AYA 2023 shortlists: Office Architect of the Year

Earlier this year BD announced all the architects who made it on to the shortlists for our prestigious annual Architect of the Year Awards.

Now we are shining the spotlight on each category in turn and publishing a selection of the images that impressed the judges.

This year’s judges include: Jo Bacon, partner, Allies & Morrison; Murray Kerr, director, Denizen Works; Dav Bansal, partner, Howells; Kay Hughes, design director HS2; Peter Caplehorn, chief executive, Construction Products Association; Peter Fisher, director, Bennetts Associates; Anna Hollyman, Senior Sustainability Advisor, UK Green Building Council; Marta Galinanes Garcia, director, AKTII; Darryl Chen, partner, Hawkins\Brown; Lee Higson, director, Eric Parry Architects; Maria Joao Reis, senior associate, Maccreanor Lavington

Today’s shortlist is Office Architect of the Year Award.

Barr Gazetas

The transformation and extension of Holbein Gardens for Grosvenor demonstrates a 69 per cent saving on operational carbon compared with a traditional office building, achieving WELL Gold and BREEAM Outstanding certification. The entry features three other London refurbishments including Grain House, a heritage-led regeneration of five historic buildings in Covent Garden, and Kodak House, a Grade II listed office building in Holborn.

EPR Architects

EPR’s entry includes its own London studio, All Saints, a regeneration of a five-storey Victorian orphanage latterly used as an archive facility. Other London retrofits featured are 60 London Wall in the City of London and the conversion of a basement carpark into the Royal Society for Blind Children’s Life Without Limits Centre. OSMO is a new, 13 storey office building for Quadrant Estates currently on site at Nine Elms.

Fletcher Priest

The practice’s ongoing re-imagining of One Exchange Square in the City of London will be one of the first registered refurbishment projects to achieve a NABERS UK DfP 5 Star Rating. Its entry also features several other prominently located projects – Warwick Court next to St Paul’s Cathedral, One Hooper’s Court in Knightsbridge between Harrods and Harvey Nichols and Lucent W1 at Piccadilly Circus. The latter site includes the iconic advertising billboard.

Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands

Two projects in London’s Hanover Square are featured – a new-build nine storey office above the Bond Street Crossrail station and the adjacent 20 Hanover Square townhouse, which has been converted to offices on the upper floors. The entry also features the JJ Mack Building completed on Charterhouse Street and the proposed reconfiguration of the RMJM-designed Grade II listed New Zealand House, due for completion in 2026.

LOM Architecture & Design

At 250 Bishopsgate in the City of London, the practice upgraded NatWest’s head office with a focus on ‘flexible functionality, social space and creating communities’. In Milton Keynes, the new build Unity Place is a 80,000sqm UK headquarters for Santander, exceeding LETI 2030 embodied carbon targets. In Twycross, a new timber-framed building provides 1,200sqm of space for Microsoft Rare’s gaming developers.

Morris + Company

Four substantial London offices feature in the entry from Morris + Company. The practice completed the £53million Featherstone Building for Derwent London at Old Street, and the £65million One Wood Crescent at the Television Centre, White City. Two upcoming projects are also included – the £85million Huntingdon Estate in Shoreditch and the £170million Castle & Fitzroy House in Islington, due for completion in 2026 and 2028 respectively.