A north-east architectural practice behind an innovative, sustainable new build project in Aberdeen, is celebrating its third industry award win of the year, it was revealed today (Monday 13 June 2016).
The work of RIAS chartered practice MAC Architects was recognised in front of over 400 from within the construction sector at the 2016 North-east Trades Awards on Friday night. It collected its latest accolade - Best Home Improvement, Interior – for the design and delivery of Westwood Villa, at a prestigious ceremony and dinner at the city’s Ardoe House.
This win follows double success at the 2016 Aberdeen Society of Architects (ASA) Design Awards held in March where the dynamic team won the Residential Award and the Supreme Award for the same private project.
Sponsored by Stewart Milne Group, this year’s annual North-east Trades Awards, received the highest number of applications to date. From sole traders to national homebuilders, the awards reward and recognise excellence within the North-east trades and construction industry.
Directors of MAC Architects, Jonathan Cheyne and Blair Milne designed Westwood Villa in Stoneywood using cutting edge 3D BIM (Building Information Modelling) software. In line with their holistic approach to sustainability, the duo combined large areas of glazing with a super insulated timber clad envelope to achieve a highly efficient SAP ‘A’ Rated building. Several bespoke features were created inside the property to give a wow factor, including a contemporary floating staircase and bespoke full height doors with shadow gaps.
Jonathan Cheyne, director at MAC Architects said: “We’re very excited to have gained such fantastic recognition of our work at Westwood Villa, a project we will always be very proud of. We are strong advocates of sustainability and are constantly looking for innovative ways to make our buildings more energy efficient. Westwood Villa allowed us to unleash all our creativity and design and deliver something very special and totally unique.”
A panel of distinguished judges considered entries in 13 categories for the fourth North-east Trades Awards. Darren Ross, managing director of Xcite Ltd which run the award scheme said; “This year, more than ever before, our judges spent hours debating our finalists, before finally agreeing on the 2016 winners, due to the high number and standard of applications. Our Trades Awards 2016 winners collectively demonstrate once again that we have so much to be proud of in the north-east.”
Jonathan continues: “We remain one of only a handful of practices in Scotland to have 3D BIM software integrated at the core of our business. Thanks to this cutting edge software we were able to design and deliver Westwood Villa in an extremely cost effective and energy efficient way. Without it, we really would not have achieved all that we did.
“By April 2017, all centrally procured construction projects above a certain value must be delivered using 3D BIM. The upshot is that businesses will not be invited to tender for high value public sector work if they don’t implement BIM level 2 software to design and deliver their projects. Our growing team continues to encourage sub-contractors, engineers and the council to use and accept BIM more readily- and are holding a series of BIM workshops to help colleagues get up to speed on the software that is transforming the way we work.”
The BIM concept creates a virtual construction model of any project no matter what size prior to its actual physical construction and helps to increase accuracy, reduce uncertainty, maximise efficiency and simulate and analyse potential impacts.
For more information on MAC Architects visit www.mac-architects.co.uk