets this familiar streetscape to create something exhilarating and new. The four-bedroom property presents a starkly contemporary exterior with a flat roof, white render walls and vertical shafts of glazing. Internally it is also 30% bigger than its traditional neighbours while occupying a 20% smaller site, thereby addressing in its own small way the density issues that will become increasingly critical as cities expand. This is a highly bespoke commission that has been extensively customised for the lifestyle and aspirations of its owners. But it boldly challenges established perceptions within residential design about aesthetics and functionality and sets an ambitious precedent for how these considerations can evolve.
Creative Arts Hub, City College Norwich
Architect BDP
Client City College Norwich
Contractor John Graham Construction
Submitted by BDP
Value £4.6m
This arts facility in Norwich combines powerful massing with a studied vernacular sensitivity. Dramatically expressed as two gabled barns clad in black shiplap boarding, the building instantly engages in the rural aesthetic of East Anglia. But its crisp detailing, flush windows and glazed gable-end facades also reveal a confident modern character. Inside, students enjoy double-height gallery spaces and an innovative circulation plan that presents pockets of social space around an airy central area.
Britten-Pears Archive
Architect Stanton Williams
Client Britten-Pears Foundation
Contractor RG Carter
Submitted by Stanton Williams
Value £2m
This delightful little pavilion displays two of Stanton Williams’ key architectural strengths: its mastery of cool, streamlined geometries and the ease with which it is able to immerse new buildings into the landscape. The archive at Benjamin Britten’s former home in Aldeburgh, Suffolk, houses the composer’s extensive collection of music manuscripts, letters, photographs and recordings under one roof for the first time. Its brickwork and proportions, delicately expressed through punched openings and a gently protruding colonnade, quietly complement the grade II-listed Edwardian manor house next door while retaining a defined contemporary identity all of its own. Inside, the building reveals a vigorous sustainability strategy through the use of an insulated inner box within the brick envelope, around which swirls a ventilated buffer zone that provides solar and thermal protection for the foundation’s precious artefacts.
Green Man Community Hub
Architect Black Architecture
Client Phoenix Community Housing Association
Contractor Osborne
Submitted by Baily Garner
Value £5m
Green Man Community Hub in north London aims to be a community centre with a difference. Not only does it house offices for social landlord Phoenix Community Housing Association, but it also contains a cafe, credit union, market square, venue space and training kitchen. All of these amenities are arranged beneath a distinctive sawtoothed roof in a continuous double-height space that is intended to express principles of community empowerment. The space is bathed in natural light, uses natural materials such as timber and bark and displays bright colours and soft furnishings to create a warm and inviting atmosphere. A committed sustainability strategy is also evident in the use of rainwater harvesting, PV panels and solar tubes.
The Foundry
Architect Cullinan Studio
Client Cullinan Studio
Contractor Jerram Falkus Construction
Submitted by Cullinan Studio
Value £1.35m
After building your own house, the ultimate architectural fantasy is to construct your own office. In a derelict listed Victorian terrace by a canal in north London, Cullinan Studio has done just that. The low-energy retrofit focused on the insertion of a horizontal steel truss structure, which provides support for a leaning external wall as well as new studio and circulation space. A void between truss and external wall allows the interior to benefit from light and natural ventilation from generous double-height windows, and the building also uses an air source heat pump and PV panels. The Foundry harnesses sensitive conservation design and advanced sustainability technologies to breathe new life into an old building.
Maggie’s Aberdeen
Architect Snøhetta
Client Maggie’s Cancer Caring Centres
Contractor Robertson Construction (Eastern)
Submitted by Robertson Construction
Value £3m
Maggie’s cancer care centres are synonymous with radical contemporary design but celebrated Norwegian architect Snøhetta has still been able to introduce something new with its first UK commission. The Maggie’s care philosophy is centred on providing warm, accessible environments that maintain an almost domestic intimacy and Snøhetta responded to this brief by conceiving its building as a curved, protective concrete shell with soft internal lighting and natural timber internal walls. But it is contractor Robertson Construction and its clever use of supply chain efficiencies that has turned this concept into reality by overcoming a number of technical and structural challenges. These included developing a system wherein flexible timber runners and pegs were attached to the concrete frame and minutely adjusted before the application of render to ensure that the continuous curved profile was achieved.
The Knauf Building
Architect Allford Hall Monaghan Morris (AHMM)
Client Knauf Drywall
Contractors Kempton Smith and Knauf
Submitted by AHMM
Value £1.8m
With its sheer white walls, swooping cantilevers, rectilinear massing and clean horizontal lines, this dynamic, pavilion-like building in Sittingbourne, Kent, could well have been exported straight from the heyday of thirties modernism. The honed, stark minimalism continues inside with solid stair balusters and sweeping lobbies sleekly finished in vivid white. In an office sector all too often stifled by monotonous anonymity, the Knauf Building harnesses forensic simplicity and practical efficiency both to moderate costs and to animate a corporate client with a powerful and unique sense of character.
New Generation
Architect RCKa
Client Lewisham council
Contractor Mansell
Submitted by RCKa
Value £3.5m
Recent funding changes have created a significant amount of construction or refurbishment activity within the inner city youth centre sector and New Generation in south London is one of the most prominent examples of this growing market. This robust box structure instantly announces its radicalising agenda and contemporary character by its elevations boldly expressing themselves as a strong rectilinear grid punctuated by sheets of corrugated translucent polycarbonate. Internally, the perforated grid theme continues, constantly shifting and mutating along walls, floors and ceilings to create a series of flexible, open and democratic spaces to be used for a variety of activities. The design process was as inventive as the end product, heavily engaging with and consulting young people to craft a building that is as much a cultural expression of its users as it is a physical product of the team that built it.
The winners of the Building Magazine Small Project of the Year category will be announced at the Building Awards, which will be held on Wednesday 2 April at the Grosvenor House hotel in London. To see the shortlists for all categories and to book tickets, go to: www.building-awards.com.
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