7 August 2025 – CISL's retrofit headquarters in Cambridge, the Entopia Building, has been shortlisted for another prestigious award.
The RIBA Reinvention Award shortlist was selected from winners of the RIBA Regional Awards 2025 and the winner will be announced at the Stirling Prize ceremony on 16 October.
The latest shortlisting follows Entopia winning three other awards at the RIBA East awards in May, plus the project team winning the Refurbished/Recycled Workplace award at the BCO Awards for the Midlands and Central England.
The Entopia Building project was led by the architectural practice, Architype. The RIBA jury said: "Altogether, the scheme asks us to choose what we really want when it comes to retrofitting a building: a coherent new aesthetic appearance, or else the best possible environmental principles and performance?"
Read the full citation in the RIBA Journal.
CISL’s COO, Anna Nitch-Smith, said “It’s a huge honour to be shortlisted for another RIBA award alongside other really exceptional schemes. Together, we are leading the way for the built environment sector, helping show that reuse is exciting as well as functionally important in transitioning to a low carbon economy.”
Living Lab
As well as providing office space for CISL and the Canopy, a hub for sustainability startups, the Entopia Building now acts as a Living Lab. Innovators, academics and pioneering companies in the built environment can come together to pilot and test new interventions in the design, operation and use of lived spaces – and to communicate and share the results for public benefit.
Last month, CISL and The Crown Estate announced a major new partnership to accelerate sustainable innovation and collaboration in the built environment and support nature recovery across the UK.
And last week, CISL hosted 120 senior decision-makers, innovators and academics in the fields of real estate, infrastructure, finance and technology at the formal launch of the Living Lab.