HONG KONG, Oct. 18 /PRNewswire-Asia/ -- RICS has named the winners of its 2010 awards at a gala event held at the headquarters of the Guildhall in London today and hosted by Michael Porillo (15 October). Project of the Year has been awarded to Derby College's ambitious GBP48 million (HKD593 million) regeneration project, the Roundhouse campus.
The Roundhouse campus is a new vocational skills college, which provides a state-of-the-art educational facility for 2,500 students, spans brand new high tech buildings and Grade II Listed railway sheds. The buildings included in the project are integral to the historical, architectural and social history of Derby, key to the industrial heritage of the Midlands and nationally important because of their unique architectural qualities and rarity.
More than 450 building projects entered the RICS Awards, which is regarded as the 'Oscars' of the built and natural environment. After winning both the Regeneration category and the coveted Project of the Year award at the regional heat of the RICS East Midlands Awards in May, the project team behind the 18,000 square metre new build Derby College were ecstatic about winning the coveted Project of the Year award. The development has transformed the crumbling remains of Derby's extensive Victorian railway works into Derby College's new flagship vocational campus.
Ian Harris, project director from Maber Architects, said:
"We are absolutely delighted to win this award. A lot of very good buildings were shortlisted, so to be judged by fellow construction professionals to be a cut above the rest really means something.
"This is easily the best preserved early purpose-built railway works in the world. The buildings had been abandoned and falling down for 20 years. There were all sorts of problems due to rainwater pouring in and some significant areas of floors and roofs had collapsed. I think the most interesting bit of engineering was the roof to the roundhouse which had been designed in 1839 by Robert Stephenson."
THE CATEGORY WINNERS FROM THE RICS AWARDS ARE:
Derby College and the 2010 winners join an elite group of past winners including St Paul's Cathedral, St Pancras station in London, Spinnaker Tower in Portsmouth, the Eden Project in Cornwall and the site of the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney.
For more information and photos of the RICS Award, please visit: http://www.rics.org/awards.
Notes to Editors:
The RICS Awards, the property industry's pre-eminent celebration of outstanding built and natural environment projects, is open for entries for 2011.
The RICS Awards is open to anyone working within the property profession, and showcases the talents of all those involved in a project, from surveyors to property developers and engineers to architects, to name a few.
UK entries are first entered into one of 12 UK regional heats, while non-UK based projects are entered into an international regional heat. Regional category winners are then entered into the RICS Awards Grand Final, to compete for the coveted RICS Project of the Year.
Participants can enter project into any, or all of the following categories:
Each category demonstrates how property professionals use their skills to develop, regenerate and conserve the environment in which we live and work.
About RICS & RICS Asia
RICS (Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors) is the mark of property professionalism worldwide. It covers all aspects of property, construction and associated environmental issues. RICS has 150,000 members globally and represents, regulates and promotes the work of property professionals throughout 146 countries.
The RICS Asia supports a network of over 11,000 individual professionals across the Asia Pacific region with an objective to help develop the property and construction markets in these countries, by introducing professional standards, best practice and international experience. It promotes RICS and its members as the natural advisors on all property matters. It also ensures that services and career development opportunities are provided to members. The RICS Asia region covers national associations and local groups locating in Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, The People's Republic of China and the SAR Hong Kong. It also has members working across the region such as Bangladesh, Bhutan, Burma/Myanmar, Cambodia, Indonesia, Japan, Kiribati, Laos PDR, Macao, Mongolia, Nepal, North Korea, South Korea, Taiwan, The Maldives, The Philippines, Timor East and Vietnam. For more information, please visit: www.ricsasia.org.
Media enquiry, please contact:
RICS Asia Public Relations Representative
Ms Belinda Chan / Ms Ava Lau
Tel: +852-2372-0090
Fax: +852-2372-0490
Mobile: +852-9379-3045 / +852-9829-2913
Email: belinda@creativegp.com / ava@creativegp.com
