Unstinting creativity

 The centre for cities and architecture which opened to the public in April 2023, is one of four buildings in the region to have won the prestigious prize this year.

Owen Hopkins, Director of the Farrell Centre said: “We’re delighted that the Farrell Centre has been recognised with a RIBA North East Award for 2025. As a centre whose mission is about engaging the public with the built environment and ensuring they have a voice in shaping its future, it was vital that our building act as an exemplar of how to boldly yet sensitively reinvent and reinvigorate an historic structure – turning a building that was dark and inward-facing into one that was open and welcoming.

“Given the way visitors have responded to and engaged with the building since the centre opened in 2023, we have certainly felt we achieved this aspiration – and it’s wonderful that the RIBA jury felt so too. I would like, once again, to thank Chris Holmes of Space Architects and Ben Elliott of Elliott Architects, as well as the wider project team, for their unstinting creativity, enthusiasm and patience that has been so vital in making this building such a success.”

The Farrell Centre was instigated by renowned architect-planner and Newcastle University graduate Sir Terry Farrell, and forms part of Newcastle University’s School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape. It is located in a four-storey Victorian building on Eldon Place which was transformed in a £4.6 million building project. Its mission is to widen the debate around the crucial roles that architecture and planning play in the contemporary world and ensure that everyone has a voice in this vital conversation.

Since it opened the centre has hosted a number of exhibitions. The latest Concrete Dreams, which ends this month, looks at how Tyneside was transformed during 1960s and 1970s and how we might reimagine the city of today.

Remarkable impact

RIBA North East Jury Chair, Amy Waite, Associate Director at Mikhail Riches said: “

"Congratulations to all the winners of this year's North East Awards. A diverse range of projects, they demonstrate the remarkable impact of great architecture. From a transformed former department store and a carefully conserved micro-holiday home to a rural distillery and a coastal conservation centre, each are a testament to the skills and collaboration of everyone involved." 

The other North East winners were:

• Ad Gefrin Anglo Saxon Museum and Distillery by Elphick Associates (Building of the Year)
• Rocket House by Napper Architects (Conservation Award)
• Whitburn Coastal Conservation Centre by MawsonKerr Architects

Speaking on all the UK Award winners, RIBA President, Muyiwa Oki, said: 

“This year’s winners exemplify architecture’s power to transform—turning spaces into places of connection, creativity, and care. Spanning the length of the UK and diverse in form and function, our 2025 winners show a deep sensitivity to place and a strong coherence of thought between all teams involved. Individually these projects inspire and uplift, but collectively, they remind us that architects do far more than design buildings, they shape the way we live, work and connect.” 

RIBA North East Award winners will now be considered for a highly coveted RIBA National Award in recognition of their architectural excellence, which will be announced on 10 July. The shortlist for the RIBA Stirling Prize for the best building of the year will be drawn from the RIBA National Award-winning projects later in the year.  

Press release adapted with thanks to RIBA