Plaudits for Allan Murray, Reiach and Hall, Page/Park and Collective Architecture
A £26.3m high school in Edinburgh, a leisure centre near Glasgow and a university concert hall are among Scotland’s best buildings of the year, according to the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland.
The 12-strong list, announced last night at RIAS’ awards dinner in Glasgow, also features a list of bespoke individual homes, ranging from city centre infill to rural hideaways exposed to the full force of nature, and multi-unit schemes.
A judging panel – including RIAS president Stewart Henderson, Joanna van Heyningen of van Heyningen and Haward Architects, and Scottish government chief architect Ian Gilzean – described Allan Murray Architects’ Boroughmuir High School in Edinburgh as “exceptional”.
The judges said Kennedy Fitzgerald Architects’ £21.9m Clydebank Leisure Centre was “confident while being restrained”, and described Reiach and Hall’s Nucleus project for the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority and Caithness Archive as “ethereal and beautifully sculpted”.
Reiach and Hall also won a 2018 RIAS Award in conjunction with HES for the Engine Shed project in Stirling, valued at £5.3m. The project value of Nucleus was not disclosed.
Collective Architecture was the only other practice to notch up a double win, for Barmulloch Residents Centre in Glasgow, and for the Leith Fort project – in conjunction with Malcolm Fraser Architects.
RIAS president Henderson said he and his fellow judges had been “struck by the continuing high standard of submissions” for 2018 – the seventh year of the awards.
“The quality of architecture being produced the length and breadth of the country is hugely impressive,” he said.
“Practices large and small continue to demonstrate the strength and purpose of the profession in Scotland. The quality of contemporary Scottish architecture is well worthy of celebration. These awards demonstrate that buildings of all scales and throughout the country are exemplary in their design, execution and in what they deliver for their clients, users and communities.”
Allan Murray’s Boroughmuir High School, Reiach and Hall’s Nucleus project, and Haysom Ward Miller’s Lochside House were RIAS’ three picks for RIBA’s National Awards, and – therefore – are on the long list for this year’s Stirling Prize.
RIAS Awards 2018
Barmulloch Residents Centre, Glasgow: Collective Architecture
Bath Street Collective Custom Build, Edinburgh: John Kinsley Architects
The Black Shed, Isle of Skye: Mary Arnold-Forster
Boroughmuir High School, Edinburgh: Allan Murray Architects
Clydebank Leisure Centre, West Dunbartonshire: Kennedy FitzGerald Architects
The Engine Shed, Stirling: HES with Reiach and Hall Architects
Humpty House, Angus: Ben Scrimgeour Building Workshop
Leith Fort, Edinburgh: Collective Architecture & Malcolm Fraser Architects
Lochside House, West Highlands: Haysom Ward Miller Architects
McEwan Hall, Edinburgh: LDN Architects for The University of Edinburgh
Nucleus, The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority and Caithness Archive, Wick: Reiach and Hall Architects
St Cecilia’s Hall Concert Room and Music Museum, Edinburgh: Page/Park Architects
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