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Celebratory lunch for MacEwen Award winners

Words:
Hugh Pearman

Winners, judges and editors of the award for 'architecture for the common good' gather in great early example of social housing

Here is nearly everyone. From left, back row: Jamie Wilde, co-founder of Sheffield Foodhall; Rumen Dimov, Newcastle architecture student on the team for the Rochester Roundhouse live project; Tatiana von Preussen, director of vPPR Architects and a MacEwen judge; Hugh Pearman, RIBAJ editor; Professor Graham Farmer, Newcastle University School of Architecture’s Live Projects initiative. Front row from left: Kathy MacEwen; Louis Pohl, co-founder of Sheffield Foodhall; Dominic Gaunt of MacEwen award winners Ayre Chamberlain Gaunt; David Ayre of ACG; Chris Harding, chairman of sponsor BDP. Not in photo: MacEwen judges Iain Tuckett, director of Coin Street Community Builders, and Steve Tompkins of Haworth Tompkins.
Here is nearly everyone. From left, back row: Jamie Wilde, co-founder of Sheffield Foodhall; Rumen Dimov, Newcastle architecture student on the team for the Rochester Roundhouse live project; Tatiana von Preussen, director of vPPR Architects and a MacEwen judge; Hugh Pearman, RIBAJ editor; Professor Graham Farmer, Newcastle University School of Architecture’s Live Projects initiative. Front row from left: Kathy MacEwen; Louis Pohl, co-founder of Sheffield Foodhall; Dominic Gaunt of MacEwen award winners Ayre Chamberlain Gaunt; David Ayre of ACG; Chris Harding, chairman of sponsor BDP. Not in photo: MacEwen judges Iain Tuckett, director of Coin Street Community Builders, and Steve Tompkins of Haworth Tompkins. Credit: Alexandra Kiss

By a long-standing tradition that is now all of two years old, we hold a celebratory lunch for a selection of the winners, judges and editors involved in the RIBAJ MacEwen Award – which sets out to find and reward ‘architecture for the common good’.  So this was the second time that we booked a table at the excellent Rochelle Canteen in a former school bike shed in the middle of that great early example of social housing, London County Council’s Boundary Street Estate. The lunch was kindly sponsored by BDP, a practice which, with its egalitarian roots, is a big supporter of the MacEwen.

This was a proper old-school lunch in which our MacEwen class of ’17 gathered from all over the country. The top three projects represented were the winning community centre The Point in Tadley, Hants by Ayre Chamberlain Gaunt; Sheffield Foodhall project by Louis Pohl, Samuel Atkinson and Jamie Wilde; and the Rochester Roundhouse by Newcastle University School of Architecture’s ‘Testing Ground’ live projects module headed by Professor Graham Farmer.

  • At the head of the table under the Rochelle Canteen’s straw hats, MacEwen Award winner Dominic Gaunt of Ayre Chamberlain Gaunt, talking to judge Iain Tuckett (far left) of Coin Street Community Builders.
    At the head of the table under the Rochelle Canteen’s straw hats, MacEwen Award winner Dominic Gaunt of Ayre Chamberlain Gaunt, talking to judge Iain Tuckett (far left) of Coin Street Community Builders. Credit: Alexandra Kiss
  • Required reading: the MacEwen Award issue.
    Required reading: the MacEwen Award issue. Credit: Alexandra Kiss
  • The location: the restaurant is a former school bike shed…
    The location: the restaurant is a former school bike shed…
  • …right here in Shoreditch…
    …right here in Shoreditch… Credit: Alexandra Kiss
  • …overlooked by the famous LCC Boundary Street Estate around Arnold Circus.
    …overlooked by the famous LCC Boundary Street Estate around Arnold Circus. Credit: Alexandra Kiss
  • Hugh Pearman, RIBAJ editor (left) with Jamie Wilde, co-founder of Sheffield Foodhall.
    Hugh Pearman, RIBAJ editor (left) with Jamie Wilde, co-founder of Sheffield Foodhall. Credit: Alexandra Kiss
  • Kathy MacEwen, planner and daughter of Malcolm and Anni MacEwen, who inspired the eponymous award.
    Kathy MacEwen, planner and daughter of Malcolm and Anni MacEwen, who inspired the eponymous award. Credit: Alexandra Kiss
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Joining us were some of our judges: planning consultant Kathy MacEwen (daughter of campaigners Malcolm and Anni MacEwen after whom the award is named), Tatiana von Preussen of vPPR Architects, Iain Tuckett of Coin Street Community Builders, and me. Thanks also to MacEwen judge Steve Tompkins of Haworth Tompkins. Representing the RIBAJ were my colleagues who visited the buildings: executive editor Eleanor Young and assistant editor Isabelle Priest. And BDP’s chairman Chris Harding made time to be there too.

It was, as you would hope, all very congenial and informative as those behind these urban, rural and small-town projects met up. Congratulations again to our winners, thanks again to our judges, to our photographer on the day Alexandra Kiss and event sponsor BDP. We’ll be doing this again.


 

  • Winners, judges and RIBAJ editors assemble for the prizewinners’ lunch, kindly sponsored by BDP.
    Winners, judges and RIBAJ editors assemble for the prizewinners’ lunch, kindly sponsored by BDP. Credit: Alexandra Kiss
  • Chris Harding, chairman of sponsor BDP and a big supporter of the MacEwen ethos.
    Chris Harding, chairman of sponsor BDP and a big supporter of the MacEwen ethos. Credit: Alexandra Kiss
  • Tatiana von Preussen of vPPR Architects, a judge of the award.
    Tatiana von Preussen of vPPR Architects, a judge of the award. Credit: Alexandra Kiss
  • Eleanor Young, RIBAJ executive editor.
    Eleanor Young, RIBAJ executive editor. Credit: Alexandra Kiss
  • Isabelle Priest, RIBAJ assistant editor.
    Isabelle Priest, RIBAJ assistant editor. Credit: Alexandra Kiss
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