Public housing, accessible holiday accommodation, a community theatre as catalyst for regeneration and a ruin-to-restaurant conversion with lessons for adaptation show the range of applications that creative architects can work with, the length and breadth of the country
Alongside the 2024 Stirling Prize, four other outstanding projects from across the country were recognised with some of RIBA’s highest honours at a lively ceremony held at London’s Roundhouse on 16 October. Three relatively young practices picked up awards for breakthrough projects in east London, West Dorset and the Inner Hebrides, while a local authority and a theatre company were jointly celebrated for commissioning an exceptional new playhouse in Merseyside.
RIBA’s Reinvention Award, first introduced in 2023, went to London-based fardaa for Croft 3, its sensitive conversion of a derelict agricultural building on the Isle of Mull into additional space for a local restaurant.
Emerging talent is celebrated by the Stephen Lawrence Prize, which went to Clementine Blakemore Architects for its first major building: Wraxall Yard in West Dorset. The project – also shortlisted for the 2024 Stirling Prize – turned a disused collection of ramshackle barns into holiday accommodation that is fully accessible to disabled people.
Al-Jawad Pike’s housing for social rent at Chowdhury Walk in Hackney, east London – also shortlisted for the 2024 Stirling Prize – netted the Neave Brown Award for Housing, now in its sixth year.
The importance of those who commission good, ambitious buildings is recognised by the Client of the Year Award, which went to Shakespeare North Trust and Knowsley Metropolitan Borough Council for Shakespeare North in Prescot.
Croft 3 is by far the smallest of the four buildings shortlisted for the second RIBA Reinvention Award, but it is unusually rich in stories, ideas and lessons for other adaptive reuse projects.
Located in a remote coastal area, the ruin was bought by the current owner in 2019 to expand her home-based restaurant – a valued local gathering place. She approached fardaa - whose founder Edward Farleigh-Dastmalchi had been a friend since they were teenagers – to lead the renovation.
Her brief was to retain the intimate and simple character of a croft building while maximising views of the majestic landscape, across to Ulva and the Atlantic Ocean.
The original croft now accommodates an airy dining hall, with a kitchen and other back-of-house spaces in an extension whose form matches the ruin’s roof height and pitch. ‘Neither overwhelming nor subservient’, said the visiting RIAS awards jury.
‘The judges were delighted by the care and expertise evident in every aspect of this project’, said jury chair Biba Dow of Dow Jones Architects. ‘Fardaa has brought to this project great skill and sensitivity, extending and transforming a ruin into a carefully detailed restaurant much loved by its local community on the Isle of Mull. Of its place both in its architecture and its use, it reminds us that architecture doesn’t need to operate on a large scale to be powerful.’
After Croft 3's Reinvention Award win we put three questions to fardaa founder Edward Farleigh-Dastmalchi
How did the constraints of reuse influence this project – for better or worse?
We were extremely constrained by budget; it’s incredibly costly to repurpose and repair stone buildings. Also, by the fact that while there were some wonderful builders on the island, specialised skills are sometimes in short supply, so stonemasons had to be brought in by ferry from the mainland on a daily basis. We weren’t really constrained by regulation. It was a pleasant surprise, having mainly worked in England, to find how supportive planning was of enterprise, young families and bringing existing buildings back into use. And we certainly weren’t constrained by building regulations because we went way beyond what was asked for.
We had the self-imposed constraints of respecting this wonderful resource that the client and I adored. We asked how we could retain some of its qualities while making the most of some of the qualities beyond the building – the views. Unsurprisingly farmers hadn’t made a point of taking in views of the landscape. So that balance – marrying landscape and a rustic, inward-looking building - was the biggest challenge. And it really was difficult, because there were so many things you could do that felt either hackneyed, apologetic or belligerent - but it’s a wonderful challenge. And the architecture was really about doing as little as we could to do as much as we could.
What does winning the prize mean for you?
It’s much more valuable for a young practice to be brought to the attention of the broader architectural community, and get the recognition for something you’ve slaved away at for four or five years, not knowing if anyone would look at it at all. More importantly, what’s become apparent from the project is that the restaurant has become more of a draw. It still retains the sense that it is for the community but also helps to bring people to the island. Of course the award is a personal pat on the back, but equally it’s payment back to the client for the trust she placed in us.
Are there lessons in this small project for other adaptive reuse projects?
First, the cliché: you can do a lot with a little. The budget was incredibly low, especially given how much was taken up with things like getting power to the building, and access to the site. But I hope we’ve shown that you can make a virtue of that. More budget would have made my job easier - I won’t pretend otherwise – but a lot of the character of the space comes down to the pressure to adapt and reuse. The biggest decision was retaining the building: we probably could have got planning to demolish and rebuild but we felt it was important to retain it. And that’s the real luxury of the project.
Built on a former council-owned car park and designed by Helm Architecture, Shakespeare North’s new playhouse promotes learning, experimentation and reinterpretation of the playwright’s works. Among a variety of useful facilities is the only known purpose-built, historically-accurate indoor Elizabethan theatre – a show-stopper that forms the building’s heart.
Regeneration was a central concern of the project, which began with an invitation for residency to a local youth theatre group, and included the appointment of 30 community co-ordinators to foster local engagement. Partnerships with businesses in the town spread the economic benefits.
The client’s dedication to social purpose and local investment particularly impressed the jury, which comprised Simon Henley, founding director of Henley Halebrown, Stephanie Macdonald, founding director of 6a, and Darren Johnson, business development manager at Ibstock.
‘Pursuing cultural excellence and local needs with equal ambition, Shakespeare North has successfully revitalised the community,’ said Macdonald, ‘transforming one of England’s most deprived boroughs and making Prescot a new cultural destination in the UK.’
Chowdhury Walk demonstrates a material quality and design sophistication that is rare in contemporary social housing. The scheme – part of Hackney Council’s programme to build new council homes on small plots – provides 11 two-storey houses on a former garage site. Architect Al-Jawad Pike used the opportunity to create a new public mews offering informal play space and a useful through-route. A staggered plan with sheltered entrance porches also minimises overlooking both front and back.
Granite bases, high-quality waterstruck brickwork and a cross-laminated timber structure were all achieved within the constrained budgets and risk-aversion of housing procurement, thanks to the architect’s assiduous stewardship of its first project at this scale.
‘The homes feel uplifting upon entering, with the simple intuitive floor plan making efficient use of space while supporting the busyness of family life,’ said jury chair Astrid Smitham, whose own House for Artists won the inaugural Neave Brown Award for Housing. ‘Attention to detailing and quality of materials and finishes runs through every aspect of the project both internally and externally.’
Founded in memory of Stephen Lawrence, the young aspiring architect murdered in a racist attack in 1993, the Stephen Lawrence Prize has celebrated the best small projects for more than a quarter of a century, and more recently has focussed exclusively on schemes led by early-career project architects.
When Clementine Blakemore Architects won the commission to convert a collection of disused Dorset barns into fully accessible holiday accommodation, the practice comprised founder and RIBAJ Rising Star Clementine Blakemore, and one assistant. Undertaking the complex assignment with a small team turned out to be a ‘privilege’, she told RIBAJ, allowing full immersion in every aspect from developing the brief through intensive research to rapid on-site decisions about retention of the fragile structures.
Jury chair Matthew Goldschmied praised the sensitivity and ingenuity evident in every detail. ‘Inclusive and accessible design so often implies special treatment for one group or another, but this project appears to transcend all points of differentiation’, he said. ‘For an early-career architect to have devised, managed and delivered such a perfectly balanced project is remarkable and fully deserves the accolades it has already and continues to receive.’
Read RIBAJ’s review of Wraxall Yard
Read Clementine Blakemore’s account of the design process in RIBAJ
Nick Read, the client for Wraxall Yard, had a clear vision for the project. Architect Clementine Blakemore, he writes, understood perfectly how to deliver an outstanding experience for guests while adhering to the desired architectural values of modesty and quiet rigour
Wraxall Yard was unexpectedly thrown into the spotlight through its shortlisting for the Stirling Prize. This made us very proud, drew a lot of welcome attention to both our project and to the wider issue of accessible or universal design – and attracted some raised eyebrows. Why was this modest family project up against such giants as the Elizabeth Line? It’s a fair question and one I kept asking myself.
‘Modest’ seems to be the word that keeps cropping up. When I’ve read or heard it applied to us it has not been meant as a great compliment, more that the architecture lacks something original or particularly noteworthy, that it’s of a small scale and small budget, but reasonably pleasing to the eye. Of course, many people have made more positive comments, and for these we are extremely grateful.
The purpose writing this is for me to examine what modesty is and how it is, above anything else in this design project, the central philosophy and defining attribute.
Some history. My grandfather was an industrial designer and modernist. He had experienced the horror of the slaughter of those of his generation and the next, and joined the post-war movement to build a decent society through design. Addressing the Royal Designers for Industry in 1961, as then RDI Master, he said ‘designing is a modest, decent way of contributing to the happiness of the world’.
My father was an architect who had previously taught 3D design at Kingston School of Art. He had a love for historic buildings and an encyclopaedic knowledge of railway architecture. He also produced watercolours and etchings with an unassuming, calm quality. My mother was a successful exhibition designer before multiple sclerosis robbed her of her career. She had half a lifetime of being offended by society’s assumption that disabled people don’t care about design.
It was this ancestry that shaped my amateur views on architecture. They conducted themselves and produced their designs in a quiet and thoughtful way. I grew up to have a lot of respect for them and architects like them. They were people whose product was not a vehicle for self-aggrandisement.
While having no talent for the subject myself this upbringing gave me an understanding of design and designers. I listened to them talk about their successes and failures and, most importantly, the stories of the damage that clients had done; slashing budgets, changing direction and interfering in design decisions they were wholly unqualified to interfere with.
Thus equipped, my search for an architect for Wraxall Yard was informed to some extent. On meeting Clementine Blakemore it was immediately apparent that we shared similar design values. We embarked on a lengthy research and feasibility study, visiting restored buildings and accessible accommodation, and talking all the time about how the project might take shape. She was immensely helpful in teasing out the detail of my educational, environmental and social ambitions for the project. I owe her great thanks for immersing herself so deeply in the pre-design phase.
The result was that she had a pretty detailed brief by the end of it. From there the design was almost entirely left to her. I had quite a fear of being the nightmare client my parents suffered under, and when one has met good designers, and knows one’s own limitations, allowing an architect space to work seemed the sensible thing to do.
I was included in many design decisions, no doubt, but these were more of a practical nature. John Grimond, the writer and intellectual, wrote about the damage an editor could do simply by moving a comma. So, even if Clem asked me if I liked this door handle or that one, I would invariably leave the choice to her. She might not remember it quite like that!
Wraxall Yard is the epitome of calm. It provides disabled visitors and their carers a space to breathe out. Their emotional responses to the design are profound and very moving. Most weeks a guest will express their thanks and I will sit down with them while they tell me their story. Invariably these stories are about how tough their lives are, how disability has robbed them – or the person they are caring for – of careers, hobbies, freedom and dignity. They talk about the unfairness of a built environment that ignores and abuses them; one that offers them inadequate, ugly and institutional spaces, or denies them space altogether.
There is something about the environment that Clem has created that lets these stories come out. I think of it as if she has cast a spell on the place. I have arrived at the buildings at least 500 times and I have the same experience I had the first day they were completed. There is a quality to Wraxall Yard that cannot be conveyed through photography.
The project she delivered is modest. But it is not the modesty of unremarkable architecture. It is the modesty of sympathy and understatement; an absence of ego and mannerism; delicate, light-touch interventions; respect for the buildings’ surroundings and history; collaboration that allowed the expression of skilled stonemasons, carpenters, landscapers and engineers. My ancestors would thoroughly approve.