RIBA Client of the Year award honours the key role that a good client plays in the creation of fine architecture.
The award is judged by members of the RIBA’s Awards Group, which is chaired by Niall McLaughlin and includes both lay members as well as architects. They consider clients of the year’s RIBA National Award-winning schemes but take into account a track record of previous successful commissioning, particularly where this has led to earlier RIBA Awards.
Coin Street Community Builders| have been announced as winners of the 2008 Client of the Year Awards, for transforming the South Bank by building a genuine community in London's cultural quarter. Working with practices such as Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands and Howarth Tomkins and under the enlightened guidance of Ian Tuckett, Coin Street Community Builders have shown that genuine community architecture can also be award winning architecture.
The shortlist for 2008 was:
-
Beetham organisation for its work on two award winning buildings with Ian Simpson Architects: the Hilton Tower in Manchester (RIBA National Award) and Holloway Circus Tower in Birmingham (RIBA Award) as well as a number of other promising schemes currently on site.
-
Countryside Properties for their work on Accorida, a much praised housing estate in Cambridge. This project was a collaboration between: Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios/Alison Brooks Architects and Macreanor Lavington. Other cited schemes include the Greenwich Millenium Village and Abode in Essex.
-
Queen Mary University for commissioning a striking new student residence, Richard Feilden House designed by Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios, as well as previous award-winners the Blizard Building and the Lock Keeper's Graduate Centre.
The winner of the RIBA Client of the Year 2007 was Derwent London|.