The Graphene Engineering Innovation Centre, Manchester, The Sweco Building, Bergen, Norway, and the Hitchcock Centre for the Environment, Amherst, USA, are three innovative schemes that have made the shortlist for the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE) Building Performance Awards 2020.
Now in their thirteenth year, these prestigious annual awards recognise the projects, teams, individuals, products, innovations and initiatives that demonstrate engineering excellence in the built environment.
Fundamental to the project categories is evidence of performance in operation: these are the only built environment awards to focus on the actual, in-use measured performance of completed projects rather than just on design intent.
The fourteen highly contested Awards include two new categories for emerging priorities in the sector: Project of the Year - Retrofit; and Product or Innovation - Wellbeing. These reflect the importance of improving the safety, comfort and overall performance of existing buildings and also acknowledge the growing interest in the impact buildings can have on occupants' physical and mental wellbeing.
The awards are judged by a diverse panel of experts and industry leaders from within the built environment. The quality of entries submitted this year made the judges' task of arriving at a shortlist particularly challenging for some categories.
Alongside acknowledged market leaders, the judges were particularly pleased to see so many new names on the shortlists this year, including: Noel Lawler Green Energy Solutions and Hysopt.
Hywel Davies, Technical Director at CIBSE chaired the judging. He said: "There were many excellent submissions this year; all of those who made the shortlist, either as individuals or as part of a team, should be justly proud of their contribution to improving building performance".
The winners
will be announced on Tuesday 11 February at an awards event taking place at the
JW Marriott Grosvenor House in London. To book a table at the event go to: www.cibse.org/building-performance-awards