image for illustration: Tintagel new bridge by Kmtextor, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
The Royal Fine Art Commission Trust (RFACT) will be inviting entries from Spring 2025 for projects completed since the start of 2024 for the Building Beauty Awards 2025.
The Royal Fine Art Commission Trust writes:
The awards celebrate the best of beautiful new architecture – and because each one of us is affected by the presence or absence of beauty, we’d like your input. Can you think of a beautiful new building that makes you happy, that you would take a detour to see, that makes a street you know a more delightful place? You might have designed a building that has just that effect. If so, please keep it in mind for the 2025 awards – we’ll be inviting entries from Spring 2025 for projects completed since the start of 2024. There are also categories for engineering structures, public spaces and small physical interventions (we’re calling them Little Gems) that make a neighbourhood a jollier place to be. So don’t forget to nominate whatever piece of creative excellence gives you a lift whenever you see it.
The 2024 awards will be presented by His Royal Highness The Duke of Gloucester, K.G., G.C.V.O., Patron of The Royal Fine Art Commission Trust, on 21 November. The following four projects are in the running for the title of Grand Winner:
Faith Museum at Auckland Palace, Bishop Auckland, Co. Durham (building award winner) / Níall McLaughlin Architects for the Auckland Project Museum in local sandstone standing at the entrance to Auckland Palace, until recently the residence of the Bishops of Durham.
Westminster Coroner’s Court Extension, Horseferry Rd, London Sw1 (Little Gem Award Winner) / Lynch Architects For The City Of Westminster And His Majesty’s Coroner For Inner West London Extension to G.R.W. Wheeler’s Arts & Crafts coroner’s court of 1893. The new building, in stone with oak-panelled interiors, contains a vaulted courtroom and family room adorned with stained glass windows designed by Sir Brian Clarke.
The Grand Courtyard And Pavilion At The Owo, London Sw1 (Public Space Award Winner) / Daewha Kang Design For The Hinduja Group Remodelling of the courtyard of the Edwardian War Office building in Whitehall as part of its conversion to a luxury hotel. A circular restaurant pavilion with a roof in mirror-polished metal sits opposite a smaller sculptural fountain; the two are linked by cobbles laid to the same geometric pattern as the pavilion roof.
Hs2 Colne Valley Viaduct, South Buckinghamshire/Hillingdon (Engineering Award Winner) / Align Jv (Bouygues Travaux Publics, Sir Robert Mcalpine And Volkerfitzpatrick) With Ingérop And Jacobs (Engineers) And Grimshaw (Architects) For Hs2 Ltd Elevated section of the new high speed railway line linking London and Birmingham. At just over two miles, it is the longest railway bridge in the United Kingdom, taking that distinction from the Victorian Tay Bridge at Dundee.
