One of only two winners of the prestigious Royal Institute of British Architects\' Book Awards this year is Stone Conservation: Principles and Practice, edited by Alison Henry and published by Donhead.

The awards were presented at a ceremony last month (May) in the Naval & Military Club, London.

Stone Conservation received the Sir Robert McAlpine Inter-national Book Award for Construction.

The annual Book Awards highlight the influence and standard of architectural writing and publishing. They celebrate, as RIBA puts it, "the important contribution writing makes to the dynamic activity of creating buildings and transforming the landscape in which we live".

The Sir Robert McAlpine Award recognises exceptional writing on the construction and restoration of buildings, building design and building methods, and the use of new materials and technologies across the construction industry.

Max Fordham, who chaired the jury, said about the winning title: "Here is a book which is both specialist and technical, an edited collection of pieces with a message.

"Stone Conservation is a winner because it fits the brief - it is about building construction, conservation and refurbishment. Above all of this there is a passionate dedication to the topic which, although it is a collection of pieces by different authors, shines out through proper writing."

This magazine said in our review of the book in the December issue that in its 340 sparingly illustrated pages Stone Conservation "makes interesting and enjoyable reading for professionals and craftsmen alike, both provoking thought and providing practical and useful answers to the many questions raised by the subjectÖ and remaining readable as it does so". As we concluded then: "It is well worth a read."

The book brings together contributions from leading stone conservation practitioners to further the debate addressed in Conservation of Building & Decorative Stone by John Ashurst and the late Francis Dimes that was first published in 1990. John Ashurst, from Ingram Consultancy, provides the foreword in Stone Conservation.

The other winning title was Interpreting the Renaissance: Princes, Cities, Architects by Manfredo Tafuri, published by Yale University Press. It was presented with the Sir Nikolaus Pevsner Award for outstanding writing on architecture and architectural practice, the preservation of buildings, historic and theoretical research and analysis.

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