Sustainable Enniskillen campus RICS UK ‘Project of the Year’

THE UK’s most outstanding recent building projects went head-to-head for top national accolades at the RICS Awards Grand Final, where the Erne Campus of South West College in Fermanagh, the world’s first educational building to achieve the highest international standard in environmental construction, won the RICS UK Project of the Year title.

The prestigious annual contest – hosted by Helen Fospero, journalist and broadcaster, and held at the The Londoner Hotel, Leicester Square, on Friday October 21 – celebrates the UK’s most inspirational built projects that are having a significant positive impact on the communities they serve.

Erne Campus at South West College won this year’s UK Project of the year title, as well as winning the Public Sector Project category.

Nominated by Hamilton Architects, Erne Campus, which was completed earlier this year, was chosen by the judges as the overall winner based on its impressive sustainability credentials which will see it yielding an anticipated 90% reduction in energy costs for the college.

Accommodating 800 full-time students, 2,000 part-time students and 120 staff, the Campus is one of the world’s most sustainable educational buildings, having secured both PassivHaus Premium and BREEAM Outstanding accreditations.

At 8,000 Sq m, and representing an investment of £34m, the project has been recognised as one of 26 UN Centres of Excellence for High Performance Buildings, ranking alongside the Apple 2 campus in California.

Earlier this year the landmark building won the Public Sector project of the year award in Northern Ireland at its regional RICS heat, which led to the project being automatically entered into the national RICS Awards Grand Final.

Commenting on the winning project, the judges said: “The vision and its subsequent delivery of the replacement led by a chartered surveyor is a fascinating story in itself. Suffice to say that given local, regional, national and international difficulties over the development period it got built as a result of strong, local and later regional support.

“More importantly for our awards, it represents an exemplar of how despite many obstacles that it needed to overcome, the project also scores highly in the social value. Not only has it generated a centre for excellence for local students of the built environment as a core curriculum subject, it has also raised the profile and the pride in all its inhabitants and neighbours in an area that has suffered much in recent times.”