image for illustration: Auckland Castle Gate by Bishop FM, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The Faith Museum at Auckland Palace – until recently the residence of the Bishops of Durham – by Níall McLaughlin Architects, has won the Royal Fine Art Commission Trust Building Beauty Awards 2024, with others including Coroner’s Court Extension, hotel conversion and a viaduct!
The Royal Fine Art Commission Trust writes:
The 2024 awards were 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 winning projects were:
- Grand Winner and Building Award Winner / Faith Museum at Auckland Palace, Bishop Auckland, Co. Durham (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.
- Little Gem Award Winner / Westminster Coroner’s Court Extension, Horseferry Road, London SW1 (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.
- Public Space Award Winner / The Grand Courtyard and Pavilion at The OWO, London SW1 (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.
- Engineering Award Winner / HS2 Colne Valley Viaduct, South Bucks / Hillingdon (Align JV with Ingérop and Jacobs (Engineers) and Jacobs (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.
