7/19/2010

International award winning building

Shepherds Bush Housing Group has won one of the most prestigious international awards for cutting-edge design.

The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies gave Morris House the International Architecture Award 2010.

Morris House in Cowley Road, Acton, is a conversion of a former Morris Minor car parts' warehouse and offers affordable accommodation to key workers in west London.

The International Architectural Awards honour new and cutting-edge design. SBHG was a winner alongside the Burj Khalifa in Dubai and the Woods of Net Pavilion in Japan.

This year, the museum received a record number of projects for new buildings, landscape architecture, and urban planning from the most important firms globally. Stephen Davy Peter Smith Architects who designed and built Morris House entered the award.

The judging took place in México City under the auspices of the Colegio de Arquitectos de la Cuidad de México. 95 projects from 38 nations were selected by a distinguished group of Mexican architects, educators, and critics.

Paula Fance, SBHG’s director of development and sales, said: “We knew Morris House was a special design. It carefully balances the old building with the new, keeping the integrity of the building. It remains a central part of the local community. We’re very proud that our design programme has been recognised by global judges.”

Stephen Davy, of Davy Smith Architects, said: “Though the building is not listed, we strongly believed it had architectural merit and character, and should not be demolished. Our design allowed for the existing external shell to be retained and for new accommodation to be slotted inside it, creating a building within a building.”

For more information
Hannah Stokes
Tel: 020 8996 4237
Email: hannah.stokes@sbhg.co.uk