The University of Brighton received national recognition in the UK’s top architecture awards for its Waste House, Europe’s first permanent building made almost entirely from rubbish.
The university collected a £1,000 Special Prize at the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA)’s annual Stirling Prize ceremony. It was a finalist for the 2015 Stephen Lawrence Prize, funded by the Marco Goldschmied Foundation in memory of the teenager who was on the way to becoming an architect when he was murdered in 1993.
A Hampshire project took the award but the Waste House scooped the special prize after judges said: “It has sufficient scientific integrity to be taken seriously by the construction industry and just enough political clout to influence recycling policy. It is clear this interesting project will continue to question important issues of recycling that affect everyone.”
Award judges included Baroness Lawrence of Clarendon, Doreen Lawrence CBE the mother of Stephen Lawrence, and Marco Goldschmied, RIBA Past President and Founder of the Marco Goldschmied Foundation, which established the Stephen Lawrence Prize in 1998. Baroness Lawrence visited the Waste House earlier this year.
