Wonderlab: National Railway Museum gallery in York named winner of RIBA Yorkshire Awards 2025

The light, spacious new gallery at York’s National Railway Museum, designed by De Matos Ryan, offers a STEM-focused learning experience for young people.

The jury praised the architects’ “design interventions” as “controlled and considered”, celebrating “the creative process and language of railway engineering principles.”

The firm’s Jose Esteves de Matos was also named Project Architect of the Year for the gallery.

Also picking up RIBA Yorkshire awards were Bauman Lyons’ decade-long transformation of the Grade I-listed Hull Minster; Petronella House, a revamp of a Victorian villa featuring a copper-clad extension by Chiles Evans + Care Architects; a new library and community hub in Loftus, North Yorkshire, by Blyth-based EDable Architecture.

A social sanctuary for young people inside a Leeds hospice by ArkleBoyce. The £285,000 Young People’s Space at St Gemma’s Hospice also took home the Small Project of the Year crown and the Client of the Year award.

The five projects were selected by the jury, who visited all shortlisted projects.

The two shortlisted schemes to miss out on regional awards were AESSEAL Factory for the Future, Rotherham by Race Cottam Associates, and The Wave at the University of Sheffield by HLM Architects, which had to be knocked down part way through construction in 2020 due to issues with the foundation and rebuilt.

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RIBA Yorkshire jury chair Gayle Appleyard, director of Halifax-based Gagarin Studio, said: “Amid these varied contexts, this year's Yorkshire award-winning projects stood out for their quiet ambition. Many having been realised during the challenges of the Covid pandemic, yet they managed to do a lot with a little.

"These buildings don’t shout; instead, they quietly improve, enhance, and bring joy to the lives of the people who use them.

"The Yorkshire region—an expansive and diverse county encompassing urban centres, coastal towns, and sweeping rural landscapes—offered us an extraordinary journey during our jury visits. From vibrant cities to the sublime moorlands and dales, and out to the county’s edges, the experience was both a spectacle and a marathon, and it was a tremendous privilege to lead a jury of experts and advocates committed to championing excellence in architecture.”

Last year RIBA Yorkshire decided not to name a Building of the Year. According to reports, Hugh Broughton Architects and client English Heritage’s ‘radical restoration’ of Clifford’s Tower in York had been selected by the RIBA regional award-winners jury as Yorkshire’s ‘best in show’. But, before it could be handed over, the prize was withdrawn due to concerns over disabled access.

The winners will now be considered for a RIBA National Award in recognition of their architectural excellence, which will be announced on July 10. The shortlist for the RIBA Stirling Prize for the best building of the year will be drawn from the RIBA national award-winning projects later in the year.