Awards

Awards

• Church Architecture Awards 2024

  EASA has again worked with the National Churches Trust to organise the 2024 UK Church Architecture Awards, which were presented at EASA’s postponed AGM and Autumn Meeting on January 16^th 2025.

  This year fifteen projects in total were entered for the two main awards, the Presidents’ Award for new church architecture and the King of Prussia Gold Medal for conservation and repair work. Three candidates for the Young Church Architect or Surveyor of the Year were among the short-listed entries.

  The winner of the Presidents’ Award was the Lighthouse Church, Heswall, Merseyside. This brand new church building designed by ShedKM Architects replaced a 1960s church on the site. Fronted by a striking glazed elevation, it provides a model of a 21^st century church and community facility in the heart of a small town.

  Two schemes were Highly Commended in the same category. The Pineapple Project at St Mary’s Bourne Street in the heart of London’s Belgravia provides a new multi-purpose hall and enhanced access in and around the church. Matthew Lloyd Architects’ designs involved  a sophisticated re-working of a former pub with an extension linking it to the church. At All Saints Newtown, Powys, an early work by Aston Webb, a thorough re-ordering has been combined with a rebuilt modern extension. The result is a warm and welcoming space which retains a sense of quiet spirituality, and provides a new community focus for this often struggling part of mid-Wales. The architect was Charles Cowan.

  This year’s King of Prussia Gold Medal was awarded to Benjamin + Beauchamp Architects for a major programme of repairs at St Peter and St Paul, Blandford Forum. Of particular note was the restoration of the plasterwork to the apse ceiling, now protected by a watertight (and insulated) roof.

  

  Highly Commended was St Mary, Stoke-by-Nayland, in Suffolk, where Roderick Shelton Architects carried out masonry and roof repairs to a 15^th century church which features in several of John Constable’s paintings. The previous poor state of the building was partly the result of misguided early 20^th century repairs. Also Highly Commended was another project by Benjamin + Beachamp Architects at St Laurence, East Harptree in Somerset. Again wide ranging repairs were involved to this 12^th century church which contains mediaeval and Victorian wall paintings.

  Highly Commended was St Mary, Stoke-by-Nayland, in Suffolk, where Roderick Shelton Architects carried out masonry and roof repairs to a 15^th century church which features in several of John Constable’s paintings. The previous poor state of the building was partly the result of misguided early 20^th century repairs. Also Highly Commended was another project by Benjamin + Beachamp Architects at St Laurence, East Harptree in Somerset. Again wide ranging repairs were involved to this 12^th century church which contains mediaeval and Victorian wall paintings.

  The Young Church Architect or Surveyor of the year this year was Tom Griffin of Benjamin + Beauchamp for his work at Blandford Forum and Tom was also the project architect for his firm’s work at East Harptree.

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

About the Awards

The Church Architecture Awards are run by the Ecclesiastical Architects and Surveyors Association and the National Churches Trust.

The Presidents’ Award

First awarded in 1999, it is named after three presidents: The Archbishop of Canterbury and the Archbishop of York as Joint Presidents of the National Churches Trust, and the EASA President. The award is given for the best example of new design in re-ordering, alterations, extensions or new buildings which are specifically for liturgical use.

Award nominations are considered by the Association in conjunction with the National Churches Trust (formerly the ICBS) and awarded at the EASA Annual General Meeting. The award is given to the designer and the ICBS Chalice and Paten are lent to the winning parish to be held by them for the next year. The winning church or chapel will receive a £500 prize.

The King of Prussia Gold Medal

An award for the scheme of innovative, high quality church conservation or repair that overcomes the greatest aesthetic or technical challenge.

The award was established in 1844 by Christophe Karl Pfeuffer. He was a medallist and coin engraver who in 1840 received an appointment at the Berlin Mint. In 1845 he was promoted to the rank of first medallist to the Mint and was described as a person who was well endowed by nature, who modelled quickly and carefully, and took good likeness, but was perhaps too hasty and prolific. His medal of the Third Century of the Reformation at Berlin in 1839 is considered one of his most successful productions.

The Association is fortunate that our Patron Prince Nicholas von Preussen is a direct descendant of the King of Prussia for whom the medal was made. Prince Nicholas often tells the story of how it was presented to the ICBS (Incorporated Church Building Society) who did not know who to award it to, so it lay in an office drawer for many years until found in the 1960s. Today it is awarded annually. 

The Gold Medal was the gift of King Freidrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia in 1857 who was highly impressed with British Victorian church architecture. The architects responsible for the winning project will receive the prestigious King of Prussia Gold Medal.

The Young Architect or Surveyor of the Year

Introduced in 2016, the ‘Young Architect or Surveyor of the Year’ award is available to an architect under 40 who has been responsible for a shortlisted design of either a scheme for The King of Prussia Gold Medal or The Presidents’ Award.