Max Fordham Wins Big at CIBSE Awards

Max Fordham took home two of the most hotly contested trophies at the CIBSE Building Performance Awards last night.

The Practice won both Building Performance Consultancy of the Year Award and Project of the Year (Public Use) Award.

'This inspiring business aims to deliver beautifully engineered, low-energy buildings that work perfectly for the people who use them.' - CIBSE Judges

Senior Partner and Head of Sustainability at Max Fordham, Tamsin Tweddell accepted the awards on behalf of the Practice at the annual ceremony hosted at London's Grosvenor House Hotel.

Keynsham Civic Centre, headquarters to Bath and Somerset Council and one of the first buildings in the UK to employ the full 'Soft Landings' methodology, was awarded the accolade of Project of the Year (Public Use).

'Keynsham Civic Centre has been a really inspiring project,' says Tamsin. 'The aim for this building is to deliver a DEC A rating (Display Energy Certificate) after two years of use. Current monitoring suggests we are set to reach that goal.'

The Soft Landings methodology is one way Max Fordham is striving to bridge the performance gap buildings experience between designed efficiency and the way they actually perform once they are occupied.

'Distinctive among sustainable office buildings for its laser-sharp focus on achieving exemplary levels of low energy use and carbon emissions during actual operation, not just on paper' - CIBSE Judges

'This is the latest in a long line of learning undertaken collectively by the Practice,' Tamsin noted. 'The work we've done on previous, award-winning projects at Heelis, the Woodland Trust and The Hive, as well our post-occupancy research we've done, has informed much of what we've achieved here.'

Tamsin was quick to share credit for the accolade with Max fordham's collaborators on the project. 'Awards like this are not won by us working alone,' she enthused. 'Keynsham Civic Centre wouldn't be the success it is without the committed and creative work from Bath and North East Somerset Council, the architects at AHR, contractor Wilmott Dixon and the commissioning engineers at Core Group. This was a deeply collaborative effort.'

'We are all really proud of Keynsham Civic Centre. The challenging brief led to us developing a new approach and forced us to push the boundaries. It's really rewarding for the whole team to have their efforts recognised by the CIBSE judges,' she noted.

Max Fordham also won the Consultancy of the Year Award. . Max Fordham were up against stiff competition, including previous winners Hoare Lea and Red Engineering Design. Max Fordham’s dedication to mentoring, knowledge-sharing and active engagement, as well as the ability to become a partner in the firm, were all key factors to the practice’s win.

'They showed a human element of building performance; a complete strategy of how to focus on sustainable design and performance.' - CIBSE Judges