The winner of the Doolan Award 2022 is quietly nestled among green trees, set deep within the Cairngorms National Park in Scotland. Quarry Studios, a project by London-based architecture practice Moxon Architects, is a balanced mix of a modern office space and a community café, all wrapped within a single building that has just won the Scottish architecture world's biggest accolade, scooping the coveted Andrew Doolan Best Building in Scotland Award 2022 by the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland (RIAS).
Doolan Award 2022: Moxon Architects’ Quarry Studios
Designed for the architecture studio's own use, as well as the region's community, and tourists who stop on their way to visit nearby Balmoral and the park's own verdant expanses, Quarry Studios is, as its name hints, tucked into the bowl of a former quarry. Low-lying and largely made of local timber, the structure blends well with its surroundings.
The winning design was up against four other remarkable buildings, in competition for the award: Forth Valley College – Falkirk Campus by Reiach and Hall Architects; High Sunderland, Galashiels by Loader Monteith; Jedburgh Grammar Campus, Jedburgh by Stallan-Brand Architecture; and Lockerbie Sawmill by Konishi Gaffney.
'Comparing such a wide variety of buildings was hard, but Quarry Studios demonstrates exceptionally careful thought in creating a high-quality and tactile building that is full of detail, while also delivering broader social outcomes. Moxon Architects have designed a building that is highly sustainable – not only in terms of its carbon footprint and support for local biodiversity, but also in how it acts as a catalyst for supporting local businesses and its community,' said RIAS Doolan Award 2022 jury chair, architect Amin Taha.
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