RIBA Announces 32 National Award Winners

• Content
• Features
• RIBA Announces 32 National Award Winners

31 July 2026 | Updated 27 July 2026

The 32 winners of the RIBA National Awards 2026 for architecture have been announced. The awards, which have been presented since 1966, recognise the best of UK architecture and provide insight into the country's design and social trends.  

Showcasing the breadth and ambition of UK architecture, this year's winning schemes span an extraordinary range of sectors, scales and building types. The 32 projects include everything from a striking new footbridge that transforms connectivity across the River Severn in Worcester (Kepax Footbridge) to a house constructed from site-sourced rammed earth (Rammed Earth House). Together, they offer new ideas for vital infrastructure, housing at scale, workplaces, higher education facilities, integrated mixed-use developments, enhancements to the public realm, arts, culture and heritage buildings, as well as thoughtfully designed private homes.

While many of this year's winning projects are located in London, the awards celebrate architectural excellence across all four nations of the UK, from the Scottish Highlands and rural Powys to York, Cambridge, Bristol, Worcester and County Down, demonstrating the breadth of outstanding design architecture in cities, towns and rural communities across the UK.

Innovative approaches to delivering homes at scale feature prominently among this year’s winners. Canada Water Plot K1 provides 79 affordable homes forming the first phase of the area's masterplan, while Lion Green Road navigates a challenging suburban site in Croydon to deliver 157 dwellings with an equal mix of affordable and private housing. With sustainability at its core, Plashnet Road, provides 65 affordable, Passivhaus-certified homes in Newham while The Brentford Project delivers over 800 new homes and helps regenerate the wider area around Brentford’s High Street.

Arts, culture and heritage projects are also strongly represented. In Hertford, a 1970s theatre (BEAM) has been transformed into a vibrant new community and cultural hub, while in London, a new dance theatre and school of choreography provide Sadler’s Wells East with a purposeful new home. In York, two striking, modern projects adjoining York Minster - Heritage Quad: York Minster Centre of Excellence and Technology Hub: York Minster Centre of Excellence – create places where centuries-old craft traditions and cutting-edge technology can be explored and developed.

Meanwhile, this year's winning projects continue to highlight the growing importance of conservation, retrofit and adaptation. The heritage-led reinvention of Plant, a Grade II-listed 1970s office building in Basingstoke with its distinctive roof gardens, and the transformation of Arding & Hobbs, a Grade II-listed Edwardian department store in Clapham Junction, demonstrate how existing buildings can be thoughtfully adapted for contemporary use. As does the restoration of Space House, another Grade II-listed Modernist landmark transformed into new work and retail space, and Highbury House & Studio, a former factory behind a Georgian terrace in North London.

Neil Gillespie, 2026 RIBA Awards Group Chair, said: “This year’s winners, while practicing in increasingly challenging times, illustrate how architects working with and for ambitious and enlightened clients can continue to create places and spaces of quality and value. Across a spectrum of scales, functions and locations, through a diversity of approach from the repair and re-use of existing buildings to new build, these architects and their design teams have placed people and place at the heart of their work.”

Gillespie continued: “Architecture at its core must balance the often conflicting and potentially overwhelming demands of climate change, inclusivity, affordability, accessibility and safety in the pursuit of buildings that are useful, valued and beautiful to experience. Congratulations to all winners, who have shown how with poise, commitment and talent this delicate and demanding balance can and must be achieved.”

The 32 RIBA National Award 2026 winners are:

A house at Fairmead, High Beach, Epping Forest by Sergison Bates architects (Essex)
 An accessible and adaptable home set on the edge of Epping Forest

Arding & Hobbs by Stiff+Trevillion (London)
Retrofit of a Grade II-listed department store

BEAM by Bennetts Associates  (Hertford)
Transformation of Hertford’s 1970s theatre 

Bristol Beacon by Levitt Bernstein  (Bristol)
The transformation of a former concert hall in Bristol.

Canada Water Plot K1 by Morris+Company with White Ink  (London)
79 affordable homes within Southwark.

Harold Moody Health Centre by Morris+Company (London)
A new civic health centre

Heritage Quad: York Minster Centre of Excellence by Tonkin Liu Architects  (York)
A contemporary addition to York Minster supporting heritage craft.

Highbury House and Studio by Maich Swift Architects (London)
The conversion of a former industrial building into a home and studio

Iorram by Baillie Baillie Architects (Plockton)
A small new-build cottage in the Scottish Highlands

Kepax Footbridge by Moxon Architects and Jacobs (Engineering) (Worcester)
A modern pedestrian bridge over the River Severn

Lion Green Road by Mary Duggan Architects (Design) with RUFF Architects (Delivery) (London)
A housing development that provides 157 affordable and private homes in Croydon

Norton Folgate by Allford Hall Monaghan Morris, Stanton Williams by Morris + Co, DSDHA and East (London)
A multi-faceted office-led development situated on the edge of historic Spitalfields.

Paddington Square by Renzo Piano Building Workshop (Paris) in collaboration with Adamson Associates (London)
A transformative piece of urban infrastructure redefining arrival to one of London’s most significant transport hubs

Pantybara by Rural Office (Carmarthenshire)
The revival of a traditional farmstead into a rural family home

Pembroke by Mill Lane, Haworth Tompkins (Cambridge)
The most significant expansion of Pembroke College since the fourteenth century

Plant by Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios with Grant Associates by Twelve Architects and Studio Knight Stokoe  (Basingstoke)
A heritage-led retrofit of a Grade II listed office building

Plashet Road by Newham, Levitt Bernstein (London)
A development of 65 affordable, Passivhaus-certified council homes

Rammed Earth House by Tuckey Design Studio (Wiltshire)
A house in the country made from site-sourced rammed earth.

River Wing by Clare College, Cambridge, Witherford Watson Mann Architects (Cambridge)
Transformation of underused spaces at the Grade I listed Clare Cottage

Sadler's Wells East by O'Donnell + Tuomey (London)
A new dance theatre and school of choreography for Sadler’s Wells 

Smart's Place by David Kohn Architects (London)
Rooftop transformation of a Victorian warehouse into a light-filled home

Space House by Squire and Partners, Atelier Ten, Pell Frischmann by Donald Insall Associates, Gustafson Porter + Bowman, Gardiner and Theobald and BAM (London)
Restoration and reinvention of a listed modernist icon.

Technology Hub: York Minster Centre of Excellence by Tonkin Liu Architects (York)
A new addition to York Minster supporting technological innovation.

The Apple House by Okra  (Hertfordshire)
An innovative education and wellbeing hub set within a previously neglected orchard

The Brentford Project - Phase 1 by Allford Hall Monaghan Morris, Howells and Maccreanor Lavington (London)
A major mixed-use west London waterfront development

The Featherstone Building by Morris+Company (London)
A new office block clad in brick and precast concrete

The Richard Cairns Building, Brighton College by KRFT Architecture studio & Nicholas Hare Architects (Brighton)
A carefully crafted mixed-use performance and teaching building.

The Tannery by Coffey Architects (London)
Mixed‑tenure residential community which provides spaces for local creative charities 

Tollymore by McGonigle McGrath (County Down)
A multi-level riverside home

UCL East by Marshgate, Stanton Williams (London)
A giant academic building in the Olympic Park for the University College London.

UCL One Pool Street by Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands (London)
Purpose-built project that combines both student living and teaching spaces for University College London

Urban Nature Project by Natural History Museum, Feilden Fowles (London)
Reimagining of the Natural History Museum’s 5‑acre gardens

Picture: An image of the Brentford Project. Credit: Rob Parrish.

Article written by Dave Mapps | Published 31 July 2026

Share

---

---

Related Articles

---