Atkins: The Latest Architecture and News

The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has revealed the six shortlisted projects for the 2024 RIBA Stirling Prize. Awarded annually since 1996, this represents one the most important architecture prizes in the United Kingdom, striving to reward and highlight projects that envision a more inclusive future and engage actively with current challenges of the built environment. The selected works range in scale and program, from a national art gallery to an inclusive rural retreat, major urban regeneration projects, and even a London underground line. While some of the selected architects have received previous awards, including Mikhail Riches for the Goldsmith Street in 2019 and Jamie Fobert for New Tate St Ives in 2018, other architects such as Clementine Blakemore Architects and Al-Jawad Pike are at their first nomination.

+ 25

Oman has just announced plans for a $2.4 billion mixed-use project, the new Omani Mountain Destination on Jabal al Akhdar. Masterplanned by AtkinsRéalis, the scheme aims to attract sustainable development opportunities, hoping to "operate as Net Zero Carbon and striving to use 100% renewable energy." The project is in alignment with Oman Vision 2040, seeking a developed, diversified, and sustainable economy;, featuring residences, hotels, and a health village.

+ 9

Designed by Atkins, a new zero-carbon secondary school in West Sussex has received planning permission from the West Sussex County Council. The school will be created at Homes England’s new Brookleigh development near Burgess Hill and will offer educational facilities to 900 local children. The building is designed to generate its own renewable energy on-site, eliminating the need for any fossil fuels. It also aims to achieve Passivhaus certification, the highest standard od energy efficiency a building can reach.

Atkins has revealed the final design of Nairobi’s new Central Railway Station and public realm. The project extends the historic station building, one of the city’s first stone structures, to raise its capacity to over 30,000 passengers per hour. The new additions take inspiration from the past, referencing the “Boma,” a community enclosure rooted in the heritage of central African culture. Built for flexibility and adaptability, the new station aims to become a key functional facility within the city, providing its citizens with amenities, landscape, and respite.

+ 1

The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) has released some of the facts and figures behind the projects appearing in their recent book, 100 of the World’s Tallest Buildings. The construction of tall buildings requires collaboration between many different companies and firms and the efforts of hundreds of people, but a few select firms have been responsible for more of the design and engineering achievements than any other.

Continue reading to see the 18 design architects that have contributed multiple buildings to the top 100 list.

Atkins has been selected to design a transit-oriented development (TOD) master-plan along the new Jakarta-Bandung high-speed rail (HSR) corridor, the first HSR project in Indonesia. Set for completion by 2019, the corridor will extend 142.3km, stimulating economic growth along the corridor while re-allocating traffic to de-congest the region.

The TOD masterplan will integrate smart planning, land value capture and development/station integration, with Atkins specifically covering "masterplanning, transit oriented development, architecture and urban design, landscape design and station integration for Halim and Manggarai areas."

Six teams have been shortlisted to design the world's largest waste-to-energy plant in Shenzhen, China: Arup, Atkins, AECOM, Gerber Architekten, Schmidt Hammer Lassen with Gottlieb Paludan Architects, and local firm Tanghua Architects. Aiming to manage Shenzhen's growing population (and waste accumulation), the "Shenzhen East Waste-to-Energy Plant" plans to incinerate 5000 tonnes of waste daily and generate an estimated 550 million kWh per year.

Atkins has broke ground on a 460-meter skyscraper in Vietnam that is set to be country's tallest. The 81-story development, Vincom Landmark 81 will rise in Ho Chi Minh City's Vinhomes Central Park, near the Saigon River, as a cluster of 25 extruded cubes capped with roof gardens. It will be comprised of serviced apartments, a hotel and retail anchored by a large shopping center and landscaped corridor.

Design and engineering firm Atkins has been commissioned by the China Communications Construction Company (CCCC) to design a series of new office buildings in Guanzhou. Their proposed design takes the form of three independent buildings, two of which form large, window-like structures. With a working title “Window of Guangzhou,” these buildings will commemorate the city’s history as the first Chinese port city opened to international trade along China’s legendary Silk Road.

Foster + Partners has been named the UK's biggest architecture practice for the third year running in the annual AJ100 run by the Architects' Journal. The list of the top 100 architecture practices in the UK, based on the number of fully qualified architects employed, was announced at an awards ceremony last night in London.

In the past year Foster + Partners has almost doubled its lead at the top of the list, with its 290 architects putting it 87 ahead of second-place rival BDP, showing how the practice dominates the architecture world not just culturally, but also in terms of business size.

See the top 10 UK practices, as well as the results of the accompanying AJ100 Awards, after the break