Member Article

Award win for cultural collaboration

A building conversion project at Newcastle University designed to help improve links between local business and the university has won a regional award. The £4.5m conversion of the historic Grand Assembly Rooms on King’s Walk into Culture Lab, a new facility where businesses and other organisations can work with Newcastle University researchers, has won the conservation category of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) Renaissance Awards 2007, which are designed to celebrate the most inspirational regional initiatives and developments in land property and construction in the North East.

Culture Lab is part of the developing ‘Cultural Quarter’ on the university campus and is a project aimed at bringing together artists, local organisations and university researchers, enabling them to collaborate in new ways. The project was co-ordinated by the University’s Estates Office, and architects Dewjoc were responsible for the conversion.

The RICS judges said: “Culture Lab is a flagship for Newcastle University’s new cultural quarter, successfully integrating a highly sophisticated technical environment within a building of historical and architectural importance. It houses facilities including performance and exhibition space, recording studios, multi-media laboratories and an electronics workshop. The design approach recognised the aspiration of the client as well as the needs of the building and included the restoration of hidden historical features to maintain the character of the original 1889 building.”

Professor Eric Cross, Dean of Cultural Affairs at Newcastle University, said: “I am delighted that the quality of such a sensitive conversion has been formally recognised in this way.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .