RCKa’s Enfield Business Centre wins AJ Small Projects Sustainability Award

RCKa took home the £500 AJ Small Projects Sustainability Award for the project which the judges felt had given the existing centre a ‘new lease of life and a new identity’.

The judging panel, chaired by AJ acting editor Rory Olcayto and including sustainability editor Hattie Hartman, DSDHA’s Deborah Saunt, Pocket design director Russ Edwards, Vicky Legrove of Jackson Coles and Paul Reed from competition sponsor Marley Eternit, were impressed by the impact the £240,000 refurbishment had on the existing high street.

The judges said they ‘enjoyed the simplicity’ of the project, which was financed by the Mayor’s Outer London Fund.

‘Who cares about air-tightness? It’s about reviving the high street,’ said Olcayto.

Saunt praised the architects for how they had ‘worked hard with the client to understand where to spend money and add value’.

The top prize was awarded to Carmody Groarke’s temporary Maggie’s Centre in Merseyside.

Now in its twentieth year, the AJ Small Projects Awards have been sponsored by Marley Eternit for five years running.

Last year the award was picked up by Chris Dyson Architects’ 13 Wapping Pierhead, while the Sustainability Prize went to Gillespie Yunnie’s staircase at the Royal William Yard in Plymouth.

The finalists’ designs will all go on display in an exhibition at the Building Centre on Store Street from 18 March to 11 April.