RIBA Reinvention Award

Discover this year’s Reinvention Award shortlist, celebrating the creative transformation of buildings to improve their environmental, social or economic sustainability.

This year’s shortlist acknowledges four projects that revitalise the areas and communities around them, each improving the places we live and work while creating a new, ambitious standard in how we approach reuse in architecture. 

Jury Chair and Director of Dow Jones, Biba Dow, said: 
 
“Each of the shortlisted projects presents an exceptional approach to adapting an existing building. Our shortlist of four is diverse, with a commercial office building in central London, a Grade I-listed mill in Shropshire that is the earliest iron-framed building in the world, the redevelopment of Park Hill (Phase 2) housing in Sheffield which is Europe’s largest listed structure, and a restaurant in a small ruined byre on the Isle of Mull.   

Find out more about the shortlisted projects below:

Croft 3 (RIAS) by fardaa 
A ruined rural croft on the Isle of Mull has been modestly yet expertly converted, expanding a busy local restaurant and providing a valuable community space, while meeting the stringent regulations of a National Scenic Area. 

Park Hill Phase 2 by Mikhail Riches 
The second phase of an ongoing regeneration of Europe’s largest listed structure which sits on a prominent hillside overlooking Sheffield City Centre. Internal spaces are modernised through open plan designs and the addition of balconies, while thermal imaging has allowed sustainability experts to  improve energy efficiency.  

Shrewsbury Flaxmill Maltings by Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios 
A full refurbishment of a hugely important historic structure has turned the world’s first iron-frame building, nicknamed the ‘grandparent of skyscrapers’ into a new leisure destination with a visitor centre and cafe that embraces its industrial heritage. 

The Parcels Building by Grafton Architects 
An outdated and unsuitable 1957 office and retail building has been transformed into a vibrant, sustainable centre for modern workspace and retail. The new façade brings depth and rhythm whilst cleverly negotiating the contrasting scale and character of Oxford Street and Duke Street. 

Biba Dow (Chair) - Director of Dow Jones

James McGosh - Partner at van Heyningen and Haward Architects

Otto Saumarez Smith - Architectural and Urban Historian at the University of Warwick