Best design-led regeneration project

FI libraries don’t usually trouble the judges of such lofty honours as the Better Public Buildings awards and the Stirling Prize. But Jubilee Library, which won the first and was shortlisted for the second, is rather more than a large box full of books. For one thing, it incorporates a dazzling four-storey, eco-friendly glass facade. For another, the library is the centrepiece of a £60m project to transform a derelict site. The four-acre Jubilee Street development, led by PFI specialist Mill Group and designed by Bennetts Associates and Lomax Cassidy & Edwards, also contains restaurants and shops and links Brighton’s quaint Lanes district to the boho chic of the North Laines. Offices, apartments and a boutique hotel will be added soon. Already in place is a public square conceived as an informal entertainment venue. Not bad for a former car park.

The Stirling Prize-nominated Jubilee Library by Bennetts Associates is the centrepiece of the Jubilee Street renewal

Runners-up

Before work could begin on Runcorn’s £7.2m base for visual and performance arts, its canalside site – formerly a soapworks and tannery – had to be carefully decontaminated. The next challenge was to make it accessible to disabled users and to link the three proposed spaces: a circular 420-seat auditorium, a flexible studio and exhibition space. John Miller & Partners’ design easily managed both tasks and won awards from the Civic Trust and the RIBA. They were impressed; so are we.

Leicester Creative Business Depot – Focus (UK)

Creative companies in Leicester have never had it so good. Thanks to the city council, architect Ash Sakula and regeneration specialist Focus, they can use business units, meeting and training space in a pair of landmark buildings, one new, one refurbished, on the site of a vacant bus depot. Even better, the rowdy teenagers who used to hang out here have been replaced by visitors wanting to admire the artworks on building facades and around the £4.76m development.

The Timber Yard, Hoxton, – Conran & Partners/City Loft Developments

Once edgy, rapidly gentrifying Hoxton is the obvious place for a development of live–work units designed by Conran. This £16.8m scheme sits on the site of a timber merchants and works extra hard to reconcile the differing scales of the surrounding streets and to distinguish between residential and commercial space. So there are two blocks, one of five storeys and the other of three, set around an elegant courtyard. And while the live–work and plain old residential units are in yellow London brick, the 17 commercial units are clad in smart prepatinated zinc. Very stylish.

Vauxhall Cross Interchange, London – Transport for London/Arup

The car used to be king at Vauxhall Cross, which meant waiting for a bus or train was an unpleasant experience. These days, though, public transport users are getting the royal treatment, thanks to a £4.5m interchange that has united inaccessible bus stops and station entrances under a dramatic stainless steel ribbon. Seating and public toilets can all be found under the 200 m long, undulating canopy. At its northern end, the ribbon rises into a cantilever clad in photovoltaic panels that help to power the interchange and win even more brownie points from Ken Livingstone.