Council up for Client of Year award for first social housing in 40 years

The RIBA has announced the shortlist for its Client of the Year Award 2017.

Finalists include the Tate and the London Borough of Enfield for the first social housing it has built in four decades.

The Forestry Commission and Bedales School in Hampshire complete the shortlist of four. Galleries of all the schemes are above.

The Tate was shortlisted for Herzog & de Meuron’s Switch House extension, now renamed the Blavatnik Building after a rich donor.

Enfield made the list after commissioning Karakusevic Carson Architects to design a new street of social housing, Dujardin Mews, as part of the wider regeneration of Ponders End. KCA worked with Maccreanor Lavington.

The Forestry Commission was shortlisted for two commissions at Westonbirt Arboretum in Gloucestershire: Invisible Studio’s Wolfson Tree Management Centre and Glenn Howells Architects’ Stihl Treetop Walkway.

Bedales in Petersfield, Hampshire, is the fourth finalist for its Art and Design Building by Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios.

The RIBA Client of the Year recognises the role a good client plays in the creation of fine architecture.

The winner will be announced on October 31 at the RIBA Stirling Prize party at the Roundhouse in central London. The award is supported by the Bloxham Charitable Trust, set up by Urban Splash founder Tom Bloxham.

Previous winners include Westmorland Ltd (2016), National Theatre (2015), Manchester Metropolitan University (2014), National Trust (2013) and the Olympic Delivery Authority (2012).