News - AWW architects

AWW named South West Practice of the Year – again!

AWW were honoured last night at a prestigious awards ceremony in London hosted by the Architect’s Journal magazine.

The AJ100 awards compile a list of the 100 largest architecture practices in the UK and AWW has seen its ranking grow since last year to no. 86 in the country, and were named as the South West Practice of the Year for the second year running.

This is the first time in the history of the awards that a practice has won the award twice in a row.

AWW, referred to as “one to watch” by the magazine last year, has delivered many of the South West’s modern landmarks including the South Bristol Community Hospital, the Radisson Blu hotel at Bristol’s Waterfront and Bristol University’s Merchants Venturers Building.

The AJ100 is considered the authoritative survey of the largest architecture practices in the country and a and the awards recognised and celebrated the most innovative and successful practices in what has been another challenging year for the industry.

The Regional Practice of the Year is awarded based on the survey responses of more than 1,000 AJ100 employees, who were asked about where they would most like to work, staff satisfaction, benefits, salaries and HR achievements

“AWW are delighted to have been awarded AJ100 South West Region Practice of the Year for the second year running. We believe that this is a unique achievement, and bears testimony to the hard work, commitment and talent of the architectural, technical and interior design teams” said Richard Francis, Practice Director.

Last year AWW beat stiff competition from Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios, Purcell Miller Tritton and Stride Treglown to take the title, and followed that up with last night’s win against BDP, HLM Architects and Purcell Miller Tritton.

If you are interested in joining this expanding and successful practice we are recruiting at all levels; in the first case please submit your CV to Julie.donaghey@aww-uk.com.

British Council for Offices Awards

AWW director, Mark Alker Stone, will be stepping down as Chair of the British Council for Offices South West and Wales regional awards judging panel.

The awards ceremony, held at @Bristol, celebrates the crème de la crème of workplace design and works as a benchmark for excellence within the design industry.

AWW appointed to design new Airbus offices

Airbus have appointed AWW, as part of the Miller construction team who successfully won the tender, for the new 250,000sqft new offices at the aircraft manufacturer’s existing Filton site.

AWW have been chosen to design Airbus’s new offices at their Filton site as part of their plans to create a new aerospace business park. The offices, which will be the new home-from-home for over 2500 staff, will consolidate the site’s engineering, design, customer support and other employees into one highly-efficient office block.

Mark Barclay, head of centre of excellence wing and pylon at Airbus, said that the plans were a firm commitment to the area, ensuring Filton remains at the centre of excellence for aerospace.

AWW shortlisted for AJ100 Award

AWW have been shortlisted for the AJ100 South West Practice of the Year 2012.

This is the second time the practice has been nominated, winning the prestigious title at last year’s awards. The announcement comes hot on the heels of the successful opening of the AWW-designed South Bristol Community Hospital and the topping out of the new Imperial Tobacco International Headquarters’ building.

Practice director, Richard Francis said, “We are delighted, as incumbent holders, to be shortlisted for the AJ100 SW Practice of the Year 2012-13. No Architects have ever won the award in two consecutive years and it is testament to the continued commitment and faith shown in the practice by all its members; a faith fortunately matched by the wide range of clients choosing to work with us in a competitive market of such excellence. We are the only practice who also featured on the shortlist this time last year. Thank you, and very well done.”

Results will be announced in May.

http://www.thisisplymouth.co.uk/Architects-award/story-16012931-detail/story.html

On top of the world!

This month saw an important milestone reached at the new Imperial Tobacco global head quarters as, as the new structure approached its highest point of development, the ceremonial Silver Bolt was screwed into place.

The ceremony marks an important milestone for the construction phase of this new 4 storey development at Winterstoke Road in Bristol.

Putting community at the heart of the new hospital

As work gears up for the imminent opening of the new South Bristol Community Hospital Ben Bennett, programme director from NHS Bristol and the team, took time out to open the doors to the local community.

“We still have a lot of work to do for the opening but we felt it was important as the local people have been so much a part of the story. I think it’s a thank you really.”

Schools of the Future

AWW’s Head of Sustainability, Till Scherer, has recently headed up a project looking to build the schools of the future.

With the UK’s growing population schools are finding it increasingly difficult to accommodate the growth in the birth rate. Some areas are facing a 25% increase in primary school place requirements and obviously this will translate in a few years to a similar stretch on Secondary schools.

In Barking East London, an expected 8,000 extra places will be needed by 2015.

The government has announced that £4billion is to be invested over the next 4 years in places that are facing the greatest pressure.

A Department for Education spokesman said: “Many areas are dealing with an unprecedented rise in primary numbers – back up to levels last seen in the 1970s.

“No-one is saying it will be easy balancing demand for places with retaining the sort of character and ethos that parents want. Our job is to put the capital investment in place so councils and schools can make the right decisions.”

Clearly the demands on schools, the LEAs and the finance departments therein cannot be overstated. Parents and teachers have growing concerns that set against a back drop of cuts to the school building programme space shortages will impact detrimentally on children’s learning.

It is with this in mind that AWW propose a new approach to school builds and school extensions. Modular construction delivers a number of advantages including higher quality, lower cost and a shorter construction programme. AWW’s approach harnesses these advantages in parallel with an intuitive and robust design whilst still delivering a bespoke layout that meet individual schools’ space, usage and teaching requirements. The solution creates the best possible teaching and learning environments at a fraction of the cost and time of traditional builds, whilst still offering a building performance that far exceed Building Regulations resulting in reduced running costs and lower emissions.

In reality this means a fully insulated and weather-tight structure (including foundation, structural slab, external and internal wall, and roof) for a new 4 classroom extension delivered in just 3 weeks ready to receive furniture, fixtures and equipment.

With a team in place that has already worked on award winning primary schools, AWW take this challenge a step further. To produce a truly cost effective and sustainable design the building must be able to save money and energy throughout the life of the scheme in addition to a low embodied energy structure for little or no additional upfront construction cost. Through our initiatives that ensure an intuitive and robust building, we are able to create low carbon buildings (the super structure is carbon negative) that can deliver significant real world energy and cost savings.

Till adds, “Our experience shows that our approach to whole life cost reduction has tangible benefits. For example our recent success atSouthBristolCommunityHospitalshows that through effective and affordable sustainable solutions we are able to help the hospital save up to £86,000 a year in heating costs alone. This is the equivalent to 4 full time registered Emergency Room nurses a year. Translate that saving to schools and the opportunities are exponential. It is exciting to be at the forefront of effective yet affordable sustainable design solutions”.

Big plans for Plymouth Pier

AWW director Ian Sanders was featured in the Herald on Sunday as plans progress for the possible redevelopment of Plymouth’s waterfront.

The ambitious plans include a new pier potentially large enough to accommodate cruise ships.

With Plymouth’s waterfront set to be the heart of the city’s redevelopment, the excitement around the potential new development is palpable. The plans mean that boats with up to 400 passengers would be able to dock at the pier, with larger super-cruisers able to access the pier from their mooring in the Plymouth Sound.

60 year wait is nearly over – South Bristol Community Hospital

The AWW designed South Bristol Community Hospital opens next month as part of the long awaited Hengrove Park regeneration project.

After a 60 year wait and decades of campaigning the new hospital will open its doors on the 30^thMarch ready to serve the South Bristol population. It is the first hospital in Bristol to be built south of the River Avon and is anticipated to deal with 145,000 patients a year.

Plympton library – The Phoenix from the Ashes

It’s been 3 and a half years since fire devastated the old library in Plympton, Devon.

And tomorrow like a phoenix from the ashes the doors open to a new chapter in the town’s history.

The new building is 50% larger than the old one and makes the most of clean lines and open aesthetics to create a large airy space designed to welcome visitors into the building.

The brief was to fill “the void in the community” and its opening to coincide with National Libraries Day secures its place at the heart of the community for young and not so young alike.

Welcome to AWW’s new look website

AWW’s website has a fresh new look. Our Marketing and Admin team has been working hard over the past few months in conjunction with FIXEL / digital media to release the new design and to update the contents. New features include RSS feeds and social media feeds, enabling you to keep up to date with AWW news as it published.

We hope you like it.

New school facilities for Weston All Saints Primary School

AWW and partner Midas Construction have delivered the first phase of the redevelopment of Weston All Saints CoE Primary School Site. The development consists of the replacement of the existing Key Stage 2 Building to provide 8 new classrooms, flexible teaching spaces, HIRB Rooms, a multi-purpose hall as well as a new school office, staff room and support spaces.