Derby Silk Mill takes home prestigious Construction News Award
The Alliance Team for Derby Silk Mill has won Project of the Year (under £20m) at the 2021 Construction News Awards for its restoration and conservation of the world heritage site.
This £18m project saw the sympathetic restoration of the mill from a state of degradation, retaining nearly all the fabric of the original building and turning it into the new Museum of Making, incorporating workshops, learning spaces and co-working hubs.
The mill building dates from 1721 and is part of the Derwent Valley Mills UNESCO World Heritage site, with the project bringing the building back to life for the first time in 50 years.
Starting in 2012, client Derby Museums launched a collaborative process that would ultimately lead to the 2017 adoption of the Integrated Project Insurance (IPI) procurement model – the first time this approach had been used for a retrofit project.
IPI is built around a shared model of risk and reward in which, among other things, participants agree not to sue each other. Risk was shared through mutual agreement, with the client taking 14 per cent and the main contractor, Speller Metcalfe, shouldering 23 per cent.
The seven IPI alliance members – Speller Metcalfe, Bauman Lyons Architects, GCA Consulting Engineers, IPInitiatives, Preston Barber, Derry Building Services and Core – delivered the project on time and to budget, despite the impact of COVID and suppliers going into administration.
Celebrating its 25th year, the inspirational winners of the 2021 Construction News Awards were crowned in front of the industry on Wednesday 15 September at the Grosvenor House Hotel on Park Lane in London.
Following a rigorous judging process with a prestigious and independent panel of judges, the CN Awards judges said this project had a real wow factor: “A high-quality scheme bringing a disused factory back into use in a World Heritage site.”
The judges were particularly impressed with the project’s successful use of IPI, “blazing a trail for the themes in the government’s Construction Playbook”, with “a brave client adopting an innovative choice of procurement strategy, which has underpinned the delivery of fantastic results through true collaboration”.
Lem Bingley, editor of Construction News said: “After the trials of the past year it was great to be able to celebrate the achievements of so many organisations from right across the construction industry.”
“Despite the challenges thrown up by the pandemic, construction firms have continued to deliver outstanding results for their clients. Well done to all those entrants that achieved high commendations from our judges, and congratulations to our amazing winners. Together, these outstanding organisations show why we should all be proud to be part of an industry that really is building back better.”
The restoration of the Silk Mill has also been awarded five Constructing Excellence (CE) awards at this year’s East Midlands CE Awards ceremony, which included the prestigious Building Project of the Year and the overall Winner of Winner’s category. It is also a finalist for the upcoming Building Awards this November.
The full list of winners can be found at: awards.constructionnews.co.uk/2021-winners-finalists
