Two Norfolk buildings in the East of England have been nominated for the Prime Minister’s Better Public Building Award, which will take place on Wednesday 8 October in London.
The British Construction Industry Awards are the industry’s ‘Oscars’ for all round excellence in construction. The principal aim of these awards is to recognise excellence in its broadest sense – the overall design, construction and delivery of buildings and civil engineering projects. The Prime Minister’s Better Public Building Award is the pinnacle of this awards ceremony.
The Norfolk shortlisted buildings are exceptional examples of British construction projects:
Building 57 (The Julian Study Centre), University of East Anglia (UEA)
- Despite its humble appearance, Building 57 is an ambitious structure. Building 57 is a quality project that has exceeded expectations and demonstrated a sustainable approach that is scalable to other buildings.
- UEA has said, without hesitating this is the lowest carbon building on campus. In the long term this building will provide a space that continues to meet the needs of the university whilst also continuing to address the needs of society in relation to carbon dioxide emissions.
Creative Arts Building, City College Norwich
- The building supports the college’s vision to deliver outstanding and innovative creative arts provision, with three purpose-built floors for performing arts rehearsal spaces, digital arts, and traditional art and design including fashion. Its strong and pure architectural frame means that it can absorb these transient and messy activities well.
- The ground floor of the building is largely glazed in order to promote transparency, allowing views towards each of the diverse activities and through the dance studio, to the garden beyond.
The judging of the award marks the projects against the key reform priorities of the Government Construction Strategy, ensuring fair payment, efficient supply chain integration, efficient procurement processes, sustainability, safety and performance against milestones, practises can be shared and re-used.
The judges will assess each nominee in terms of:
- High quality design
- Efficient procurement
- Economic and social value
- Collaborative working between client, designer and contractor
- Sound financial management
- Whole-life value for money
- Sustainability
Caroline Williams, Chief Executive Norfolk Chamber of Commerce said: “It is fantastic that two of Norfolk’s buildings have been nominated for their excellence and we wish them every success for the awards ceremony in London. The Norfolk business community is striving to become more energy and resource efficient and is working in conjunction with the construction industry locally to ensure new buildings are constructed with both low carbon and sustainability in mind.”
The Chamber’s Transport, Planning and Construction Group also welcomed the news that Norfolk building projects had been nominated for their high quality design, sustainability and ‘whole-life’ value for money.
Jonathan Cage, Chair of the Transport, Planning & Development Group and Managing Director of Create Consulting Engineers said: It’s great to see sustainable architecturally interesting developments within the Norwich area being recognised in a National Arena. It clearly demonstrates in times of extreme cost awareness through every phase of the construction process that good design can still be achieved. We wish both scheme the best of luck in the awards and look forward to future Norfolk projects achieving similar recognition.”
