New London Architecture honors Zaha Hadid and the city's best new buildings

It's been a grand night of festivities at London's Guildhall as the winners of the 2015 New London Architecture awards were announced and properly lauded. Big winners of the night were Dame Zaha Hadid, distinguished for her contributions to the London design community on a national and international level, as well as the Black Cultural Archive building taking home the prestigious "Overall Winner" title.

Now in its tenth year, NLA has successfully established itself as an open and popular platform for discussion about architecture and planning in London through a year-round program of events, publications and exhibitions.

The 2015 award jury comprised Dominique Alba (Director, Atelier Parisien d’Urbanisme); David J Burney (Professor of Planning and Placemaking, Pratt Institute School of Architecture, New York City); Riccardo Marini (Senior Consultant, Gehl Architects); Peter Murray (Chairman, NLA); Monica von Schmalensee (CEO/VD, Partner, White); and Debbie Whitfield (Director, NLA).

Read on for the complete list of this year's New London Awards winners.

NEW LONDONER OF THE YEAR

Zaha Hadid

"Dame Zaha Mohammad Hadid, DBE is an Iraqi-British architect. In 2004 she became the first woman recipient of the Pritzker Architecture Prize and received the Stirling Prize in 2010 and 2011. Her buildings are distinctively neofuturistic, characterised by the "powerful, curving forms of her elongated structures" with "multiple perspectivepoints and fragmented geometry to evoke the chaos of modern life". She is currently professor at the University of Applied Arts Vienna in Austria."

OVERALL WINNER

Black Cultural Archive
Client: Black Cultural Archives
Architect: Pringle Richards Sharratt
Borough: Lambeth
Completion: July 2014

"Sited at the heart of historic Brixton, the project has brought Raleigh Hall back from the brink and into active use. The derelict Grade II listed building, which had been on the English Heritage's Heritage at Risk Register since 1992, was gifted to the BCA by Lambeth Council to provide a permanent home dedicated to black heritage in Britain. The project has produced creative alteration and extension of the former semi-detached houses, and is one of the few places in the UK to meet national archive standards."

MAYOR’S PRIZE WINNER

Blackhorse Lane
Client: LB Waltham Forest and Greater London Authority
Architect: We Made That
Borough: Waltham Forest
Completion: June 2014

"As a precursor to future mixed-use development, the area-wide proposals address issues of poor perception and functional operation of the existing industrial estates, and seek to support the diverse enterprises in the area. The modest available budget and complex urban context lead to the development of a dexterous series of proposals, including transformations to streetscapes, shops and industrial frontages, as well as a new sharedaccess workshop, producing an accumulative and aggregated approach to regeneration, and delivering a characterful, tailored project that is both context-responsive and highly ambitious."

CONSERVATION & RETROFIT

BUILT WINNER: Black Cultural Archive
UNBUILT WINNER: Commonwealth House
COMMENDED:

• 82 Baker Street
• Friends House
• South Bank Tower

EDUCATION

BUILT WINNER: Burntwood School
Client: Burntwood School, LB Wandsworth and Lendlease
Stakeholder: Burntwood School and Wandsworth Children’s Services
Architect: Allford Hall Monaghan Morris (AHMM)
Borough: Wandsworth
Completion: June 2014

"One of the final schools procured through the Building Schools for the Future Programme, this project sought to piece together a 1950s modernist education campus by introducing four four-storey teaching pavilions, a new sports hall and a new performing arts building. These structures are distributed within the existing campus to form a coherent place, complete with lawns, squares and a central pedestrian spine. Within each pavilion, classrooms and ancillary accommodation are arranged along a central corridor with voids and double-height spaces at the ends to increase natural daylight and external connections."

BUILT WINNER: William Perkin Church of England High School
UNBUILT WINNER: Alexandra College
MAYOR’S PRIZE COMMENDATION: Act Now! Building LAMDA’s Future
COMMENDED and MAYOR’S PRIZE: COMMENDATION Good Food Matters

HEALTH & CARE

BUILT WINNER: The Bloom
UNBUILT WINNER: University College London Hospitals, Phase 5

HOMES

BUILT WINNER: Courtyard House
Architect: Dallas Pierce Quintero
Borough: Newham
Completion: January 2015

"Four courtyards provide the main source of daylight to this two-bed house built on a brownfield site. Formally a builder’s yard on a road of terraced houses, this infill project sought to create a discreet, sustainable home without diminishing its neighbour’s daylight. Only the master bedroom protrudes above the surrounding walls, whilst the structure’s split level and sloping joists bring variety to the open plan ground floor. Industrial materials recall the history of the site; black profiled cement sheets to the first floor and roofs, and blue brick to exposed walls."

UNBUILT WINNER: St John’s Grove

HOTELS & HOSPITALITY

BUILT WINNER: Ham Yard Hotel
COMMENDED: Wombat’s London

HOUSING

BUILT WINNER: Lime Wharf
Client: Family Mosaic
Architect: Stephen Davy Peter Smith Architects
Borough: Hackney
Completion: July 2014

"This canal-side regeneration scheme, within the Regents Canal Conservation area, comprises 52 new homes (28 private, six shared ownership, 18 rented) and 1,000 sqm of office space. Homes are clustered around three separate cores, with the gaps between allowing sunlight to reach the canal, promoting the ecosystem, and creating dual aspects and canal views. The commercial space façade is clad in robust brickwork in deliberate contrast to the homes above, which are clad in horizontally orientated zinc cladding of varying heights to replicate the ripples of the canal water."

UNBUILT WINNER: Mapleton Cresent
COMMENDED:

• Brentford Lock West Block G
• Chester Balmore
• Keybridge House

MASTERPLANS & AREA STRATEGIES

WINNER and MAYOR’S PRIZE COMMENDATION: Old Town Croydon Masterplan
COMMENDED: Barbican and Golden Lane Area Strategy

MIXED-USE

BUILT WINNER: St. Mary of Eton
Architect: Matthew Lloyd Architects LLP Church
Client: St. Mary of Eton PCC (with London Diocesan Fund for Vicarage)
Developer: Thornsett Group plc
Borough: Hackney
Completion: October 2014

"Located around a 19th century Grade II* listed church, this mixed-use scheme celebrates this symbol of the community’s history in a changing urban landscape. The project enables the Church to provide for community need through the provision of new housing, achieved through apartments in two new buildings, the tower and Mission Hall, together with a new vicarage and community facilities. The new buildings make a strong urban statement enhancing the setting of the church, and are designed to express a sense of timelessness, with the elevational treatment referencing the historic detailing."

UNBUILT WINNER MAYOR’S PRIZE COMMENDATION: Camley Street Incubator and Gateway Sites Regeneration
COMMENDED: The Clockwork Lanes
MAYOR’S PRIZE COMMENDATION: Here East

OFFICE BUILDINGS

BUILT WINNER: 10 New Burlington Street
Client: The Crown Estate
Architect: Allford Hall Monaghan Morris (AHMM)
Borough: City of Westminster
Completion: March 2014

"Part of the 20-year investment programme for Regent Street, 10 New Burlington Street is a layered reinvention of an urban block. A triple-glazed volume – gently curving inwards at top and bottom – connects two retained and restored façades to a collection of garden spaces, remade from the unused Burlington Mews. The retained architecture has been adapted to new standards of thermal and acoustic performance. The insertion of a five-storey atrium into the building’s new centre brings light, activity and movement into the central zone, whilst below, forgotten vaults are re-inhabited and put to new uses."

UNBUILT WINNER: Four Pancras Square
COMMENDED: Two Tabernacle Street

OFFICE INTERIORS

BUILT WINNER: UBM
Client: UBM
Architect: Gensler
Borough: Southwark
Completion: February 2015

"This office seeks to express UBM’s multinational brand and core values, while embracing the next generation of forward thinking office spaces. Its ‘free address’ open-plan format encourages autonomy while simultaneously fostering an environment where people collaborate based on their job role rather than hierarchy. The layout provides the creative shared work environment needed to cultivate innovation and offers a competitive advantage in the digital age. Amenities such as desk booking and smart lockers activated with entry card help staff move effectively through the space, whilst living green walls improve air quality and employee energy levels."

COMMENDED: London Fields Office

PUBLIC BUILDINGS

BUILT WINNER and COMMISSIONING EXCELLENCE: National Theatre - NT Future
Client: The National Theatre
Architect: Haworth Tompkins
Borough: Lambeth
Completion: April 2015

"Opening up the site to its changing context, this major regeneration of the Grade II* listed National Theatre remodels the entrance, refurbishes the foyers, transforms the Cottesloe (now the Dorfman) Theatre with improved foyer and education facilities, enhances workshops, provides a new production building – the Max Rayne Centre – and creates new riverside cafés. The aim of the project is to connect Denys Lasdun's masterpiece with the public and the surrounding city, to transform its sustainability, and to equip it to serve the National Theatre for continued artistic growth."

COMMENDED: Five Pancras Square

PUBLIC SPACES

BUILT WINNER: Clapham Old Town
MAYOR’S PRIZE COMMENDATION: Better Barkingside
COMMENDED:

• The Goodsyard, Bishopsgate
• Riverside Walk Enhancement Strategy

RETAIL

BUILT WINNER: Foyles

THE TEMPORARY

BUILT WINNER: The Green Room
Client: Coin Street Community Builders
Designer: Benjamin Marks
Borough: Lambeth
Completion: November 2014
Active: 5 years

"Providing a new catering facility for the National Theatre, outside the theatre itself, this new neighbourhood restaurant, bar and garden brings life to this stretch of Upper Ground by using land awaiting permanent development on part of the developing Doon Street site. Designed by recent Part II graduate Benjamin Marks, the design is inspired by the distinctive material qualities of the South Bank, with the building’s robust, yet loose fit construction reflecting the projected five-year lifespan."

MAYOR’S PRIZE COMMENDATION:

• Hub 67
• Pop Brixton

COMMENDED:

• The King’s Cross Pond Club
• The Tower Remembers

TRANSPORT & INFRASTRUCTURE

BUILT WINNER: London Public Cycle Repair Infrastructure
Client: LB Lambeth
Architect: Cyclehoop Ltd

"Over 750,000 cyclists commute to work in the capital each day. This number is ever increasing alongside the network of Cycle Superhighways, and so it is vital that additional infrastructure is put in place to support this growing number of cyclists. This network of free public bicycle pumps and repair stands across London provides access to mechanical and puncture repair 24 hours a day. The heavy duty, vandal-proof structures incorporate a modern design, fitting seamlessly into the urban landscape."

UNBUILT WINNER: Garden Bridge
COMMENDED:

• Aldgate Public Realm and Highway Changes Project
• Kingston Heights

All images courtesy of New London Architecture.