Last week saw the return of the RICS Social Impact Awards, with regional events taking place across the UK. From the outset, this 2020 event had always planned to take a different approach than previous occasions, with organiser’s keen to highlight projects that have gone way beyond ‘bricks and mortar’, demonstrating the real human impact of the built environment.
What organisers didn’t foresee, was just quite how different this year’s ceremony would be, with the current circumstances forcing the event to become entirely virtual! In spite of the unusual climate, many of planned attendees hosted virtual ‘viewing parties’ watching the live stream online together via Teams and Zoom.
In total, Doig+Smith had three project shortlisted in the Scottish RICS Social Impact Awards:
⭐️ Robroyston Railway Station: Infrastructure
⭐️ Edinburgh Printmakers: Heritage & Leisure
⭐️ Kelvinside Academy School of Innovation: Education
While Kelvinside Academy and Robroyston Railway Station were narrowly pipped to the post in their categories, we were delighted to see Edinburgh Printmakers win, and win in style…
Not only did this project win the HERITAGE AWARD 2020, it also scooped the top prize, having been crowned PROJECT OF THE YEAR. This is an incredible result for the Edinburgh Printmakers, a C-listed building described by RICS judges as a ‘multi-faceted gem’.
Operating today as a multi-use arts complex, centred around printmaking, Edinburgh Printmakers comprises of two free-to-access galleries, a café, community garden, shop and education space, Edinburgh Printmakers is much more than a printmaking studio.
Speaking about the worthy winner, RICS Judge, Colin Smith commented: “The Edinburgh Printmakers project has saved and creatively adapted one of the last vestiges of the industrial and social history of Fountainbridge, the former headquarters of the North British Rubber Factory. The project has ingeniously inserted a range of public facing new uses into the building, respecting its fabric, character and heritage, and done so in a way that provides access for all throughout and which opens the building out to engage with its emerging surroundings.”
Doig+Smith is proud to have worked as Cost Managers on this multi award winning project. Congratulations to all other parties who contributed to the success of Edinburgh Printmakers.