Shrewsbury Flaxmill wins RIBA West Midlands Award

The Awards were announced at a ceremony on Thursday evening, at which Shrewsbury Flaxmill Maltings was named as winner of RIBA West Midlands Building of the Year Award 2024 (sponsored by EH Smith).

The judges said that the project represented “an exemplar of sustainable refurbishment to support the next 100 years of use for a building with a particularly innovative design heritage”.

Presented since 1966, the RIBA Awards set the standard for great architecture across the country.

The 2024 RIBA West Midlands Award winning projects are:

- Black Country Living Museum by Napier Clarke Architects

- A new visitor centre for a museum about one of the first industrialised landscapes in Britain

- Cwm Barn by Arbor Architects

- Creating a low-carbon, energy-efficient and adaptable approach to family living in a rural context

- Halo Reordering - St. Mary Magdalene Church by Communion Architects

- A Grade I listed church made more accessible and fit for the 21st century

- Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research Building, The University of Warwick by Hawkins\Brown
New facilities to allow for the research into medical and life sciences

- Shrewsbury Flaxmill Maltings by Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios

The 5 projects were selected by the expert jury, who visited all shortlisted projects.

RIBA President, Muyiwa Oki, said:

“This year’s RIBA Award winning schemes showcase the true value of quality architecture, and the positive impact it has on people’s lives. While carefully considering the needs of the environment, these truly remarkable places and spaces deliver for communities, for residents, for visitors, and people of all ages up and down the country. They are pinnacles of design excellence, and show what can be achieved when architects and clients collaborate successfully.”

RIBA West Midlands Jury Chair Jessica Barker, said:
"This year’s winners showcase a positive future for architecture, with sustainability and a fabric-first approach dominating the list. The respect for the agricultural heritage which characterises the West Midlands is also evident in all the winning projects.

"The conservation work on Shrewsbury Flaxmill Maltings, our West Midlands Building of the Year, is nothing short of exemplary and shows that, along with the community, education and environmental focus of the rest of the winners, localised architecture has a wider reaching impact."

RIBA West Midlands Award winners will now be considered for a highly coveted RIBA National Award in recognition of their architectural excellence, which will be announced on 11 July. The shortlist for the RIBA Stirling Prize for the best building of the year will be drawn from the RIBA National Award-winning projects later in the year.