The Cardboard Building at Westborough Primary School by Cottrell + Vermeulen Architecture has become the first project ever to win two RIBA special awards. It has scooped this year's Stephen Lawrence Prize sponsored by the Marco Goldschmied Foundation and The RIBA Journal Sustainability Award. The building made from cardboard is a permanent structure which provides a versatile space for school activities. The announcement was made tonight at a special awards ceremony for The RIBA Stirling Prize in association with The Architects' Journal at BALTIC The Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead.
The Stephen Lawrence Prize sponsored by the Marco Goldschmied Foundation rewards the best example of a building with a construction budget of less than £200,000. This is the fifth year that the award, named in memory of the murdered black teenager who planned to become an architect, has been given. The RIBA Journal Sustainability Award rewards the building which demonstrates most elegantly and durably the principles of sustainable architecture.
The judges said,
"We were completely won over by The Cardboard Building for Westborough Primary School. It is Europe's first permanent cardboard structure, providing a much needed educational and community space as well as an inspiring structure that works with the properties of the material. Designed to last 20 years, the building's layout is inherently flexible allowing a wide range of uses within the main space. It combines the vision of the school's staff and governors with the tenacity of the architect and engineer to research the structural aspects of the project and obtain the necessary permissions from a sceptical Local Authority.
"The project demanded free issue materials from manufacturers in order to realise what would otherwise have been unaffordable. The building is made almost entirely from recycled materials which may be recycled again in future. The building is not the most advanced folded structure ever developed, but moves the science of cardboard structure forward significantly, within the limited resources available. It also acts as a continuous learning experience for successive cohorts of children both in terms of the strength and economy of folded structures and the recyclable and sustainable issues which the building demonstrates. A brave attempt on a shoestring budget: the embodiment of the truth that 'necessity is the mother of invention'."
Marco Goldschmied, Immediate Past President of the RIBA and Managing Director of the Richard Rogers Partnership and Amanda Baillieu, Editor of The RIBA Journal, presented Richard Cottrell and Brian Vermeulan with two cheques for £5,000.
The Cardboard Building beat off competition from six other buildings to take The Stephen Lawrence Prize sponsored by the Marco Goldschmied Foundation. The other shortlisted buildings were: Basement Flat in Edinburgh by Richard Murphy Architects, Wycoller Visitor Centre by Hakes Associates, Quaker Barns by Hudson Featherstone, the Bandstand at the De la Warr Pavilion by Niall McLaughlin Architects, The Sorrel House by Foggo Associates with David Thomas and Fairhazel Gardens by Scampton & Barnett.
The shortlisted buildings for The RIBA Journal Sustainability Award were: Entrance Galleries & Planet Earth at the Earth Centre by Feilden Clegg Bradley; Gateway Development at Baglan Energy Park by Neath Port Talbot CBC, Downland Gridshell at the Weald and Downland Open Air Museum by Edward Cullinan Architects and Fingal County Offices by Bucholz McEvoy with BDP (Dublin).