Buckinghamshire design awards recognise building schemes across the county

The first Buckinghamshire Design Awards have been organised to celebrate building schemes across the county.

The design of 15 building schemes have been commended as part of the first Buckinghamshire-wide Design Awards, but the winners of the People's Choice Award are yet to be decided.

There will be a private/residential winner and a public/landscape winner.

The new Buckinghamshire Design Awards were established to showcase good quality design across the county and set expectations for good design for the council's Planning & Environment Service.

They hope this will help to improve the standards of design across the county and build on the 26 years of previous awards schemes.

Councillor Warren Whyte, Buckinghamshire Cabinet Member for Planning and Enforcement commented:

"The Buckinghamshire Design Awards are a very important part of the new council's ambition to promote and encourage design excellence and I am delighted that in our inaugural year that we have been able to celebrate a wide range of great designs across the county."

This year, Buckinghamshire Council officers nominated 30 recently completed development projects which they felt demonstrated a significant contribution to the local environment. Schemes could be individual buildings through to larger developments and new streets, or public or communal open spaces such as parks, recreational spaces and wildlife habitats.

The judges were Councillor Warren Whyte (Cabinet Member for Planning and Enforcement and architect), Councillor Patrick Hogan (Cabinet Member for Culture and architect), Steve Bambrick (Service Director for Planning and Environment), Stefan Kruczkowski (Urban Design Consultant) and Laura Levitt (Principal Heritage Specialist).

Fifteen were commended in five categories of which ten were put forward for the People's Choice Award. The categories were: Environment and Sustainability, Conservation and Heritage, Innovative Architecture, Placemaking and Community, and Landscape and Open Space.

Councillor Patrick Hogan, Cabinet Member for Culture commented:

"These awards seek to present examples across Buckinghamshire which celebrate and recognise a resurgence of public and private design respectful of the users, neighbours, their environment and local characteristics."

Nominees include buildings in Aylesbury, Wycombe, Hambleton and Wendover.

For a full list and information on how to vote head to the Buckinghamshire Council Design Awards site.