Reservoir House wins at National Building Excellence Award

The 2012 LABC National Building Excellence Awards took place on Tuesday 13 November at
The Brewery in the City of London – hosted by former BBC political correspondent John Sergeant.

The state of the art bespoke Reservoir House by the Ynysfro Reservoir on the outskirts of Newport, South Wales won the prestigious award for best individual dwelling.

Reservoir House was designed with floor to ceiling glazing to utilise natural light and to take advantage of stunning panoramic views.

The amount of glazing meant that the contactor and architect worked closely with Building Control to meet energy efficiency standards by increasing insulation in the building fabric and installing solar water heating. The excellent rapport between the contractors and Building Control made the whole relationship rewarding and has achieved a very high quality finished home.

Paul Everall, LABC Chief Executive, said: “Despite these tough times there are many exciting and high quality construction projects being undertaken right now. Our national excellence awards reflect the ability of the industry’s talent to deliver high quality designs, high standards of safe and sustainable builds – with effective and targeted regulation by Local Authority Building Control.”

“The iconic design of Reservoir house – which pushed the boundaries of building technology – threw up a number of challenges which were quickly resolved by the close working relationship between the contractors and building control.”

The other Welsh finalists included Blacksmith’s Way, Newport for best small housing development; Gatewen Village, Wrexham for the best large housing development; Plas Telford, Extra Care Centre, Wrexham for best social or affordable housing development; Maggie’s Cancer Care Centre, Swansea for best community building; Glynlifon College, Gwynedd for best education development; Pier 64, Vale of Glamorgan for best small commercial building; Mariners Quay, Newport for best sustainable project and Welsh Oak Frame and Powys County Council for best partnership.

The LABC Building Excellence Awards recognise the importance of Building Control in England and Wales in creating safe, accessible and sustainable buildings that are constructed to high standards.

The awards showcased how, even in difficult economic times for the construction industry, a close working relationship between Building Control, architects and building contractors leads to good quality sustainable building projects with high standards of design and construction.

More than 500 guests, including contractors, engineers and architects attended the awards which also raised money for LABC’s 2012 charity – the Stroke Association. The event was sponsored by LABC Acoustics, LABC Warranty, Travis Perkins Sustainable Building Solutions, Polypipe Terrain and Roger Bullivant.