Winner of the CIC Inclusive Environment Award 2016 announced
Posted: 21st September 2016
Last Tuesday, at the Construction Industry Summit Dinner, James Richardson, Managing Director, Skanska UK, and Award Sponsor, presented the inaugural Construction Industry Council Inclusive Environment (CIC-IE) Award to the winner of that competition, 5 Pancras Square.
5 Pancras Square is located in the heart of the Kings Cross Central transformation programme. It lies in the southern area of the site and the building consists of 13 storeys (including lower and upper ground floors) plus basement levels, of mixed public uses and the Civic Offices of the London Borough of Camden. A leisure centre, featuring two swimming pools, a fitness suite, studio space and associated changing facilities are spread across the basement and lower ground floors. An access centre and a library are provided at upper ground and first floor levels. The CIC-IE Award judging panel was impressed with how this development had gone the extra mile and demonstrated good inclusive design that goes beyond minimum standards and provides the additional facilities that make a building comfortable and easy to use for everybody. A video clip of the 5 Pancras Square can be found here
CIC-IE is an “award of awards” that celebrates exemplar schemes and projects previously recognised by a CIC member professional body or a CIC member built environment stakeholder. It inspires professionals already in practice to raise the standard of inclusivity achieved across the industry and recognises buildings, places and spaces that demonstrate best practice in achieving an inclusive environment – an environment which is safe, flexible and accessible for all. The CIC-IE Award complements the Royal Society of Arts Inclusive Living Student Design Award.
Speaking after the winner was announced, Paul Everall, Chief Executive, Local Authority Building Control (LABC) said: “LABC has organised Regional and National Building Excellence Awards for a number of years. Following the Ministerial Round Table on inclusive design, we decided to introduce a new category of Inclusive Design in 2015. We nominated our national winner and runner up for the CIC-IE Award, and I am delighted that both projects were the winner and highly commended here too”.
John Nolan, Chairman, Construction Industry Council and member of the judging panel added: “The CIC-IE Award is helping to meet the challenge set by government for the construction industry to drive up awareness, improve skills and deliver long term improvement in the quality of inclusion whenever we construct or renew our built environment. 5 Pancras Square has demonstrated embedding inclusive design at the outset and we hope to see more good schemes next year”
The runners-up from the shortlist of three were the Penarth Learning Centre in Wales, which was Highly Commended by the judges, and Hadleigh Park Olympic Mountain Bike Legacy Project in Essex.