Nine projects shortlisted for RSUA Design Awards 2024

The RSUA has announced the final nine contenders for the best works of architecture in Northern Ireland in 2024. An experienced panel of architects from Ireland and Great Britain evaluated twenty submissions to determine the shortlisted projects for the RSUA Design Awards. Each project will now be visited by the panel for a rigorous round of judging that will lead to the winners’ announcement in early May 2024.

Ciarán Fox, Director of RSUA, commented “Our built environment has a significant impact on our daily lives. Each new architectural addition must be crafted with great care for the needs of the client and the end user, as well as the wider community and the natural environment.”

“I congratulate the architects, clients, and the wider teams involved in delivering these nine projects. After assessing this year’s submissions, our distinguished judging panel has concluded that each of these works of architecture demonstrates an element of delight, invention, or ambition deserving of a more thorough examination.”

Housing dominates this year’s shortlist. Once again Northern Ireland’s love of the private house in the countryside is reflected in the list but two urban social housing projects are also in the running in 2024.

Budgets range from the £100m restoration of the Bank Buildings in Belfast’s City Centre to a few hundred thousand for a shipping container home built on ruins as featured in the BBC show, Restoration Rescue.

Belfast practice, Hall Black Douglas has had an outstanding year with four projects still in the running for an award.

The nine shortlisted projects are:

Ciaran Fox continued, “Projects submitted for this year’s awards were required to be in use for at least one year before being considered. This allows the judging panel to better evaluate the sustainability and overall performance of these projects, ensuring the competition remains the most robust measure of the best emerging architecture in Northern Ireland. RSUA will continue to focus not only on the projects’ aesthetics but also on design considerations, including environmental impact and carbon footprint.”

In March, the judging panel will visit each of the shortlisted schemes. The winners of this year’s RSUA Design Awards will be unveiled at a ceremony on Thursday 9 May 2024, at The Mac in Belfast. Designed by Hackett Hall McKnight (now Hall McKnight), The Mac won a prestigious RIBA National Award in 2013.

All of the shortlisted projects are potential RSUA Design Award winners. If they are successful, they will be in the running to win the Liam McCormick Prize – Northern Ireland’s building of the year and will be considered for a UK-wide RIBA National Award in recognition of their architectural excellence, the results of which will be announced in June. 

RSUA Design Awards 2024 Judging Panel:

• RSUA appointed judge (architect from NI): Kari Simpson, member of the RSUA Design Quality Panel and Associate at Todd Architects, Belfast
• RIBA appointed judge (architect from GB): Neil Gillespie, Director at Reiach and Hall Architects, Edinburgh
• RSUA appointed lay judge: Gerry Millar, member of the Ministerial Advisory Group for Architecture and the Built Environment (MAG)
• RIAI appointed judge (architect from RoI): Roísín Heneghan, Director at Heneghan Peng Architects, Dublin
• Sustainability expert: Dominic Morris, member of the RSUA Climate Emergency Committee and Director at McNally Morris Architects, Hillsborough
• Conservation expert: Brian Quinn, Chair of the RSUA Conservation Committee and Senior Architect in Minor Capital Delivery Service, Infrastructure and Capital Development at the Education Authority NI