Hot on the heels of a number of high profile awards in 2017, 2018 has begun with further recognition for our work. In the last month or so, we have learned that our projects and team have been shortlisted for no less than four further awards!
Three of the nominations are for our acclaimed VITA Student project in York. The new “Student Village” provides 644 bedrooms across 15 new buildings within the grounds of a Grade II listed, former convent. A number of listed buildings and structures within this attractively landscaped, seven-acre site have been sensitively refurbished as part of the works.
The first shortlisting for was in the residential category of the Yorkshire & Humber RICS Awards 2018. The second was in the Construction News Awards 2018, for Project of the Year (for projects over £30m in value) submitted by main contractor, Wates Construction. The latest nomination is for a Regional RIBA Award, with the decision being announced at the RIBA Yorkshire Awards in May. These three short-listings recognise the design quality of what is a very sympathetic redevelopment of an historic site, in the heart of York. Well done to the team!
The final shortlisting of the four comes from the Yorkshire Property Awards. There is no ‘Architect of the Year Award’ this year (so we get to retain the title for an extra twelve months!) Instead Fuse has been shortlisted for the ‘Export Award’ in recognition of our national and international success working around the UK and further afield. Since Fuse was founded in 2010, the Fusiliers have worked on projects in no less than twenty countries across world, many for Hard Rock International and its partners. We have partnered successfully with locally-based architects, engineers and project managers and have made many friends around the globe.
Here is the full list of the countries we have worked in: Spain (projects in Seville & Barcelona); France (Marseilles, Nice & Paris); Belgium (Brussels); The Netherlands (Amsterdam); Austria (Vienna): Germany (Berlin); Czech Republic (Prague); Italy (Florence & Venice); Malta (St Georges Bay); Denmark (Copenhagen); Turkey (Istanbul); Estonia (Tallinn); Russia (Saint Petersburg); Kazakhstan (Almaty); India (Goa); USA (Tampa and Hollywood)… and, of course, England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland – with too many cities to list here.
We are delighted to report that last night (6th March 2017) the Fuse-designed Graham Cooksey Building at Greenhead College, Huddersfield won the Best New Development and was selected as Overall Winner at the Huddersfield Civic Society Design Awards 2017.
The College’s brief called for the demolition of an existing single storey art room which linked two existing buildings at ground floor, to allow for the construction of a new 4-storey link building between the existing Arts & Classroom and the Dawson building.
The new facility provides an IT Suite/Reading area for students at ground level with classrooms and offices to the two floors above. The third floor provides a large open plan exam space and a roof terrace for future College events.
The building design respects the neighbouring properties’ aspect and light, with attention to a contemporary application of similar building materials. A balance was struck between maximising daylight into the classrooms through large glazed windows whilst providing openable windows for natural ventilation and part solar shading through external louvres. The third floor exam suite is fully glazed, with high level opening windows, providing natural ventilation across the space. The over-sailing roof line provides ample natural shading from the high level summer sun for cooling purposes whilst allowing it to penetrate and warm the space during the winter months.
Fuse worked with project managers CPC, structural engineers DP Squared and mechanical and electrical consultants Mellor Associates and with main contractors Barnes Construction and Sewell Group.
Congratulations to all the Fusiliers involved in the project and especially associate Craig ‘Rusty’ Russell for his outstanding work (and perseverance).
Following hot on the heels of winning the ‘Best Architect’ Award at the Variety Club Yorkshire Property Awards back in May, Fuse has done the double by also picking up the ‘Architectural Firm of the Year’ Award at the 2017 Insider Yorkshire Property Industry Awards!
The award recognises a hugely successful period for Fuse with a string of diverse and high profile projects being handed over in our home county – including the Leeds College of Building, the Leeds City College Printworks Campus and the Victoria Gate Casino in Leeds, the Spirit of Harrogate for Slingsby Gin and the just-completed VITA Student in York amongst others.
The judges said that “Fuse stood out for some serious flair, imaginative and innovative design”.
There was a lot of laughter as the directors collected the award from event host, television presenter Mark Durden-Smith – as can be seen in the video opposite. (please be patient as it loads, it is a large file!)
Thanks go to all the Fusiliers for their talent and hard work. Well done team Fuse!
LEEDS College of Building has secured planning permission for a new £13million building on the city’s South Bank and work on the project is due to start imminently.
The state of the art, 5,200 square metre, four storey building will offer a range of classrooms, workshops and an impressive central atrium. It has been designed by Fuse and will sit in a prominent position alongside the College’s existing South Bank campus, between Cudbear Street and Black Bull Street.
Construction work is set to start in September and is expected to complete in October 2018. The development is being supported by a grant from the Leeds City Region Enterprise Partnership. Once complete, the two South Bank campuses will serve a large proportion of Leeds College of Building’s 7,000 students, with the remainder attending the College’s other campus on North Street. As part of the LEP funding, £1m will be spent to refurbish the North Street site.
Ian Billyard, Principal at Leeds College of Building, which is the UK’s only specialist further education construction college, explains: “Securing planning permission for this new building is fantastic for everyone involved with Leeds College of Building and our students. It will enable us to continue enhancing and improving the exceptional standards of training that we are renowned for and ensure that we remain ahead of an ever evolving and fast-paced industry.
“Our existing South Bank campus has been a major success story since it opened two years ago and has become a key landmark on the South Bank, at a time when other education providers are expanding into the area. This latest development will build on this success and offer an exceptional and highly sustainable learning environment for our students.”
Mike Harris from Fuse, which also designed the College’s existing South Bank campus, adds: “This is yet another major development for the South Bank area of the city and we’re excited to see our plans come to fruition. The response to our design has been overwhelmingly positive and there’s no doubt this development will have a positive impact on this part of Leeds, as well as becoming a superb learning resource that will help to shape the future of the construction industry.”
Roger Marsh, Chair of the Leeds City Region Enterprise Partnership (LEP), said: “Increasing the number of local apprentices trained in construction is key to building a brighter future for everyone in the Leeds City Region.
“The new Leeds College of Building centre, in Hunslet Road, will lay the foundations for students all over the region to start their careers in the construction industry, helping us to address the skills gap in the sector and boosting our economic growth now and in the years to come.”
Judith Blake, Leader of Leeds City Council and West Yorkshire Combined Authority board member, said: “The Leeds College of Building campus will help equip 7,000 students a year with the skills they need to succeed in the construction industry. This boost is essential as we continue to grow the Leeds economy both across the city and in what is fast becoming a thriving hub of high quality educational facilities on the South Bank.”
The new campus will feature red-brick and metal cladding, to echo the area’s industrial heritage, and will be another highly sustainable building, set to achieve a BREEAM Excellent rating.
Leeds College of Building offers more than 200 courses across a huge range of disciplines. The College is an approved Apprenticeship Levy provider and offers a wide range of Apprenticeships in traditional trades and technical Apprenticeship routes, together with two Higher Level Apprenticeships in Construction Management (Sustainability) covering four Pathways (Building Surveying, Quantity Surveying, Civil Engineering and Structural Engineering) and Facilities Management which offer university equivalent work based education.
August 2017
We are delighted to announce that the Fuse-designed, mixed use redevelopment of the Hudson House site in York was unanimously approved by City of York Planning Committee last night. The project, for our client Palace Capital, will see the demolition of the former railway headquarters building and in its place the creation of 127 new homes, a 4,000sqm grade A office building, plus other retail/commercial uses.
The site is in a very sensitive location: only a few metres inside York’s historic City Walls. The design development therefore required a positive working relationship with a number of local stakeholders, including officers within the City Council – whose offices actually over-look the site!
The scheme features four new buildings, arranged around a central courtyard space which will provide private amenity space for the development’s residents. The proposals also include a new pedestrian route through the site, which will create a new connection between the main rail station and residents and businesses of the Micklegate neighbourhood. Fuse worked with landscape architects, Re-form, to design a public realm concept which knits the development into its surroundings and provides a far more attractive setting for the adjacent City Wall.
The site represented an interesting challenge to the Fuse team; as it lies within an area synonymous with large, railway related buildings and yet on the West is bounded by smaller, compact buildings which are more typical of York’s historic city core. The resultant scheme sees four brick clad buildings that respond to their context through massing, materiality and roofscape.
Members of the City’s planning committee commented favourably about the “exciting and innovative” design approach.
We very much look forward to working with Palace Capital and the rest of the design team to develop the detail design and get the project on site in 2018….
August 2017
Nominations have been announced for the Insider Yorkshire Property Awards 2017 and we are delighted to reveal that Fuse is shortlisted for Architectural Firm of the year. This nomination comes hot on the heels of winning Architect of the Year 2017 at the Variety Yorkshire Property Awards.
Although Fuse works nationally and internationally (we have completed projects from Southampton to Aberdeen and have worked in no less than 20 other countries since Fuse was founded in 2010) we still have an exciting and diverse workload in our home county. The photographs (right) show a selection of our recent projects in God’s own country – covering education, residential, retail, gaming, workplace and hospitality projects, both architecture and interior design.
This year’s Awards event will be held at the New Dock Hall in Leeds on Thursday, 28 September 2017 and will be hosted by TV presenter Mark Durden-Smith, again celebrating the fantastic work by developers, agencies, advisers and architects across Yorkshire and the Humber over the past year.
The full list of nominations can be found on the Insider website here.
What an amazing performance by the Fusiliers in the Dragon Boat Races, taking the silver medals in a field of 32 boat crews! Fuse had the fastest boat in the heats, stormed the semi-finals and only lost the final by the narrowest of margins.
Congratulations to the crew: Emma ‘Horatio’ Howson (drummer), Big Phil ‘Swashbuckler’ Walker, David ‘Landlubber’ Hall, Rachel ‘Hornblower’ Hirst , Mandy ‘Shipwreck’ Wright and her husband Andrew ‘Cut-Throat’ Wright, Simon ‘Cutlass’ Clarke, Jade ‘Matey’ Moore, Rick ‘Crabcakes’ Cartwright, David ‘Rascal” Riall and last but not least, Mike ‘Sharkbait’ Harris
All that effort deserves some recognition so please take this opportunity to help us raise funds for Martin House by making a small donation at our JustGiving page HERE
May 2017
Winner, winner….
We are absolutely delighted to announce that Fuse was voted Best Architect at theYorkshire Property Awards at Rudding Park in Harrogate on May 4th.
This highly prestigious award ceremony raises hundreds of thousands of pounds for the Variety Club every year and last night was attended by nearly a thousand members of the Yorkshire property world. The awards are highly regarded and recognise outstanding achievement in several fields.
We are thrilled to have shared the winning platform with other amazing Yorkshire businesses and we are especially proud to have won the Best Architect Award just 6 years after Fuse was founded.
Huge thanks go to all our client, consultant and contractor friends that have worked with us during these first 6 years and have entrusted us with some remarkable projects. Most importantly of all however, our sincere thanks go to the wonderful Fusiliers whose hard work, talent and dedication have made this win possible.
Thank you guys! Roll on the next 6 years….
To learn more about the remarkable work done by the Variety charity, take a look at their website here.
Pick up the April edition of Mix Magazine to see the first images of the Fuse designed Clifford Whitworth Library at the University of Salford.
Featured as part of Mix Magazines spotlight on the education sector, the ongoing 60,000sqft refurbishment will successfully ‘open up’ the existing cellular floor plates. The design builds upon the theme of ‘the Library in the Park’ – which celebrates the fact that the library overlooks the historic Peel Park. The project, through clever colour-coding, zoning and the use of tongue-in-cheek graphics has successfully transformed the the neglected space.
As part of the complicated building overhaul, the design has successfully augmented the library’s IT facilities whilst encouraging group working within a traditionally insular but vibrant new learning and research-based environment.
The Fuse-designed Printworks Campus for Leeds City College won its third award at the 2016 Leeds Architecture Awards last night. The project has already won the Committed to Construction Award for Heritage and Refurbishment and the RICS Award for Building Conservation. This latest recognition for the project was the Award for Architecture under the Altered Building category.
Congratulations to Fusiliers Stephen ‘Sketch’ Brewer, Printworks project architect, and Andrew ‘Thurminator’ Thurman, project interior designer and director in charge, Scott ‘Scoot’ Ryalls. Great work guys.
Thanks too to the wider project team including Leeds City College, contractor Sewell Group and project managers, M&E and structural engineers AECOM.
To see further details of the Printworks project, click here to take you to the project page.
