The Catalyst receives the prestigious National Award for Sustainability at the Constructing Excellence Awards
Following the success at last year’s Regional awards, where the project took home the Building Project of the Year award, The Catalyst was automatically entered for the Constructing Excellence National Awards in January 2021.
Following the success at last year’s Regional awards, where the project took home the Building Project of the Year award, The Catalyst was automatically entered for the Constructing Excellence National Awards in January 2021. Where all the category winners from all the regions go head to head for the ultimate prize, the National Award. We attended the virtual ceremony via Zoom and waited for our category to be announced, much to the project teams delight The Catalyst was announced the overall winner of the Sustainability category, it’s a testament to the whole team involved in this outstanding innovative project.
The Catalyst provides an innovation hub housing two national research and development bodies – the National Innovation Centre for Ageing (NICA) and the National Innovation Centre for Data (NICD). Located on the Newcastle Helix, a development which brings together industry leaders, businesses, and top researchers in an innovation community. It is an exemplar of sustainable urban development which combines prestigious commercial and residential space with first class research and education facilities in the heart of Newcastle.
Spread across six floors the building features flexible Grade A office space, along with a unique mixture of public areas, co-working spaces, a data visualisation suite, a 175 seat TED style theatre, workshop, exhibition space and café as well as an impressive 20 seat board room with panoramic views across the Newcastle skyline.
The initial target for the building was to achieve a BREEAM Excellent rating but with a lot of hard work and innovative ideas, including siphonic drainage feeding into the rain garden, a green roof, a central air handling plant and photovoltaic panels, the building excelled the Excellent rating and was officially awarded a BREEAM Outstanding rating, a rating reserved for only the top 1% of new UK non-domestic buildings. Based on floor 3 the National Innovation Centre for Ageing brings together world-leading scientists, businesses, the NHS, and the public, to improve quality of life as we age.
Focusing on health, The Catalyst is a place where exciting diagnostics, care and wellbeing products and services for older people are researched and developed. The new hub has space for research, co-design, co-location and collaboration between academics, business and the public. There are demonstration facilities to prototype and consumer-test products and services, along with exhibition, event and meeting space to encourage wider interaction with consumers and build networks between key stakeholders.
Located on floor 2, the National Innovation Centre for Data, which is led by industry and benefiting from Newcastle University’s internationally-renowned research in computing science, brings together industry, the public sector and world-leading academics to develop the skills, ideas and resources needed to exploit the opportunities offered by the explosion in digital data. It focuses on realising the potential of big data to address specific challenges in areas including health, automotive and manufacturing.
The ground floor features an open plan reception area with exhibition areas, seminar areas, a lecture hall and back of house. The lecture theatre features visual lighting and cameras which allows seminars and lectures to be shown live. The first floor has a breakout area for all companies to spend some time networking, holding meetings, or just spending some time away from their desks. Floor 4 features offices available to rent, with offices of varying sizes.
Paul Baker, Director, Desco:
“To see The Catalyst recognised Nationally as one of the most innovate and sustainable projects is fantastic for the whole project team, there were some really outstanding projects shortlisted for this award and to be the overall category winner is something we are very proud of. We knew from the offset this scheme was going to be something special when it was finished, to see it being recognised at a number of industry awards is a testament to the team involved.”
Keith Ketchley, Associate Director Building Physics, Desco:
“For the Building Physic’s team, The Catalyst scooping the National Award for Sustainability is a fantastic achievement, the sustainability credentials for the scheme have set a benchmark, not just for us but for the industry itself. As we move towards achieving Nett Zero Carbon, exemplar projects like The Catalyst are paving the way for sustainable design in a bid to achieve the targets now set. Lots of innovative, sustainable design ideas went into the project and as a result the building achieved BREEAM Outstanding, which along with this award is something the team and I are very proud of.”
Image Courtesy of: Graeme Peacock (www.graeme-peacock.com)
For the Building Physic’s team, The Catalyst scooping the National Award for Sustainability is a fantastic achievement, the sustainability credentials for the scheme have set a benchmark, not just for us but for the industry itself. As we move towards achieving Nett Zero Carbon, exemplar projects like The Catalyst are paving the way for sustainable design in a bid to achieve the targets now set. Lots of innovative, sustainable design ideas went into the project and as a result the building achieved BREEAM Outstanding, which along with this award is something the team and I are very proud of.