AJ Architecture Awards 2019: Who were the big winners?

The biggest prize of the night, the Design of the Year, went to Carmody Groarke’s ‘remarkable’ Windermere Jetty Museum of Boats, Steam and Stories, which was described as ’simple, thoughtful and pragmatic’.

The ’exceptionally impressive’ lakeside project, commissioned following an RIBA-run competition in 2011, was also named cultural project of the year. Click here for a full list of the winners.

Meanwhile, the Architect of the Year title was handed to RIBA Stirling Prize-winning practice Mikail Riches, whose Goldsmith Street council-housing scheme in Norwich also won the housing project (£10 million and over) category.

The practice was praised for the way it worked ‘hand-in-glove’ with local authorities and for ‘helping to point the way for architects’. 

The editor’s choice, as selected by the AJ’s Emily Booth, was given to Ashtree Road by emerging Glasgow-based practice Graeme Nicholls Architects.

Booth said the young studio’s breakthrough project, a 24-flat social housing development in Pollokshaws, was a ‘striking piece of urban architecture created for a strikingly low budget’.

The black brick block, which also won the housing project (up to £10 million) category, was built for just £1,300 per m² and was described by one judge as an ‘unselfconscious scheme that is likely to change the quality of local development going forward’.

Also announced was the 2019 Manser Medal prize-winner – the accolade for the year’s best house – which was picked up by Cork House. Designed by Matthew Barnett Howland with Dido Milne and Oliver Wilton, the home in Eton was hailed as a ‘remarkably successful experiment in sustainable architecture’.   

Other winners on the night included Cambridge Central Mosque by Marks Barfield Architects in the community and faith category and the R7 office block by Morris + Company at King’s Cross, which was named best workplace (10,000m² and over).

The juries visited all 125 of the shortlisted buildings in their search for the best new architecture in the country, looking at a wide range of schemes ranging from office buildings to social housing and unbuilt masterplans.

The 54 judges included Amin Taha, Eva Jiricna, Biba Dow, Kirsten Lees and Edward Jones.

The AJ Architecture Awards were held at an exclusive gala dinner on 20 November at Exhibition London, Wood Lane.

The winners in full

• Design of the Year Windermere Jetty Museum by Carmody Groarke
• Architect of the Year Mikhail Riches
• Editor’s Choice Ashtree Road by Graeme Nicholls Architects
• Community and Faith Project Cambridge Central Mosque by Marks Barfield Architects
• Cultural Project Windermere Jetty Museum by Carmody Groarke
• Health and Wellbeing Project New Gorbals Health and Care Centre by jmarchitects
• Heritage Project Alexandra Palace East Wing Regeneration by Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios
• Higher Education Project The Student Centre, UCL, by Nicholas Hare Architects
• Housing Project (up to £10 million) Ashtree Road by Graeme Nicholls Architects
• Housing Project (£10 million and over) Goldsmith Street by Mikhail Riches with Cathy Hawley
• Infrastructure Chiswick Park Footbridge by Useful Studio with Expedition Engineering
• Landscape Architecture Television Centre by Gillespies
• Leisure Project Tottenham Hotspur Stadium by Populous
• Masterplan York Central by Allies and Morrison
• Mixed-Use Project 168 Upper Street by Groupwork
• Project under £250,000 Three Rooms Under a New Roof by Ullmayer Sylvester
• Refurb Science Gallery London by LTS Architects
• School Project Music School, King’s College School Wimbledon by Hopkins Architects
• Workplace (up to 10,000m²) Cairngorms National Park Authority Headquarters by Moxon Architects
• Workplace (10,000m² and over) R7 by Morris + Company
• The Manser Medal – AJ House of the Year Cork House by Matthew Barnett Howland with Dido Milne and Oliver Wilton