Archinect - News

It's high time for an adaptive reuse revolution, says Oliver Wainwright (and everyone else)

2022-08-23T10:00:00-04:00

The timing couldn’t be more urgent. As Lang notes, 80% of the buildings projected to exist in 2050, the year of the UN’s net zero carbon emissions target, have already been built. The critical onus on architects and developers, therefore, is to retrofit, reuse and reimagine our existing building stock, making use of the “embodied carbon” that has already been expended, rather than contributing to escalating emissions with further demolition and new construction.

Tonkin Liu’s Stephen Lawrence Prize-winning Water Tower project is cited as one of many examples of the growing influence of adaptive reuse in the market as evangelized in Ruth Lang’s new book Building for Change, which is due out in September from the German publisher Gestalten. In a follow-up to his influential op-ed from January 2020, Wainwright takes up the cause for adaptive reuse via the disputed Marks & Spencer department store demolition, turning to last year’s Pritzker Prize winners for validation of an idea which has rapidly gained popularity across the UK.

“Demolishing is a decision of easiness and short-term. It is a waste of many things — a waste of energy, a waste of material and a waste of history,” Anne Lacaton told The Guardian critic. “Moreover, it has a very negative social impact. For us, it is an act of violence.”

Preserving memory in 2016 Stephen Lawrence Prize winner House of Trace

2016-10-07T19:12:00-04:00

Tsuruta Architects' House of Trace was revealed as the 2016 Stephen Lawrence Prize winner during a slew of big announcements at the RIBA Stirling Prize party in London yesterday...[In designing the House of Trace,] Tsuruta Architects wanted to preserve a “sense of everyday memory, while simultaneously allowing the new intervention to have its own identity.”

It surely must be a proud moment for London-based Tsuruta Architects, whose delightful old-meets-new House of Trace won the RIBA's 2016 Stephen Lawrence Prize.

More details on Bustler.

Previously:

RIBA announces 2016 Stephen Lawrence Prize shortlist

2016-09-01T18:01:00-04:00

It's already that time of year again when RIBA reveals the Stephen Lawrence Prize shortlist. The Marco Goldschmied Foundation established the annual prize in 1998 in memory of Stephen Lawrence, a teenager who aspired to become an architect but whose life tragically ended when he was murdered in 1993. The prize recognizes the best UK-based projects designed by emerging talent and was built with a construction budget of less than £1 million.

Six projects made it onto this year's shortlist:

Exhibition Mews, Hampshire by Ash Sakula Architects

House of Trace, London by Tsuruta Architects

Mellor Primary School, Stockport by Sarah Wigglesworth Architects

Modern Side Extension, London by Coffey Architects

The Observatory, Hampshire by Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios

Tin House, London by Henning Stummel Architects

More details on Bustler.

More RIBA award news on Archinect:

RIBA 2016 Stirling Prize Shortlist announced: includes Herzog & de Meuron, Wilkinson Eyre

RIBA reveals 46 stunning projects as 2016 National Awardees

The 2014 winners of the Manser Medal and Stephen Lawrence Prize

2014-10-17T18:43:00-04:00

Following RIBA's announcement of the 2014 Stirling Prize winner, two more UK-based projects won big in the 2014 Manser Medal and the Stephen Lawrence Prize competitions. The Stormy Castle in Wales by Loyn & Co. Architects received the Manser Medal, which is the UK's highest housing design award. The Stephen Lawrence Prize, which recognizes fresh architectural talent and smaller construction budgets, went to a residential project this year: House No 7 in Scotland by Denizen Works.

Here's a glimpse of the winning projects:

2014 Manser Medal winner: Stormy Castle in Wales by Loyn & Co. Architects

2014 RIBA Stephen Lawrence Prize winner: House No 7 in Scotland by Denizen Works:

Find more photos and project details on Bustler.

Shortlists for the RIBA Manser Medal and the 2014 Stephen Lawrence Prize

2014-09-05T19:58:00-04:00

RIBA has announced the 2014 shortlists for the Manser Medal - Best New House in the UK and the Stephen Lawrence Prize. Check out these stellar projects below.

MANSER MEDAL - Best New House in the UK

The Manser Medal was established in 2001 to honor former RIBA President and notable home designer Michael Manser CBE. It recognizes private homes or major extensions that are deemed to be exemplary of innovation, sustainability, and style, and were also completed within the past year by a UK architect.

Out of the 23 longlisted projects announced earlier this summer, the jury shortlisted these six houses:

(pictured above) Lens House in north London by Alison Brooks Architects

The Kench in Hampshire by MELOY Architects and John Young

Cliff House, Isle of Skye, Scotland by Dualchas Architects

House No 7, Isle of Tiree, Scotland by Denizen Works

Luker House in Barnes, southwest London by Jamie Fobert Architects

Stormy Castle in Gower, Wales by Loyn & Co Architects

STEPHEN LAWRENCE PRIZE

The Stephen Law...

Winners of 2013 RIBA Manser Medal and Stephen Lawrence Prize

2013-09-30T17:16:00-04:00

Also presented with institute honors that night were two projects which represent the UK's most excellent small projects: the 2013 Manser Medal for the best new home went to Slip House by Carl Turner Architects, and the 2013 Stephen Lawrence Prize in recognition of fresh talent and smaller construction budgets went to Montpelier Community Nursery by AY Architects.

Previously:

Six houses shortlisted for RIBA Stephen Lawrence Prize 2013

2013-09-16T15:00:00-04:00

Last week, the Royal Institute of British Architects announced the six projects shortlisted for the RIBA Stephen Lawrence Prize 2013, which recognizes the best projects that exemplify fresh talent with a construction budget under £1 million (US$1.59M). Dedicated to the memory of Stephen Lawrence—a teenager who aspired to become an architect but whose life was abruptly ended in 1993—the Stephen Lawrence Prize was set up to inspire emerging talent and working with small construction budgets.

UPDATE: Winners of 2013 RIBA Manser Medal and Stephen Lawrence Prize

Winners of 2012 RIBA Manser Medal and Stephen Lawrence Prize

2012-10-19T14:19:00-04:00

[...] Two more outstanding projects received national RIBA honors that night: the 2012 Manser Medal for the best newly designed private house went to Maison L by Christian Pottgiesser - architecturespossibles, and the Stephen Lawrence Prize 2012 in recognition of fresh talent and smaller construction budgets went to a private house in Kings Grove, London by Duggan Morris Architects.

RIBA Stephen Lawrence Prize 2012 Shortlists Five Houses

2012-09-18T18:38:00-04:00

Yesterday we published the shortlist for the RIBA Manser Medal 2012 for the best new house, and today we're following up with the list of shortlisted houses for this year's Stephen Lawrence Prize which the RIBA announced just recently. [...] The prize, set up in memory of the teenager who was setting out on the road to becoming an architect when he was murdered in 1993, is intended to encourage fresh talent working with smaller budgets.

Big RIBA Award Winners Roundup on Bustler

2011-10-03T18:03:39-04:00

Last Saturday, October 1, the Royal Institute of Architects, RIBA, not only awarded the 2011 Stirling Prize to Zaha Hadid Architects for the best new European building built or designed in the United Kingdom—the office's second consecutive Stirling Prize win—but also presented this year's winners of the prestigious RIBA Lubetkin Prize, Stephen Lawrence Prize, and RIBA Client of the Year.

On our sister site Bustler, we introduce the award winners in detail:

Check the image gallery below for images of the 2011 award winners.