The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) will announce the winners of the 2012 RIBA Awards on Thursday 21 June 2012. RIBA Awards for architectural excellence will be presented to 50 buildings in the UK and nine buildings elsewhere in the EU. The shortlist for the RIBA Stirling Prize for the building of the year will be drawn from the 59 RIBA Award winners.

This year’s winners range from a house in the shape of a sand dune to the London 2012 Olympic Stadium, from a demountable opera pavilion to the radical transformation of a Spanish bull-fighting arena. Well-known architects and smaller architecture practices will be battling it out to make it onto this year’s RIBA Stirling Prize shortlist alongside television presenter Kevin McCloud and philosopher Alain de Botton who have nailed their colours to the mast and commissioned two of this year’s award-winning buildings.

The dominant theme amongst this year’s winners are major public arts buildings – ten of which have made the grade; many are the result of pre-recession arts lottery funding which has a typically long gestation period. The beautifully finished projects include Bath’s Holburne Museum (Eric Parry Architects) and the Hepworth Wakefield (David Chipperfield Architects).

Refreshingly, the vast majority of the 2012 RIBA Awards winners are in regional towns, with awards across all genre types. Two of the UK’s best-loved seaside towns have received surprising new additions to their coastline and, in the case of the Turner Contemporary at Margate, been hailed as a boost to the town’s economy.

This year’s winners reveal a trend which could be termed ‘austerity chic’, with a strong presence of crafted and considered buildings, using carefully selected materials which emphasize texture, authenticity and environmental efficiency. The Brockholes Nature Reserve Visitor Centre in Lancashire is the perfect example of this – a wooden ‘floating village’ designed to enhance our enjoyment of nature and with an enviable energy rating.

Thoughtful stitching-together of the existing urban fabric is another theme - with the clever reuse and reinvention of existing spaces. Impressive examples of this include London’s new Exhibition Road streetscape and Central St Martin’s Campus, while impressive urban projects such as Kevin McCloud’s housing project, The Triangle in Swindon and the new Lyric Theatre in Belfast demonstrate how to make the best use of confined urban spaces.

Speaking today, RIBA President Angela Brady said:

“For nearly fifty years the RIBA Awards have reflected the changing state of British architecture and revealed emerging design trends. What really stands out is that even in times of austerity, we can still deliver amazingly clever, high quality buildings that reflect the needs of today and enhance our daily lives. The judges were delighted to see so many well considered, crafted and innovative projects, and the use of beautiful materials; these projects are truly exciting and inspiring. The huge range of great buildings will guarantee an exciting RIBA Stirling Prize shortlist later in the year and illustrates the value of quality in architecture.”

The 50 UK buildings that have won an RIBA Award are:

SCOTLAND
National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh Gareth Hoskins Architects
Bogbain Mill ,Maryburgh Rural Design
Dundee Council Civic Office, Dundee Reiach and Hall Architects
Maggie’s Centre, Gartnavel, Glasgow - OMA
Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh - Page/Park Architects

NORTHERN IRELAND
Glenariffe House, Glens of Antrim - McGarry-Moon Architects
Lyric Theatre, Belfast - O’Donnell + Tuomey
Public Records Office of Northern Ireland, Belfast - Todd Architects
Rear Extension to 109 Osbourne Park, Belfast - ard (ciaran mackel) Architects

NORTH EAST
Roseberry Park, Middlesbrough - Medical Architecture
Toffee Factory, Newcastle upon Tyne - xsite architecture

NORTH WEST
Brockholes Visitor Centre Lancashire Adam Khan Architects
Festival House Blackpool dRMM Architects
North House Bowden Roger Stephenson Architects

YORKSHIRE
Kirk Balk Community College, Barnsley - Allford Hall Monaghan Morris
Saxton, Leeds - Union North
The Hepworth Wakefield, Wakefield - David Chipperfield Architects

WALES
Maggie’s Centre, Swansea Kisho Kurokawa Architect & Associates with Garber & James
Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, Cardiff - BFLS

WEST MIDLANDS
BFI Master Film Store, Warwickshire - Edward Cullinan Architects

EAST MIDLANDS
Caistor Arts & Heritage Centre, Lincolnshire - Jonathan Hendry Architects
Easton Neston Estate, Northamptonshire - Ptolemy Dean Architects
Loughborough Design School, Loughborough - Burwell Deakins Architects

EAST
Brentwood School Sixth Form Centre & Assembly Hall, Essex - Cottrell & Vermeulen Architecture 
Royal Veterinary College Student Village, Hatfield - Hawkins\Brown
he Dune House, Suffolk - Jarmund Vigsnaes Architects & Mole Architects
The Sainsbury Laboratory, University of Cambridge - Stanton Williams

SOUTH WEST & WESSEX
Private House, Gloucestershire - Found Associates
The Dyson Centre for Neonatal Care, Bath - Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios
The Holburne Museum, Bath - Eric Parry Architects
The Triangle, Swindon Glenn - Howells Architects

SOUTH
Garsington Opera Pavilion, High - Wycombe Snell Associates
The Shulman Auditorium, Oxford - Berman Guedes Stretton
Student Accommodation, Somerville College, Oxford - Niall McLaughlin Architects

SOUTH EAST
McLaren Production Centre, Surrey - Foster + Partners
Turner Contemporary, Kent - David Chipperfield Architects

LONDON
14 St George Street and 50 New Bond Street, London W1S - Eric Parry Architects 
Exhibition Road, London SW7 - Dixon Jones
Dalling Road, London - Hayhurst and Co. in collaboration with Lucy Carmichael
Peabody Avenue, Pimlico, London SW1V - Haworth Tompkins
The St. Paul’s Centre, St Paul's Church, Hammersmith - Richard Griffiths Architects
The Hurlingham Club Outdoor Pool, London SW6 - David Morley Architects
Kings Grove, London SE15 -  Duggan Morris Architects
White Cube, Bermondsey, London SE1 Casper Mueller Kneer Architects
Hackney Marshes Centre London E9 - Stanton Williams
London Olympic Stadium, London E20 - POPULOUS
New Court, London EC4N - OMA with Allies and Morrison
St. Pancras Chambers, London NW1 - RHWL Architects with Richard Griffiths Architects
Henrietta Barnett School, London NW11 - Hopkins Architects
University of the Arts Campus, Central Saint Martins at King's Cross. Phase 1: Granary Complex,  London N1C - Stanton Williams

The nine RIBA Award buildings in the European Union are:

• PJ Carroll’s Factory Dundalk, Ireland - scott tallon walker architects
• Wexford County Council Headquarters, Wexford, Ireland - Robin Lee Architecture
• Solid 11, Amsterdam, Netherlands - Tony Fretton Architects
• Las Arenas, Barcelona, Spain - Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners
• Bilbao Arena, Bilbao, Spain - Idom UK
• H27D Constance, Germany - Kraus Schoenberg Architects
• maison L Yvelines, France - architecturespossibles
• Centre Pompidou, Metz, France - Shigeru Ban and Jean de Gastine Architectes with Gumuchdjian Architects
• FCN 2009 Portelle, Italy - M Guiseppina Grasso Cannizzo

The RIBA Stirling Prize is awarded to the architects of the building that has made the greatest contribution to British architecture in the past year. The prize will be presented on Saturday 13 October.

The Architects’ Journal is media partner for the RIBA Awards and trade media partner for the RIBA Stirling Prize.