The annual RIBA UK Awards programme recognises outstanding architecture across the country, assessing not only design quality and build standards but the demonstrable value each building brings to its users and community.
The five shortlisted schemes – spanning private housing, riverside regeneration, affordable homes, later-living and major mixed-use development – illustrate the range of contexts in which Michelmersh products are specified, and the confidence architects place in them when design precision and material integrity are non-negotiable.
These short listings reflect genuine architectural achievement by the teams involved and the Michelmersh Group is excited to see its products playing a considered role across such a varied body of work – from a compact zero-carbon home in Oxford to a major urban regeneration scheme in the heart of London. Michemersh’s clay products, when specified thoughtfully, contributes meaningfully to a building’s character, performance and longevity.
Copper Bottom, Oxford – Adrian James Architects
Designed by and for Adrian James Architects, Copper Bottom is an all-electric, net-positive family home positioned on the edge of Oxford’s Green Belt. The building combines a sculpted copper-clad exterior with a timber superstructure, achieving a zero-carbon performance through 37 solar panels, a 20kWh battery, air source heat pump, and 90% heat recovery. Foundations are deliberately shallow to minimise concrete use, and the structure delivers exceptional airtightness.
Freshfield Lane’s Danehill Yellow stocks form the crafted brick base of the building, grounding it in the landscape and providing a deliberate contrast to the copper above. Internally, Selected Dark bricks laid in white mortar add material richness and contribute to the home’s thermal mass strategy. Copper Bottom represents a considered blueprint for low-carbon family housing built without compromise.
The Old Boathouse, Taplow – Napier Clarke Architects
The Old Boathouse is a conversion and new-build development of eight riverside houses on the Thames at Taplow, Berkshire, led by Napier Clarke Architects for Gage Properties. The scheme sensitively reimagines a disused brownfield site, anchoring the development around two listed heritage assets: a Victorian gatehouse lodge and the former Edwardian boathouse.
Six new gable-ended longhouses extend the riverside setting, drawing directly from the boathouse in their scale, proportions and detailing. Floren Pollux and Polaris bricks provide a refined palette of whites and greys in light stretcher bond, complementing the waterside context and allowing the repurposed boathouse to remain the focal point of the scheme.
Forest Road, Waltham Forest – Gort Scott
Designed by Gort Scott for Pocket Living, Forest Road is a residential development situated opposite the William Morris Gallery in Waltham Forest. The scheme carefully mediates between the scale of neighbouring Victorian terraces and the busier frontage of Forest Road, drawing architectural cues from its historic setting through curved lintels, concave surfaces and a layered brick palette.
Floren Vecchio and Tartufo bricks, laid in English Garden Bond, define the stairwell elevation and ground-level landscaping. Outbuildings employ expressive bonding techniques, hit-and-miss for the cycle store, protruding bricks for the water tank store – demonstrating the material’s capacity to carry design intent at every scale. Two street-facing murals by artist Adriana Jaros, incorporating pigments salvaged from site materials, further embed the project in the borough’s identity.
Noele Gordon House, East Ham – Mæ Architects
Noele Gordon House, designed by Mæ Architects, brings together a 1,650 sqm community health centre and 75 affordable later-living homes on the former Hartley Centre site on Barking Road. The two-block scheme, nine and seven storeys respectively, accommodates two GP surgeries at lower levels, with residential accommodation above for residents aged 55 and over.
Freshfield Lane’s Lindfield Yellow Multis and First Quality Multis provide a light, warm brick palette that reflects the optimistic character of the building’s intended residents and responds to the civic architecture of the surrounding area. Private balconies, a communal lounge and a landscaped third-floor garden contribute to a scheme designed with genuine attention to quality of life.
Norton Folgate, London – AHMM, Morris + Company, Stanton Williams and DSDHA
Norton Folgate is a 340,000 sq. ft mixed-use development set within one of London’s most historically layered neighbourhoods, designed across eight buildings by four architectural practices: AHMM, Morris + Company, Stanton Williams and DSDHA. The scheme draws directly from the area’s Georgian and Victorian character, with each facade developed to reflect its immediate context.
At 16 Blossom Street, Michelmersh’s Danehill Yellow and Lindfield Yellow bricks, crafted into precast elements by Thorpe Precast and installed by Lyons & Annoot, reference the tone of the surrounding historic warehouses. At 15 Norton Folgate, Morris + Company’s office and retail frontage uses Floren Gothiek Brick to distinguish the new construction while maintaining material coherence across the site.
The development carries a BREEAM ‘Excellent’ rating and a Wired Score of ‘Platinum’, with an embodied carbon target of 434 kg CO2e per sqm, surpassing British Land’s own 2030 benchmark. Over 3,000 sq. ft of green terraces and courtyard space reinforce the scheme’s commitment to wellbeing and public realm.
Michelmersh congratulates all shortlisted architectural teams on this recognition and looks forward to the announcement of winners later this spring!
