August 24 2018

Scotland’s architectural and design communities have spoken with one voice to name two separate pieces of interior work as the best of the best in their respective fields during a gala dinner and reception held to celebrate the 21st annual Scottish Design Awards.

Over 350 attendees representing the great and the good of Scotland’s architectural and design professions gathered in Glasgow’s Grand Central Hotel on the evening of the 23 August to celebrate the best that the industry has to offer.

On the architecture side it was a full refurbishment of The Glasgow Film Theatre at the hands of McGinlay Bell which secured the architecture Grand Prix. Commenting on the winner the judges said: “To class an interior as best building was difficult, but this should be the future of looking at the re-use of existing buildings.”

This decision was echoed on the design-side where judges awarded their own Grand Prix to Studio MB for the Triumph Factory visitor experience in Hinckley.

Elsewhere the chairman’s award for architecture, this year awarded by Denise Bennetts of Bennetts Associates, was awarded to Reiach & Hall Architects for Nucleus, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority and Caithness Archive, saying: “It’s an intriguing conceptual approach, beautifully realised and sophisticated in how it sits in the landscape. A lot of work went into this, it’s very sharp.”

Rounding off the big wins of the night John Kinsley Architects won the practice of the year accolade for the practices pioneering work at Bath Street Collective Custom Build. The judging panel said: “This is a vote of confidence in a young, emerging practice which has achieved something really substantial and is an exemplar of architects not sitting back and waiting for things to happen. This is the future of Scottish practice and shows how we all need to change.”

Urban Realm editor John Glenday added: “In Scotland we are too often coy to shout about our many accomplishments, with many wary of a media which can seem dominated by negative reports; from tragedy at the Glasgow School of Art to a melting Science Centre roof.

“Rather than dwell on such news I believe this strengthens the case for us to pull together through forums such as The Scottish Design Awards to accentuate the many positive stories we have to tell. The GFT refurbishment, Nucleus and Bath Street Collective Custom Build are each worthy of their own headlines.”

This year 44 awards and commendations were handed out to 76 nominees chosen from amongst 126 entries by our judging panel.  A full list of winning work is available to view at The Scottish Design Awards.
 

1 Comment

#1 Posted by Eneko Zaldibar on 31 Aug 2018 at 11:45 AM

Congratulations to John Kinsley and the rest of the people of Bath Street Collective Custom Build. Definitely a great project involving Cross Laminated Timber (CLT), hope to see more like this in Scotland!

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