OK, so this Wednesday night just gone was the opening night of the RIBA Forgotten Spaces Exhibition at the National Thatre on London's Southbank. As mentioned in a previous post, this exhibition was of the 20 shortlisted schemes from over 150 entries to propose interventions in some of the capital's forgotten spaces. Also mentioned was that I had somehow managed to get on the shortlist, so off I went to have a look at find out who the eventual winners were.



The Shortlist (excuse the crappy phone photo)


As the RIBA blurb will tell you, the shortlist and winners were selected by a jury that included: Mark Brearley Director of Design for London, Paul Finch- Chair of CABE, Tony Heaton Chief Executive of Shape, Jeremy Titchen- Development Director Qatari Diar , Tamsie Thomson- Director of RIBA London, Judith Salamon Director of Property and Planning at London First and Rowan Moore- architecture critic at the Observer.



The winners were:
1st Prize: Reservoir Roofs by Gort Scott
2nd Prize: The Pool by Scott Brownrigg
3rd Prize: Thames Archipelago by Craft Pegg Limited

Schemes receiving commendations included: A New Productive Landscape by Boyarsky Murphy Architects, Hanging Gardens of the Circle Line by Chris Hildrey, Kingsway Hub by JAIA LTD, Nose to Tail by Dan Dodds, Park Lane by DSDHA, Atelier Saunt at EPFL and Walk The Line by Honey.



The Architects' Journal has all entries available to see online here, as well as the shortlisted entries in print. My project can be seen online here, as well as a handy (if a little cropped-looking) pdf of both submission boards here and here (also available via the AJ website).



Anyway, if you managed to get through that winner blurb you might have seen that I received a commendation - a great surprise to cap off a great night! The three winners, though, were extremely deserving - the first place especially interesting as it was a very minimal proposal with very delicate gestures. It was great to see that the judges considered more than just the 'architecture' itself and also thought about the consequences and social aspect of the proposal. After so many years of 'icons' etc, it's a massive relief to see such a considered idea win. It's kind of like seeing a small independant film getting recognised after years of subtlety-sucking 3D IMAX extravaganzas.

So, if you find yourself around London between now and 4th July please pop in to the National and have a peek! There is a hardback book in the exhibition containing all 150 entries which should be getting released soon. in the meantime, though there is great in depth coverage in this week's Architects' Journal (print) as well as at the following links:

RIBA Forgotten Spaces main page
RIBA Forgotten Spaces image gallery

BBC News 'In Pictures' story on the competition

Architects' Journal main Forgotten Spaces page (with all 150 entries available)
Architects' Journal coverage of my scheme