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Allford Hall Monaghan Morris

Last year鈥檚 winner of this award was challenging for the title again this year, thanks to projects such as Westminster Academy, which was shortlisted for the Stirling prize, and the Kentish Town health centre, shortlisted in these awards in the Public 好色先生TV Project of the Year category. Although not unaffected by the recession, AHMM succeeded in picking up prestigious clients such as the Crown Estates and Treasury investments, and several precious schools projects in London, Birmingham, Hull and Barnsley.

BDP

Money isn鈥檛 everything, but making it is a pretty good indication that you鈥檙e doing something right. So BDP鈥檚 success in breaking through the 拢100m turnover barrier despite the dearth of new work is testimony to its continuing strength. Last year, that included winning work in more than 30 countries, opening studios in Abu Dhabi and India, and acquiring a Dutch practice. This achievement was made possible by good management, sound strategy (education and healthcare), and an outstanding commitment to humanistic design.

Edward Cullinan Architects

This practice has spent the past 40 years working out how best to incorporate sustainability into its designs. The result is a philosophy of developing 鈥渓ong-life, loose fit, low energy鈥� buildings. And that is increasingly what clients want to build. So, in the past 18 months it has completed three BREEAM 鈥渆xcellent鈥� buildings, one NEAT 鈥渆xcellent鈥� building and it is working on another that is expected to obtain a BREEAM 鈥渙utstanding鈥� rating

Feilden Clegg Bradley

It鈥檚 not every day that an architect gets the chance to design a state-of-the-art nunnery, but Feilden Clegg Bradley did a splendid job at Stanbrook Abbey in Yorkshire, producing a building that enhanced the moorland setting and exemplified this firm鈥檚 ability to turn almost any brief into a thing of beauty. For contrast, consider the Broadcast Place development in Leeds (a strong contender for 好色先生TV of the Year), which recently made a striking cover for 好色先生TV magazine. Not for nothing did the judges talk about 鈥渢he stunning range鈥� of the shortlisted architects.

HLM Architects

This firm鈥檚 pitch stressed its agile response to a recession that has pushed more than half of the country鈥檚 designers out of employment in their chosen profession. In the present climate that means winning public work, and HLM has been active in the education and health sectors, of which the centrepiece was probably the 拢78m New Victoria Hospital in Glasgow. It has also held its ground in the prison and defence sectors with such good effect that it has maintained its margins and achieved its target turnover.

Scott Brownrigg

Any firm that takes on the British Army has to be prepared for manoeuvres on the grand scale. Well, that鈥檚 Scott Brownrigg, the practice that is tackling the biggest PFI scheme of them all: the 拢8bn Allenby and Connaught barracks renewal project. So far it has delivered 120 BREEAM 鈥渆xcellent鈥� buildings and has transformed the often shameful state of the Ministry of Defence鈥檚 stock. Then there鈥檚 the 拢1bn Defence Technical College at St Athen. And in overcoming these challenges, it has also won its battle with the present recession 鈥�

van Heyningen and Haward Architects

This practice is one of the tiddlers in this year鈥檚 shortlist: it had only 35 staff in 2009, but that鈥檚 three more than it had the previous year: no mean achievement in itself. It also has a churn rate of precisely zero, another indication that this firm is a bit special. Even more so when you learn that it had projects worth 拢300m in the Learning and Skills Council鈥檚 disastrous college framework. Its response to that was to go and win another lot of jobs, often in niche areas that most rivals wouldn鈥檛 consider, such as its Bird Hide for the RSPCB in Rainham Marshes, Essex. It also handled mainstream stuff, and Lerner Court in Cambridge shows what can be achieved with that oldest of construction tools: the brick.