Supreme award for London鈥檚 Churchill Gardens Estate heads list of 38 winners announced last night.
A 1960s london estate has won a supreme Civic Trust award as the best of the 1025 projects that have won awards in the past four decades. The estate, Churchill Gardens in London鈥檚 Pimlico, was granted the distinction to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Civic Trust awards.

In addition, the trust announced the largest number of architecture and environmental design winners for almost 30 years. A total of 38 awards were announced last night in the Neptune Court of the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, itself one of this year鈥檚 winners.

Civic Trust awards manager Julia Thrift said:鈥淭he last time we gave 38 awards was in 1971. The fact that our judges felt able to give 38 this year is a clear indication of a renaissance in British architecture.鈥�

The fact that our judges gave 38 awards is a clear indication of a renaissance

Julia Thrift, Awards Manager

Churchill Gardens has been widely acclaimed as one of the greatest products of an open design competition for public housing. The competition to design the estate was launched by the former London County Council in 1946 and the scheme was intended to be a model for post-war housing development. It was won by young architectural graduates Philip Powell and Hidalgo Moya, whose design featured eight-storey slabs running at right angles to the River Thames.

Lottery-funded attractions feature prominently among this year鈥檚 winners. They include the BFI London Imax Cinema designed by Avery Associates, Anthony Gormley鈥檚 Angel of the North in Gateshead, the Ikon Gallery in Birmingham by Levitt Bernstein Associates, and Michael Hopkins and Partners鈥� Dynamic Earth in Edinburgh.