Victoria Square 'best building'

The shopping centre opened at a cost of £400m last March

Belfast's Victoria Square shopping centre has been picked as the island's best retail building in the Irish Architecture Awards.

The £400m mall responded "to the existing urban grain, establishing new relationships between previously disjointed areas of the public realm".

The design, by BDP architects, picked up the award in a public choice vote.

Four restaurants closed in the centre last week, with the closure of one, Ba Mizu, being described as temporary.

The rooftop restaurant, located above anchor tenant House of Fraser, employs 32 people and is expected to re-open in the next few weeks.

Two other restaurants, Maggianos and Chillis, were closed when their owners shut down all their UK outlets.

To date several stores, including Zavvi and Pier, Crombie and Hardy Amies, have closed their doors.

However, it was recently announced that four new tenants would open outlets this summer.