2025 RIBA Southeast Award winners, Winning UK buildings, Best new southern English architecture designs

2025 RIBA Southeast Award winners, UK

Royal Institute of British Architects – British Architecture Prize: Buildings + Architects

16 May 2025

RIBA South East Award 2025 winners announced

Top row, Sea, Sky House © Sam Grady (left), Sheerness Dockyard Church © Dirk Lindner (upper middle), The Spencer Building, Worth School © Jim Stephenson (lower middle), Knepp Wilding Kitchen and Shop © Richard Chivers (top right), Brighton Dome Corn Exchange & Studio Theatre © Richard Chivers (lower right). Bottom row, Triangle House © Lorenzo Zandri (left), Bury Gate Farm © Ståle Eriksen (middle), Hastings House © Rory Gaylor (right):

The restoration of a grade II* listed Church (Sheerness Dockyard Church), a new arts and performance destination (Brighton Dome Corn Exchange & Studio Theatre) and a low-carbon, modern home in the South Downs (Bury Gate Farm) are among the winners of the RIBA South East Awards 2025.

Presented since 1966, the RIBA Awards set the standard for great architecture across the country.

The Awards were announced at a ceremony this evening (14 May), at which Sheerness Dockyard Church was named as winner of the RIBA South East Building of the Year Award 2025 (sponsored by EH Smith). The jury praised how the project was “exquisitely restored and transformed into a community facility” and shows 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.”

RIBA South East Awards 2025 Winners

The 8 RIBA South East Awards 2025 winning projects are:

Brighton Dome Corn Exchange & Studio Theatre by Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios (Client of the Year, sponsored by Equitone)
– Two listed venues sensitively restored and redeveloped into an arts and performance destination in Brighton.

photo © Richard Chivers

Sheerness Dockyard Church by Hugh Broughton Architects (Building of the Year sponsored by EH Smith, Conservation Award sponsored by Velux, Project Architect of the Year – Robert Songhurst)
– A fire-damaged Grade-II* listed church has been exquisitely restored and transformed into a community facility.

photo © Dirk Lindner

Triangle House by Artefact (Small Project of the Year)
– A playful and inventive extension to a 1950’s suburban home in Surrey.

photo © Lorenzo Zandri

Knepp Wilding Kitchen and Shop, Horsham, West Sussex, by Kaner Olette Architects
– A set of decaying farmyard buildings have been regenerated into a kitchen and shop in Knepp within a 3,500 acre rewilding project.

photo © Richard Chivers

Sea, Sky House, Whitstable, Kent, by Liddicoat & Goldhill
– A sustainable coastal home makes the most of salvaged materials and prioritises long-term living.

photo © Sam Grady

Bury Gate Farm by Sandy Rendel Architects
– A highly accessible, low-carbon modern home that blends seamlessly into the surrounding South Downs.

photo © Ståle Eriksen

Hastings House, Sussex, by Hugh Strange Architects
– An inventive transformation of late 19th century house into a finely detailed, eccentric home.

photo © Rory Gaylor

The Spencer Building by Tim Ronalds Architects
– A new, low-carbon timber school building that cleverly maximises internal space and daylight.

photos © Jim Stephenson

The 8 projects were selected by the expert jury, who visited all shortlisted projects.

RIBA South East of England Jury Chair Lisa Shell, director of Lisa Shell Architects, 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 winning one-off houses continue to demonstrate the architects’ ingenuity in the handling of structure and materials and high levels of skill in response to extraordinary contexts.”

Speaking on all the UK Award winners, RIBA President, Muyiwa Oki, said:
“This year’s winners exemplify architecture’s power to transform—turning spaces into places of connection, creativity, and care. Spanning the length of the UK and diverse in form and function, our 2025 winners show a deep sensitivity to place and a strong coherence of thought between all teams involved. Individually these projects inspire and uplift, but collectively, they remind us that architects do far more than design buildings, they shape the way we live, work and connect.”

RIBA South East Award winners will now be considered for a highly coveted RIBA National Award in recognition of their architectural excellence, which will be announced on 10 July. The shortlist for the RIBA Stirling Prize for the best building of the year will be drawn from the RIBA National Award-winning projects later in the year.”

2025 RIBA Southeast Award winners images / information from the Royal Institute of British Architects, UK.

Previously on e-architect:

RIBA Awards 2022 Winning Buildings and Architects

RIBA Southeast Awards Winners 2022

The region gained three of the 29 winners of the 2022 RIBA National Awards for architecture:

Aisher House, Sevenoaks School

Guildford Crematorium, Godalming, Surrey

photo : Simon Kennedy