London: The Latest Architecture and News

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London-based architect Alison Brooks was born and grew up in Canada and studied architecture at the University of Waterloo in Waterloo, Ontario. Upon graduation in 1988, she left for London where after working with designer Ron Arad for seven years she started Alison Brooks Architects in 1996. Her most representative works include the Stirling Prize-winning Accordia Brass Building in Cambridge, Exeter College Cohen Quad in Oxford, the Smile Pavilion for the 2016 London Design Festival, and several expressive single-family residences in London: VXO House, Fold House, Lens House, Mesh House, and Windward House.

Among the studio’s current projects are The Passages in Surrey, Canada; Homerton College in Cambridge, and other residential and cultural projects throughout Britain and in North America. This month the architects’ design was shortlisted for the LSE Firoz Lalji Global Hub and Institute for Africa in London. Together with Nigerian practice Studio Contra, the ABA-led team was one of six finalists chosen from 190 international submissions.

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The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has announced the six buildings competing for the 2022 RIBA Stirling Prize. Marking its 26th edition, the award honors the United Kingdom’s best new building, and is considered the country's highest accolade in architecture. The six projects range between educational, cultural, and residential buildings, all designed for sustained community benefits that "demonstrate the power of exceptional architecture to enhance lives". The winner of the 2022 Stirling Prize will be announced on October 13th, 2022 at RIBA's 66 Portland Place in London.

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The Grimshaw Foundation is a charitable organization aiming to bring access to creative learning tools to a diverse range of young people. The organization was established by Sir Nicholas Grimshaw, in partnership with the partners of international architecture practice Grimshaw. The central purpose is to bring together a globally linked educational community of artists, architects, and designers to support and empower young people. It hopes to reach them at the stage of navigating their career options and help them discover the varied options and opportunities that the creative industry can offer. The Foundation officially launched on 6 July 2022 at the Royal Academy of Arts in London.

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This article was originally published on Common Edge.

Despite its dazzling collection of masterpieces, London’s National Gallery has been cursed with a series of ill-advised architectural schemes over its two-century existence. Only once have its leaders made a truly inspired and visionary choice: in the mid-1980s, the gallery held a competition, won by Venturi, Rauch and Scott Brown (VRSB) of Philadelphia, to build a special collections building.

The addition was constructed from 1988 to 1991, using funds donated by the Sainsbury family as a gift to the nation and was immediately hailed as one of the finest buildings of its type erected in the 20th century. It has remained popular with Londoners and has served well as an expansion of William Wilkins’s undistinguished classical building ever since. Experts on the work of Robert Venturi, John Rauch, and Denise Scott Brown consider it one of their masterpieces. Apparently, the National Gallery has a different opinion.

As part of the London Festival of Architecture, French-Lebanese architect Annabel Karim Kassar and her award-winning studio AKK have unveiled a new installation at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London titled The Lebanese House: Saving a home, Saving a city. The installation explores the aftermaths of the Beirut explosion, and the rebuilding of the city with a life-size replica of a typical Lebanese home, one of the few remaining classic Ottoman-Venetian houses left in old Beirut, along with documentary films.

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The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has announced the 29 winners of the 2022 RIBA National Awards for architecture. Ranging from net-zero carbon office buildings to family homes, schools and education facilities, urban developments and cultural buildings, this year’s projects provide an insight into the key trends that shape UK’s architectural and economic environment. Many projects focused on uniting communities, by creating spaces as a result of a collaboration between the local residents and the architects, or by offering unique venues for musical or cultural events. The future of housing was also addressed, with projects illustrating a vision for modern rural living or creating new city blocks centered around community gardens. Another area of interest was the restoration and adaptation of existing buildings, be it a 900-year-old former dining hall of the Cathedral or an iconic 1950s Modernist house.

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Heatherwick Studio is taking part of this year’s Royal Academy Summer Exhibition with two retrofit projects in the United Kingdom: Broad Marsh in Nottingham and Parnham Park in Dorset. Titled "Ruins Reimagined", the exhibition presents two different approaches to reusing existing architecture, from a Grade I-listed 16^th century house to a partially demolished 1970’s shopping center, each offering a unique response in scale and heritage to the Summer Exhibition’s theme of ‘climate’. The models are on display in the Architecture Room until 21st August. This year, the Architecture Room is curated by Niall McLaughlin RA and Rana Begum RA, and will sit across two spaces, mixing art and architecture together.

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