architecture

John Henry Brookes wins RIBA South award

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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)

Architecture Awards – three buildings shortlisted

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In the architectural world the RIBA Awards are the equivalent of the British BAFTAs to the Chicago Athenaeum’s International Awards Oscars. For the RIBA awards, regional shortlists are whittled down to a national shortlist from which the eventual winner is selected.

Oxford is in RIBA’s South region and the regional shortlist has just been published. That there are three buildings in Headington on the list, all in the education/research sector, is confirmation of how important these institutions are to the local economy.

The Isis building by West Waddy ADP for EF International in Pullens Lane is phase 3 of a project which has provided a new main entrance to the campus, improvements to the administration and dining facilities, and the provision of a new lecture theatre for students on site.

Design Engine Architects‘ John Henry Brookes building will be familiar to many of us, even though the builders are still on site. It includes a new library, lecture theatres, student services centre, teaching acommodation and commercial/retail space. Perhaps because the work isn’t quite complete the best picture I could find is the original artist’s impression.
The Nuffield Department of Medicine Research Building is part of Oxford University’s Old Road Campus. Architects Make Architects have previously delivered the Old Road Campus Research Building and the Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology, which seems to make them the University’s go-to architects for the medical research sector. The new Nuffield building is an integrated, multi-disciplinary research centre which links biological science with medical application. The building has been designed to form the ‘head’ of the campus and create a strong presence for the department.
Pictures gratefully taken with acknowledgements from the individual architectural practices’ web sites.