RIBA Awards 2014: The Shard and Kings Cross Station among celebrated buildings

Both towering city behemoths and more modest village projects have been recognised as “exceptional” by the Royal Institute of British Architects in its annual national awards revealed on Thursday.

The Shard, the 1003ft tall addition to the City of London’s ever-expanding skyline, and Zaha Hadid’s London Aquatics Centre are among the most famous of the 44 new buildings to win an award this year.

But smaller builds are also celebrated, including Porthmeor Artists’ Studios and Fishermens’ Cellars by Long & Kentish architects, St Ives, and a small private house cut into a cliff on the Isle of Sky by Dualchas Architects.

12 projects in the EU are also recognised, including the Copenhagen City Council building in the Danish capital.

The shortlist for the highly-sought after RIBA Stirling Prize for the building that has made the greatest contribution to British architecture in the past year will be drawn from the winners.

“The stand-out trend of the 2014 RIBA National Awards is the array of high quality, confident public buildings built for communities all over the country. These buildings show that investment in exceptionally well-crafted civic buildings and public spaces can bring together communities, boost pride and revive our cities, towns and villages,” the RIBA said of its winners in a statement.

It added that the small number of commercial and privately-owned projects to be short-listed is likely to be a symptom of the recessions.

“The large number of smaller-scale projects winning awards show architects’ talent to create great architecture even with more modest briefs and budgets,” it said.