This year, joint first prize went to two schemes which reintroduce semi-industrial uses to former manufactories, seeing the possibilities presented by challenging sites in an advanced state of dereliction. Taking inspiration from pottery techniques, Olivia Hellman (Sheffield) inserted an urban Dairy Factory in a former calcining mill at Middleport in Burslem, Stoke on Trent. Nikola Yanev (Sheffield) took a bold conceptual approach to using a Yorkshire textile site, Old Lane Mill in Halifax, to house an algae energy production plant and education centre.
Philip Webb Award
Philip Webb Award
First awarded in 1993, the Philip Webb Award sets architects in the early stages of their career a demanding but exciting dual conservation and design challenge.
The brief is to devise a scheme which sympathetically revitalises a historic building for reuse through careful repair of existing fabric and a significant element of new construction in a contemporary design. It’s a unique opportunity for those interested in sustainability, the reuse of old buildings and in developing experience in conservation practice to engage with the SPAB’s principles and showcase their skills. The competition is open to recent graduates and current Part II students at UK Schools of Architecture.
Entries are now invited for the 2020 Philip Webb Award. The submission period will open on 20 July and close at 5pm on 14 September 2020. Notes for Entrants and entry forms are available here.
Shortlisted entrants will be invited to present their schemes at an assessment day and the results of the competition will be announced in autumn 2020. Prizes will be presented at an SPAB event in London on 8 December 2020.
Please contact us: education@spab.org.uk
Past Winners
2019 winner
2018 winner
The winning and commended architects in 2018 chose to develop schemes for buildings or complexes with an uncertain future or which are currently subject to unsympathetic planning proposals. This year’s first prize winner, Chris Hamill, tackled the contested site of disused Armagh Gaol. Second prize went to Rachael Moon for her imaginative proposal to transform the Pit Head Baths at Chatterley Whitfield Colliery in Stoke-on-Trent, into a public spa. Joe Copp was commended for his scheme to revive the Bristol United Brewery Malt House.
2017 winner
First prize went to Marta Ascenso of the Mackintosh School of Architecture (Glasgow School of Art) for her scheme to breathe new life into the abandoned Italian hill town of Craco in Basilicata. Alanah Honey, a graduate of Newcastle University, took second prize for her proposal to refurbish and extend redundant buildings in Zanzibar to house a new Institute of Design. The judges awarded third prize to Kate Nicholson of Sheffield University who re-imagined part of the former Spode Pottery in Stoke on Trent as a storytelling centre.
2016 winner
In 2016 the SPAB celebrated an architect closely associated with the Society – William Richard Lethaby. Educational charity UK Youth offered Lethaby’s country house, Avon Tyrrell, which it uses as an outdoor activity centre, as the live case study for this year’s competition. Joint first prize went to Bethan Watson of Cambridge University and Cristiano Lamarque of Oxford Brookes University for their carefully considered and well-presented schemes for the town of L'Aquila and the former monastery at Evora. Jordan Green and Rhys Waring were commended for their scheme for Avon Tyrrell.
2015 winner
2015 marked the centenary of the death of SPAB co-founder Philip Webb. Our centenary partnership with the National Trust enabled us to offer the Stable Block and Barn at Webb’s iconic country house, Standen in Sussex, as a live case study. The overall winner was Holly Spilsbury, a part-time Masters student at Manchester, for her sensitive masterplan for Standen.
