We were delighted to receive two awards at the inaugural Greenbuild Awards last night, organised by Liz Reason of the Green Guage Trust. The Greenbuild Awards aim to, ‘recognise excellence in sustainable buildings, with a particular focus on those projects that can illustrate an understanding of the importance of building performance in use’.

Our awards came in the Leisure Buildings category for our certified passivhaus retrofit of Mayville Community Centre and in the Domestic Retrofit category for one of our low energy, Retrofit for the Future projects, Passfield Drive.

The judges were Liz Reason from Green Gauge Trust, Kerry Mashford from the Technology Strategy Board and Paul Ruyssevelt from Ruyssevelt Consulting and a team from the University of Salford. Liz Reason commented: “The importance of monitoring and evaluating the energy performance of our buildings is at last being understood and we can see the real benefits from these competition entries – fantastic learning of what works and what doesn’t – to make subsequent projects so much better for others in the industry." These awards will help spell the end of superficial assessments and false promises and will help to restore credibility to the term ‘green building’.

At bere:architects we are very keen to follow up on how our projects perform, and we are currently exploring preliminary monitoring data, comparing it with design assumptions made using the PHPP design tool (Passivhaus Planning Package). We intend to continue to share our findings as soon as they become available and as soon as conclusions are considered robust enough to form the basis for further academic research. In the meantime, initial monitored data allows us to evaluate design options for future projects and to diagnose potential problems that might arise while completed buildings are in use.

The finalists were announced at an award ceremony on 9th May 2012 at the Museum of Science & Industry in Central Manchester.

The list of winners for the Greenbuild awards is as follows:

Domestic newbuild winner
Greenwatt Way, PRP Architects
The judges were impressed by the learning gained in the project and the commitment to sharing this through highly accessible, plain English reports.

Bere:architects also had three shortlistings in this category.

Domestic retrofit winner
Passfield Drive, Bere Architects
This is a good example of the Retrofit for the Future programme showing what can be achieved in the refurbishment of a 1960s property aiming towards an 80% cut in carbon emissions.

Bere;architects had two shortlistings in this category

Leisure buildings winner
Mayville Community Centre, Bere Architects
The judges were impressed with this considerate refurbishment of an existing community hall in the context of local authority and other constraints, making it far more comfortable for its regular users.

 

Education buildings winner
The standard was excellent so the judges decided to select a winner for newbuild and retrofit as below:

Newbuild
The Green Student Village, GB Building Solutions
The judges were impressed by commitment to wider sustainability objectives delivering a high quality development that engages effectively with the student residents.

Retrofit
Kay House, Exeter University
An inventive design which provides for a variety of uses and brings a 1950s building up to modern best practice.

 

Workplace buildings
Once again, the standard was very high so the judges have picked three winning buildings: one for newbuild, one for retrofit and one for building management as below.

Newbuild
The Pool Innovation Centre, Aedas
A sustainable new building which will help support the development of the local economy whilst emitting very little carbon dioxide and reporting its performance via the online database CarbonBuzz.

Retrofit
9 Millbank, Cavendish Engineers
This is a creditable example of what can be achieved in public sector buildings with the persistent application of energy management practices.

Building Management
Three Piccadilly Place, Carillion FM
A team that has never taken its eye off the ball by applying an active management system to achieve year-on-year performance improvements.

 

Behavioural change winner
University of Bradford

Preparing 3,000 students and 150 staff for a move to a low-carbon building has maximised energy savings and illustrated what a comprehensive behavioural change programme can achieve.

Breakthrough winner
Frankland Tree Services

An innovative approach to sustainable sourcing of materials for its own HQ made FTS a clear winner, illustrating the benefits of a local approach.

New retrofit product winner
Green Heat Module, Wood Energy

The Salford University judges said the product had the potential to deliver energy savings in an innovative way.  The pod concept has been shown to be effective in a growing number of cases and this extends these benefits through the application of biomass

The judges also wanted to congratulate Knauf  for its Thermoshell product and Moores for its ReAction kitchen. Both entries are highly commended.