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Gordon Garrad & Mark Evans (above) collect “Best Fire Engineering Innovation” for the Chapelfield Shopping Centre mall smoke control system (below)
Robin Snell (above left) picks up the “Best Public / Community Project” award for the Water Activities Centre at Whitlingham Country Park (below)
Cawston Park - finalist for the “Best Structural Innovation” Award |
Three of the best!
Two Norfolk projects walked away with “best in their field” awards at the National LABC Built-In Quality Awards held at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London on 19th October. Gordon Garrad & Mark Evans from Jeremy Gardner Associates collected the “Best Fire Engineering Innovation” for the Chapelfield Shopping Centre mall smoke control system, whilst Robin Snell from Snell Associates, picked up the coveted “Best Public/Community Project” award for the Water Activities Centre at Whitlingham Country Park.
Tom Ground from C & M Architecture based in Norwich were also nominated as finalists in the “Best Structural Innovation” Award for the design of the Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit at Cawston Park but lost out to the Eden Project.
Kevin Love, Director of CNC Building Control Consultancy, said “We are absolutely delighted to have 3 projects short listed as finalists. It is the first time CNC has entered projects for these awards and we are thrilled to have achieved such success, and are doubly delighted that the Chapelfield Shopping Centre was one of the 3 finalists for the ‘The Supreme Award 2006’”. |
The twelve judges from across the construction industry, local and central government, commented on projects submitted by CNC saying that the £1.6m Water Activities Centre at Whitlingham Country park is “exquisite”. The judges liked the fact that the centre was a genuine community project that fitted perfectly into its setting. The centre’s cabins were designed to “float above the ground while nestling within the sloping banks surrounding it”.
Each cabin was conceived as a self-contained and self-sufficient unit, prefabricated from glulam beams and clad in marine-grade plywood. The 36m span roof was made of Teflon, providing an all weather covering including shading in the summer and resembles a bird resting with outstretched wings.
Alan Osborne, Head of Operations for CNC who was heavily involved in the Building Control work on the project said, “It was a privilege to have been involved in the project that delivered such an interesting and valuable asset to the surrounding communities. The unusual design presented a number of challenges for us. To ensure the complete structure met all the requirements of the Building Regulations these challenges were overcome by working closely with the architects, Snell Associations, contractors and engineers.”
The second CNC winner of the evening was the £275 million Chapelfield Shopping Centre in Norwich with 510,000 square feet of retail space. It was the largest single project undertaken in Norfolk since the Castle Mall project some 12 years ago.
Richard Gawthorpe, Head of Business Support was responsible for the project at its inception & completion said “It was clear from the innovative design of the development that a totally different approach to the approval process was required and in particular ‘out of the box thinking’ was required to overcome the innovative design. The technical prowess of the fire engineers, Jeremy Gardner Associates, and the vision of the design consultants together with CNC led to weekly design workshops to ensure that the freedom of expression creating the beautifully crafted three storey 17 m tall mall atrium, better known as the Crescent, was delivered to the client and their tenants.”
The judges noted that the Building Regulations did not make reference to a 3 storey mall atria design; this was where the imagination and vision of Jeremy Gardener Associates proved invaluable to the overall concept of the crescent’s geometry. They designed a smoke control system whereby smoke would naturally vent to outside ai for a fire in a Lower Ground shop, despite the tall smoke plume. These smoke vents scale some 34m_ combined, releasing 118kg/s of hot buoyant smoke into the atmosphere in the event of a fire and still maintain a clear smoke layer 4m above first floor level thus securing the safety of the occupants using the first floor mall.
Gordon Garrad, from Jeremy Gardener Associated remarked “This is the first time we have been nominated for an LABC award and we are absolutely delighted to have won and even more honored to have been chosen as one of the 3 finalists for ‘The Supreme Award’. Gordon also remarked on the design team approach saying “Chapelfield was an exciting project with a number of fire engineered designs covering means of escape, smoke control and fire fighting. It was good to work with a client who was so encouraging in the development of innovative approaches to the fire strategy.” And “The award reflects how well a project can work when Building Control, as well as fulfilling their regulatory role, become part of the design team and involve themselves in seeking the best solutions for the building.”
DCLG consultation on Building Standards
The DCLG has recently launched an on-line forum as a way of consulting users on the current state of the Building Regulations and how they can be improved in the future. The forum is aimed at all involved in working with Building Regulations - so this is your change to contribute your views to the debate. The forum can be reached using the following link:
http://forum.communities.gov.uk/achievingbuildingstandards
