Back in March I wrote about the three buildings in Headington that had been nominated for awards in the RIBA South region. They were the Isis building for EF Language Schools by West Waddy, the John Henry Brookes building for Oxford Brookes by Design Engine, and the Nuffield Department of Medicine Research Building for Oxford University’s Old Road Campus by Make Architects.
The award winners have now been announced, and the Building of the Year award has gone to the John Henry Brookes building. The JHB, as we shall have to learn to call it, also won the Sustainability Award, and architects Design Engine won Architect of the Year. A pretty good haul!
Elsewhere in Oxford, the McCall MacBain Graduate Study Centre by Lee Fitzgerald Architects for Wadham College won the Conservation Award, and general awards went to the Mathematics Institute (in the Observatory Quarter) by Rafael Viñoly Architects for Oxford University and the Oxford Martin School by Berman Guedes Stretton – also for Oxford University.
Mathematics Institute (photo: author)
Mathematics Institute Atrium (photo: author)
No awards for completion on time, Brookes' buiding should have been finished a long time ago, and from my experience, build quality leaves a lot to be desired.
I agree it's odd to get the top regional award while the builders are still working on the structure. How will all that monumental steel that's quietly rusting be treated? As for build quality, I have no opinion as I haven't yet had a good look at the whole building, and anyway I'm no expert on these things.