This was an ideas competition to find an architect led team with practical, exciting and commercially viable ideas for the innovative reuse of St Martin’s church in Brighton. Creative solutions were sought that respected the integrity of this beautiful listed structure, while adding new life and economic sustainability.

Winners

We received 28 submissions for this competition. Three teams were shortlisted to take part in Stage 2 of the competition, led by:

Arup

Emil Eve Architects Ltd

Trewin Design Architects

In addition, two teams led by ARTArchitects and Tom Turner Architects were highly commended.

The Jury Panel felt it was impossible to select a single winner preferring to acknowledge and celebrate two very different yet complimentary schemes both with intriguing ideas but neither with all the ideas. So, the Jury Panel decided to award a joint first prize to:

Arup

Emil Eve Architects Ltd

Trewin Design Architects was placed third.

ArtArchitects and Tom Turner Architects were both Highly Commended.

The press release of the announcement can be found in the downloads section of this webpage; the competition was widely covered in the architectural press.



Joint Winner: Arup

Joint Winner: Arup Joint Winner: Arup

Joint Winner: Arup Joint Winner: Emil Eve Architects

Joint Winner: Emil Eve Architects Joint Winner: Emil Eve Architects

Third Place: Trewin Design Architects

Third Place: Trewin Design Architects Third Place: Trewin Design Architects

Third Place: Trewin Design Architects Highly Commended: ArtArchitects

Highly Commended: ArtArchitects Highly Commended: ArtArchitects

Highly Commended: ArtArchitects Highly Commended: Tom Turner Architects

Highly Commended: Tom Turner Architects Highly Commended: Tom Turner Architects

Process

This was an open, ideas competition, with cash prizes for the top three teams. The brief can be downloaded from the sidebar on this webpage.

While it is hoped that the winning ideas can be turned into reality, this competition was not for a live project.

Competitors were asked to submit:

Two landscape boards describing their proposals

A project statement

Anonymity was not a requirement.

The entries were judged by a Jury Panel, chaired by the Lord Lieutenant of East Sussex, Peter Field, and comprising:

Scott Ralph, Diocesan Property Director, Diocese of Chichester

Nick Hibberd, Executive Director, Economy Environment and Culture, Brighton City Council

Louise Arnell, The Pebble Trust

John Godfrey, Sussex Heritage Trust

Julia Barfield, Marks Barfield Architects, Independent Architectural Assessor

Graham Turner, Former Chair of Rydon Group and Croydon Tramtrack Ltd.

The Jury Panel was supported by a Technical Panel.

Exhibition

A public exhibition of the three finalists and the two highly commended submissions is being held in St Martin's Church:

19 January – 10.30 to 16.00

20 January – 12 noon to 16.00

02 February – 13.00 to 16.00

03 February – 12 noon to 16.00

A gallery of the submissions is available on the journal pages of this website.



Our involvement

This competition was managed by Colander. We helped: