South East buildings win architecture awards

Brighton Dome's Corn Exchange is among a number of South East buildings celebrated

Projects from across the South East including Brighton Dome's Corn Exchange and Studio Theatre and Sheerness Dockyard Church have been recognised at an architecture awards ceremony.

The listed projects are among a host of new and restored buildings to win at the Royal Institute of British Architects (Riba) South East awards on Wednesday evening.

Both projects received the awards after restoration work, with the £38m Dome project reopening in 2023 and the two decade-long restoration of the Dockyard Church in Kent, which was devastated by a fire in 2001.

Other buildings recognised include the extension of a 1950s house in Epsom, Surrey, and the regeneration of the Knepp Wilding Kitchen in Sussex.

Sheerness Dockyard Church has also been recognised in the awards

Lisa Shell, chair of the Riba South East jury panel which decided the awards, said: "Of this year's winning projects in England's south-east, the majority involve the inventive re-use and conservation of existing structures, representing a heartening direction in sustainable development within a region typically celebrated for new houses.

"The jury were shown how the architects' imagination can transform existing houses into homes of unique and enduring character or magic a much-needed community asset from the ruins of a burned-out church."

The restoration of the Grade II* Dockyard Church, which won Building of the Year at the awards ceremony in Canterbury, was praised by the jury for being "exquisitely restored and transformed into a community facility" and showing that "imagination and skills to do more than just validate their client's belief that a historic building in an extreme state of decay can have a very good future".

The interior of the Triangle House extension in Epsom

Meanwhile the restoration of the Grade I and Grade II Listed Corn Exchange and Studio Theatre was described as an "innovative and sensitive redevelopment" following the end of the project.

A project dubbed the Triangle House in Epsom was also applauded for providing a "playful and inventive" extension to a compact mid-20th Century home in Epsom.

Each of the award winners will now be considered for the Riba National Awards, which will be announced in July.