Grand designs of two Derbyshire homes and a care centre scoop regional architecture awards

The Royal Institute of British Architects have awarded East Midlands honours to a Sixties modernist house in Chesterfield, a care home and library in Belper and a new-build property in Duffield.

Ravine House in Chesterfield is set in woodland and was extended and made airtight under the project by Chiles Evans + Care Architects. The scheme also won its architect Claire Kemp the RIBA East Midlands Project Architect of the Year award and the RIBA East Midlands Sustainability Award.

Ada Belfield care centre and library in Belper involved the conversion of the former Thorntons chocolate factory. The £12.7m development was designed and delivered by Glancy Nicholls Architects who were commissioned by Derbyshire County Council.

In creating Derwent Valley Villa in Duffield, the architecture practice Blee Halligan was inspired by the historic 18th century red-brick cotton mills that are plentiful in this area.

Matlock based architects Evans Vittori has also won an East Midlands award for its work on The Lyth Building in Southwell.

RIBA East Midlands award winners will now be considered for a highly-coveted RIBA national award in recognition of their architectural excellence, which will be announced in June.

Roddy Langmuir, chairman of the regional jury, said: “The jury spent two days visiting shortlisted projects of all scales across the length and breadth of the East Midlands, and were impressed by the commitment and enthusiasm shown by both clients and their architects.“The projects were reviewed carefully against the RIBA awards criteria, and the jury agreed that each winner had raised the bar for regional architecture. The scale ranged from a small domestic extension to a large campus university hub. The creative re-use of existing fabric was a common theme, as was the extensive use of timber, as the profession turns its focus to architecture that leads the way towards a low-carbon future.”

The 2022 RIBA East Midlands Building of the Year, sponsored by Taylor Maxwell, will be announced on May 24 at a ceremony at RIBA’s HQ in London.

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.