The Civic Trust Awards

Recognising that good environmental design plays a crucial role in the development of successful communities, the Civic Trust Awards honour outstanding projects in the fields of architecture, planning, environmental design, landscape, public art and urban design. The Awards focus not only on the way in which schemes relate to their settings but to the people that live and work with them. The awards continue to stimulate higher standards and to highlight the importance of design in the creation of places with a sense of identity and civic pride.

The Awards are held annually and entries for the 2009 awards for schemes completed between 1 January 2006 and 1 September 2008 have now closed. Further information is available on the Civic Trust website. In addition to the Awards for projects that make an outstanding contribution to the quality and appearance of the environment, there are special awards for specific types of development:

Two applications have been received in County Durham:

Calman Learning Centre

Sacriston Surgery

Centre Vision Award - Sponsored by Waitrose

CentreVision is the Civic Trust’s programme of best practice in town centre regeneration carried out in partnership with local councils, civic societies, chambers of trade, town centre management initiatives and other stakeholders.

Hard Landscaping Award - Sponsored by Charcon

The aim of the award is to encourage attractive schemes that demonstrate a unique approach to hard landscaping, with a strong emphasis on innovative design. This award is of special significance to Charcon in combining an appreciation of good hard landscaping design with the recognition of schemes that positively relate to their settings and the people they serve.

Partnership Award - Sponsored by English Partnerships

The government’s regeneration agency, who works closely with both the public and private sectors to bring forward high quality sustainable development. Engaging with the local community can help deliver the highest standards of design and construction that are vital for the long-term successful regeneration of an area. This award is presented to a scheme that demonstrates how a partnership approach has achieved much more than a single organisation could have done alone. It is hoped that this award will inspire others to adopt this collaborative way of working.

Access Award - Sponsored by Bristan

The Access Award is presented projects which seek to offer ideas on improving access and finding the balance between conservation and the barriers which challenge access. This award gives the opportunity for exemplary schemes to demonstrate that good modern design can help reconcile the interests of conservation with those of access for all.

Sustainability Award - Sponsored by Aggregates Industries UK

This award seeks to support the development of the built environment, while at the same time promoting the principles of sustainability. All buildings create impact on the environment and society, and the award looks to reward those developments that have successfully combined innovative architecture and design with the use of sustainable materials, construction methods and energy consumption while occupied. Such excellence is exhibited by a growing, but still small number of developments, and these awards will promote the benefits of sustainable construction.

Night Vision Award - Sponsored by the Civic Trust

The NightVision Award is a new Special Award for the 2008 round of the Civic Trust Awards. Over the last 5 years the Civic Trust has increasingly realised the importance of the management and development of town centres in the evening and night time to ensure they are well run, safe and attractive to people of all ages and backgrounds. The Civic Trust has been one of the leaders in this field producing a research paper – NightVision: Town Centres for All – that draws together the huge amount of policy and good practice that already exists for the management and development of our town and city centres and night and sets out a challenging and innovative agenda for change looking at practice steps to improve the way we not only manage our town centres at night but how they will develop and change in the future.

Streets Award - Sponsored by CABE Space

Streets are the most common and most heavily used of our public spaces. Our streets are the foreground to our built environment and the backdrop to our civic life. Well designed streets can contribute to social, economic and environmental sustainability. The Streets Award has been developed in association with CABE Space, who are our sponsors.

The winners will be announced early 2009 and details will be posted on this page once the outcome is known.