by Brianna Crandall — March 27, 2015—Some of the best-performing buildings of all types assessed under sustainable buildings standard BREEAM were recognized at the annual BREEAM awards celebration held recently in London.
Now in its 25th year, U.K.-based BREEAM was reportedly the world’s first sustainability standard for buildings, communities and homes, and is now used in over 70 countries around the world, providing a range of social, environmental and economic benefits to clients. To date over one million buildings have been assessed against the standard, with percentage ratings calculated against a range of criteria by independent BREEAM assessors.
Continuing with the selection process introduced last year, a panel of independent judges selected the winners from a shortlist of the highest-scoring buildings in each category. Their decision was based on the specific circumstances, challenges and achievements of each development as well as the very high BREEAM scores achieved.
Over 50 groundbreaking projects were shortlisted from across Europe, with eight final awards going to U.K.-based projects and four others shared equally between France and Norway.
The winners in the program categories are:
- BREEAM Offices New Construction: One Pancras Square, Kings Cross, London, U.K.
- BREEAM Offices In-Use: Washington Plaza, Paris, France
- BREEAM Offices Refurbishment & Fit Out: Morelands Rooftop, London, U.K.
- BREEAM Retail New Construction: Fornebu S, Oslo, Norway
- BREEAM Retail In-Use: La Caserne de Bonne, Grenoble, France
- BREEAM Retail Refurbishment & Fit Out: 107-109 Charing Cross Road, London, U.K.
- BREEAM Industrial: Armstrong Point, Wigan, U.K.
- BREEAM Mixed Use and Other Buildings: Brent Civic Centre, London, U.K.
- BREEAM Education: Brandon Primary School, Durham, U.K.
- BREEAM Healthcare: Dumfries and Galloway Acute Mental Health Unit, U.K.
- BREEAM Residential: 119 Ebury Street, London, U.K.
In a closely run contest for the coveted Your BREEAM award, Fornebu S, Oslo, Norway’s newest retail outlet, beat out the second placed building, 119 Ebury Street, London, by just a handful of votes out of the several thousand cast, notes BRE.
Other high scoring projects commended by the judges included the Diageo Guinness Brew House in Dublin, Ireland; DC1 Prologis Park in Dunstable, U.K.; the WWF-U.K. Living Planet Centre in Woking, U.K.; BLOX in Prague, Czech Republic; and 10 Burlington St and 18 Hanway Street in London.
GreenBuild Consult in the U.K. was announced as BREEAM 2015 Assessor Company of the Year, and three people received BREEAM 2015 Assessors of the Year awards: Amanda Gallagher of Easlár, Ireland; Yasmina Mikhael of RES Design, Long & Partners, U.K.; Barry Rankin of GWP Project Services, U.K.
BREEAM Country First awards are given to the assessor who undertakes the very first BREEAM assessment in a particular country. They were presented to Zsombor Barta of the Sentient Kft for the first BREEAM assessment in South Korea, Zane Sauka of IB&P Konsultacijas, for the first Latvian assessment, Natalya Naumova of Drees & Sommer for Kazakhstan, and Anna Foden of Max Fordham for the first assessment in Iraq.
The BREEAM Awards 2015 site offers photos and more detailed case studies of the winning buildings and shortlisted projects.
