RIBA unveils first two shortlists for 2023 regional awards

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East and North East award shortlists include 2022 Stirling Prize-winner Niall McLaughlin, Faulkner Browns and Allies & Morrison

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RIBA has fired the starting gun in the race for this year’s regional awards with the unveiling of the first two shortlists covering the East and North East of England.

They include 2022 Stirling Prize winner Niall McLaughlin’s WongAvery Gallery at Trinity Hall Cambridge, which is vying for a RIBA East Award.

City Park West by Pollard Thomas Edwards and Cranmer Road, King’s College by Allies & Morrison are also in the running for the prize, along with If_Do’s Thorpeness Beach House and Hudson Architects’ Duke Street Riverside.

Commenting on the shortlist for the East Award, RIBA East jury chair and Haysom Ward Miller Architects director Thomas Miller said the high standard of entries this year was testament to the skill of architects working in the region.

“The shortlisted projects tackled a broad range of challenges - a complex design brief, difficult context, high client aspirations, or the ever-present drive to respond to the climate emergency,” he said.

“In each case, though, the jury were particularly impressed by the way these outstanding projects have met those challenges - creating buildings and spaces with the power to uplift their owners, serve their users or give a little joy to passers-by.”

Six schemes have been shortlisted for the North East prize, including City Hall in Sunderland by 2022 winner Faulkner Browns and Purcell’s restoration of Newcastle Cathedral.

Other projects given the nod for the North East gong include Mawson Kerr Architects’ Godwit House in Northumberland and Chance de Silva’s St Hilda’s Church and Kirkleham Parish Centre.

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RIBA North East jury chair and Sheppard Robson partner Rupert Goddard said the chosen six all “celebrate the rich architecture of the North East”.

“Covering a range of scales - as well as urban, suburban and rural settings - the selected schemes celebrate design excellence, ingenuity and low-carbon approaches with ingenuity and vitality.

“The designs all demonstrate compelling and legible creative visions, with clear connections to place, craft and the communities to which they belong.”

Both awards will be judged by a regional jury with several winners for each award due to be announced this spring.

RIBA Regional Award winners will also be considered for several further awards, including the RIBA Sustainability Award, the RIBA Building of the Year and a coveted RIBA National Award, with the results of these due to be announced in the summer.

The shortlist for the RIBA Stirling Prize for the best building of the year will then be drawn from the RIBA National Award-winning projects. The Stirling Prize winner will be announced in October at a ceremony at RIBA’s Portland Place headquarters in central London.

Shortlist for RIBA East Awards