Mayo architect’s monastery design voted Ireland’s favourite building at the RIAI Awards 2025

The public have spoken and with over 14,000 votes cast in total, the Benedictine Monastery at Kylemore Abbey by Axo Architect was declared the winner of the prestigious 2025 RIAI Public Choice Award. 

It was the first female monastery to be built in Ireland in 350 years and speaking to The Mayo News, Westport’s Michael Horan, managing director of Axo Architects, said that calmness and respect were at the core of the vision.

READ MORE: Mayo architect’s Kylemore Abbey project nominated for prestigious award

“We wanted to develop a design that would fit very calmly in the environment and would be very respectful of the heritage that came before us.”

He was ‘very humbled’ by the public support and said that the winning design “represents what is best about the West of Ireland.”

“We have the knowledge here, we have the craftsmen here. We have the design talent here to deliver really, really good buildings. And I'm hoping that this showcases that fact, what's good about the west of Ireland.”

He was really overwhelmed by the amount of people that took the time to vote for this project: “We just can't thank people enough for getting behind it. I'm so so thankful to those people.

“I absolutely love the community spirit of the West of Ireland and the way different clubs and societies and schools and expats, outside of Ireland, came together to vote for this project.”

READ MORE: Kylemore nuns move into monastery designed by Mayo architect

He could see in real time how it was being shared on Facebook and says one post was shared sixty times. 

He was also full of praise for the ‘really strong team’ at Axo Architects, the clients, contractors, the funders and the design team to achieve a really good project.

"It's rare that all of those things come together but on this project, they did. So I just want to thank the entire team, especially our team here at Axo Architects.”