Winner: Dalby Forest Visitor Centre

This gateway to Dalby forest was designed and delivered with sustainability as the keynote using timber from the forest itself.  Now completed, it teaches sustainability to school and adult visitors alike.

Commissioning authority: Forestry Commission
Principal designer: White Design
Principal contractor: Miller Construction

• This project has everything - cohesive customer, designer and contracting team.
• It was a great achievement to create this most sustainable solution on such a tight budget.
• The client had the vision to maximise sustainability creating the building – and then to use it as an educational example for all visitors.
• Inspirational use of recycled waste plastic materials – yoghurt pots, toothbrushes and even mobile phones – were used to create colourful loo doors and decorative panels.
• A rich combination of locally harvested timber enhanced the quality, sustainability and speed of construction.

Winner: Cass Sculpture Foundation Centre, Goodwood

Visionary arts patrons Wilfred and Jeanette Cass have provided a new home for British sculpture integrated into the South Downs landscape.

Commissioning authority: Cass Sculpture Foundation
Principal designer: Studio Downie Architects
Principal contractor: Ceecom Construction

• A visionary and inclusive client has got fantastic value for £760,000 thanks to an inspired design and delivery team.
• Economic and efficient to run.
• Integrated beautifully into its surroundings.
• Very flexible space suitable for current use as well as future expansion.

Winner: Tilford Bridges, Surrey

Tilfords 13th Century West Bridge, a scheduled monument, has been sensitively restored and a new semi-permanent bridge constructed alongside, taking full account of stringent environmental demands.

Commissioning authority: Surrey County Council
Principal designer: Scott Wilson
Principal contractor: Carillion Regional Civil Engineering

• The considerable environmental and historic complexities were fully investigated and understood by all parties from the start.
• The team went to great lengths to involve the local public and local schools before, during and after the project was undertaken.
• Harmony between the 13th century bridge restoration and the new bridge was well achieved.
• Gloriously clear of signage and clutter.

Winner: National Cold War Exhibition, RAF Museum Cosford

This landmark display building houses 17 large aircraft in a humidity controlled, low energy environment of some 6000 plus sq metres.

Commissioning authority: Royal Air Force Museums & Bridgnorth District Council
Principal designers: Feilden Clegg Bradley Architects;
Michael Barclay Partnership LLP
Principal contractor: Galliford Try

• A highly energy efficient building, using innovative humidity control, low energy conservation heating and natural ventilation, enabled building fabric to be unpainted and maintenance free.
• The complex technically sophisticated design placed big demands on the excellent roofing contractor.
• Specialist sub-contractors were chosen for their technical abilities rather than cost alone.
• Despite its size and complex shape, the aluminium roof is constructed from off the peg products.

Winner: RNLI Padstow Lifeboat Station

Located in an area of outstanding natural beauty, the RNLI’s new Lifeboat Station demanded the integration of innovative design and engineering construction to create a functional yet iconic project.

Commissioning authority: Royal National Lifeboat Institution
Principal designer: Royal Haskoning
Principal contractor: Nuttall John Martin

• An exemplary case of good design fit for purpose and well executed.
• The inaccessible site required all materials to be delivered by sea at the base of a 30m cliff - a real logistical challenge.
• Materials were well chosen to meet the needs of durability, sustainability and deliverability.
• An impressive and practical structure.

Winner: Emirates Stadium, London N5

Arsenal’s high profile new 60,000 seater stadium was completed ahead of schedule and within budget ready for the start of the 2006 Premiership kick off.

Commissioning authority: Arsenal Football Club
Principal designer: HOK Sport Architecture
Principal contractor: Sir Robert McAlpine

• A brilliant, fully engaged client fostered excellent team spirit.
• The stadium is of uncompromising quality which works both on a macro and micro scale.
• The spaces, both pitch-side and internally, are very well ordered.
• Probably the best club stadium in Europe delivered on time despite £35m of additional works.

This section of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link is the final piece of infrastructure enabling high-speed connections between London and Europe.  It was fully completed and commissioned in the spring with high speed trains testing successfully.

Commissioning authority: Union Railways (North)
Principal designer: Rail Link Engineering

• The enormity of the challenge to create infrastructure ranging from massive to intricate cannot be underestimated.
• The pre-occupation with careful planning proved its worth time and again.
• Exemplary tunnelling achievements on a huge scale were a keynote of the scheme.
• Investment in good people resulted in close teamworking and problem resolution with a no-blame culture.
• Ground breaking procurement methods were adopted throughout.

Winner: Lower Witham Flood Defence Scheme, Lincs

More than one million recycled tyres were used as fill material on the River Witham scheme which has improved 30 kilometres of river defences and was delivered 30% under budget.

Commissioning authority: Environment Agency
Principal designer: Faber Maunsell
Principal contractor: May Gurney

• A perfect example of teamwork among all parties over a long period allowed innovation to thrive.
• The use of over 1m recycled car tyres to create bales was  impressive – with a strong chance of take-up on other projects.
• The project demonstrated a great measure of lateral thinking – in funding, organisation and technology.
• The project cost £15.8m, £5m less than original prediction.

The Cleveleys Coastal protection project not only protects the town from flooding but the opportunity has been taken to create a completely new and attractive promenade already stimulating the regeneration of the whole seafront.

Commissioning authority: Wyre Borough Council
Principal designer: Faber Maunsell
Principal contractor: Birse Coastal

• Fully integrated team with the contractor involved 10 months ahead of start on site taking part in the testing regime as well as design of the defences.
• 8,500 properties have been protected on a particularly exposed coastline with defences now good for 1 in 200 years instead of 1 in 25 year storms.
• A forward-looking local authority has taken the opportunity to use its biggest ever project as a complete regeneration of the whole sea front already attracting commercial development.
• Public can now enjoy an attractive promenade rather than a dilapidated blank wall blocking views of the sea.

Winner: Paradise Park Children's Centre, London N7

You can’t miss the ‘living wall’ of this greatly admired community building offering a nursery, Sure Start and park café.

Commissioning authority: London Borough of Islington
Principal designer: DSDHA
Principal contractor: Allenbuild

• The London Borough of Islington played a vital role in the success of this scheme – huge commitment, flexibility and input, supporting inventiveness of the design and construction team.
• Catalyst for the regeneration of an overgrown, rundown, unsafe park.
• The living wall proved an effective innovation to inspire the local community, hugely welcoming of the project’s impact.
• It really has 'wow' factor - an uplifting and influential building.
• An overgrown, run-down, unsafe public space is now transformed into a well-used community haven.

Winner: The Roundhouse

The reinvention of the Roundhouse preserves the best of its heritage – intricate brickwork and Victorian cast iron frame - to create a modern, versatile concert venue and community arts education facility.

Commissioning authority: The Roundhouse Trust
Principal designer: John McAslan & Partners
Principal contractor: Tolent Construction

• The client and architect shared a passion for the history of the Grade II listed building and have achieved a sympathetic, sensitive and practical transformation.
• New facilities for the community sitting within a top 'pop venue'.
• Who could possibly guess that the building has a new roof and a new wing while the 4 million bricks of the inner walls and the cast iron frame remain in tact.
• A perfect fusion of old and new with minimum visual intervention

Winner: Innovate Green Office, Leeds

The Innovate Green Office boasts the highest ever BREEAM score and stands as an exemplar for the future of commercially viable yet sustainable office building.

Commissioning authority: Innovate Property
Principal designer: RIO Architects
Principal contractor: GMI Construction

• Achieving the highest ever BREEAM score on a greenfield site, away from public transport (which costs BREEAM points!) is an extraordinary achievement.
• What particularly impressed was the rigour in pursuing those green goals which proved to have real payback - gimmicks were eliminated in favour of cost-efficient solutions delivering genuine benefit.
• A strong team with strong characters proved that it is possible to deliver a commercially-viable green office project.

Winner: Bridge Arts Centre, Glasgow

The Bridge Arts Centre has uplifted the disadvantaged local area providing multifunctional facilities including library, swimming pool, learning centre and auditorium for the local community.

Commissioning authority: Culture & Leisure Services, Glasgow City Council
Principal designer: Gareth Hoskins Architects
Principal contractor: Kier Scotland

• Six years in the planning, the centre has created a great community resource against the odds and with limited financial resource.
• Pressure to compromise on quality was resisted throughout.
• Intelligent choice of heavy and light materials respond to the varied uses of the interior spaces.
• The Centre has created an integrated campus which has been respected in an uncompromising area of Glasgow.

The Rooftop Nursery uses its open roof as a classroom and has made an inspiring contribution to the regeneration of a multicultural, socially mixed and deprived community.

Commissioning authority: London Borough of Hackney
Principal designer: WHAT Architecture
Principal contractor: Sandwood Construction

• The nursery was created thanks to a truly inspirational team from Yafiza Patel, the school Head, through the architect and the contractor working on a totally open book basis.
• This is a place of delight in the middle of Stoke Newington – one of the most deprived and dangerous locations in the country.
• Happy staff, happy children, happy parents – great result.

Winner: Camp Bastion Military Base, Afghanistan

Huge engineering, managerial and logistical challenges were overcome by the Royal Engineers to complete this vast military base – the equivalent of a small town – in just 4 months.  All in an inhospitable and barren environment ahead of schedule, under budget and under fire – an astonishing achievement.

Commissioning authority: 12 Air Support (Engineer Group) Royal Engineers
Principal designer: 62 Works Group Royal Engineers
Principal contractor: 48 Field Squadron (Air Support) Royal Engineers

• The most extraordinary feat of logistical, engineering, management and construction in the most inhospitable and barren environment.
• Teamwork, community and flexibility were outstanding as the workforce was augmented by 180 locals.
• Local Afghans embraced the legacy of new techniques and longer term a world class facility for the Afghan army.
• Barracks for over 2350, 50 bed hospital, vehicle and aircraft maintenance facilities, helicopter base and 1000 metre runway.
• All completed in 4 months, ahead of schedule and within budget – a staggering achievement.

Winner: Hearst Tower, New York

The 46 storey glass and steel World headquarters for the Hearst Corporation provides an entirely new building while retaining the existing six storey art deco facade.  It is the first building in New York to achieve Gold rating in the coveted US Green Building programme.

Commissioning authority: The Hearst Corporation
Principal designer: Foster + Partners
Principal contractor: Turner Construction

• An innovative, visually stunning and finely detailed design marries the 1920s art deco façade with a 46 storey headquarters building.
• The New York contractors expressed delight in working with an architect who actively sought their expertise and assistance.
• The delighted client remarked on the efficiency of the work space resulting in improved productivity and staff appreciation.
• The best of British design has brought a new element to the Manhattan skyline.