Three Stirling Prize winners on RIBA’s Reinvention Awards shortlist

Three Stirling Prize winners have made it onto the final shortlist for RIBA’s 2024 Reinvention Awards.

Mikhail Riches, Grafton Architects and Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios (FCBS) are all in the running for this year’s prize, which recognises schemes which creatively reuse buildings.

The shortlist is completed by north London practice Fardaa and its conversion of a small ruined farm building on the Isle of Mull in Scotland into a restaurant and community space.

Mikhail Riches has been recognised for its regeneration of Sheffield’s grade II*-listed Park Hill housing estate, which has seen internal spaces modernised and balconies added to homes.

Grafton’s shortlisted scheme is a refurbishment of a 1950s office on Oxford Street in central London which has included the construction of a new facade, which RIBA said had bought “depth and rhythm” to the building.

FCBS, which was shortlisted yesterday for RIBA’s Neave Brown Award for affordable housing, is eyeing another award for its refurbishment of Shrewsbury Flaxmill Maltings, an 18th century iron-framed building, into a new leisure destination.

The jury was chaired by Dow Jones Architects director Biba Dow. She said each shortlisted scheme presents an “exceptional approach to adapting an existing building”.

“Collectively and separately, these projects show us how, with architectural imagination and care, buildings can be adapted to respond to new uses with re-imagined spaces and honed architectural character.” 

> Also read: RIBA announces 2024 Neave Brown Award shortlist

RIBA president Muyiwa Oki added: “The importance of retrofitting and adaptive re-use cannot be overstated. Not least because most buildings that we will inhabit in the future have already been built. As architects, we are faced with the task of creatively responding to this issue, while balancing the needs of the local community and environment. 

“The four shortlisted projects for this year’s Reinvention Award are all inspiring examples of how this can be achieved, with each carefully considering the context of their area, community and environmental needs. Diverse in their approach to reuse, these projects now set a benchmark for future retrofit endeavors.” 

The award jury also included Van Heningen and Haward Architects director James McGosh and University of Warwick architectural and urban historian Otto Saumarez Smith.