The restoration and remodelling of York Guildhall has secured three awards from the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE), project of the Year in the Commercial and Offices and Retrofit categories and the Building Performance Champion Award. Congratulations to the Services Engineers for the project, SGA Consulting, and the entire client and design team.
The 2024 Building Performance Champion ‘shows what can be achieved to deliver sustainable building refurbishment, minimise embodied carbon, and fulfil such a project with the most difficult site-access conditions’, said the judges.
The Guildhall complex is owned by City of York Council and is made up of Grade I, II* and II listed buildings built around a large 15th-century Guildhall. The refurbishment and remodelling provides a world class venue, supporting and nurturing the expansion of York’s vibrant businesses; combining events and exhibition space with state-of-the-art collaboration and co-working facilities in the heart of a historic and creative city, and securing an economically viable and sustainable future for one of its most iconic buildings.
The project has delivered a comprehensive refurbishment of one of York’s most prestigious and historically significant buildings, together with new build interventions as necessary to re-purpose the complex for its new use. Best practice conservation principles have been adopted, in terms of the approach to enhancing and better revealing the significance of the heritage assets, whilst incorporating modern servicing and amenity requirements.
‘An exemplar of how to breathe new life into a 15th-century building.’
According to the award judges, the most impressive part of SGA Consulting’s refurbishment and extension of York Guildhall was the way in which it used an adjacent river to overcome issues, rather than seeing the waterway as an obstacle.
‘Shows the way forward in how to use low and zero carbon systems to heat old buildings.’
The Building Performance Awards judges debated the merits of several entries before choosing York Guildhall as the Building Performance Champion. ‘On the one hand we have outstanding new-build projects, showing what can be achieved from scratch,’ they said. ‘On the other we have the York Guildhall project, refurbishing a centuries-old building for modern use, with all the challenges of planning, listed building status and being right next to the River Ouse.’
‘With the many challenges the industry faces to renovate millions of existing buildings in the UK to achieve net zero, the Guildhall shows what can be done amid all the constraints’, the judges added.
The CIBSE Building Performance Awards (BPAs) 2024 recognised the people, products and projects that demonstrate engineering excellence in the built environment. They are the only industry awards that focus on actual, measured performance outcomes, and not just design intent or performance specifications.
https://www.cibse.org/what-s-on/cibse-building-performance-awards-2024/2024-winners