Alconbury's Incubator triumphs at British Council for Office's Regional Awards

Industry experts honour Cambridgeshire workplace

The Alconbury Incubator Building in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire has today been recognised as one of the Midlands and East Anglia’s five finest workplaces at the annual British Council for Offices (BCO) property sector awards.

The Midlands and East Anglia leg of the BCO’s respected awards programme recognises top quality office design and functionality and sets the standard for excellence in the regional office sector. Over 300 of the country’s top designers, developers, architects and occupiers attended the awards lunch, all of whom were competing for a coveted BCO regional award.

The Alconbury Incubator Building took home the award for Projects up to 2000msq, for successfully responding to the challenging brief of developing a flexible office space, while creating a distinctive structure in a largely vacant airfield. The judges felt the project punched well above its weight with generous shared facilities and an impressive viewing platform and has set the tone for a further 124,000msq of commercial development on the site.

All eyes are now on October 7th when the winners from the Regional Awards will compete in their categories at a national level and also bid to win the property sector’s respected BCO ‘Best of the Best’ award.

The Incubator is the flagship building of Alconbury Enterprise Campus – a Government-backed Enterprise Zone situated between the A1(M), East Coast Mainline and A14, between the global innovation hub of Cambridge, the manufacturing and composites expertise of Huntingdonshire and the environmental services cluster of Peterborough. The building was designed by Allford Hall Monaghan Morris to deliver the first new office building on the former airfield which is being transformed into the mixed use development of Alconbury Weald, with a 150 hectare business Campus. The building is designed to support small and start-up businesses and provide networking and meeting space to drive innovation, collaboration and enterprise across the local area.

Tim Leathes, Project Director for Urban&Civic the owners and developers of Alconbury Campus, said:

“The Incubator was always a statement building for us to set out the quality of design and space we plan to bring forward on the Campus. We are delighted this award recognises the successful design and delivery of the Incubator and its status as a great place for companies wanting to grow and be part of Alconbury Weald.”

Philip Turner, Associate Director at architect's Allford Hall Monaghan Morris, said:

“This simple and efficient new building will set the tone for new business accommodation at Alconbury Weald. Flexible office space is arranged along a generous gallery space shared by the Incubator occupants. A four-storey tower contains a series of meeting rooms, from which the wider site and ongoing regeneration can be reviewed.”

Judging Chairman, Ted Pearce, of Severn Trent said:

“The winners of the Midlands and East Anglia Awards are all ambitious projects that have been selected from a selection of top quality entries. Entries were judged on a range of different factors including flexibility, sustainable construction, architectural flair and above all their effectiveness as a workplace. All winners should be proud to emerge as one of the best workspaces in the region.”

Richard Kauntze, Chief Executive of the BCO, commented:

“This year’s awards are testament to the quality and distinction of new office development in the Midlands and East Anglia. Birmingham is the location for this year’s BCO Conference in May, and our members are looking forward to visiting the city and seeing some of the buildings that are leading the way in both innovation and design.”

For more information on the awards visit the BCO website (www.bco.org.uk).

The full category winners for the Midlands and East Anglia regional awards were:

1.       Refurbished/Recycled Workplace: The Council House Derby, Corporation Street, Derby

2.     Projects up to 2,000m²: Alconbury Incubator Building, Alconbury Enterprise Campus, Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire

3.       Fit Out of Workplace: PwC Norwich, 2nd Floor, St. James Court, Whitefriars, Norwich

4.       Commercial Workplace:  Two Snowhill, Snow Hill Queensway, Birmingham

5.     Corporate Workplace: Wylde IA - Seco Tools (UK), Adams Way, Springfield Business Park, Alcester, Warwickshire

About the BCO

The British Council for Offices (BCO) is the UK’s leading member organisation representing the interests of all those who occupy, design, build, own or manage offices in the UK. Since inception in 1990, the BCO has provided thought leadership and best practice in all issues related to the creation and use of office space – through to its research, awards, conference and events programmes. www.bco.org.uk

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