Hoskins Architects has hailed a double success in the Civic Trust Awards, for the refurbishment of Aberdeen Art Gallery and Strawberry Field, a visitor and training centre for young people with learning disabilities in Liverpool.
The Glasgow-based firm said its two accolades were among just 40 winners from around the globe, winning the National Panel Special Award, for its “transformational” project at Aberdeen Art Gallery, while Strawberry Field for the Salvation Army won in the Selwyn Goldsmith award.
Set up in 1959 the Civic Trust Awards is the longest standing built environment awards scheme in Europe, and one of the only remaining independent built environment awards schemes, not linked to any organisation, institution, or publication.
The scheme recognises and champions projects which offer a positive cultural, social, economic or environmental benefit to the public and their community, often focusing on: design, sustainability, inclusiveness and accessibility. The scheme encourages the very best in architecture and design.
Hoskins Architects said: “These principles sit at the very heart of Hoskins Architects’ design process; at Aberdeen Art Gallery, the redevelopment was focussed heavily on accessibility and inclusivity, as well as improving its educational facilities and cultural offering, leading to greater public participation and a sense of ownership. The redevelopment also provided a fresh new approach to displaying the collection, creating a rich variety of experiences for visitors of all ages and abilities.”
READ MORE: Edinburgh industrial estate sold in £8.5m deal
In addition to winning a Civic Trust Award, the project scooped the top prize, the National Panel Special Award. Panel members select their favourite scheme from this year’s award winning projects and Aberdeen Art Gallery was voted for unanimously by the judges.
Marie Boulton, Aberdeen City Council’s culture spokesperson said: “Aberdeen Art Gallery will be a vital building block in Aberdeen’s social and economic recovery post - pandemic. The revitalised building offers us a safe space to meet friends and family, or to take time out by ourselves to be inspired by the collections in uplifting surroundings.
"As well as supporting our wellbeing, the redeveloped Art Gallery is a beacon for Aberdeen as a vibrant cultural destination, something we can all take a huge amount of civic pride in. We’re grateful to the Civic Trust Award judges for recognising the landmark redevelopment with their top award.”
Strawberry Field is a new 1,360 sqm, training and visitors centre for The Salvation Army, on the site in Liverpool made famous by John Lennon.
Major Kathy Versfeld, mission director of Strawberry Field, said: “The brief given to Hoskins Architects, to design a new centre for the world famous ‘Strawberry Field’ was a tall order. We wanted a world-class visitor centre that would deliver the ‘wow’ factor to visitors from around the world, but it also needed to be flexible enough to cater for the diverse needs of the local community, providing a place of refuge and inspiration to all. Hoskins Architects responded with a design that is beautiful but practical, creating a space that is a pleasure to work in, to learn in and to dream in. Well done on a fine achievement.”
Scullion Law hires Buchanan from BLM Solicitors
Glasgow-based Scullion Law has strengthened its family law team with the appointment of Nicola Buchanan as a senior associate.
Guy Stenhouse: UK Budget well judged. Fairness cannot wait forever
The UK Budget last week was well judged in that it committed the necessary resources to provide support to the economy as it recovers from the Covid lockdown and starts the process of raising taxation in the longer run to address the nation’s debt problem.
Sign up
You can now have the bulletin and the top business news stories sent direct to your email inbox twice-daily, and Business Week for the weekly round-up on Sunday:
https://www.heraldscotland.com/my/account/register/
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here