UK’s most inspirational built projects announced at RICS Awards Grand Final
Over 90 of the UK’s most impressive and community beneficial property schemes battled it out for top honours at the RICS (Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors) Awards Grand Final, where Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, part of Birmingham City University was named the best Design through Innovation built project in the UK.
The prestigious annual contest – hosted by ITV news anchor, Nina Hossain and held at The Brewery in London on Friday 2 November – celebrates the UK’s most inspirational initiatives in the land, property and construction sectors that are having a significant positive impact on the communities they serve.
Category winners from each of the 12 regional RICS Award ceremonies held earlier this year, compete in the Grand Final to win the national accolade in their respective category.
Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, part of Birmingham City University won the Design through Innovation & Project of the Year award at the RICS Awards, West Midlands back in May. At the Grand Final, it faced tough competition from 12 other regional Design through Innovation award winners, including the Aerospace Integration Research Centre at Cranfield University, Urban Sciences Building in Newcastle, Omagh Hospital and Primary Care Complex and The Active Classroom in Swansea.
In the heart of Birmingham, the new purpose built music school is the first digital conservatoire of the 21st Century. Included in the new space, there is over 10,500m2 of lecture and teaching space, 100 practice and rehearsal rooms for all musical disciplines, isolated performance spaces, a 500 seat concert hall, an intimate 150 seat recital hall and Birmingham’s only dedicated jazz club and organ performance space.
The Grand Final judging panel praised the project team behind the complex – including Faithful + Gould, Feilden Clegg Bradley, Birmingham City University and Galliford Try Building Ltd - for creating what they described as a stand-out winner.
National RICS Awards Judge, Gordon Chard, Director at Chard UK Planning Consultancy said:
“Complex and technically challenging construction projects need co-ordinated team work to deliver buildings of distinction to time and within budget. The Royal Conservatoire, commissioned and funded by Birmingham City University, is such a building with 100 individual teaching, rehearsal and performance spaces covering all musical disciplines. Innovative structural, building services and acoustic treatments have achieved a world-class facility much sought after for both teaching and live performances. The internal rooms are isolated from the main reinforced concrete frame and externally the building design is expressed as three dimensional stacked and overlapping acoustic spaces. The Conservatoire is becoming the primary location for musical study in the West Midlands with a growing international reputation.”
Chair of the 2018 judging panel for the RICS Awards, West Midlands, Gurdip Chamba of Crossland Property Consultants ltd adds:
“The West Midlands has had an extremely successful track record at the RICS Awards Grand Final in recent years, with Grand Central Station and the National Memorial Arboretum both scooping awards at the previous year’s ceremonies. It is fantastic to see that once again projects from the West Midlands are being recognised at a national level. The region has a lot to offer and the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire is yet another example of the diversity and world leading innovative projects that we have to offer. The team behind this project should be extremely proud as they have provided a wonderful educational site for students, and visitors, from far and wide to use for years to come.”
The winners of the eight national RICS Awards are as follows:
Building Conservation: Yr Ysgwrn, Gwynedd (Wales)
Commercial: White Collar Factory, Old Street (London)
Community Benefit: Get Busy Living Centre, Melton Mowbray (East Midlands)
Design through Innovation: Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, Birmingham City University (West Midlands)
Infrastructure: Mersey Gateway Project, Widnes (North West)
Regeneration: Woodberry Down, Finsbury Park (London)
Residential: Fern House, Bingley (Yorkshire & Humber)
Tourism & Leisure: Command of the Oceans, Chatham (South East)
The highly acclaimed UK Project of the Year accolade is presented to the scheme which demonstrates overall outstanding best practice and significant benefit to their local area and wider economy. This year the title went to Woodberry Down in Finsbury Park – one of London’s largest – and multi-million pound - estate regeneration projects.
The project team – includingBerkeley Homes and Hawkins Brown - have delivered 1,479 homes to-date, along with 2.61 acres of award-winning parkland and new amenities. These include a new secondary school, community centre, and shops for a range of budgets. On completion of the project in 2035 1,890 existing homes will have been replaced by over 5,500 mixed-tenure, quality new build homes.