Building Design has this morning announced the shortlist for the 2022 Architect of the Year Awards, and we are thrilled to have made the shortlist in six categories, the highest number we’ve ever achieved; Higher Education Architect of the Year, Social Value Award, Net Zero Architect of the Year, Best Architect Employer of the Year, Interior Architect of the Year, Public Building Architect of the Year
“To be named finalists in six categories at this year’s Architect of the Year Awards is just fantastic.”
The BD Architect of the Year awards are unique in that they judge practices on a body of work, rather than singular projects. Both the Social Impact and Public Building Architect categories showcased three projects.
LIHE (London Institute for Healthcare Engineering), James McCune Smith Learning Hub, and Social Sciences Hub made up a very strong entry for this year’s Higher Education Architect of the Year. Notably, a tough category to win, these three exemplar projects set the standard for world-class Higher Education facilities in the UK.
For the Social Value Award, we put forward two of our Cardiff projects including the recently completed Pencoedtre High School and Ysgol Pen Rhos, a project that previously won two RICS Social Impact Awards in 2020.
Continuing our ambition that everything we design by 2025 will meet the RIBA 2030 Sustainable Outcomes, we were able to put forward three of our most recent projects for the Net Zero Architect of the Year; Dinton Activity Centre, Keele University and Social Sciences Hub.
Our Interiors team are finalislits in Interior Architect of the Year award category having been recognised for their great work on James McCune Smith Learning Hub, Altnagelvin, Western General Hospital, and Royal Hospital for Children and Young People and Department of Clinical Neurosciences.
For the Public Building Architect of the Year award, we focused on three projects delivered by our Healthcare team; Altnagelvin, Western General Hospital – Renal Unit, and Western General Hospital – Linac.
The Best Architect Employer of the Year submission gave an overview of the initiatives we’ve introduced internally that make HLM a great place to work, which include the HLM Academy, SMARTblend flexible working, our Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging group, and the work we’ve done to embed our transition to an Employee-Owned Trust into our successful workplace culture.
Philip Watson, Director and Head of Design said, “When your practice’s mission is all about design for people, it’s great to be recognised and shortlisted for six BD Architect of the Year Awards. It’s testament to the hard work of our team and our business colleagues. We’re looking forward to the final in October.”
