Future Cities Forum Summer Awards 2025

From left to right: Anagha Mujumdar-Potbhare, Grimshaw, Heather Fearfield, Future Cities Forum, Elizabeth Thompson, Scott Brownrigg, Marijia Stoliarova, Pilbrow & Partners, Hazel Edwards, Arts Council England, Leanna Boxill, Wright & Wright, Anna Wai, Price & Myers, Charlotte Meeks, Mace Group.

Future Cities Forum has held its Summer 2025 Awards with an all female panel of judges. Below are the list of judges who took part and our winners and runners-up across categories of international museums, heritage re-use, science and university buildings, cultural master plans and bridge construction.

FCF was particularly impressed with the level of judging and the time taken to make careful assessments. In making these, the judges focused on outstanding design vision, sustainability, community inclusion, sympathetic retrofit and in the master plan category on whether the projects help to develop tourism and high streets.

Judging panel

Anna Wai, Partner, Price & Myers

Anagha Mujumdar-Potbhare, Principal, Grimshaw

Charlotte Meeks, Operations Director, Mace Group

Elizabeth Thompson, Project Director, Scott Brownrigg

Hazel Edwards, Area Director, South East (Senior Director), Arts Council England

Leanna Boxill, Senior Associate, Wright & Wright

Marijia Stoliarova, Architect, Pilbrow & Partners

The Tornado, on top of the Fenix Museum in Rotterdam, courtesy of Fenix Museum of Migration

1

INTERNATIONAL MUSEUMS

Winner - The Fenix, Rotterdam

Runner up Naoshima Museum, Japan

Runner up TeamLab, Abu Dhabi

Judges comments:

Hazel: 'The Tornado of migration movement sums up the Fenix ('Phoenix') rising. Teamlab has a very fluid design and the digital expression is very interesting.

Anagha: The depth of the migration museum is fantastic on the themes there of belonging or not belonging. The museum contains this tension very well.

Marija: The Fenix is impressive giving a voice to the people there.

Leanna: I love the fact that the Fenix team retained the existing building as it looks directly out onto this port of migration. I like the form of the tornado on top of the building as it does draw people in with the material reflecting you as you approach.

Elizabeth: Naoshima is supremely elegant. I loved the adaptive re-use of the Fenix museum.

Anna: Naoshima is gentle and works with the local island landscape. It has been created to keep people on the island. I love the story of Fenix, the diversity of the communities is there.

Above: HOME Arches Manchester - courtesy Robertson Construction

2

HERITAGE RE-USE

Winner: HOME Arches, Manchester

Runner up: Palais de Danse, St. Ives

Runner up: Soho Theatre, Walthamstow

Judges comments:

Hazel: I really like the fact that HOME is looking after the arches projects. There are three different spaces offering different uses including creative. It retains homage to the railway engineering history of the city.

Elizabeth: HOME arches has a very co-operative feel of cross discipline projects. It didn't want to hide the historic dimension. I very much liked the fact that 50 per cent of the use is given to under represented groups.

Charlotte: I couldn't stop reading about Soho Theatre at Walthamstow. It has 'arrested decay' as an approach but the restoration is meticulous., with Historic England involved in checking the pigment accuracy of the paints used in the interiors. There are also great spaces for community use in the building.

Marija: My favourite is Manchester Home Arches especially as the free to use dimension is very impressive.

Anna: From an engineering perspective it is always tricky to bring arches back to life. There is always water damage. Always lots to put right.

Anagha: On Soho Theatre: 'For a community to hold a building and spirit together it succeeds, it is unique and special.' Commenting on the Palais de Danse in St Ives: 'You can't over-estimate the importance of this artist (Barbara Hepworth)'.

Elizabeth - commenting on the Palais de Danse: 'I love the quietness and meticulous quality of the restoration design and approach'.

Above: Inventa, Botley Road, Oxford WestEnd (courtesy. Owers Warwick / Mission Street)

3

SCIENCE BUILDINGS

Winner: Inventa, Oxford

Runner-up: Optic Cambridge

Runner-up: Apex Tribeca, St. Pancras London

Judges comments:

Elizabeth: 'It's hard to make science buildings adaptable but at Inventa in Oxford, architects Owers Warwick have done it. The Apex Tribeca building is great for bringing science into the city.'

Charlotte: 'It's very good that Inventa is the first 'living wage' new building in Oxford, and it encourages visibility for science.'

Anagha: 'It's important to have things going on (in science buildings) - for example the Google building in King's Cross has lots happening in the atrium. Apex Tribeca on St Pancras Way has a very good relationship with the canal and impressive adaptive re-use.'

Hazel: 'On Inventa I like the landscaping of the car park, the cycling and pedestrian routes, and especially the philosophy of being the first living wage building in the city - Inventa has everything.'

Above: Ray Dolby Centre, Cambridge, courtesy Stale Eriksen

4

UNIVERSITY PROJECTS

Winner: Ray Dolby Centre, Cambridge University

Runner-up: Spectra, University of Hertfordshire

Runner-up: Nucleus, Edinburgh University

Judges comments:

Anagha: 'I like elements of Spectra, but Ray Dolby is on a different level. It reminded me of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the inclusion of art has been inspired...it genuinely feels open.'

Leanna: 'Ray Dolby has great openness and impressive sustainability.'

Hazel: 'I will go for Dolby. It had a huge budget (over £300 million) but it has spent the money well.'

Elizabeth: ' The Ray Dolby project is incredible, and the landscaping unusually good.

Above: Coney Street riverside regeneration in York (courtesy Helmsley Group)

5

MASTER-PLANNING (cultural and high street)

Winner: Coney Street riverside York

Runner-up: Shakespeare World, Stratford-upon-Avon

Runner-up: Coventry City Centre Cultural Gateway

Judges comments:

Elizabeth: 'Coventry is best for social inclusion and links to the community. It is carrying out regeneration and really meaning it.'

Leanna: 'It's a fascinating master-plan at Stratford and ambitious. However connecting to the river is really important in York. The master-plan for Coney Street revitalises the relationship with the river which is often overlooked.

Charlotte: 'On Coney Street I felt like I could look at this on different levels, and not just as a streetscape. It has a community aspect to it, is granular in the way it touches the buildings and has an impressive curation of place.'

Above: the new pedestrian bridge at Canada Dock / Canada Water created for British Land (image courtesy Southwark News)

6

BRIDGES

Winner: Canada Dock, Canada Water, London

Runner-up: Kepax Bridge, Worcester

Runner-up: Silvertown Bridge, Royal Victoria Dock

Judges comments:

Anagha: ' All three bridges are quite beautiful but I like Canada Dock as it offers the jury and user a playful route.'

Elizabeth: 'Canada Dock bridge enriches your life with views, opportunity to slow down, proximity to nature and nesting duck life.

Charlotte: 'Canada Dock allows you to meander and enjoy the wetlands.'