Shortlist of Sheffield’s best buildings announced

The search to find the city’s best building is narrowing as the shortlist for Sheffield Design Awards 2010 is announced.

The competition is being run in partnership with Sheffield Civic Trust (SCT) and the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) Yorkshire. Launched in 2008, Sheffield Design Awards are held every two years and are open to any project within the city’s boundary.

Architectural firms and industry professionals entered the competition and a high profile judging panel - which includes Nick Dodds, Chief Executive of Museums Sheffield and Professor Flora Samuel, Head of Sheffield School of Architecture - have agreed a shortlist of eight buildings. The shortlisted projects are:

Sharrow Point - Project Orange
The Arthur Willis Environmental Centre, University of Sheffield – Bond Bryan Architects
The Crucible Workshops - Elden Mills & Co Ltd
Western Bank Library - Avanti Architects
Newfield & Talbot School - HLM Architects
The Workshop - DRDH Architects
The Furnival Building - Bond Bryan Architects
SAFAR - BDP

The launch of the Sheffield Design Awards

There will also be a Citizen's Award which is open to anyone who lives and works in Sheffield and can be any project within the city’s boundary. In 2008, it awarded to the Charles Street Car Park, the hotly debated city icon designed by architects Allies and Morrison.

Paul Bedwell, Chair of Sheffield Civic Trust, said: "We were delighted to have so many high quality entries last time and the final winners represented an excellent cross section of great new buildings in Sheffield. The recession has caused delays to some major projects but there are still plenty of excellent examples of design quality and I expect the competition to be strong."

Click to view the flyer (PDF opens in a new window)

Emma England, Director of RIBA Yorkshire, added: “The RIBA campaigns for good design and quality within the built environment and shares many common goals with the Sheffield Civic Trust which why we are so pleased to be running the awards for a second time. People in Sheffield are rightly proud of their city and the regeneration that has taken place over the last decade has produced some of the best contemporary architecture in the region. Sheffield is a great city and the Citizen's Award is a unique way for the people of Sheffield to make their opinion count.”

The winner of The Citizen's Award will be the building or scheme that receives the most votes from the general public and SCT members – click here to vote for The Citizen's Award. Decisions on the other categories will be made by a panel of leading designers, lay people and members of the SCT who will be invited to judge on the basis of their expertise.

Paul Bedwell, Chair of Sheffield Civic Trust, said: “We were delighted to have so many high quality entries last time and the final winners represented an excellent cross section of great new buildings in Sheffield. The recession has caused delays to some major projects but there are still plenty of excellent examples of design quality and I expect the competition to be strong.”