Scottish Borders Design awards

2025 winners

Large Project Winner

Earlston Primary School

Stallan Brand 

Earlston Primary School represents a major civic investment, not only in education but in the life of the town itself. Positioned prominently on the High Street, the new school asserts a confident public presence while remaining welcoming, humane and carefully scaled. The design re-establishes the school as a community anchor. Internally, teaching and shared spaces are generous, calm and flexible, supporting contemporary learning while prioritising wellbeing. Externally, the building contributes positively to the streetscape, reinforcing Earlston’s civic identity rather than turning inward.

Judging panel comments: A transformative new school positively reshaping the High Street. A welcoming, community-focused building praised by staff and pupils, with sensitively planned internal and external spaces. 

Small Project Winner

Sunnyside Farmhouse, Hawick

Gray Macpherson Architects

 This project demonstrates how contemporary domestic architecture can sit confidently within a rural setting without overwhelming its host building. The timber extension is clearly modern in expression, yet deeply respectful of the original farmhouse and its landscape context.

Careful attention has been paid to daylight, views and privacy, resulting in spaces that feel both generous and composed. Detailing is restrained and purposeful, allowing material quality and proportion to do the work rather than visual complexity.
 
Judging panel comments: A sensitively designed timber extension that adds generous living space with excellent attention to daylight, views, privacy and detailing.
 

Residential Winner

Kirkbrae, Galashiels

Angus Architecture

Kirkbrae is a strong example of how existing buildings can be adapted to meet contemporary housing needs while strengthening the public realm. A redundant tenement has been transformed into nine energy-efficient homes, re-establishing active frontages and improving the relationship between building and street.

The scheme enhances natural surveillance and urban legibility, contributing to a safer and more animated townscape. Crucially, it demonstrates the environmental and social value of reuse over replacement.
 
Judging panel comments: A redundant tenement reborn as nine modern, energy-efficient homes with improved public realm, reinstated active frontages and enhanced natural surveillance.
 

Regeneration Winner

Whitefield Crescent, Newtown St Boswells

56three Architects for Scottish Borders Housing Association

This scheme shows how modest, underperforming housing stock can be re-imagined through careful design rather than wholesale demolition. Eight obsolete bedsits have been reconfigured into four family flats, dramatically improving living standards while retaining embodied carbon.

Alterations to elevations and the creation of usable garden spaces have transformed both appearance and amenity, demonstrating a pragmatic, sustainable approach to regeneration.

Judging panel comments: Eight unlettable bedsits redesignated into four family flats. The judges praised the minimal demolition, retention of embodied carbon, and improved elevations and garden spaces.

Conservation Winner

Gala Fairydean Rovers Spectator Stand

Narro Associates / Reiach and Hall

This project sets a benchmark for the conservation of post-war modernist architecture. The works focus on careful repair, clarity of form and the removal of visual clutter, allowing the original concrete structure to be read and appreciated once again.

Interventions are disciplined and respectful, balancing functional upgrades with architectural integrity.

Judging panel comments: A model of modernist concrete conservation: sensitive repairs, rationalised interiors and removal of visual clutter.

Placemaking Award and Overall Building / Place of the Year

Trimontium Museum, Melrose

Trimontium Trust

Recognised as the strongest project across all categories, the Trimontium Museum is a composed and confident addition to Melrose’s Conservation Area. Its massing, materials and detailing respond intelligently to context, while clearly expressing the building’s contemporary role.

Internally, warm, intuitive spaces enhance interpretation and visitor experience, supporting learning, community engagement and long-term sustainability.

Judging panel comments: An exemplary addition to Melrose’s Conservation Area, with carefully judged massing, materials and interior spaces that enhance the museum experience. A refined scheme exemplifying high-quality, community-focused design.