The team behind the design of Tŷ Pawb has been commended after winning three prestigious awards in just two months.
Following the Gold Medal for Architecture victory at the National Eisteddfod in August, Tŷ Pawb, designed by architects, Featherstone Young, came away with two more awards at the Architects Journal Retrofit Awards 2019, held in London earlier this month.
As well as winning the ‘Cultural Buildings under £5 million’ category, Tŷ Pawb beat off stiff competition from 137 other finalists to win the biggest prize of the evening – The Architects’ Journal Retrofit of the Year.
The annual Architect’s Journal Retrofit Awards programme is one of the most highly regarded in UK architecture and celebrates the design, engineering and construction excellence that prolongs and improves the life of our built world.
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Sarah Featherstone, from Featherstone Young, joined members of the Tŷ Pawb team to receive congratulations for the awards from the Full Council on Wednesday.
“Wrexham now has a multi-award winning cultural facility”
Mayor of Wrexham, Cllr Rob Walsh, said: “It’s no surprise that the architectural skill that Featherstone Young put into this project has been recognised on a national level, and Wrexham can be very proud of what Tŷ Pawb has achieved – particularly in a Welsh cultural context.
“Tŷ Pawb is ‘everybody’s house’, and it’s not just the design that delivers this inclusivity, it’s also the way the building operates and the positive approach taken by our employees, traders, volunteers and partners.”
Lead Member for People – Communities, Partnerships Public Protection and Community Safety, Cllr Hugh Jones, said: “It’s extremely rewarding to see the exceptional hard work that was put in to the design of Tŷ Pawb being recognised on the national stage.
“To transform an old market hall and car park into the modern, vibrant centre it is today is a fantastic achievement.
“Thanks to the incredible vision and creativity of the design team, Wrexham now boasts a multi-award winning cultural facility, built at a fraction of the cost of developing a centre like this from scratch.”
“Huge congratulations to the team, this award is richly deserved.”
A “revitalised” public building with a “strong national profile”
Sarah Featherstone (Featherstone Young Architects) said: “‘This is an important award recognising the value of reusing buildings.
“Tŷ Pawb has revitalised an underused public building and introduced a new experimental model that combines art with a range of activities. We like to think this has made art more useful and more accessible to people in Wrexham as well as developing a place with a strong national profile.
“It’s great to have won the award and for Tŷ Pawb to have this support and recognition.”
What the judges said
A “really innovative example of retrofit” was how the Architect’s Journal judges described Tŷ Pawb.
Architects’ Journal architecture editor Rob Wilson described the winning project as: “An inspired transformation of a substantial public building, using a surprising modesty of means, not just in terms of its budget but in the lightness of touch of the architectural intervention.”
Judges praised in particular the strong collaborative relationship with the client. ‘It’s amazing what has been achieved in this building from such an unpromising start,’ said one. ‘It’s an example of a project that almost seems to revel in being done on a tight budget,’ said another. ‘It makes a real political statement and ticks all the criteria-boxes for a great retrofit.’
Watch the video
Architect’s Journal have created this great little video to showcase the winning building. Take a look…
