RIBA Design Competition

RIBA is the UK’s most widely recognised provider of architectural competition services with expertise and experience to support the process from the initial client idea through to project commission.

We agreed to commission the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) to deliver a Design Competition.

The Royal Institute has extensive experience and is a widely recognised provider of architectural competitions, delivering high profile selection processes for both private and public sector clients.

The Design Competition process was advised and supported by a Design Panel. RIBA supported the Design Panel to develop a new brief for the site and helped guide the evaluation of the expressions of interest and designs submitted by the shortlisted architects.

The first stage of the competition invited architects to come forward and express interest in working on the site. An impressive 54 architect firms applied and five architect-led teams were selected to create concept proposals. The lead architects for these teams were:

• Allies and Morrison
• Baynes and Mitchell Architects with Outpost
• Cullinan Studio
• Haworth Tompkins
• Hopkins Architects

The below documents are the proposals from each of the architects. Please note that they are anonymous and in no particular order.

• Architect 1 (pdf, 13.8 MB)
• Architect 2 (pdf, 9.5 MB)
• Architect 3 (pdf, 9.8 MB)
• Architect 4 (pdf, 24.0 MB)
• Architect 5 (pdf, 11.1 MB)

The five bidding teams were scored against an evaluation criteria established at the beginning of the competition which considered a number of different factors, including how well the designs respond to the design brief and the financial viability of the proposals. The document provided to the five shortlisted architects gives more detail about the evaluation criteria.

Two engagement reports were prepared following the period of engagement on the five designs and were presented to the Design Panel. It is important to note that public opinion was not itself a criteria for evaluation nor determining factor in the decision but the reports allowed the Panel to understand resident’s feedback and highlight any key concerns with the concept designs.

Feedback from these reports will help inform design development. The first report details key themes that emerged from the online questionnaire, the second details key messages heard from targeted engagement with children and young people. They can be found here:

• Engagement Report
• Engagement Report – Children and Young People

Other documentation available during this period of engagement:

• Introduction and background to the project (pdf, 1.3 MB)
• Essential design information (pdf, 368 KB)
• Parking strategy (pdf, 65 KB)

Following the competition Hopkins produced the below video of their competition vision for the riverside site.

 

The Design Panel

The Design Competition process was advised and supported by a Design Panel. The panel evaluated architects’ proposals for the Twickenham Riverside site.

Members of the panel included; the Leader of the Council and leading Cabinet Members for Environment and Businesses, a local ward Councillor, a representative from the Local Stakeholder Reference Group, an independent adviser from the RIBA and in addition, two local representatives with architectural experience.

This included:

• Cllr Gareth Roberts, Leader of the Council.
• Cllr Martin Elengorn, Cabinet Member for Environment, Planning and Sustainability.
• Cllr Geoff Acton, Cabinet Member for Business, Economy and Employment incl. Property.
• Cllr James Chard, Twickenham Riverside Ward councillor.
• Henry Harrison, Local Stakeholder Reference Group representative.
• Jon Meggitt, a local resident with relevant technical experience. He has been a resident of the borough his whole life, and currently lives on the Riverside. He based his two-year architecture diploma on the riverside site, developing a unique and in-depth understanding of it. He is currently CEO of Arcade, an immersive technology company that connects people to places.
• Brian Waters, a local resident with relevant technical experience. He has been a chartered architect and town planner who lives in the borough. Chairman of the London Planning and Development Forum and immediate past president of the Association of Consultant Architects.
• Sarah Williams, RIBA Adviser.