The hunt for Scotland’s best new buildings of the year has begun in earnest after the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland (RIAS) revealed the 14 buildings in the running for the 2022 RIAS Awards.
The shortlisted buildings for the 2022 RIAS Awards are spread widely across the country and include a new school and college buildings in Cumnock, Falkirk and Jedburgh, the restoration of an iconic Modernist house in Galashields, a community center in Fife and pioneering low energy homes.
The RIAS Awards demonstrate the quality and breadth of architectural endeavor in Scotland. All types and size of architectural project can win a RIAS Award, and all shortlisted buildings will be assessed by an expert jury who look at each project’s architectural integrity, sustainability criteria, usability, context, delivery and execution.
The shortlist includes:
Barony Campus – Sheppard Robson
Sitting on an almost 20-hectare fringe site, Barony Campus has consolidated five schools into one campus. The buildings are organized as four connected structures connected by an elevated route. Internal spaces are light and airy. Taking advantage of natural daylight to create a space that is conducive to learning.
Forth Valley Campus – Reiach and Hall
The new Forth Valley College campus in Falkirk offers students state-of-the-art laboratories, training centers and workshops. The architects Reiach and Hall designed the building to provide equal support for the widest possible range of people.
The layout of the site engages with the surroundings, providing the first section of a landscaped walk envisaged to connect the center of Falkirk to the Helix Park to the East.
Fungarth House – Mary Arnold-Forster Architect
Designed by Mary Arnold-Foster, Fungarth House was built to be different. Instead of a single building, 4 elements were created to form a relaxing south facing walled garden.
The materials used are as far as possible local and robust. Scottish grown larch was used for the rainscreen cladding on the roof and walls of the house and corrugated fiber cement for the office and bike store. A quarry 10miles away provided the aggregate for the terrazzo floor, the kitchen was made 5 miles away, the fireplace is a simple concrete block with a rendered waxed and polished finish and the pine floor upstairs was bleached and waxed.
Glenkinchie Distillery – Michael Laird Architects Limited
The Glenkinchie Distillery comprises of the refurbishment and upgrading of a collection of Victorian listed buildings. Michael Laird Architects wanted visitors to appreciate the industrial heritage of the converted listed maturation warehouse so, as well as retaining the beautiful Victorian brickwork, the cast-iron columns, steel beams and timber joists that formed the original structure were also preserved and exposed.
To further preserve and enhance the character of the listed building, they reused materials from buildings which helped the team meet the Client’s expectations of ‘zero waste to landfill’ policy.
Havenfield Mews – Sonia Browse Architects
Havenfield Mews by Sonia Browse Architects comprises three family townhouses in a new mews street in Portobello. They sought to design housing that offered the character often found in traditional properties but in a sustainable design and provided the comfort of a modern home.
The design is inspired by the ‘linked villa’ typical of Portobello’s Brighton and Rosefield area. The garage of each property is set back from the street, joining houses together in a similar way to the single-story wings which link the late-Georgian properties in the neighborhood streets.
Hebridean House – Greig Penny Architecture Ltd
Returning to the Outer Hebrides from the city was a long-term dream for the client, whose brief was to regenerate their vacant family croft, located near the south-west coast of South Uist in a harsh, isolated, yet incredibly beautiful landscape.
The house takes a contextualist approach and endeavors to recognise the island’s changing cultural and social needs. It explores how a modern croft house might be constructed today. The result is an economical house that embraces affordable construction and materials, finding a richness instead in the nuances of assembly and whilst composition referencing traditional, low-roofed, thick-walled buildings.
High Sunderland – Loader Monteith Architects
The new owners of High Sunderland recognised the house as a building of national importance. This 1957 Category-A listed modernist icon was designed by Peter Wormesley for Bernat and Margaret Klein. It was the job of Loader Monteith to restore the building after it suffered extensive fire damage.
Loader Monteith forensically sifted through the debris, recording the entire structure and salvaging as much of the original material as possible both for reuse and future reference. Along with their clients, they chose to preserve these delicate details, highlighting their commitment not only to the architecture of Peter Wormesley, but the personality and use of this over time, and the role it has played in the Kleins’ own creative legacy.
Inverness Justice Center – Reiach and Hall
Inverness Justice Center is the first court complex in Scotland to bring together in one building all the organisations that administer and support the justice system.
The building design attempts to support reforms currently being made to the justice system. Key amongst the reforms, which have a possibility in architectural design, are increased accessibility, legibility and visibility.
Jedburgh Grammar Campus – Stallan-Brand
Jedburgh Campus is a radical way to reimagine the spatial form of a Scottish secondary school. It is a space that can take learners from early years through to employment. The driving force behind our design is the pupils taking ownership over their space, encouraged to curate their own learning.
Lockerbie Sawmill – Konishi Gaffney Architects
James Jones & Sons Ltd are the UK’s largest sawmiller. Konishi Gaffney was briefed to create a new building to welcome visitors and provide additional office and ancillary staff accommodation.
The building’s structure acts as a demonstration project, almost entirely erected from James Jones & Sons’ own products with an approach to minimising the use of steel and maximizing timber.
Ostro Passivhaus – Paper Igloo Ltd
Ostro by Paper Igloo is a contemporary and exemplary low-energy dwelling on the periphery of Kippen’s Conservation Area. A Certified Passivhaus, the building achieves extremely low operational and embodied carbon emissions and attained ‘Gold’ accreditation in Section 7 of the Scottish Technical Standards.
This project dispels the myth that exquisite contemporary architecture cannot be truly low energy or environmentally beneficial. The house sits comfortably within the semi-rural context: facing a mixed-species woodland to the south, an ‘area of outstanding natural beauty’ to the west open to long views, with housing to the north and east.
Quarry Studios – Moxon
Moxon Architects’ own office, Quarry Studios, is a low-lying building sited in a former quarry, surrounded by a heavily wooded Site of Special Scientific Interest in the Cairngorms National Park in the Scottish Highlands. The principal studio and café buildings represent the private and public aspects of practice: encouraging collaboration and concentration and is a response to the growth of the practice in recent years.
The lack of compartments in the main working areas – while maintaining difference and privacy – is a consequence of the desire for a flat hierarchy while recognising the requirements of different activities in the space. Natural ventilation and generously spaced working areas were designed at the outset but have taken on greater significance with new working requirements in response to the covid pandemic.
The Den – Technique Architecture and Design Ltd.
This home and studio space by Technique Architecture and Design was conceived as a playful den and lookout post with views across the Kyles of spectacular Bute. Two dilapidated flats were combined to create a split-level living space connected by a new sculptural plywood volume containing the kitchen, bathrooms, and storage. An exoskeleton and insulated metal ‘jacket’ transformed a tired property into an unashamedly contemporary addition to the town with an equally unique interior.
The Larick Center – Collective Architecture Ltd
With sustainability at its core, The Larick Center by Collective Architecture embodies Tayport community’s drive and achievement to map its own destiny and secure its future for generations to come. Opening in 2020, ‘to get people together to meet, become involved and celebrate with each other’, it is a beacon of hope and opportunity, very much conceived, planned and now operated by Tayport Community Trust.
The client said: “In addition to creating jobs for local people, the Larick Center has become a beacon for the community providing a space for people to gather, socialise and learn. It’s a wonderful example of our community working in partnership with Collective Architecture who listened to our needs and enabled a sustainable building design to secure the community for generations to come.”
Tamsie Thomson, CEO, RIAS, one of the jury members, said: “We are delighted to have such an expert and talented line-up to jury the RIAS Awards 2022. Our jurors play an essential role in ensuring the awards highlight the best in Scottish architecture and promote it on a global scale.”
The winners of the 2022 RIAS Awards will be announced in June and go on to form the ‘longlist’ for the RIAS Andrew Doolan Best Building in Scotland Award, with Scotland’s ultimate architectural accolade being announced later in the year.