LABC Building Excellence Awards 2021 winner: Best Small Social Housing Development

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 Small Social Housing Development is Magenta Court, Apsley, Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire.

The judges considered the development was situated on a tightly constrained brownfield site, previously forming part of the Apsley Mill, next to the Grand Union Canal, with numerous challenges including culverts, a 4.5m site gradient, ground water abstraction boreholes, existing substation, vehicle access restrictions, and neighbouring historic buildings. The proposed development was traditionally built, designed to reflect the neighbouring canal/wharf architecture and with robust materials chosen to ensure high performance and low maintenance costs for residents. Hertfordshire Building Control were consulted from the outset of this scheme to minimise disruption to the project. 

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