Philip Webb Award

 

THE PHILIP WEBB AWARD 2009

An annual award for Part II students at UK Schools of Architecture

 

SPAB and Philip Webb   

Philip Webb and William Morris were the main founders of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings in 1877. From the start Webb devoted time to teaching young architects the principles and methods of practical conservation. The Society maintains that educational tradition today.
 

Purpose of the Award

To encourage new design in the context of historic buildings and to develop an appreciation of old buildings amongst architectural students, through an understanding of the architectural and historical values of old buildings and the purpose, philosophy and techniques of conservation. 

 

The Brief

The Student (or groups of Students) is to choose an individual building or group of buildings of historic interest in the UK which are subject to decay or neglect. Students are required to produce a scheme which will sympathetically re-vitalise the building or buildings and their setting for existing or appropriate new uses. The scheme should include a significant element of new design. Some local authorities have produced 'Buildings at Risk' Registers, which might be used as the basis for the choice of building.
 

The Prize

A prize of £1000 will be awarded to the winner. A second prize of £500 and a third prize of £100 will also be awarded.
 

Eligible Students

All Students at UK Schools of Architecture who have achieved RIBA Part I and are presently working towards RIBA Part 2 examinations.
 

The Submission

Each Student is requested to submit 2 x A1 size drawings (on card or lightweight board) and a report which should include location and survey drawings of the existing buildings as well as photographs of the building and surrounding environment.  

Judging Criteria

Judges will be looking for:
  • a clear historical and architectural appraisal of the existing buildings through research, measured drawings etc.
  • details of proposed conservation techniques and materials, as well as details of the student's contemporary interventions, clearly showing the relationship between old and new.

Submission Procedures & Conditions

  • Each entry must be accompanied by a completed entry form, available from the SPAB, 37 Spital Square, London E1 6DY.
  • The closing date for entries is no later than 4pm on the Friday 4th December 2009 at the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, 37 Spital Square, London E1 6DY.
  • Entrants must ensure that their name is clearly written on the reverse of each drawing and on the report.
  • Entrants must not write their names, initials or any other distinguising marks on the face side of any submitted material.
  • Please do not send any drawings in glass frames.
  • Photographs must be securely fixed within the report.
  • Models cannot be accepted, but photographs of models can.
  • The SPAB can accept no liability for loss of or damage to submitted material. We suggest students retain copies of all their material.
  • The SPAB reserves the right to publicise entries.
 

Collection of material

Material not required for publication or exhibition must be collected from the SPAB by 5pm on Friday 12th February 2010.  Unfortunately the SPAB has no storage facilities and will have to dispose of material not collected by that date.
 
 

Judging

The judging will take place shortly after the date of submission.  The judges are always eminent members of the architectural profession and have included Patty Hopkins, George Ferguson, Richard Murphy, Eva Jiricna, and John McAslan in the past few years.
 
 

Application Form

Please download a copy of the application form here: Philip Webb Application Form
 

THE PHILIP WEBB AWARD WINNERS

Philip Webb Award Winners 2008

First Prize (£1,000) went to Jennifer Routledge, a 6th year student at Nottingham’s School of Architecture, whose project “Passe Nouveau- Newhaven” was the regeneration of the redundant listed buildings on Railway Quay at Newhaven, which would become an industrial museum complex. The judge, Joanna van Heyningen, David Heath and Peter Jamieson, praised the “impressive and sophisticated scheme” which was packed with ideas and was well researched and recorded.

Two other schemes were awarded equal runners-up prize of £300:  Grant Prescott, a part-time student at Manchester’s School of Architecture, devised a scheme to rescue the former Welsh Unitarian Upper Brook Street Chapel in Manchester.  And Alexandra Briars of de Montfort University, Leicester, proposed the conversion of St Mark’s Church in Leicester to dance studios.

Philip Webb Award Winners 2007

The winners of the first and second prizes were students at London Metropolitan University, Andrea Obiol (who won £1000) and Awot Kibrom(£750).  Their brief, set by their tutors, was for the Boilerhouse site at the V&A Museum. Third prize was awarded to two students for the conversion of St Stephen’s Church, Rosslyn Hill in Hampstead into a wine bar.

Philip Webb Award Winners 2004
 
Susie Hyden, of the Bartlett School, London, won the First Prize of £1,000. "A Hostel on the Heights" was her scheme for a new hostel and function space built against the Drop Redoubt of the Dover Western Heights, the military defences built on the cliffs overlooking Dover Western Harbour.