Purcell and Hugh Broughton projects among 2025 RIBA National Award winners

The RIBA has announced the 20 winners of its 2025 National Awards, which recognise significant contributions to architecture across the UK.

Selected from across all four nations, this year’s award-winning projects include new homes, research facilities, education buildings and conservation schemes. The awards, which have been running since 1966, are intended to highlight both design quality and emerging trends within UK architecture.

The winners will now be considered for this year’s Stirling Prize with the shortlist, usually six strong, due to be announced on 4 September.

Projects recognised include Allies and Morrison’s London College of Fashion in Stratford, a large-scale higher education building that consolidates six former sites into one facility. Described as a “vertical campus,” the building is part of the East Bank development and includes teaching and exhibition spaces.

The list also features Herzog & de Meuron’s The Discovery Centre (DISC), AstraZeneca’s new global R&D centre in Cambridge, designed with BDP as executive architect. Other winners include Sheerness Dockyard Church on the Isle of Sheppey by Hugh Broughton Architects, a Grade II* listed church that has undergone a comprehensive restoration following two fires. The project includes a new timber roof and modern insertions intended to provide flexible community uses.

Community-focused residential developments also feature prominently. Appleby Blue Almshouse in Southwark, by Witherford Watson Mann Architects, introduces 57 almshouses arranged around landscaped courtyards. The design is intended to reduce social isolation through shared spaces and careful circulation. Barefoot Architects’ Hazelmead in Bridport provides 53 timber-framed affordable homes designed for co-housing, intended to promote neighbourliness and sustainable living.

Several projects are located on constrained or previously overlooked sites. Archio’s Citizens House in Lewisham delivers 11 affordable homes on a former garage site, developed with the community land trust model. Brisco Loran and Arrant Industries’ Costa’s Barbers reuses a former shop unit in Battersea as a live-work space.

In East London, the Young V&A (formerly the Museum of Childhood) has been reworked by AOC Architecture and De Matos Ryan into a family-focused space with flexible galleries and enhanced accessibility.

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8 Bleeding Heart Yard by GROUPWORK

Source: Tim Soar

Aldourie Castle Estate by Ptolemy Dean Architects

Source: Simon Kennedy

Fairburn Tower by Simpson & Brown for The Landmark Trust

Source: Landmark Trust

Citizens House by Archio

Source: Citizens House resident

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Commenting on the awards, RIBA Awards Group Chair Simon Henley said: “Each of these 20 winning projects is a powerful testament to the diversity and depth of our profession. They demonstrate how architecture is not just a creative force, but also central in addressing some of the most pressing challenges of our time.”

He added: “We continue to innovate but we also seek continuity, and in so doing to make work of every scale that is engaging and thoughtful.”