The winners of the 2014 Kent Design and Development Awards have been revealed, with a primary school named Project of the Year.
Eighteen projects were shortlisted for the seven category prizes by the judges, with the overall Project of the Year voted for on the night from among the category winners by more than 150 guests who attended the event held at County Hall.
Taking home a total of three awards, Goat Lees Primary School in Ashford was voted Project of the Year.
Designed by Pellings, Bromley, with support from Crofton Design Associates, based in Hadlow, the school makes the most of natural light and ventilation, with intelligent use of space and strong links with the outside. The building, which is for community as well as educational use, also utilises photovoltaic and solar thermal panels.
Goat Lees also won the Environmental Performance award, sponsored by The Woodley Coles LLP and also the Public Buildings category, sponsored by Kent Construction Focus Group.
Alex Hicken of DHA Planning, sponsors of the Project of the Year award, commented: “All the winners are schemes Kent can be truly proud of. We were particularly pleased to see Goat Less Primary School voted overall winner as it clearly stands out as an example of the high quality development being undertaken across the county.”
Sponsored by Kent County Council, DHA Planning and Maxim, the awards showcase the many excellent construction projects taking place across the county and take place every two years.
Sandwich Town Tidal Defences project, undertaken by CH2M Hill Halcrow, won the Civils & Infrastructure category, sponsored by CTP Consulting Ltd. Maidstone High Street was highy commended.
In the Commercial, Industrial & Retail category, sponsored by Liberty Property Trust, the work of Clay Architecture saw Medway Crematorium victorious.
Cyclopark, the Clague & Jacobs development near Gravesend, took the top prize in the Public Buildings – Community category, sponsored by Kent Construction Focus Group. Hadlow Tower was highly commended in this category.
In the residential categories sponsored by Liberty Property Trust UK, Horsted Park, Medway, by Proctor and Matthews won the Major category. The winner of Minor, developments of 10 properties and under, was Guy Hollaway for Pobble House, at Romney Marsh.
Mark Dance, Cabinet Member for Economic Development at Kent County Council, said: “There is a great deal of fantastic high quality development going on in Kent and all the winners and finalists should be proud of their achievements, and playing their part in Kent’s wider economic development.”
Each of the category winners were presented with a unique trophy sculpted by Jason Mulligan and hand carved from Kentish Ragstone from nearby Hermitage Quarry, provided by Gallagher Group.
Andrew Metcalf of Maxim, who was master of ceremonies for the evening, said: “Despite all the challenges faced by those in Kent’s development community it is clear that quality really shines through. Each of our shortlisted finalists have made a positive contribution to how our county looks.”
Visit www.kentdesigndevelopmentawards.co.uk for more information on the award winners.