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Teesside Bios shortlisted for an RIBA Award

We’re delighted to announce that Teesside University Bios has been shortlisted in the RIBA North East Awards 2025, alongside five other projects in the region.

This follows the building's Constructing Excellence award recognition in 2024, with Building Project of the Year and Integration and Collaborative Working wins in the North East categories, before going on to win the national Building Project of the Year award.

Bios is a state-of-the-art facility at the university, which supports the training of the next generation of nurses, paramedics, pharmacists and professionals in life and forensic sciences. The building provides specialist teaching facilities for clinical skills, including simulated healthcare environments, while the leading-edge laboratories support life and forensic sciences and clinical subjects including anatomy, pharmacy, microbiology, chemistry, Earth sciences and food sciences. The specialist facilities are anchored by central shared meeting, teaching, learning and café spaces, creating a focus for social, outreach and collaborative activity across the school.

“The structural and fabric approaches for Bios were informed by detailed consideration of embodied carbon, prioritising long-life materials and efficient structural solutions. There was also a strong aspiration to create a building that would positively influence health and wellbeing, enabling users and visitors to ‘Connect, Be Active, Take Notice, Keep Learning and Give’, in line with the internationally recognised ‘Five Ways to Wellbeing’ framework.”
Ian Whittle
Associate Partner
Teesside university bios school of health and life sciences corner facade detail with public realm 3x4

Our masterplan for Teesside University identified the need to significantly improve its ageing Health and Life Sciences facilities, which were spread out across the campus. We proposed the creation of a Health and Wellbeing Quarter and working closely with diverse stakeholders, including academic and technical representatives, we rapidly developed a firm brief and a clear spatial strategy, establishing Bios.

“FaulknerBrowns' team has taken time and care to understand the needs of the University community and key stakeholders… their attention to detail in layout, choice of materials, colour palette, furniture and use of daylight has been nothing less than outstanding.”
Darren Vipond
Teesside University
Teesside university bios school of health and life sciences feature stair in cafe 3x4

The university set a new standard for projects with their sustainability standards and requirements for Bios. Alongside a commitment to low whole life carbon emissions, BREEAM Outstanding sustainability certification was targeted–and successfully awarded at the start of 2025. Beyond the sustainability improvements, replacing outdated and energy inefficient laboratory facilities dispersed across the campus with one specialist facility has helped the university meet student demand, facilitate greater inter-disciplinary collaboration and enable the delivery of new courses.

Each shortlisted project will soon be visited by a regional jury, and the winning projects will be announced later this spring. They will then be eligible for several RIBA Special Awards, including the RIBA Sustainability Award and RIBA Building of the Year, before being considered for an RIBA National Award, which will be announced in summer.

“These projects all represent a desire to make an impact on and improve their communities; from state-of-the-art university buildings in Teesside, new infrastructure for Sunderland and the Farrell Centre in Newcastle.”
RIBA North East Jury Chair
Amy Waite
Teesside university bios school of health and life sciences students working in laboratory 3x2

See the other shortlisted projects and further 2025 award categories here.