
The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has announced the winners of the 2016 RIBA National Awards. The shortlist for the RIBA Stirling Prize for the UK’s best building of the year will be drawn from these 46 award-winning buildings.

The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has announced the winners of the 2016 RIBA National Awards. The shortlist for the RIBA Stirling Prize for the UK’s best building of the year will be drawn from these 46 award-winning buildings.

From a shortlist of 68 buildings, 36 London projects have been awarded the 2016 RIBA London Awards for architectural excellence, the city's most prestigious design honor. The winners include a home for ravens, a Japanese-inspired London terrace home and a historical restoration. All of these designs will be further considered for the RIBA National Awards, to be announced in July. The winners of the national award will then create a shortlist for the RIBA Stirling Prize – the highest award for architecture in the UK.

A total of 68 buildings have been shortlisted for the 2016 RIBA London Awards, including projects from John McAslan + Partners, dRMM Architects, Níall McLaughlin Architects, Eric Parry Architects and Rogers Stirk Harbour. All shortlisted buildings will now be visited and carefully assessed by one of four regional juries, and regional winners will be considered for a RIBA National Award. The shortlist for the RIBA Stirling Prize - given to the UK's best building of this year - will be composed of the winners of the RIBA National Award.
See a complete list of shortlisted buildings after the break.

Estonian contemporary architecture is diverse in nature. Here, one can find the spark and freshness of Danish- and Dutch-influenced architecture as well as the tradition-carrying conservatism of Nordic Modernism. A third trend that can be highlighted in contemporary Estonian architecture is a context-sensitive approach to built environment, in which particular emphasis is placed upon the historical, social, as well as spatial contexts. Siiri Vallner’s works may be classified into the latter of these three groups. The buildings she has designed do not number many, but by way of their spatial ideas and solutions they have strongly influenced and enriched Estonia’s architectural culture.
Siiri Vallner is currently sharing her office Kavakava with Indrek Peil, another relatively young Estonian architect. Vallner has received several awards over the last few years. In 2013, together with Indrek Peil, Katrin Koov, and interior architect Hannes Praks, she was awarded the National Culture Award for their architectural solution for the University of Tartu’s Narva College in Narva, Estonia. She was likewise one of three female architects to be given special international recognition at the “arcVision Prize – Women in Architecture” competition in Italy (2013). I spoke with Vallner about both her work and her projects.

Building projects are inherently complex: as projects progress, architects are joined by contractors, engineers, and myriad consultants. Architects, according to a recent report by RIBA, are considered the "spiritual leaders" of a building project. Cemented in this perception by a monopoly on design, architects continue to sit precariously atop project hierarchies despite a shifting landscape in building production. This begs the question: how can architects leverage this spiritual responsibility to translate into the best results for clients?
In their latest report Client & Architect: Developing the Essential Relationship, RIBA delves into the nuanced problem of connecting architecture to its owners, emphasizing the importance of a strong, functional and mutually educational relationship. Currently, architects have a tremendous opportunity to learn, improve and capitalize on understanding of clients, regardless of firm size, portfolio and established skills.
Read on to discover RIBA's findings from two years of client analysis


The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has announced the shortlist for this year's Manser Medal, the award given for Britain's best new house. With a shortlist comprising a mixture of two London townhouses, a seaside getaway and three remote getaways in Scotland and Wales, the winner of this year's Manser medal will be announced at the RIBA's awards ceremony on October 16th.
RIBA President Steven Hodder said of the shortlisted schemes: "With each of the projects, the architects have added real value to the homeowner’s happiness and wellbeing. The originality, ingenuity and innovation on show in this shortlist should be an inspiration for anyone planning to build or make improvements to their own home. I encourage the UK’s volume house builders to look at the shortlisted schemes – we all deserve to live in homes that comfort and delight us."
Read on after the break for all six shortlisted projects


The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has announced the 44 buildings in the UK and 12 EU projects to win 2014 RIBA National Awards. The list includes instantly recognizable projects such as The Shard by Renzo Piano and Mecanoo's Library of Birmingham, but also rewards plenty of well-crafted smaller projects, for example Lens House by Alison Brooks Architects.
From this list of National winners, the RIBA will select the shortlist for the RIBA Stirling Prize, which will be revealed next month. See the full list of winners after the break.

The winners of the 2014 RIBA London Awards were announced in a ceremony last night. The awards recognize the RIBA London Architect of the year and 2014 RIBA Emerging Architect of the Year (Haworth Tompkins and RCKa, respectively) as well as a host of project awards which join other regional awards to make up the longlist for the 2014 RIBA Stirling Prize.
Among the winners are Zaha Hadid's Aquatics Centre, which becomes the final Olympics project to shoot for the Stirling Prize now that its seating wings have been removed; the Shard; the renovation of the Tate Britain by Caruso St John; and the transformation of King's Cross by John McAslan + Partners. Read on after the break for a full list of winners.

The 2013 RIBA Stirling Prize has been won by Witherford Watson Mann for Astley Castle (Nuneaton, Warwickshire). The winner was just announced at a ceremony at London's Central Saint Martins, a building designed by last year's winner Stanton Williams. Astley Castle was also voted as BBC readers' favourite earlier this week. Jury-member Stephen Hodder stated that "engaging with the building was such a surprise for [the jury]," and described it as an "unassuming" building with great "rigour."


