Celebrating architecture excellence in Barnet

Organised by Barnet Council, in partnership with Re and Countryside, the awards were held at Middlesex University on Tuesday 21 November.

 

The inaugural awards night recognised the well-designed buildings and open spaces that enhance the quality of life throughout the borough.

 

During the night, Little Lamps Nursery in Cricklewood received the People’s Choice Award after picking up the most votes, with more than 1,000 residents voting in this category.

 

The nursery is a new play centre, based in an Edwardian Church Hall. Within this vast open space, supported by magnificent riveted iron arches, the nursery has created a mezzanine flanked by colourful stairs and an indoor climbing ramp and slide.

 

In the Residential New Build category (10 or more units), Countryside’s regeneration of the former Dollis Valley Estate near High Barnet, in partnership with L&Q and Barnet Council, to create the new Brook Valley Gardens community, was named the winner.

 

Brook Valley Gardens is a garden suburb for the 21st century, integrating the estate and its community into the wider Underhill neighbourhood, and providing a long-term solution to the regeneration of the estate.

 

Also winning an award was Marian House, a Belarusian Chapel in North Finchley, and the first wooden church to be built in London since the Great Fire of 1666. Winning in the Non-Residential New Builds category, the judges said the atmospheric qualities of the design not only emulated the wooded landscape of Belarus, but were also sympathetic to the 17 statutorily protected trees located on site. Entirely pre-fabricated, the light-weight timber structure is made from sustainably sourced British Douglas fir, a nod to the historical connection of community and place.

 

Speaking on the night, the Leader of Barnet Council, Councillor Richard Cornelius, said: “Barnet is a borough that keeps changing. We now have 400,000 people, which is the same size as a large city in the UK.

 

"In terms of buildings we are overachievers having built over 11,000 new homes in the last 10 years. We’ve got 26,000 more in the pipeline and 20,000 with planning consent, so the place is changing.

 

“As it changes, it becomes all the more important that we stick to good designs, have good architects, nice work, nice materials, and do something that is of high-quality build, that we could be proud of in the future, including our new office building over in Colindale.

 

“I would like to congratulate all of the winners from this event and implore all architects building in Barnet to strive for greatness, and to create something which will have a positive legacy for many years.”

 

All winners of the individual categories were chosen by a panel of experts from nominations put forward from across the borough. The Delivering for Barnet Architecture Awards are set to return in 2019.

 

Please see below the full list of winners: