A longlist of the 10 winners of this year’s RIAS Awards was whittled down to seven projects for this year’s award, with the Highland Housing Alliance’s Raining’s Stairs development in Inverness among the projects dropping out.

The Elder and Cannon Architects-designed new Tollcross office in Glasgow was delivered at a cost of £2.92 million.

Judges said: “This new headquarters for Tollcross Housing Association is both externally and internally a rigorously ordered and beautifully detailed solution for this significant site which sits on a corner at the end of a tenement block. The open-plan office spaces are arranged as a series of rising, interconnecting volumes linked by a central sculptural staircase. The result is an elegant and refined building which allows three separate administrative departments to co-habit in a way which encourages cross-disciplinary engagement and dialogue but without sacrificing acoustic performance.

“It was evident that a shared vision and close working relationship between client and architect were key to the success of this excellent building.”

The shortlist in full is as follows:

• The Black House, Isle of Skye (contract value not for publication) Dualchas Architects Ltd for a Private Client
• Collective on Calton Hill, Edinburgh (£4m) Collective Architecture for City of Edinburgh Council and Collective
• The Macallan Distillery and Visitor Experience, Craigellachie (£140m) Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners for Edrington
• Mackintosh at the Willow, Glasgow (contract value not for publication) Simpson & Brown for Willow Tea Rooms Trust
• Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service – The Jack Copland Centre, Edinburgh (£30m) Reiach and Hall Architects for Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service
• Tollcross Housing Association Offices, Glasgow (£2.92m) Elder and Cannon Architects for Tollcross Housing Association
• V&A Dundee (£80.1m) Kengo Kuma & Associates with PiM.studio Architects and James F Stephen Architects for Dundee City Council.

Judging will take place at the end of September against a range of criteria, including architectural integrity; usability and context; delivery and execution; and sustainability. This year’s judges are Professor Sadie Morgan, dRMM (chair), Henry McKeown, jm architects and Professor Mona Siddiqui OBE Hon FRIAS. The winner will be announced live at a dinner at the National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh on October 4 by Aileen Campbell, cabinet secretary for communities and local government and the Doolan family. 

In 2018, the Doolan was awarded to Nucleus, The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority and Caithness Archive designed by Reiach and Hall.