BEYOND Oxford's 'dreaming spires', the skyline is peppered with architectural brilliance.

And once again the city's more recent additions are being heralded for their design by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA).

Seven buildings and homes in the county have been nominated for the institute's south awards and the winner will then be considered for the highly-coveted RIBA National Award.

Oxford based architects Adrian James Architects said they were thrilled that the private home, 'Incurvo' they designed for a site alongside the Thames in Southern Oxfordshire, was on the shortlist. As with the other private houses on the shortlist, the building's precise location has been withheld at the owners' request – no doubt to prevent architecture admirers and sightseers from calling by.

Director Adrian James said: "We are delighted to be nominated among so many other great buildings.

"Today a lot of modern houses are either boxes or barns, and the client wanted to do something different.

"They came to us and we designed for them a house which is an extremely curvy building.

"It is all about flow; flow around the outside and flow around the inside, and the client really bought into the idea."

The project, which is nestled in the North Wessex Downs, south of Wallingford, took three years to complete, finally being completed in Christmas 2015.

Mr James added: "It involved quite a lot of different processes.

"There was a house already on site which needed to be demolished and there was a lot of landscaping to go in.

"We put in a long terrace but this all unified the theme of the project."

Also to make the shortlist was the £3.7m redevelopment of Burford's Warwick Hall Community Centre by Acanthus Clews Architects.

In the city, Barns Place, in Barns Road, by Allford Hall Monaghan Morris and The Berrow Foundation Building and New Garden Building, in Oxford University's Lincoln College, by Stanton Williams with Rodney Melville and Partners Ltd and Sally Tyler, have also been nominated.

Magdalen College Library, which was completed last April, also made the list.

Clare Wright, director of Wright and Wright Architects, behind the library, said it was an honour to be nominated.

She said: "One of our main principles is to ensure that we create contemporary buildings that are sensitive, contextual and work with buildings that have been built centuries before.

"We wanted it to be the focal point of the college and made sure it can be accessed many different ways.

"What was also surprising during our build was that we uncovered a 12th century cemetery.

"Archaeology teams came in and there were about 100 bodies no one even knew about before we came along."

All shortlisted buildings will be assessed by a regional jury with the winning buildings announced at an awards evening and reception at Ascot Racecourse on Thursday, May 25 May.

Regional award winners will be considered for a RIBA National Award, the results of which will be announced in June.

For more information visit: architecture.com