TAG AWARDS 2024
CALL FOR ENTRIES
Entries are now invited for the following categories:
Measured Drawing: open to UK and international entrants. Click here for details.
Best UK Student Project: open to students of Schools of Architecture in the UK or Ireland. Click here for details.
Best TAG Member's Built Project: open to all TAG members for a recently completed project. Click here for details.
Outstanding Craftsmanship: Nominations open to any UK citizen working a craft on an architectural project completed in the last 3 year. Click here for details.
We wish you luck and look forward to judging after the deadline of Midnight on 3rd November 2024 (revised date) and announcing the winners at our Awards Evening, at the Art Workers’ Guild - 4th December 2024.
TAG AWARDS 2023
Best Measured Drawing 2023
This year’s winner of the £500 for First Place was awarded to Luka Pajovic for his beautiful rendering of Wren’s Christ Church, Greyfriars, London, a part measured drawing of the extant ruins combined with a virtual reconstruction of the original Wren design. An apposite entry, coming 300 years after the death of Sir Christopher Wren.
In Second Place was this pencil rendering of a Belfast Townhouse by Alex Peacock:
Joint Third Place went to Alexander Hulton for his water-coloured drawing of a Sir Edwin Lutyens building on Piccadilly, and Jeremy Gaunt for his sensitive CAD drawn section through St. Mary Magdalen Church in Paddington:
The standard was so high this year that from 26 entries, we selected 3 Runners Up for their excellent imagery: Ciaran Dolan for his drawing of the Lion Gate, Mote Park in Ireland; Patrick Collins for his CAD drawing of 87 Chancery Lane, London; and from Utah in the USA: Zachery Campbell for his Analytique of a Meditation Chapel.
Best Student Project 2023
This year, we felt that 3 entries were ahead of the rest, but compared to some exemplary work in previous years, didn’t quite reach a level that the judges could award a first place to. So, rather unusually, we have awarded each of the 3 students a worthy Second Place. In no particular order are:
Andreea Camelia Ciuc from Kingston School of Art for her design for a hotel at Holborn Circus.
Emily Walker, also from Kingston School of Art for the same brief.
Last but not least is Harry Cooper from the University of Bath for his design for a National Museum of Bullfighting, Zaragoza, Spain.
Best Member’s Built Project 2023
We had a very diverse range of scales of project this year, so it was not an easy job to compare and separate one out from the rest, but the judges felt that Stuart Martin, who won in 2021, had designed another rigorous and holistic design that embodied the spirit of new traditional architecture. His cottage in Somerset was therefore awarded the TAG Prize.
In joint Second Place were Giles Reid for his house in Islington, and Simon Lilley, the project architect from Stanhope Gate Architecture for their Val d’Europe project near Paris.
We enjoyed looking at all the other entries: A garden pavilion by Russell Taylor; a Glasgow terrace by John Burns; and an artist’s studio in Camden by Timothy Smith and Jonathan Taylor.
Special Award for a TAG Member 2023
This year, longstanding, and dedicated TAG member, Howard Vie created and taught a drawing course to a group of primary school children in Dudley. Having been contacted by King Alfred School, TAG was asked if it could find someone to help cultivate in their students an appreciation for our country’s architectural heritage. Both the pupils and Howard alike enjoyed the whole experience, and TAG is delighted that a new younger generation is being encouraged to engage with our rich traditional built environment, and we wish this might happen more widely in the future.
Lifetime Achievement Award 2023
Craig Hamilton
The part of the evening dedicated to Awards culminated with the presentation of the Lifetime Achievement Award to Craig Hamilton, with which TAG recognises a body of work of rare sensitivity and distinction. His buildings emanate a timeless quality - timeless also in being convincingly contemporary, something that has drawn attention from beyond classical circles. Indeed, this led Ellis Woodman, a thoughtful critic of modern design who normally focusses on 20th and 21st century material, to publish a monograph on Craig’s work appositely titled Temples and Tombs on account of a recurrent preoccupation with the sacred.
The other notable characteristic of Craig Hamilton’s mission is the insistence that architecture is an art, as he reaffirmed in his gracious acceptance speech in the hall of the Art Workers Guild, the walls of which, as he also noted, carries portraits of forebears he much admires. The artistic dimension of his practice’s buildings and his whole approach is supported by lifelong habits and preoccupations: measuring and recording buildings incessantly (in notebooks set aside for consultation whenever needed); in the kind of architects he admires the most, and who look over his shoulder as it were as he designs himself (Michelangelo and Lutyens); in his own compositions and paintings; in his recurrent collaborations with the sculptor Alexander (Sandy) Stoddart, and in the fact of his marriage to his painter wife, Diana Hulton.
In Craig Hamilton’s buildings the contemplative and the artistic are wedded together so inextricably that one is invited into a poignant reverie, a feeling of light from the past illuminating a serene path forward undeflected by contingent distractions and pressures thanks to the deserved protection of the muses.
TAG AWARDS 2022
Winner of the Best Student Project, with a prize of £1000:
George Davis with his design for a new headquarters for the Worshipful Company of Architects.
There were 3 runners up this year:
Jacob Hedge for his design for the British Institute for Confict Resolution.
Maria Fernanda Rave Jiminez for her Tide Mills - Lost Village Archive in the South Downs.
Mungo Adam-Smith for his design for a new headquarters for the Worshipful Company of Architects.
Highly Commended were:
Lauren Drummond for her design for a new headquarters for the Worshipful Company of Architects.
Luke James Alcock for his new vision for Euston Station.
Winner of the Best Measured Drawing 2022, with a prize of £500:
Nathan Walz for his cross section of St Annenkirche, Annaberg-Buchholz, Germany.
The runner-up was Ciaran Dolan for his drawing of Coolavin House in Ireland.
Highly Commended were:
Servando de la Rosa for his elevation of Bluecoat Chambers, Liverpool
Michael Paul Lewis for his elevation of Barry Docks Office
Minty Sainsbury for her elevation of 12 George Street, Richmond.
The TAG Award 2022 for the Best Project by a member went to:
Timothy Smith and Jonathan Taylor LLP for their alterations of a London Townhouse.
Runners up were:
Hugh Petter for the Levine Building at Trinity College Oxford.
Ben Pentreath for the Townhouses to the east of Truro, Cornwall.
George Saumarez Smith for his new country house design in Hampshire.
The Lifetime Achievement Award 2022 was awarded to Robert Adam.
From the 1980s Robert has been forging his own reputation for classical and traditional design. He was awarded the Rome Scholarship from The British School there and then returned to the UK where he entered into journalism. Writing has continued to be central to his body of work along side his architectural portfolio.
He helped establish the Traditional Architecture Group, and the International Network of Traditional Building Arts and Urbanism (INTBAU). In his working practice he has always nurtured young talent and sought to pass on long held traditions from older practitioners.
He has served as Hon Sec of the RIBA; The London Advisory Group of English Heritage; The RIBA Planning Group, and many other roles.
His vast portfolio of work includes Ashley, the first house on a greenfield site granted consent under “Gummer’s Law”; The Sackler Library in Oxford, a new office building on Piccadilly, and significant master-planning schemes across the UK.
In 2017 he became the 15th Richard H Driehaus Laureate, but has won numerous other awards for his work.
TAG is pleased to add to this with its own recognition of Robert’s contribution to Traditional Architecture.
TAG Award 2021
for
Sensitive Renovation and Extension of an Historic Building
We are pleased to award Stuart Martin this prize for his thoughtful and scholarly renovation of a 400 year old farmhouse and outbuildings which involved the sensitive restoration of a listed barn, renovation and extension of the farmhouse and new outbuildings. The attention to detail is to be admired and the client’s desire to commission new craft and art work all added to the charm of this whole project.
Lifetime Achievement Award 2021
We are delighted that Charles Brooking is this year’s recipient of the TAG Lifetime Achievement Award. Charles Brooking’s passion for architectural detail began back in 1956 when he was just three and became fascinated by the stylised 1930’s Bakelite house numbers he saw on neighbours’ front gates. For 24 years he was Senior Lecturer in Architectural Detail at the University of Greenwich, teaching aspiring students and architectural professionals from all over the world. Joint winner of the National Art Collections Award in 1987, he is a widely-recognised consultant in his field. His museum of architectural fragments is a national treasure trove cataloguing the evolution of Architectural design over at least three centuries and will in 2022 be opening in new premises where the full collection will be on display. His services to the preservation and understanding in this field is exemplary and he is a worthy winner of this award. TAG had the opportunity to visit a small sample of his collection and here are some images from that visit. Charles is second in from the left in the middle photograph.
Student Design Competition 2021
We are pleased to announce that this year’s winner was Lewis Silburn who takes away the £1000 prize. Here is his winning scheme for a winery.
In second place was Mungo Adam-Smith with this scheme, also for a winery. In fact all of the winning and runner up entries were from students from the Department of Architecture and Landscape at Kingston School of Art.
In third place was Sian Edwards with this scheme.
There were 2 runners up: George Davis with this scheme:
…and Lauren Drummond with this scheme. We were very impressed by the presentation and design skills of all 5 of the shortlisted entries.
Measured Drawing Competition 2021
We are delighted to have 2 joint first prize winners this year. Both exhibited different skills and techniques and it was hard to decide between them, so we were pleased to award a cheque for £500 to both Servando Rodriguez de la Rosa, and Edward Mitchem (who also won last year).
Of the many other entries, 3 stood out and were Highly Commended. These are by Nathan Walz, Harry Thaxter and Antonina Avramenko .
TAG AWARDS 2020
Student Design Competition 2020
We are pleased to announce that Anthony Fitheoglou is the winner of this year’s design competition and will receive the £1000 first prize.
Second place went to James Alexander Rennie, third place went to Lewis Silburn
Commended were: Chris Hill, Luke Alcock and Manraj Bohgal.
Measured Drawing Competition 2020
We are pleased to announce the winner of the Measured Drawing Award of £500 is Edward Mitchem.
Second place went to Zi Ken Toh, and third place to Connor Lynch.
Commended were: Paul Gurung, Chris Hill and the architecture students at Bhopal School of Planning and Architecture.
The Lifetime Achievement Award 2020:
Alexander (Sandy) Stoddart
Alexander Stoddart’s love of ancient art started with a book given to him by his father as a young man. The book was engravings of sculptures from the collections of the National Archaeological Museum of Naples. Years later when he visited Naples and saw the Farnese Hercules and Farnese Bull he likened it to seeing old friends.
He trained in fine art at the Glasgow School of Art and studied the History of Art at the University of Glasgow. He began working as a sculptor for private clients in 1983, and in 1986 moved to his present studio, commencing to work on sculptures on a colossal and heroic scale.
In 1998 he was awarded a University Doctorate from University of Paisley and in 2001 was honoured with the Arthur Ross Award of Classical America for Public Statuary. In 2002 he completed a schema for the Queen’s Gallery at Buckingham Palace and in 2008 became the Queen’s Sculptor in Ordinary.
Mr. Stoddart’s works are in his native style of neo-classicism, periodically turning to Heroic Realism for the purposes of historical monuments and symbolic portraiture. His work falls into three main categories: satirical, monumental and ‘works of fancy’ (as termed in the 19th century). Broadly, the first category most commonly visits the architectural decoration schema, the second the statuary and bust portraiture, whilst the third embraces the free and purposeless works of pure and redundant perceptualism.
He is critical of modernism and contemporary art, commenting that the phrase “public art” makes him want to search for “a glass of whisky and a revolver”. He has little time for many winners of the Turner Prize, referring to Tracey Emin as “the high priestess of societal decline”.
It is with particular joy that Mr. Stoddart has been awarded the Traditional Architect Group’s Lifetime Achievement Award as he has such a strong connection to many of the members. At the beginning of his career Robert Adam gave him his first commission for sculpture on a building, since then his work has adorned John Simpson’s Queen’s Gallery at Buckingham Palace, The Richard Greens Gallery, New Bond Street, designed by George Saumarez Smith and most notably numerous buildings by Craig Hamilton.
Mr. Stoddart is a friend and guide to many TAG members and it is a pleasure to give him this award.
TAG AWARDS 2019
Student Award 2019
This year, the prize for the best classical or traditional scheme designed by a student studying architecture at a university in the UK went to Aleksandra Zenfa, for her Greek revival hotel in Inverness, Scotland.
The runner-up was Michail Sarafidis, who transformed an abandoned house in Syracuse, Sicily, into a classical style restaurant and bar.
Greg Oleniacz, Anthony Fitheoglou and Aurelio Miranda were all short-listed. The five finalists were all students of a course run by Timothy Smith and Jonathan Taylor at Kingston University. This is the only course in the country which specialises in classical architecture. It has been running for nearly a decade, and the quality of their students’ work is a testament to their excellent teaching.
Measured Drawing Prize 2019
The prize for best measured drawing of a historic building went to Jakub Ryng for his drawing of a façade by Boehmer & Gibbs at 65 Harley Street built in 1910.
The runner-up was Timothy Lewis, for his drawing of the Newcastle Pew, St George’s Church, Esher designed by Sir John Vanbrugh in 1725.
Overall, the standard of entries was exceptionally high, and we would like to thank everyone who entered either competition.
Lifetime Achievement Award 2019
We are delighted to announce that His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales has accepted our award this year for services to promoting Traditional Architecture and Urbanism. As he was unable to attend the Awards Evening, He gave us an acceptance speech which was read out at the event and is published here:
TAG AWARDS 2018
Student Award 2018
Sung Lim has won £1000 for the best student project from a School of Architecture in the British Isles.
2018 Winner: Sung Lim
Measured Drawing Award 2018
Diana Yu was the winner of the inaugural TAG Award for the best measured drawing of a historic building, winning £500.
2018 Winner: Diana Yu
