RIAS names Scotland’s best buildings of 2018

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Boroughmuir High School, Edinburgh (£26.3m) - Allan Murray Architects for Children & Families Department, City of Edinburgh Council

Source: dimitris panagiotidis ama

Clydebank Leisure Centre, West Dunbartonshire (£21.9m) - Kennedy FitzGerald Architects for West Dunbartonshire Council

Source: infinite 3d

St Cecilia’s Hall Concert Room and Music Museum, Edinburgh (contract value not for publication) – Page/Park Architects for The University of Edinburgh

Source: Jim Stephenson

Barmulloch Residents Centre, Glasgow (£1.5m) - Collective Architecture for Barmulloch Community Development Company

Source: Andrew Lee

Bath Street Collective Custom Build, Edinburgh (£883k) - John Kinsley Architects for Bath Street Collective Custom Build

Source: John Reiach

Humpty House, Angus (contract value not for publication) - Ben Scrimgeour Building Workshop for a private client

Source: Nigel Rigden

Leith Fort, Edinburgh (£11.6m) - Collective Architecture for Port of Leith Housing Association / City of Edinburgh Council

Source: Gillian Hayes

Lochside House, West Highlands (contract value not for publication) - Haysom Ward Miller Architects for a private client

Source: Richard Fraser

McEwan Hall, Edinburgh (contract value not for publication) - LDN Architects for The University of Edinburgh

Source: LDN Architects

Nucleus, The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority and Caithness Archive, Wick (contract value not for publication) - Reiach and Hall Architects for The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority

Source: broad daylight ltd

The Black Shed, Isle of Skye (contract value not for publication) - Mary Arnold-Forster Architect for a private client

Source: david barbour

The Engine Shed, Stirling (£5.3m) - HES with Reiach and Hall Architects

Source: Rob McDougall

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A £26.3m high school in Edinburgh, a leisure centre near Glasgow and a university concert hall are among Scotland’s best buildings of the year, according to the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland.

The 12-strong list, announced last night at RIAS’ awards dinner in Glasgow, also features a list of bespoke individual homes, ranging from city centre infill to rural hideaways exposed to the full force of nature, and multi-unit schemes.

A judging panel – including RIAS president Stewart Henderson, Joanna van Heyningen of van Heyningen and Haward Architects, and Scottish Government chief architect Ian Gilzean – described Allan Murray Architects’ Boroughmuir High School in Edinburgh as “exceptional”.

The judges said Kennedy Fitzgerald Architects’ £21.9m Clydebank Leisure Centre was “confident whilst being restrained”, and described Reiach and Hall Architects’ Nucleus project for the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority and Caithness Archive as “ethereal and beautifully sculpted”.

Reiach and Hall also won a 2018 RIAS Award in conjunction with HES for the Engine Shed project in Stirling, valued at £5.3m. The project value of Nucleus was not disclosed.

Collective Architecture was the only other practice to notch up a double win, for Barmulloch Residents Centre in Glasgow, and for the Leith Fort project – in conjunction with Malcolm Fraser Architects. 

RIAS president Henderson said he and his fellow judges had been “struck by the continuing high standard of submissions” for 2018 – the seventh year of the awards.

“The quality of architecture being produced the length and breadth of the country is hugely impressive,” he said.

“Practices large and small continue to demonstrate the strength and purpose of the profession in Scotland. The quality of contemporary Scottish architecture is well worthy of celebration. These awards demonstrate that buildings of all scales and throughout the country are exemplary in their design, execution and in what they deliver for their clients, users and communities.”

Allan Murray’s Boroughmuir High School, Reiach and Hall’s Nucleus project, and Haysom Ward Miller’s Lochside House were RIAS’ three picks for RIBA’s National Awards, and – therefore – are on the long list for this year’s Stirling Prize.