Triple win at RICS Regional Awards

Three schemes by BDP’s civil and structural engineers have won RICS Regional Awards. These awards showcase the achievements of the most inspirational regional initiatives and developments in land, property, construction and the environment, and were announced at events during May.

The Hadyn Ellis Medical Research Facility won the Design Through Innovation award in the Welsh region. It is the first building on Cardiff University’s Maindy Road campus development and provides BREEAM Excellent high-tech laboratory facilities for university research. The use of visual concrete has turned a potentially ordinary research facility into an extraordinary space which engenders creativity, harmony and collaboration.

The National Composites Centre also won the Design Through Innovation in the south west region. Another BREEAM Excellent building, it forms an extension to an existing centre for the University of Bristol which opened in 2011, and supports collaboration between industry, academia, and government. It includes laboratory and teaching accommodation as well as a large workshop space with a high volume automated production cell, and a large demonstrator and test area for industry.

The Lasswade High School Centre in Midlothian triumphed in the Community Benefit category in the Scottish region. The centre, designed by an interdisciplinary BDP team, has been hailed as one of Scotland’s prototype schools and community facilities for the future. The judges said: “The centre has demonstrated that by taking a proactive approach, local services can be delivered in a more economical way, but also more importantly increase their use by the public.”

These three projects will now be automatically entered into the RICS national awards, where they will compete against other leading projects from across the UK later this year.