Allies and Morrison wins 2023 Building Beauty Awards for Worthing scheme

The scheme, for Roffey Homes, includes a neighbouring six-storey block and a beachside café. It chosen from nine finalists, taking home the £12,000 main prize.

The awards were the second held by the Royal Fine Arts Commission Trust, sponsored by Ballymore, in celebration of buildings, engineering structures and urban landscaping schemes that ‘add beauty to Britain’s built environment’.

Booker Prize-winning magic realist author Ben Okri presented the prize at a ceremony at the Sea Containers building in London on Friday (10 November).

The awards are split into four categories: Public Space, Little Gem, Engineering, and Building and Overall Winner, which went to Allies and Morrison’s seafront scheme.

Explaining their decision, judges praised the ‘impressive’ 170ft [52m] Bayside project for its references to local Regency architecture while creating ‘an original and powerful landmark’ on the site of a 1960s swimming pool.

The trust’s chairman, Stephen Bayley, said: ‘It sits literally beachside and forms an exclamation mark that balances the horizontal mass of the pier. At the same time, it bookends the seafront terraces of Regency Worthing, harmonising with their white stucco while steering clear of weak historicism. Seen from the distant pier, it announces itself as a destination – not aggressively, but as a complement to the historic town.’

Thomas Heatherwick’s Woolbeding Glasshouse in Midhurst, Sussex, won the Engineering prize while Gillespies Elephant Park scheme for Lendlease won the Public Space award.

The Little Gem prize went to Plas Glyn-y-Weddw Café in Llanbedrog, Gwynedd, designed by Sanderson Sculpture, Mark Wray Architects and Fold for Plas Glyn-y-Weddw.

The other shortlisted schemes were Weston Williamson + Partners’ station for Transport for London in Barking, Cody Dock Rolling Bridge by Price & Myers Structural Engineers with Thomas Randall-Page, Mecanoo’s One Silk Street scheme in Manchester, Battersea Power Station public realm by LDA Design and Angel Yard, Edmonton, by Jan Kattein Architects.