Double win for Desco projects at the RICS UK National Awards 2024
Morpeth Leisure Centre and Viking Energy Network Jarrow both picked up awards at the RICS ceremony at the Park Plaza Riverbank in London.
There was a double win at the RICS UK National Awards final after Morpeth Leisure Centre and the Viking Energy Network Jarrow both won the top awards in their categories at the ceremony.
Morpeth Leisure Centre won the Community Benefit Project award, which recognises the outstanding achievement in providing a facility which directly benefits the local community. To win the award the project must show its success through local community feedback with diversity and inclusion embedded throughout.
The centre was designed before the Covid pandemic, delivered during lockdowns, which saw supply chain issues and an impending recession, and opened to the public in 2023.
The Viking Energy Centre Jarrow won the award in the Public Sector Project category, which celebrates an exceptional public sector project. The Viking Energy Network provides electricity to council buildings in the town through extracting water through Water Source Heat Pump (WSHP) technology to feed a district energy network.
The scheme provides cleaner and cheaper energy to buildings connected to the network and the design allows for further expansion.
We also had two other projects shortlisted in the national awards. The North Tyneside Transport Hub was shortlisted for the Land Management & Sustainable Development category following their win at the North East Regional awards and The Halls, Wolverhampton was also shortlisted in the Community Benefit category following their win at the West Midlands Regional Awards earlier this year.
The team behind Morpeth Leisure Centre was GT3 Architects, TSA Riley LLP, Advance Northumberland, Desco, BuroHappold Engineering and Willmott Dixon.
The team behind VENJ was Architectural Base Consultancy, Thornton-Firkin LLP, Border Design Consultants LLP, Desco, South Tyneside Council and Colloide.
The team behind The Halls, Wolverhampton was AtkinsRéalis, Space & Place, Faithful and Gould, Furness and Wilmott Dixon Interiors.
The team behind North Shields Transport Hub was Napper Architects, North Tyneside Council, Willmott Dixon Construction, Fairhurst, Desco, Sanderson Associates, CBRE, G LHearn, Apex Acoustics and Centurion.