RIBA announces shortlist for the Client of the Year Award 2025

The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has announced the shortlist for the RIBA Client of the Year 2025, sponsored by Ibstock.

Now in its 27th year, the annual award celebrates the crucial role of clients in championing outstanding architecture.

This year’s shortlist recognises six exceptional clients for their role in delivering transformative and considered projects which benefit the communities around them.

This includes the preservation of a historic landmark, a sustainable cohousing development, a reimagined almshouse and a rehabilitation centre for women. A seaside community hub and a reinvented women’s prison also make the shortlist.

Image: Hope Street - Fotohaus

Simon Henley, Jury Chair, Founding Director of Henley Halebrown, said: “This year all our finalists are community groups and public bodies, all with an ambitious brief that has changed the lives of those who encounter their buildings. While the shortlisted clients have a range and variety of experience, they all showed real courage and resilience in pursuing their goals for these projects whilst facing multiple challenges and complexities over many years.

“These buildings are therefore often born out of enduring, close working relationships between the client and the architect. Each has benefited from a collaborative design process and a high degree of trust which has resulted in these clients’ facilitating great architecture.”

The six shortlisted clients are:

• Bridport Housing CLT for Hazelmead, Bridport Cohousing by Barefoot Architects

The largest completed cohousing development in the UK. The scheme comprises 53 climate-resilient homes, a common house, and shared green spaces, with the client demonstrating a strong commitment to affordable, sustainable, and community-focused living.

• One Small Thing for Hope Street by Snug Architects

Designed to reimagine rehabilitation for women and their children and offer a compassionate alternative to custodial sentences, the client envisioned for Hope Street to be a home rather than an institution. The design brief focuses on dignity and trust, featuring communal lounges, activity rooms, a coffee shop, and counselling spaces, all within a warm, domestic architectural language.

• Scottish Prison Service for HMP & YOI Stirling by Holmes Miller

A new 100-person facility for Women in Custody in Scotland, with the client centring the design ethos on creating a gender specific, trauma informed, and therapeutic environment throughout. Open spaces such as large courtyards and garden spaces were also incorporated to encourage movement, interaction and reflection – key components in the rehabilitative ethos that underpinned the project.

• Strategic Estates/UK Parliament for Elizabeth Tower by Purcell

The restoration of the Elizabeth Tower – home to Big Ben - was the most extensive in the tower’s 160-year history. In turn, the success of the project was testament to the client’s ambition and commitment to maintaining its historical landmark status. The client was pivotal in ensuring sensitive and comprehensive repairs were undertaken while safeguarding its future as a cultural monument and heritage site.

• Tendring District Council for Sunspot by HAT Projects

Rooted in the client’s strong vision to reignite the area’s economy and identity of the community, 24 low-cost business units sit alongside a covered market, community garden, bus shelter, café, public WCs, and outdoor events space. Sunspot has become a joyful landmark, a new hub for the community, and a catalyst for wider regeneration.

• United St Saviour’s Charity for Appleby Blue Almshouse by Witherford Watson Mann Architects

United St Saviour’s Charity (UStSC), a Southwark-based charity of almost 500 years, set out the ambition to re-interpret the traditional almshouse, offering high-quality social collective housing for older people. With increased levels of social isolation among older generations, the design focused on creating spaces to encourage chance meetings and interact easily with other residents.

The Client of the Year Award shortlist is selected from winners of the RIBA Regional and National Awards 2025. The winner will be announced at the Stirling Prize ceremony on 16 October 2025.

This year’s jury comprised: Simon Henley, Founding Director, Henley Halebrown (Chair), Sophy Twohig, Director, Hopkins Architects, RIBA Awards Group Member, Kathy Dacre, Founding Member of Shakespeare North Trust, Recipient of RIBA Client of the Year Award 2024, Kate Guy, Social Housing Development Director, Ibstock, RIBA Client of the Year Award Sponsor.