Edinburgh Architectural Association Awards 2024
Last night at the EAA Awards for Architecture, we proudly celebrated Preston Tower, Doocot & Garden receiving the Conservation and Heritage Award as well as the Building of the Year Award.
DJ Johnston-Smith, Prestonpans Community Council Chair: “It is a truly remarkable achievement to have delivered a stabilised, revived and improved beloved heritage asset back to its community, ready to be utilised to positively contribute to the common good of the entire area.”
EAA 2024 Conservation and Heritage Award commentary (Laura Harty, ESALA)
“The judges were impressed with this project’s careful decision making, and commitment to its wider societal, spatial and environmental consequences. From astute analysis and carefully mediated interventions this project insists upon and expands what it might mean to consolidate and conserve a heritage asset in our contemporary context.
From sustainable sourcing to sensible sequencing, community engagement to contractor co-production, the judges collectively felt that is project excelled. Treating each move as an informed component of a cohesive and far reaching strategy, this project provides precedent for, and evidence of, a tangible method for further consolidation and repair. With a methodology akin to darning, the project stitches new material and new approaches, opening that which might otherwise close, insisting on its present and future vitality.”
EAA 2024 Building of the Year Award judges commentary (John Burns)
“This award is given to any building completed in the chapter area between June 2023 to June 2024 and all entries to the awards this year are considered. Given the strength of entries in several different categories, we had some strong discussion, but it was clear that there was one strong favourite that all of the Judges agreed on. This project exemplifies how architecture can inspire and engage the local community. The judges felt that the architects demonstrated a level of commitment not only to the building but also to the client and the community that elevated the project.
The architect’s level of technical knowledge, research and passion is to be commended. Their approach, philosophy and pragmatism has not only ensured the survival of a Scheduled Monument but also placed it back at the heart of the community. Every detail was considered, not only in the immediate term, but looking ahead into how they will age and develop with the existing fabric which showed skill and sensitivity.
Overall, the project demonstrates how technical expertise, considered moves and engagement can place architecture at the heart of a community, creating a sense of place and pride.”