Our 2022 wrap up
We are excited to have so much to celebrate as 2022 draws to a close. This year, we achieved promising progress on a number of significant future projects, in the UK and internationally, shared news of our third studio opening and enjoyed major awards success. Our highlights of the year reflect the talent and drive of our team and the clients that have made innovative projects a reality.
At the beginning of 2022, we submitted plans for Culture House, a new cultural hub and library in Sunderland. By the spring, the project won approval and progress began on another key site in the Riverside Sunderland masterplan.
More recently our masterplan for the Sport Ireland Campus in Dublin was launched by the Government of Ireland, including plans for Ireland's first indoor velodrome.
In Canada, construction work began at Coronation Park Sports and Recreation Centre, a project designed in collaboration with hcma and Dub Architects to co-locate community recreation with a velodrome fit to host international sporting events.
Our plans for a new urban quarter at the Guinness brewery in Dublin were submitted for planning this year. The masterplan, developed for Ballymore and Guinness’ parent company Diageo, will open the gates of the historic site to create a new neighbourhood with more than 300 new homes, hotels, performance space, a food hall and market places.
Alongside these major Irish projects, we announced the opening of our Dublin studio, led by partner Niall Durney. The growing team is our third studio, joining existing offices in Newcastle, UK and Vancouver, Canada, where our studio experienced a year of immense growth doubling its capacity to support Canadian projects.
This year we were also proud to share more personal successes from the FaulknerBrowns team, including 7 architects who qualified this year.
Emma Burles, Harrison Avery, Lizzie Berne, Jack Lewandowski, Odette Valente and Josephine Foster all passed their part III examinations at Newcastle University, and Harrison Lowthrop became the first FaulknerBrowns apprentice to qualify as an architect. Congratulations all!
Completed project City Hall picked up several major awards in 2022, including the British Council for Offices (BCO) 'Best of the Best' award, which celebrates the best new workplace in the UK. City Hall combines a new civic workplace for Sunderland City Council with community spaces, public services and private tenants, in a building that welcomes the whole city.
Our interior design scheme for the project was also recognised by the Mixology North awards, winning Public Sector and Cultural Interiors Project of the Year.
Throughout the year, community leisure project Britannia Leisure Centre also saw tremendous success. The project welcomed nearly 400,000 visitors in the six months following its opening in Hackney and won the AJ100 award for community impact.
Alongside community leisure projects planned for Kingston and Woolwich, the project showcased our passion for providing more sustainable and inclusive public leisure facilities. Together these projects earned us the 'Retail and Leisure Architect of the Year' title at the Building Design awards.
At the end of this year, Britannia Leisure Centre was also named the overall winner at the New London Architecture (NLA) awards, rising above stiff competition from the best completed and future projects across the capital.
Finally, we won 'Architect of the Year' at the Architects' Journal AJ Architecture Awards, where judges praised our diverse portfolio of 'thoughtful and sophisticated' work. City Hall triumphed in their civic category and was described by one judge as 'the best building I've seen in years'.
We have been honoured to see our team, projects, clients and collaborators celebrated by so many prestigious awards and industry bodies this year. These successes are truly deserved and will bring both inspiration and motivation as we greet opportunities and challenges in 2023.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from FaulknerBrowns!