Latest news with #ElizabethTower
Time Out
6 days ago
- Business
- Time Out
London's Elizabeth Tower and Young V&A have just won very prestigious architecture awards
Last year a London building won the Stirling Prize, which is the most prestigious award in UK architecture and one of the world's most respected design prizes. None other than the Elizabeth line scooped the award, with the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) – which runs the award – praising the line as a 'flawless, efficient, beautifully choreographed solution to inner-city transport'. The process of crowning the next Stirling Prize winner is already underway, with RIBA last week (on July 10) announcing its 2025 National Award winners. The National Awards, which have been held since 1966, are intended to both celebrate the best new pieces of British architecture and 'provide insight into the country's design and social trends'. Of RIBA's 20 National Award winners, a whopping eight are in London – and they feature some very familiar faces. The Elizabeth Tower – which is home to Big Ben – and Young V&A were among the award winners. The Elizabeth Tower picked up the gong for its conservation and refurbishment project, which started in 2015 and was undertaken by Purcell (architects which also revamped the National Portrait Gallery). Purcell didn't just repair much of the tower; the firm also had to fix 'detrimental previous interventions'. RIBA praised the project for its 'extensive' stone repairs, but also for the installation of a passenger lift. Young V&A (previously known at the V&A Museum of Childhood) reopened in 2023 to become 'the UK's first museum built with and for young people'. RIBA praised the project – which was by AOC Architecture and De Matos Ryan – for widely engaging with the public, and the new venue features a new exhibition space, shop, learning centre and more. Young V&A won Art Fund Museum of the Year 2024. The other six London buildings to get a RIBA National Award were: retrofitted 1970s Farringdon office building 8 Bleeding Heart Yard, contemporary Southwark almshouse Appleby Blue Almshouse, affordable Lewisham home development Citizens House, Battersea's barbershop-turned-home-and-workspace Costa's Barbers, south London Japanese-inspired home Niwa House, and the London College of Fashion 's new vertical campus in Stratford. Eventually RIBA's 20 National Award winners will be narrowed down to six, which will compete for the Stirling Prize. That shortlist will be revealed on September 4 Commenting on the National Award-winning projects, RIBA Awards Group Chair Simon Henley, said: 'Congratulations to each of this year's RIBA National Award winners. Each of these 20 winning projects is a powerful testament to the diversity and depth of our profession. They demonstrate how architecture is not just a creative force, but also central in addressing some of the most pressing challenges of our time. 'This year's winners reflect the many and varied ways architects are being asked to work, and their incredible motivation and breadth of expertise. As a profession, we now look to the past as much as the future, and to care and repair as we do to build. We continue to innovate but we also seek continuity, and in so doing to make work of every scale that is engaging and thoughtful. The power of architecture to transform society and inform our way of life is on full display in every winning project.' You can find out more about each project on the RIBA website here.
Toronto Sun
08-05-2025
- General
- Toronto Sun
80 years ago World War II in Europe was over. Celebrating V-E Day is now tinged with some dread
Published May 08, 2025 • 4 minute read Images are projected onto the Queen Elizabeth Tower, in the Houses of Parliament, including the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, whose statue is in the foreground, during the V-E Day 80th anniversary events in London, Tuesday, May 6, 2025. Photo by Alastair Grant / AP Photo LONDON — Even if the end of the Second World War in Europe spawned one of the most joyous days the continent ever lived, Thursday's 80th anniversary of V-E Day is haunted as much by the spectre of current-day conflict as it celebrates the defeat of ultimate evil. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account Hitler's Nazi Germany had finally surrendered after a half-decade of invading other European powers and propagating racial hatred that led to genocide, the Holocaust and the murdering of millions. That surrender and the explosion of hope for a better life is being celebrated with parades in London and Paris and towns across Europe while even the leaders of erstwhile mortal enemies France and Germany are bonding again. Germany's new foreign minister, Johann Wadephul, paid tribute to 'the enormous sacrifices of the Allies' in helping his country win its freedom from the Nazis and said that millions of people were 'disenfranchised and tormented by the Nazi regime.' 'Hardly any day has shaped our history as much as May 8, 1945,' he said in a statement. 'Our historical responsibility for this breach of civilization and the commemoration of the millions of victims of the Second World War unleashed by Nazi Germany gives us a mandate to resolutely defend peace and freedom in Europe today.' Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. His comments underscore that former European enemies may thrive — to the extent that the 27-nation European Union even won the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize — but that the outlook has turned gloomy over the past year. Bodies continue to pile up in Ukraine, where Russia's 2022 full-scale invasion started the worst war on the continent since 1945. The rise of the hard right in several EU member states is putting the founding democratic principles of the bloc under increasing pressure. 'The time of Europe's carefree comfort, joyous unconcern is over. Today is the time of European mobilization around our fundamental values and our security,' Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said at a Dutch memorial event in the lead-up to the celebrations. It makes this unlikely stretch of peace in Europe anything but a given. And even NATO, that trans-Atlantic military alliance that assured peace in Europe under the U.S. nuclear umbrella and its military clout, is under internal strain rarely seen since its inception. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. The United States was instrumental in turning the tide of the war in Europe, invading along with Allies the D-Day beaches in France's Normandy on June 6, 1944 in what proved to be the tipping point of the war in Europe that inexorably led to the invasion of Germany and the defeat of Hitler. On Wednesday, U.S. President Donald Trump proclaimed Thursday as a day for the United States to celebrate victory in the Second World War, insisting the country should better recognize its essential role in the war. 'We are going to start celebrating our victories again!' he said. The war did drag on beyond Europe especially in the Pacific against Japan, but even Taiwan joined in marking the day for the first time — and highlighting current-day threats. Instead of Russia, it was centring on China, its immediate rival. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory to be annexed by force if necessary. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'Military aggression against another country is an unjust crime that is bound to fail,' Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te said. He added that both Taiwan and Europe were 'now facing the threat of a new authoritarian bloc.' European celebrations Commemorations have been going all week through Europe, and Britain has taken a lead. Here too, the current-day plight of Ukraine in its fight against Russia took centre stage. 'The idea that this was all just history and it doesn't matter now somehow, is completely wrong,' U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said. 'Those values of freedom and democracy matter today.' In London later Thursday, a service will be held in Westminster Abbey and a concert, for 10,000 members of the public, at Horse Guards Parade. In Paris, French President Emmanuel Macron is expected to oversee a ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the Arc de Triomphe. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. And in Berlin, Chancellor Friedrich Merz will again highlight how Germany has remodeled itself into a beacon of European democracy by laying a wreath at the central memorial for the victims of war and tyranny. And, symbolically, Russia and President Vladimir Putin will be totally out of lockstep with the rest of Europe, celebrating its Victory Day one day later with a huge military parade on Red Square in central Moscow to mark the massive Soviet contribution to defeat Nazi Germany. — Raf Casert reported from Brussels. Mike Corder in Wageningen, Netherlands, and Jamey Keaten in Geneva, contributed to this report. Read More Toronto Maple Leafs Editorial Cartoons Sunshine Girls Sunshine Girls Canada
