LABC Building Excellence Awards 2021 winner: Best Non-residential Conversion

27.01.2022

Press Release

More than 750 leading construction industry figures attended the LABC Building Excellence Awards at the Westminster Park Plaza Hotel to acclaim best practise, quality and standards in construction.

These were the first Building Excellence Awards since 2019 following the global pandemic and LABC has revised the awards to focus more on professional skills and competence – dividing the awards into two: ‘people’ and ‘places’.

A panel of industry experts judged a list of the highest quality projects and teams from around England and Wales to showcase solutions to complex technical or construction issues, site constraints, technical innovation and the building control professionalism that leads to safe, sustainable and high quality construction projects.

LABC is delighted to announce the winner of the Best Non-residential Conversion is the Abbey School in Chester.

The judges highlighted the exemplar school for children with autism, which exceeded the standards for a refurbished historic building (converted Grade 2* listed buildings within a scheduled ancient monument) to provide an environment suitable for children with autism. Many people with Autism are hyper-sensitive to the world around them and understanding how the built environment effects their challenging behaviours was vital in developing a design that met their complex needs. This included a sophisticated heating, cooling and ventilation system that keeps a temperate environment with suitable fresh air that doesn’t require opening windows, as this would compromise the thermal and acoustic strategies. Acoustics were also of importance and while the building is over 250 years old, the team developed innovative solutions that exceed the Building Regulations that are difficult to achieve even in new build projects.

Congratulating the team, Lorna Stimpson, LABC Chief Executive said,

“These new style awards reflect LABC’s new focus on skills, quality and competency and reflect the best in construction from a technical perspective. The Cheshire West and Chester building control team recognised the complexity of the project early and assigned two building control officers to ensure continuity at the plans stage and availability through the inspection stages. On site design meetings early in the process established clear strategies for fire, access, energy use, ventilation and acoustics and same day inspections took place throughout the project”.