The 2019 Brick Awards winners, a ceremony that for 43 years has celebrated the best use of brick in the built environment.
Projects of the highest calibre are routinely entered by architects, contractors and developers and, this year was no exception. This year’s title of Supreme Winner has been awarded to the excellent The Dorothy Garrod Building, Newnham College at the University of Cambridge. Designed by Walters & Cohen Architects, this outstanding project also won the Medium Housing Development and Craftmanship categories.
Focusing on the value of using durable materials and on finding the right suppliers of products, The Dorothy Garrod Building knits itself among the buildings already part of the college and creates a new frontage for the college from one entrance. The elegant design balances solidity and transparency, with glazing alternating with full-height brickwork panels where hit-and-miss element weaves seamlessly into the texture and detail of the elevation. The hit-and-miss brickwork complements the existing buildings without mimicking them. A bespoke mixture of Northcot Plumstead and Lynham Red bricks were made to create Sidgwick Blend bricks for the project.
‘The supreme winner, the Dorothy Garrod Building, really impressed the judges who felt it was exceptional in a number of ways. It manages to be exemplary teaching and research space, as well as student housing; it is a strongly urban and welcoming response to the surrounding streets in this part of Cambridge; and at the same time is an amazing work of carefully considered and expressive brick design and craftsmanship. Quite some achievement.’ – Hillary Satchwell, Head Judge, Brick Awards 2019
The task of shortlisting fell to a panel of experienced architects, planners, specialist brickwork contractors, developers and other design and brick experts, who produced a final shortlist of 104 entries. Domestic projects were then visited and reported back to the judging panel as a whole for debate.
“What is so delightful about the winners of this year’s Brick awards is the way they show us what well considered design, robust brick detailing and careful delivery can do for our towns and cities and for all those who live in them. From a mosque to a community radio station, to the careful reuse of a historic basement space, a new model for a royal college, and complex vertically mixed uses, the list of winners present a range of serious buildings that challenge bland and uninteresting buildings everywhere and demonstrate what best practice looks like.” – Hillary Satchwell
To read more about the brick awards see here.
