[db_post_title]
[db_post_meta][db_feature_image]
Today there’s been an excited buzz in the office after one of our high profile projects – the Black Cultural Archives won its category and overall winner at the New London Awards 2015 (NLA). The awards are part of a programme of events organised by New London Architecture to celebrate, recognise and reward the best in architecture, planning and development in London. Needless to say we were thrilled to hear the project won its category “award for conservation and retrofit” and then elated to hear it was presented as the overall winner across all the categories. This is a fitting and richly deserved tribute to the work that the entire team at Black Cultural Archives and all the stakeholders put in to deliver a truly remarkable project. This accomplishment is even more exceptional given the extremely competitive field of other high calibre entries.
The project itself was a grade II listed building in Brixton which was transformed in a £6.5m development to create a brand new heritage centre, the first national black heritage centre. Since completion, almost a year to the day, it has been highly acclaimed for uniting the community and providing a platform for the history and story of people of African and Caribbean descent in UK society. We were extremely proud of the teamwork and collaboration which was achieved during this project, we had a complex brief to amalgamate a collection of over 1000 precious artefacts that were spread out in various locations and bring everything under one roof. Significantly the project received Heritage Lottery funding and we worked hard with the team to qualify at each stage of the process and eventually secure the final funding.
It’s especially gratifying for us to see Black Cultural Archives recognised in this way because of how much work has gone into making it the success that it is today. It’s no insignificant achievement as over 130 projects across 16 categories were shortlisted for the New London Awards and we know that London is subject to a plethora of new and proposed architecture, planning and development initiatives. This project was chosen in particular, not just for the outstanding architecture but also because of its role in preserving the important heritage and the way this reaches out to the community and London society as a whole. The team at Black Cultural Archives is enjoying its well-deserved moment of glory, following on from their wins at the Civic Trust Awards 2015 and we send our congratulations and appreciation for an outstanding project.
