These awards celebrate architectural excellence in the renewal and repurposing of existing buildings. This year’s 18 categories emphasise the reuse of existing structures and materials, and the lessons learnt. The first shortlisted categories to be announced are Adaptive reuse into mixed use; Adaptive reuse into office (up to £10 million); Adaptive reuse into office (£10 million and over); Adaptive reuse into other; and Adaptive reuse into residential.
Adaptive reuse recognises projects that combine retrofit with a change of use. Among the mixed-use shortlist is one of last year’s highest-profile openings, Diller Scofidio + Renfro’s V&A East Storehouse in London’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.
Adaptive reuse into office has been split into two price brackets this year to reflect the high number of entries. Gort Scott, dRMM and shedkm all feature across the category. In the under £10 million shortlist, Project 3 Architects’ retrofit of two Victorian market halls, featured in the AJ’s Manchester issue, published in May, is among the contenders, while Hodder + Partners’ No 1 St Michael’s, also published in that issue, appears in the £10 million and over category.
Elsewhere, John Puttick Associates’ conversion of listed Grimsby warehouses into youth club joins CarverHaggard’s decarbonisation of a 1990s Bankside office building and Studio DERA’s transformation of a former swimming pool on the Adaptive reuse into other shortlist. In the four-project residential shortlist, shedkm secures a second nomination for Zodiac, which featured in the AJ’s Homelessness issue published in December 2025.
Zodiac House, a project for developer Common Projects, is the transformation of a worn-out concrete 1960s complex into 73 homes for families at risk in Croydon. It also featured in the AJ and Architects’ Action for Affordable Housing’s first edition of the campaign publication Good Homes for All.
Formerly known as the AJ Retrofit Awards, the awards programme was renamed the AJ Retrofit & Reuse Awards in 2024 to better reflect the expanding scope of retrofit practice, from adaptive reuse to decarbonisation and whole-life carbon reduction.
More than 110 projects have been shortlisted across this year’s awards. Each practice has presented its project to the judges in a virtual session comprising a five-minute presentation followed by up to 10 minutes of questions. The 28-strong jury includes net zero carbon manager Tania Jennings, Max Fordham partner and director of sustainability Hero Bennett and associate professor of the London School of Architecture Ruth Lang.
The winners will be announced at the AJ Retrofit & Reuse Awards on Thursday 24 September at a new venue this year – the Grade II-listed Art Deco live events and music hall The Troxy in east London.
The shortlisted projects in other categories will be revealed in the coming days. You can find out more about the AJ Retrofit & Reuse Awards here.
Last week, the AJ announced that keynote speeches from Grafton co-founder Shelley McNamara and OMA partner Reinier de Graaf will bookend the AJ’s CircularBuild 2026 event, to be held on 16 September in central London.
CircularBuild 2026, which will also include contributions from Mace, Landsec, and Great Portland Estates, will be held at Convene in the City of London.
The event, now in its fifth year, is an evolution of the annual AJ Retrofit Live event, which was inspired by our RetroFirst campaign for the reuse of existing buildings.
Shortlists
Adaptive reuse into mixed use
Eagle House by IF_DO
Source: Kilian O’Sullivan
214 Oxford Street by BDP
City Campus, University of Gloucestershire by ADP Architecture
Eagle House by IF_DO
Spitfire Hangar by Ferguson Mann Architects
The Creamery by Stonewood Design
The Goods Shed, Hopetown, by SPACE Architects
The Whiteley by Foster + Partners
V&A East Storehouse by Diller Scofidio + Renfro
Adaptive reuse into office (up to £10 million)
Dome House by Gort Scott
Source: Dirk Lindner
37 Coate Street by dRMM
Campfield by Project 3 Architects
Civic by shedkm
Dome House by Gort Scott
The Old Post Office by Stedman Blower Architects
Vinery Mews by Owers Warwick Architects
Adaptive reuse into office (£10 million and over)
Bedford Row by HUT Architecture
Source: Billie Bolton
21-25 Bruton Place by DLA Architecture
Bedford Row by HUT Architecture
No 1 St Michael’s, Manchester, by Hodder + Partners
The Harrison by Anomaly
Adaptive reuse into other
Horizon Youth Zone by John Puttick Associates
Source: Gareth Gardner
265 Strand by TTSP with Bluebottle Interiors
Horizon Youth Zone by John Puttick Associates
Remaking The Pool – Waltham Forest College by Studio DERA
Scotland’s National Retrofit Centre by John Gilbert Architects
STEAM Studios by SPACE Architects
The Chancery Rosewood by ReardonSmith Architects
The Grammar by GSSArchitecture
The Schoolhouse by CarverHaggard
Adaptive reuse into residential
The Old Boathouse by Napier Clarke Architects
Source: Lorenzo Zandri
Cocoa Works by Weedon Architects
Haringey Warehouse Living: Cardigan House and 23 Overbury by Studio Verve Architects
The Old Boathouse by Napier Clarke Architects
Zodiac by shedkm
The 2026 AJ Retrofit & Reuse Awards are sponsored by
