Birmingham’s Ingenuity House was named among the best workplaces in the country at the British Council for Offices (BCO) annual National Awards this week, taking home the highly coveted Innovation award. The city’s Cornerblock was also awarded Highly Commended in the Commercial Workplace category.
The BCO’s respected National Awards programme recognises top quality office design and functionality and sets the standard for excellence across the office sector in the UK. The dinner attracted over 1,200 key players from the office industry sector to celebrate the best-in-class talent as the winners from the 2019 Regional Awards programme attended Grosvenor House, hoping to take home the National Award for their category.
Interserve UK’s Hub, Ingenuity House, was awarded the BCO’s Innovation Award. The judges felt unanimously that the new office has transformed the occupier’s ways of working, by delivering a slick, streamlined design with outstanding technology to deliver a space focused on wellbeing and community. The project team collaborated closely with Interserve’s in-house FM team to ensure all aspects of cleaning, maintenance and life cycling were efficiently incorporated. The attention paid to these small details has had a dramatic impact on the finished space.
The judges agreed the greatest innovation at Ingenuity House is the provision of an intelligent occupier analysis system that allows the occupier Interserve to adjust core FM settings to maximise the use of space and minimise energy consumption. These contributed to the building’s impressive EPC – B and BREEAM excellent status.
Birmingham’s Cornerblock, also celebrated last night achieving Highly Commended in the Commercial Workplace category. The project transformed what was an obsolete 1980s building, stripping it back to its core to deliver a contemporary workplace with external brickwork and extensive amenities. Structural invention also allowed the team to increase overall floorspace by 20 per cent, this extra space has enabled the building to invite the outside in to add vibrancy and life to the formerly worn-out site.
Rob van Zyl, building services partner at Cundall and chair of the Midlands & Central England judging panel, commented: “Ingenuity House is a highly innovative workplace that has utilised outstanding technology to successfully create a healthy and inspirational working environment. The project demonstrates the importance of extensive workplace analysis in providing an intelligent building with a range of work settings that cater for specific teams and their respective needs. The Midlands office market is thriving, and it is a privilege to see exciting commercial work such as Ingenuity House and Cornerblock being celebrated nationally.”
Richard Kauntze, Chief Executive of the BCO, said: “The standard of nominees at our National Awards astounds me each year. Each year, I believe we genuinely see the best of our sector redefine what best practise looks like. The winners, Ingenuity House and Cornerblock, are a testament to Birmingham and the city’s abundant opportunities. Congratulations to the winners and all those nominated.”