This year’s CIBSE building awards rewarded firms delivering outstanding performances in the construction industry across the UK
Building services engineering firm Max Fordham has been awarded two prestigious building awards.
The CIBSE Building Performance Awards saw the firm pick up an award for Project of the Year (Public Use) and Consultancy of the Year.
The firm was awarded the former for its pioneering use of the Soft Landings methodology. Keynsham Civic Centre, headquarters to Bath and Somerset Council, was one of the first buildings in the UK to fully employ the methodology, which bridged the performance gap between designed efficiency of a building and its actual performance once in use.
The building was constructed to deliver a Display Energy Certificate (DEC) A rating and after two years of use it seems it will meet that goal.
Inspiring project
Senior Partner and Head of Sustainability at Max Fordham, Tamsin Tweddell, accepted the awards at the ceremony hosted at London’s Grosvenor House Hotel. She noted the “Keynsham Civic Centre has been a really inspiring project”.
She added: “This is the latest in a long line of learning undertaken collectively by the Practice.
“The work we’ve done on previous, award-winning projects at Heelis, the Woodland Trust and The Hive, as well our post-occupancy research we’ve done, has informed much of what we’ve achieved here.”
She also recognised the input of the firms that worked on the project alongside Max Fordham.
“Awards like this are not won by us working alone,” she explained.
“Keynsham Civic Centre wouldn’t be the success it is without the committed and creative work from Bath and North East Somerset Council, the architects at AHR, contractor Wilmott Dixon and the commissioning engineers at Core Group. This was a deeply collaborative effort.
“We are all really proud of Keynsham Civic Centre. The challenging brief led to us developing a new approach and forced us to push the boundaries.
“It’s really rewarding for the whole team to have their efforts recognised by the CIBSE judges.”
Judges for the CIBSE praised the project, stating it was “distinctive among sustainable office buildings for its laser-sharp focus on achieving exemplary levels of low energy use and carbon emissions during actual operation, not just on paper.”
Consultancy of the Year
Max Fordham was also awarded the title of Consultancy of the Year. The firm beat out competition from previous winners Hoare Lea and Red Engineering Design to take the award.
The firm was granted it for its dedication to mentoring, knowledge-sharing and active engagement, as well as the ability to become a partner in the firm.
The CIBSE judges said the firm “showed a human element of building performance; a complete strategy of how to focus on sustainable design and performance.”
Recognition for outstanding contributions
Other winners included the University of Bradford. For the second time, the university was named Building Performance Champion for its Ecoversity programme. Transformational work on its ageing infrastructure over the past decade has seen the university reduce its carbon footprint by 35 per cent. It is the only university in the world to maintain three BREEAM outstanding rated buildings.
AECOM was also awarded Building Performance Consultancy of the Year (over 1,000 employees), Elementa Consulting in Project of the Year – International, and HLM in Project of the Year – Residential. British Land won the Test of Time category after demonstrating continued high performance since they last won it in 2012.
President of CIBSE John Field said: “We have seen the industry come a long way on building performance in the last ten years, and this year’s Awards are a testament to how much has been achieved in a relatively short period of time, and the excellent work that is currently being done.
“This year’s Champions, the University of Bradford, embody what it means to truly strive for building performance, achieving success in the face of adversity through sheer will and commitment to deliver the best.
“All the winners and finalists this year are examples to look up to, and demonstrate what can be achieved with any size and budget if the right thinking is in place.”
The other winners can be found on the CIBSE site.
