Winners of the National Urban Design Awards 2021
We're delighted to announce the winners of this year's Awards!
Firstly we'd like to thank everyone who gave their time and effort in submitting a scheme or project. The entries were diverse and inspiring in their aspirations and achievements. Huge thanks are due to our judges who took on their challenging task with enthusiasm and commitment!
And here they are....
POLICY STRATEGY + DESIGN GUIDANCE
The National Model Design Code
URBED
A guide for local authorities in producing design codes
"Comprehensive guidance on the production of design codes that could transform design quality across England, if local authorities are given resources to implement it."
FRAMEWORKS + MASTERPLANS LARGE
Nansledan, Newquay | Masterplan
ADAM Architecture
Town-making in the Cornish style with school, shops, business units and homes
"Where most new developments provide no more than housing, Nansledan is a genuine piece of townmaking. The project is compact, walkable, and when complete will offer a wide range of on-site jobs and facilities. The use of the Development Control Order planning model looks set to streamline delivery, while ensuring a high quality outcome."
FRAMEWORKS + MASTERPLANS MIDSCALE
Love Wolverton | Masterplan
URBED
Redevelopment of a town centre car park to provide multi-generational housing and shops
"This street-based, highly contextual masterplan is simple but effective. The layout sensitively repairs the pattern of streets and blocks. The mix of tenures, active ground-floor uses, and car-free streets builds towards a strong, walkable community. There is a deep commitment to sustainability in every aspect of the design, from micro-energy-generation to the building fabric itself."
PEOPLE FRIENDLY PLACE
Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow
Urban Movement
A replicable model for main streets, for all the community featuring best practice in many areas
"This project is a replicable model for main streets throughout the UK. It shows how traffic dominated roads can be transformed into places for people, encouraging active travel, supporting businesses and creating relaxing environments for all. The creation of a truly democratic space in the city is especially important."
INNOVATION
Building Peace in Kosovo
The Block by Block Foundation
A truly bottom-up participatory design process using the computer game Minecraft
"A powerful, innovative and truly inclusive way to involve hard to reach communities in the design of their neighbourhoods."
STUDENT PROJECT
The Green Loop
He Wang | Cardiff University
"The development of virtuous cycles of diversity, engagement and prosperity using the community land trust model gives physical expression to the truer sense of sustainability that most urban designers and planners would wish to see happen, and the emphasis on retrofitting suggests the strategy can be applied to already established areas."
BOOK AWARD
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The Urban Block "This is a sound piece of work, that fills a gap on any urban designers’ bookshelf. It builds on previous work of plot-based urbanism and describes a vital element in the world of urban design in a clear and simple manner." |
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SOME THOUGHTS FROM OUR JUDGING PANEL CO-CHAIRS
“It is a great privilege to be invited to lead the awards into their second decade. The new, more-focused award categories certainly provoked deeper and more insightful dialogue amongst our specialist juries.
Each project has a story to tell. The shortlisted, commended and ultimately the winning schemes were all selected, not only for their outstanding quality, but for the many important lessons that they offered for the on-going practice of Urban Design. I was pleased to see the new awards process laying-bare exactly how and where Urban Design adds value to the built environment.
Of course, the awards are a fabulous opportunity to recognise exceptional projects and to give due credit to the project team’s talent and commitment. However, I think the new format National Urban Design Awards are beginning to make a greater contribution: to identify, explain and share good practice more broadly; in the hope that what we celebrate today, as exceptional, will become commonplace tomorrow.”
Alan Thompson Co-chair
"The design of the places where we live and spend time has come into sharp focus this year for us all - through Lockdowns spent walking around our local area, to COP26 reimagining what towns and cities need to be for a regenerative future. At the root of it all is creating places of a human scale, that are People Friendly, and captivate our senses. That’s why it’s been monumental to see the great projects coming through for this years’ Urban Design Group Awards addressing this issue, and shaping the People Friendly Places of the future."
Christopher Martin Co-chair
You can see all the finalists and info about judging panel here: Awards 2021
