Brick House Caruso St John Architects - London
Credit: Helene Binet
Tucked away on an awkward back yard site, hidden behind a Victorian archway entrance, lies a very modern and surprising house where the humble brick has been elevated to sculptural status. It deserves its name - compared to any old house of bricks - because inside, bricks form floors, ceilings and walls, and outside they have been used to wrap the house in a 'masterful way'. 'The bricks themselves appear to twist, whereas it is only their positioning and the amount of mortar used which gives the illusion,' say the judges.
Credit: Helene Binet
The architects have worked creatively with the site, 'shaped like a horse's head', so that one of the three bedrooms on lower ground level is triangular. All overlook small courtyard gardens. On the upper ground level (planning restrictions meant it had to be a single storey building) the main living space enjoys exciting variations in its ceiling height and angles, which also help to define different areas, including a kitchen and dining space. Also on this upper level is a separate study/TV room. And throughout, the bricks, along with some effective lighting, provide a sensation of warmth.
Hopkins Architects - London
Credit: Paul Tyagi
'A hospital which does not feel like a hospital' was the brief and here daylight reaches every child's bed, thanks to a glass atrium the size of a football pitch that is overlooked by each ward. There are no straight, cold institutional lines - instead a colourful, gently winding path links the small wards, each with up to six children's beds, and where fold down beds mean a parent can sleep alongside.
Credit: Paul Tyagi
A fun element runs throughout - the Seashell Ward is on Beach Level, another level is named The Sky, and all the technical facilities are made pleasant and inviting. In the 'vast greenhouse' of an atrium, visiting clowns and jugglers entertain, to be watched there or from the overlooking ward windows. It also hosts shared play areas, a cafe and a school. The serious business of operating and intensive care, where rooms must conform more to convention, goes on in the floors below the atrium - but even here there is daylight.
Adjaye/Associates - London
Credit: Verity Allison
When is a library not a library? When it is not just a library but a cafe, a nursery, a dance studio, and lots of other spaces designed to make it part of its community. On the outside, the large glass building's colourful green and blue stripes echo the awnings of the market stalls it overlooks. The Idea Store is right in the heart of its community, Tower Hamlets, and designed to attract its people inside. Enticing them in on the ground floor is a video store and children's library, while a cafe on the top floor, with spectacular views over London, draws them up through the other floors.
The architects also designed the furniture, zig zag shelving, matching strip lighting and the deep red rubber floor. Space has been made not only for books, but for seminar rooms, internet facilities, a large external deck and even physiotherapy training rooms. 'Most importantly of all,' say the judges, 'it is popular and loved by its users.'
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