We are delighted to have won an RIBA East Regional Award for the completed EcoHub at the awards ceremony in Cambridge.

The awards jury also redefined their own criteria and awarded a unique Special Award for Community Architecture; recognising the significant impact that this building and its’ landscape now make to the village.

‘…The Gamlingay Eco Hub is a remarkable testament to the power of local community and a committed architect. When the jury visited the building the fact that they struggled to find a parking space reinforced the view that this was no ordinary community centre. This is a thriving and financially successful business centre as well as a gathering point for the local population.

For the jury the whole project was inspirational in many ways and they felt very strongly that the project should receive the recognition it deserves.  The significant involvement of the local community is what made this project happen and what makes it an ongoing success – for that RIBA East are delighted to give the whole team a special mention for Gamlingay Eco Hub’s outstanding contribution to society…’

click here to see the project.

New Architects 3 is the definitive survey of the best British architects to have set up practice in the ten years since 2005. The third book in the Architecture Foundation’s highly influential series, it features close to 100 practices, selected by a jury of leading critics and curators. As a portrait of the emerging talent in one of the world’s most consistently influential architectural cultures, New Architects 3 casts light on the future of architecture in the UK and beyond.

civic are cited in the introduction for our award winning Gamlingay Eco Hub, and are delighted to be included amongst a diverse range of practices and projects that demonstrate the breadth of design skill and talent in our sector.

Our sculpture in the new Kilsyth Health Centre features as part of the portfolio of projects making up the Arts Strategy for North Lanarkshire NHS. The collected projects exemplify the ways in which properly engaged public art projects can positively enhance and augment the day to day experiences for staff, patients and visitors to these new healthcare buildings.

“…The courtyard artwork in particular, has been very well received and is testimony not only to the creativity and originality of the artists involved, but also the willingness of all the groups and individuals who responded to NHS Lanarkshire’s and the artists’ calls for the public’s thoughts and opinions on how they envisaged the artwork taking shape.

In many ways the artwork is a tangible example of the partnership between public and private agencies, local communities and patients and the public.”

Neena Mahal, Chair NHS Lanarkshire Board

civic’s Dan Jones talks about our extension to the Rainham Royals Youth Centre in a short film accompanying the Architecture Foundation’s Take me to the River exhibition at the Royal Academy.

The exhibition celebrates the work of Peter Beard_Landroom’s project in Rainham alongside other architects who have been working in Rainham within the context of a strategy to improve the town’s public infrastructure. Delivered by the Greater London Authority and the London Borough of Havering over the past decade, the new work ranges in scale from landscape proposals by architects including East and What if: projects, to the remodeling of existing buildings by Civic Architects and Alison Brooks, and a new library, nursery and housing project designed by Maccreanor Lavington which formalizes a square outside Rainham station.

View the film here – Take me to the River

See our project in more detail here.

civic’s Andrew Siddall charts the process of sustained parent involvement in the design of and fundraising for a new school playground at Edinburgh’s largest Primary School.

Towerbank Primary in Portobello has Edinburgh’s largest intake (5 classes of first years in 2014-15) and yet the least interesting and catered for playground. The City Council do not have any funds to promote change and so a dedicated group of parents has formed a loose working group to search out funding opportunities in order to try and get some physical change to take place in the otherwise barren tarmac playspace.

The article charts their effort so far and  sets out how ‘parent power’ might one day deliver a better landscape for generations of children to come.

The Environmental Excellence Award recognises the project or building that shows the clearest commitment to meeting the challenge of climate change and raising the understanding of sustainability. civic won the award for their Gamlingay Eco Hub building and were delighted to be able to collect the award with their client team – underpinning our dedication to community led design projects by taking the community with us.

The judges for the award were particularly taken by the way that our building just gets on with being sustainable: the clients believe they now have the greenest community centre in the country.

Following the successful installation of our Public Artworks at the new Kilsyth Health Centre, Perpsex have featured the project in their trade magazine ‘Going Forward’.

‘Perspex® acrylic fabricator, QD Plastics has recently completed an eye-catching tower of Perspex® acrylic at the brand new £7.8m Kilsyth Health Centre in Lanarkshire, Scotland as part of a public artwork designed by Civic Architects. The contemporary installation has been designed to provide a positive sensory influence on all those who use the facility’.

The overlapping Perspex® acrylic panels cast colour shadows across the walls, courtyard and corridors of the building creating a welcoming feel to the space. Glasgow-based approved Perspex® fabricator, QD Plastics cut messages into the materials linking the sculpture to local places and thoughts. The text was gathered from the people of Kilsyth, who were encouraged to express their thoughts about the locality – the hope being that the messages would provide a positive, meaningful distraction for patients, visitors and staff at the new health centre. The vertical structure encourages viewers to look into the sky for reflection.