Architectural excellence has been recognised this week with news that three NI buildings have been honoured by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA).

Awards for architectural excellence were given to the teams behind Downe Hospital in Downpatrick, Kevin Kahan Salon in Bangor and St Malachy's Church in Belfast.

The projects now join 99 others in the running for the £20,000 prize.

RIBA President Ruth Reed said the awards were "for buildings that offer value to people's lives".

"In the midst of the deepest recession in the 45-year history of the RIBA Awards, this year's winners demonstrate that although times might be hard for architects, there are still great buildings being built throughout the country and overseas," she said.

Downe Hospital (pictured) cost more than £64m to build and opened in June 2009.

RIBA said its success was "due to a clear-sighted client vision about making healthcare a welcoming experience, executed with straightforward, legible and uplifting architecture".

Paul Finlay, Scott Wilson's Architectural Director commented: "We consulted with patients, staff, members of the public and bodies such as Disability Action and Royal Society for the Blind to ensure the hospital was designed to suit the needs of its users in not only a functional way, but to provide a comfortable place to stay and welcoming environment to visit.

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"Research has proven that patients heal quicker in non-institutionalised spaces with contact to nature, so 90% of the beds have views over the scenic Downshire Estate.

"In addition, healing is encouraged with extensive natural lighting, courtyard gardens and the inclusion of local art to create a bright, welcoming environment," he said, noting that Scott Wilson was appointed as lead consultant, providing architecture, civil and structural engineering, landscape architecture, digital media and CDM coordination.

Capita Symonds acted as healthcare planners with the Downe Hospital being the latest in a series of high profile projects successfully delivered by Scott Wilson and Capita including the award winning Belfast Cancer Centre and various phases of work at the Royal Victoria Hospital.

The second nomination is for the Kevin Kahan hairdressing salon on High Street in Bangor.

It was praised as "a successful alliance between an entrepreneurial client and carefully-crafted interior architecture".

The judges found architects Twenty Two Over Seven had "intelligently engineered (the building) around the pragmatic workings" of a hairdressing service.

Finally, St Malachy's Catholic Church, located in Alfred Street near Belfast city centre has been nominated too, following 15 months of renovations.

RIBA said it was "a delightful early-Victorian church characterised by its robust brick exterior with toy-Gothic turrets, and an elaborately-plastered interior which has been formed around a very unusual, but intimate congregational organisation on two levels.

It said architects Consarc Conservation had managed to modernise the building with disabled access, improved heating and appropriate artificial lighting without detracting from its original character.

(BMcC/GK)