AYA 2024 shortlists: Retail and Leisure 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: Yẹmí Aládérun, head of development, Meridian Water, Enfield Council; Alexandra Andone, associate director, PRP; Amr Assaad, board director, Buckley Gray Yeoman; Lee Bennett, partner, design chair and school lead, Sheppard Robson; Sarah Cary, chief development officer Imperial College, White City Campus; Irene Craik, director, Levitt Bernstein; Alex Ely, founding director, Mae; Martyn Evans, creative director, LandsecU+I; Gavin Hale-Brown, director, Henley Halebrown; Tanvir Hasan, director emeritus, Donald Insall Associates; Lee Higson, board director, Eric Parry Architects; Nigel Hugill, chief executive, Urban & Civic; Kirsten Lees, managing partner, Grimshaw; Oliver Lowrie, director and founder, Ackroyd Lowrie; Anna Mansfield, director, Publica; Michelle McDowell, non-executive director, Civic; Ian McKnight, founding partner, Hall McKnight; John McRae, director and trustee, Orms; David Partridge, chairman, Related Argent; Sarah Robinson, asociate director, The King’s Foundation; Philippa Simpson, director for buildings and renewal, Barbican Centre; Kevin Singh, head, Manchester School of Architecture; Karl Singporewala, founder, Karl Singporewala Design Bureau; Jonathan Smales, founder and CEO, Human Nature; Elizabeth Smith, chairman and regional director, Purcell; Alan Stanton, principal director, Stanton Williams; Amin Taha, chairperson, Groupwork; Magali Thomson, project lead for placemaking, Great Ormond Street Hospital; Tatiana von Preussen, co-founder and director, vPPR; Jo Wright, director, Perkins&Will.

Today’s shortlist is for the category of Retail and Leisure Architect of the Year.

FaulknerBrowns Architects

The Newcastle upon Tyne practice has a strong pedigree in sports, leisure and retail buildings. Ravelin Sports Centre at the University of Portsmouth has an operational energy consumption lower than any other equivalent UK sports centre, according to the practice. In London, Lee Valley Ice Centre re-uses treated melt water both within the building and in the surrounding landscape. The entry is completed by the renovation of Grainger Market in Newcastle.

Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios

The practice’s submission includes the ambitious Eden Earthworks, a proposed regenerative transformation of the Dundee Gasworks into a place where people can learn from, and reconnect with, nature. In Brighton, it has revitalised the Grade I listed Brighton Dome Corn Exchange and Studio Theatre, while in Cardiff, the Llanishen and Lisvane Reservoir Centre provides a two storey larch-clad hub for recreational visitors.

Mailen Design

Two restaurants in London’s Aldgate East feature in Mailen Design’s entry. Hotto Potto is a modern take on a traditional Chinese hot pot restaurant, with communal and private areas including a basement karaoke bar. For Dan Dan Restaurant, Mailen created a fast-casual Sichuan noodle restaurant using natural materials and energy-efficient design. The submission also features Domus Campus, a reinvention of a commercial showroom in Clerkenwell into a creative hub.

Morris+Company

The entry features mixed-use schemes in London and Munich. Camden Hotel invigorates a corner block on Camden High Street, providing an enhanced retail offering, three social rent homes and an 80-key hotel plus an improved public realm. The practice won an international competition for Hufelandmark Munich, which combines retail spaces designed to engage the public realm at the base with a hotel in the middle tier and office space plus panoramic bar at the top.

Morrison Design Ltd

Morrison Design has a track record in the hotel and hospitality sector dating back to the 1970s. It is currently working on one of its largest ever projects, a 15,217m² refurbishment of St. Regis London, The Westbury in Mayfair into a 5* luxury hotel. At Mornington Kensington Hotel, the practice created one 4* hotel from two separate hotel buildings. Point A Hotel in Dublin completes the entry.

Orms Architects

Located next to Centre Point in London’s West End, Outernet claims to be the most visited cultural attraction in the UK. Drawing on the music heritage of the area, it provides space for the arts, leisure, office, retail and hospitality including a 4 storey LED screen hall, and a 2000 capacity venue. Two other London projects include the proposed hotel-led regeneration of the former Central Saint Martins site in Holborn.