Coin Street Community Builders has won this year's RIBA Client of the Year Award for their transformation of the South Bank by building a genuine community in London's cultural quarter. This has been achieved with a series of award-winning buildings over 14 years using commercial revenues to subsidise social housing, most notably in the Oxo Tower scheme. Under the enlightened guidance of Ian Tuckett, Coin Street Community Builders have shown that genuine community architecture can also be award winning architecture.

The announcement was made tonight at The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) National and International Awards dinner in London at the Hilton Hotel.

The RIBA Client of the Year Award annually rewards the vital role a good client plays in the creation of fine architecture.

Speaking about the award, RIBA President Sunand Prasad said:

 

" Without farsighted clients there would be little good architecture. The RIBA's tradition of recognising the year's best clients through the Client of the Year award goes back to 1998, almost as far back as the Stirling Prize.  In that time we have honoured a number of housing clients, but in social as well as architectural terms few can equal this year's winner, Coin Street Community Builders.  Ian Tuckett and his team have been delivering quality community architecture for a quarter of a century, transforming London's South Bank in the process."

 

Coin Street Community Builders fought off strong competition from three others on the shortlist:

1. Beetham Organisations Ltd 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.
2. Countryside Properties for their work on Accordia, a much praised housing estate in Cambridge. This project was a collaboration between three firms: Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios/Alison Brooks Architects/Macreanor Lavington. Other cited schemes include the Greenwich Millennium Village and Abode in Essex.
3. Queen Mary University for commissioning a striking new student residence designed by   Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios, as well as previous award-winners the Blizard Building and the Lock-Keeper's Graduate Centre.

The award is judged by members of the RIBA's Awards Group, which is chaired by architect Niall McLaughlin and includes both lay members as well as architects. They consider clients of the year's RIBA Award-winning schemes but take into account a track record of previous successful commissioning, particularly where this has led to earlier RIBA Awards.