Winning night at RIBA North West

Enterprise South Liverpool Academy was announced as a RIBA North West Regional Award winner at a ceremony in Liverpool on 17 April. It also took the Client of the Year award and BDP completed the triple win with a special award of RIBA North West Architect of the Year.

The school provides 1,100 secondary school students, aged 11-18, with over 10,000 sqm of state of the art facilities to meet the challenges of 21st century learning.  A national centre in business and enterprise, the academy’s specialism is embedded across the whole curriculum with a diverse yet flexible range of spaces to facilitate entrepreneurial needs.

The design was led by BDP’s architect director Sue Emms, who says: “The new building is a beacon that symbolises the regeneration of Garston, South Liverpool. A key part of the brief was that it should have a wow factor in order to challenge the negative preconceptions about education locally, and make the academy as appealing as possible to students and the local community.”

Andrew Ruffler, RIBA North West regional director said: “Once again the north west has produced another crop of outstanding buildings, all of which demonstrate the value of a strong architect-client relationship. The jury had a tough job in choosing the RIBA NW Regional Award winners from a shortlist of very impressive buildings from across the region, but were in agreement that the six winners exhibited particular qualities that set them apart from the others.”