RIBA Awards 2011

The Royal Institute of British Architects announced the winners of the 2011 RIBA Awards on Thursday. The awards for architectural excellence went to a total of 97 buildings in the UK and Europe (89 in the UK and 8 in the rest of the EU). This is basically the long list for the Stirling Prize, as the short list will be drawn up from these 97 overall 'winners'.

There were 26 winners from London, a few of which were also LRR sites. These were City Step on Bear Lane, SE1, Claremont on Claredale Street, E2 and the H10 Hotel on Waterloo Road, also SE1.

This is City Step, an 89 residential unit scheme close to Bankside and the Tate built by house builder Galliard. Make your own mind up whether you think this is worthy of the Stirling Prize, because architecture is obviously subjective. I'm not saying anything. The London SE1 site had a quote from one of the judges which said "This is sophisticated residential architecture of the highest order"... 

A scheme I'm more fond of is this one, a 77 unit scheme in Bethnal Green called Claremont and developed by Hill Residential (below left). The last of the sites LRR took an active role in monitoring was this (below right), on the corner of Waterloo Road and Westminster Road (click on the image to enlarge). Interestingly the developer had the benefit of both a permission for a hotel, as well as a student development scheme on the site, choosing in the end to build out this 4 star hotel.

Other London schemes included in the winners list were the Angel building by Derwent, N1, One New Change, Ravensourne College on Greenwich Peninsula and the 2012 Olympic Velodrome.