AHMM’s transformation of the University of Amsterdam’s Roeterseiland Campus won an Architecture Today Test of Time Award in the International category.

Awards judge Farshid Moussavi praised the project as ‘a wonderful example of a conversation between old and new, between two architectural practices across a wide span of time. It is bold, yet sensitive to the urban setting as well as the original design. It shows us that preserving what exists does not need to deny us our contemporary needs and aspirations and that buildings can be approached as works of progress’.

The Roesterseiland Campus, completed via two phases in 2017, was transformed from an unfinished postwar masterplan by Norbert Gawronski through remodelling, reconfiguring, retention and renewal to create a new home for the University’s Faculties of Law and Social and Behavioural Sciences; the campus has been reconnected with its neighbourhood through new public spaces and canal side promenades. The project has previously won an RIBA Award for International Excellence, the AJ Retrofit Award for International Innovation, and the AJ Retrofit Overall Winner Award.

Burntwood School received an Architecture Today Test of Time Award in the Education category.

Our RIBA Stirling Prize-winning redevelopment of Burntwood School consists of six new educational buildings-as-pavilions and a new landscape plan for the campus. The original swimming pool and gymnasium building and main assembly hall, designed by Sir Leslie Martin, were retained and refurbished, while other buildings no longer fit for purpose were demolished. Overall, the scheme increased the school’s capacity by more than 200 pupils to 2,000, in addition to 200 staff.

In line with its Modernist Heritage, Burntwood School is experienced as a campus, exploiting the views and spaces between the buildings and enabling the green spaces beyond to be appreciated from the heart of the campus. The six new pavilions include four curriculum buildings for business skills, arts and technology, communications, and maths and science. With each, classrooms and ancillary accommodation are arranged along a central corridor with voids and double-height spaces at each end to increase daylight and outdoor connection. A new sports hall is located next to the original pool building a new performing arts building with a ground floor dining hall extends out to an external terrace.

A range of facilities, including the sports centre and assembly hall, double as community resources out of school hours, while the general teaching spaces and learning support functions are available on a managed basis for adult learning. The structural grid and services design provide flexibility, which has already been implemented, with two meeting rooms off the library being adapted to a SEN (special educational needs) resource base for young people with SEMH (social emotional mental health) needs.

The judges said “What made Burntwood School the winner, after much deliberation, was the way it built boldly and skilfully on a campus that represented Modernism at its best, with an ambition that has become a rarity in school buildings. Eight years after completion, the client’s and architect’s faith in continuing this legacy and reinterpreting it for the 21st century have very much stood the test of time.”