The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) competition encouraged innovative and cost-effective proposals for the re-design and consolidation of Tristan’s government (community infrastructure) buildings.

The brief encouraged initiatives to significantly improve the standard and performance of residential properties, together with improvements to the island’s agrarian systems to better support grazing and the year-round growth of fresh produce.

The winning proposals from Brock Carmichael (working with Oval Partnership, Arup International Development, Multi QS and Dr Gerda Speller from the University of Surrey) were selected from schemes developed by a shortlist that also included design teams led by: Lateral Office (Toronto, Canada); John Puttick Associates (New York, USA); Scott Brownrigg (Cardiff, UK) and Javier Terrados and Fernando Suárez (Seville, Spain).

HH Alex Mitham (Tristan da Cunha Administrator and Head of Government) said: “On behalf of the community of Tristan da Cunha I would again like to thank everyone who participated in the competition, and particularly the five short-listed teams who further refined their proposals during the second, design development phase.

“The Tristanians are very grateful for all the hard work involved and the different ways in which teams responded to the Brief and the unique set of challenges posed by delivering a project on the World’s remotest inhabited island. The Island Council felt the Brock Carmichael team had developed a very strong set of proposals that demonstrated both a practical approach and an in-depth understanding of the issues.

“We hope to be able to arrange for key members of the Brock Carmichael team to visit Tristan and meet the community in the near future as the first step in hopefully going onto realise the project.”

John Whiles (Jestico + Whiles, acting as the RIBA Architect Adviser) added: “This has been a complex and intriguing process with a far broader remit than normally experienced in architectural competitions. The wide ranging international response brought a new dimension to the assessment of the submissions that I believe has served the Tristan community well. I have great respect for the Island’s Administrator and indeed council for the care which they have taken over the selection of the winning team. The result of this competition could have a significant impact on the Islander’s lives, fitting for the future indeed.”

Martin Watson (Partner, Brock Carmichael Architects) said: “We are delighted and honoured to have been chosen as the winners of this unique competition and would like to pass on our thanks to the people of Tristan for selecting our team. We are very much looking forward to forging a long-term partnership with the community to deliver practical solutions for the benefit of future generations to come.”