OPUN delighted with outcome of East Midlands RIBA Awards
OPUN – the Leicester based Architecture Centre for the East Midlands – is delighted with the outcome of the recent Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) East Midlands Awards held at the City’s Athena venue, where a local building won the OPUN sponsored Place Award.
The Hugh Aston Building at De Montfort University, which houses a new £25m faculty of Business and Law, was singled out for putting community engagement and natural surroundings at the heart of the design brief and development process.
As Julie Tanner, Chief Executive of OPUN explained: “The OPUN Place Award was new for the 2011 event, and I’m delighted that this particular building clinched the top accolade. It embodies the principles we strive for at OPUN, in terms of ensuring that well designed places and buildings are fit for purpose and meet the needs of our communities. I’d like to congratulate the winning team – and DMU and architects CPMG in particular – for their achievement.”
Hugh Avison from Nottingham based CPMG said: “It is really great news that the vision and execution of the Hugh Aston Building, with its startling contribution to the quality of the urban environment in this historic part of Leicester, was recognised so clearly.”
Julian Owen, Regional Chair of RIBA East Midlands added: “Yet again, the East Midlands and its architects have shown that design excellence is still very much to the fore in the region. The projects showcased are superb examples of what can be achieved when client and architect work in perfect harmony.”
The revitalised 16,000m2 Hugh Aston building and space surrounding it forms an important gateway to the campus, housing over two hundred offices, twenty six classrooms, ten lecture theatres and five IT suites.
ENDS
For more information on this press release, please contact Clare Farley at Eden PR on 0115 958 8850 or clare@edenpr.co.uk
About OPUN
OPUN was set up in 2002 to create better quality neighbourhoods, buildings and public spaces across the East Midlands. OPUN is part of the Architecture Centre Network and is hosted by Leicester De Montfort University. As part of it’s Design Support Service, OPUN runs one of eight Design Review Panels affiliated to Design Council, the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE).
It also works with built environment and regeneration professionals, officers and elected members of local authorities, via a design best practice training, networking, conference and arts development programme.
To find out more about OPUN, its staff and services, visit www.opun.org.uk ; follow us on Twitter @opuntweets ; find us on LinkedIn by searching on OPUN .
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