Cambridge Mosque Trust is the 2021 RIBA Client of the Year

RIBA has announced the Cambridge Mosque Trust as its 2021 Client of the Year.

The Trust was behind the Cambridge Central Mosque development from Marks Barfield Architects, which landed on the Stirling Prize shortlist. The 2009 commission produced a wonderful, light-filled, and highly sustainable new place of worship for the roughly 6,000 members of the city’s Islamic community. 

“Cambridge Mosque Trust, spearheaded by Dr Timothy Winter, Shaykh Zayed Lecturer in Islamic Studies, and Director of Studies at Wolfson College, demonstrated personal commitment and tenacity to deliver a highly sustainable work of contemporary architecture, which is culturally embedded in the history of those who use the building but also appropriate and generous to the civic life of the city. Cambridge Mosque Trust is a worthy winner of RIBA Client of the Year,” Chairperson Jo Bacon said in a juror’s statement. 

Bacon chaired the three-member jury alongside Glenn Howells Architects’ Dav Bansal and Network Rail’s Buildings and Architecture Head Anthony Dewar. 

Other shortlisted candidates for this year’s award included English Heritage, the London Borough of Hackney, and the Warwick Manufacturing Group. The mosque was also a finalist for the RIBA East and RIBA National awards in addition to being included on the Stirling shortlist.