The architectural practice award is open to all UK registered architectural firms that have worked on projects in the last 12 months (April 2023 - April 2024). Their creative approach leads to outstanding features on projects and contributes to innovative solutions to difficult problems.

Entries will be judged on the following criteria:

• How your firm is responding to the current market conditions (Consider questions such as: What are you doing differently? What is your approach to partnering with clients and suppliers? What new products, services or processes have you introduced this year?)
• How your firm approaches sustainability in business operations and projects (Highlight specific achievements this year)
• How your firm resources training and R&D (Highlight how much you invest in people, skills and research & development)
• How your firm measures customer satisfaction (Highlight systems used and how often satisfaction levels are measured)
• How your firm approaches health and safety policy and corporate social responsibility (Highlight any achievements in these areas over the last year)
  

The category is open to all members of the project team for a project in the UK that has been completed (or at least one major phase has been completed) between April 2023 and April 2024. The award is open to all types of construction firm that helped to deliver the project. You should include pictures to illustrate highlighted project and entries will be judged on the following criteria:

• The look and aesthetics: Is it well planned, attractive and eye catching? Outline the client brief and the design response. What are the facts and figures that highlight its successful realisation?
• Innovation: Does the scheme have any especially innovative or novel features that made it stand out from the crowd? Were any innovative or unusual technical solutions adopted for the project’s design and delivery?
• Sustainability: What sustainability and other benchmarks have been applied to the project and what ratings does it achieve? And what if any arrangements have been made to assess operational building performance?
• Construction performance: Was it finished on time and to budget? What budgetary constraints did you come up against, if any, and how did you overcome them?
• Team work with the client: How involved was the client? Please provide a testimonial from the client where possible.
  

This award rewards construction firms that promote a high-quality work environment for their employees. The judges will be looking for evidence that employers are providing opportunities for career advancement including training and development initiatives. Employers should also have policies that promote wellbeing and a healthy work life balance including flexible working, a quality work environment, maternity and paternity leave and efforts to tackle a long hours culture. Good employers will have equality, diversity & inclusion embedded in the organisation, promoting initiatives that ensure women, people of colour, the LGBTQ+ community, disabled people and other under-represented groups are not disadvantaged in the workplace. Please refer to reasons that you deserve to win the award this year, with particular note to any initiatives that have spanned across April 2023-April 2024. Information provided in this submission will also feature in Building’s Good Employer Guide which we plan to publish in early 2025.

 Entries will be judged on the following criteria:

• Training initiatives: (This can include any training or development initiative for staff and supply chain partners)
• Equality, Diversity & Inclusion: (This can include measures to promote diversity, equal pay and initiatives to ensure under-represented groups are not disadvantaged at work. Explain how key metrics are monitored and evaluated)
• Wellbeing: (This can include mental health initiatives, physical health initiatives, staff wellbeing support, hybrid working and evidence of a healthy working environment)
• Benefits and policies: (This can include maternity and paternity leave, flexible working policies, employer-supported volunteering, enhanced holiday benefits, sabbatical/career breaks and efforts to tackle long-hours culture)
• Promoting construction careers: (This can include examples of outreach work to promote the design and construction industry as a career to the next generation of recruits and workers in other sectors)

This Award is not open for nominations, and the final shortlist will be compiled from Building's research throughout the past year. This Award will recognise a leading CEO who demonstrates intense commitment and dedication to the Built Environment. 

The client can enter directly, or be nominated by a member of their supply chain. This category is free to enter/nominate, and Building will also be undertaking research from our data partners to create the final shortlist. This category is open to any overall client for construction work that took place between April 2023 and April 2024, whether a programme of work or a single project.  It is designed to reward clients that show an outstanding approach to construction delivery, including through promoting supply chain collaboration, attitude towards sustainability, and delivering projects to time and budget. Supply chain members who nominate a client should include signed consent of the nominee on the entry form.

Entries will be judged on the following criteria:

• How the client is responding to current market conditions (What is it doing differently? What new innovations has the client introduced in the last year?)
• How the client approaches construction delivery (Highlight any outstanding features on projects, show evidence projects are completed to time and budget, indicate size of forward pipeline of work)
• How the client approaches partnering with suppliers (Evidence of collaborative working with the supply chain) The client's approach to sustainability in business operations and projects (Highlight specific achievements this year)
• How the client promotes a good relationships with the local community around its projects (Approaches to health and safety, corporate social responsibility, social value and training)
  

This category is open to any type of construction consultancy with fewer than 100 staff. This includes all types of multi-disciplinary practices and any other type of construction consultant, including building or quantity surveyors and project management companies. The projects and construction work your firm has been involved with in the last 12 months (April 2023-April 2024) demonstrates outstanding features and innovative solutions to difficult problems. You should include pictures to illustrate highlighted projects and entries will be judged on the following criteria:

• How your firm responding to the current market conditions (Consider questions such as: What are you doing differently? What is your approach to partnering with clients and suppliers? What new products, services or processes have you introduced this year?)
• How is your firm resources training and R&D? (Highlight how much you invest in people, skills and research & development)
• How your firm measures customer satisfaction (Highlight systems used and how often satisfaction levels are measured)
• Your firm's approach to sustainability in business operations and projects (Highlight specific achievements this year)
• How your firm approaches health and safety policy and corporate social responsibility (Highlight any achievements in these areas over the last year)
  

This category is open to any type of construction consultancy with 100 staff or more. This includes all types of multi-disciplinary practices and any other type of construction consultant, including building or quantity surveyors and project management companies. The projects and construction work your firm has been involved with in the last 12 months (April 2023-April 2024) demonstrates outstanding features and innovative solutions to difficult problems. You should include pictures to illustrate highlighted projects and entries will be judged on the following criteria:

• How your firm responding to the current market conditions (Consider questions such as: What are you doing differently? What is your approach to partnering with clients and suppliers? What new products, services or processes have you introduced this year?)
  
•    How is your firm resources training and R&D? (Highlight how much you invest in people, skills and research & development)
• How your firm measures customer satisfaction (Highlight systems used and how often satisfaction levels are measured)
• Your firm's approach to sustainability in business operations and projects (Highlight specific achievements this year)
• How your firm approaches health and safety policy and corporate social responsibility (Highlight any achievements in these areas over the last year)
  

This contractor category is aimed at firms with up to £500m turnover that work as main contractors. The projects and construction work your firm has been involved with in the last 12 months (April 2023-April 2024) demonstrates outstanding features and innovative solutions to difficult problems. You should include pictures to illustrate highlighted projects and entries will be judged on the following criteria:

• How your firm is responding to the current market conditions (Consider questions such as: What are you doing differently? What is your approach to partnering with clients and suppliers? What new products, services or processes have you introduced this year?)
• How your firm resources training and R&D (Highlight how much you invest in people, skills and research & development)
• How your firm measures customer satisfaction (Highlight systems used and how often satisfaction levels are measured)
• Your firm's approach to sustainability in business operations and projects (Highlight specific achievements this year)
• How your firm approaches health and safety policy and corporate social responsibility (Highlight any achievements in these areas over the last year)

Our Delivering Social Value Award is to recognise the contribution that the built environment has on people's lives. This category will assess construction projects that have had a social, economic and environmental impact in the UK. It is for a built project that can demonstrate it has had a measurably positive effect on end users, a local community or a targeted group. The judges will be looking for schemes that inspire others and demonstrate how construction can bring about positive change by creating healthier, safer and more resilient communities. Entrants need to demonstrate they have engaged with the local community from an early stage in the project.

  The project must have been built and completed in the last three years and is open to all members of a project team.

You should include pictures to illustrate highlighted project and entries will be judged on the following criteria:

Meeting the social, economic and environmental objectives: (What was the weighting given to social value when the project when it was tendered? How have social value outcomes been measured, monitored and reported?

How the project supported the growth of local businesses and contributed to local community groups (Please specify how much the project spent with the local supply chain and provide a monetary value to community groups. Explain what calculation methodology you used)

How the project promoted skills and employment (Please indicate the number of full-time roles, apprentices, work placements, school engagement activities etc)

How the project protected and improved the environment (What sustainability benchmarks were achieved?)

Social value innovations (Did you do anything differently? Are there any lessons that could be applied more widely throughout the industry?)

This category is open to any member of the project team that has taken advantage of digital technology to pioneer innovative new ways of delivering construction projects more efficiently, predictably, and of better quality. Initiatives can include, but in no way limited to, utilising digital technologies to make project design more effective or streamlining construction by using digital information in combination with an onsite or offsite manufacturing or assembly process. This award is also open to those who are utilising digital design and construction information to make building operation more reliable, efficient and lower energy, and the initiative must have commenced, or your work focussed, on the timeframe between April 2023 and April 2024.   

Entries will be judged on the following criteria:

• How innovative the initiative is and why it was introduced (Provide details to explain what the initiative is and how it works)
• How the initiative was successfully implemented (Show collaboration with other members of the project team where relevant)
• The benefits introduced by the initiative including time and financial savings (Provide evidence, preferably independently verified)
• How the initiative could be rolled out or scaled up (Show how this would benefit the wider industry)
• The long term benefits, including sustainability gains, the initiative could bring (Share the bigger vision behind this initiative)  

This category is open to firms who offer a variety of services from an engineering-led base. Firms working in all branches of engineering within the built environment are eligible to enter. The projects and construction work your firm has been involved with in the last 12 months (April 2023-April 2024) demonstrates outstanding features and innovative solutions to difficult problems.

You should include pictures to illustrate highlighted projects and entries will be judged on the following criteria:

• How your firm is responding to the current market conditions (Consider questions such as: What are you doing differently? What is your approach to partnering with clients and suppliers? What new products, services or processes have you introduced this year?)
• How your firm resources training and R&D (Highlight how much you invest in people, skills and research & development)
• How your firm measures customer satisfaction (Highlight systems used and how often satisfaction levels are measured)
• Your firm's approach to sustainability in business operations and projects (Highlight specific achievements this year)
• How your firm approaches health and safety policy and corporate social responsibility (Highlight any achievements in these areas over the last year)

This category is aimed at all sizes of firms building homes as either a standalone developer or as a partner with a public sector authority or housing association for which the entrant has a financial stake of at least 50%. The housebuilding work your firm has been involved with in the last 12 months (April 2023-April 2024) demonstrates outstanding features and innovative solutions to difficult problems.

You should include pictures to illustrate highlighted projects and entries will be judged on the following criteria:

• How your firm is responding to the current market conditions (Consider questions such as: What are you doing differently? Any new business ideas you have implemented? What has helped you stand out from competition? How do you deal with suppliers)
• How your firm measures customer satisfaction (Highlight systems used and how often satisfaction levels are measured)
• Your firm's approach to sustainability in business operations and projects (Highlight specific achievements this year)
• How your firm involves the community in the planning and execution of your housing projects (Explain your approach to design and community engagement)
• How your firm resources training and R&D (Highlight how much you invest in people, skills and research & development)
• How your firm approaches health and safety policy and corporate social responsibility (Highlight any achievements in these areas over the last year)
  

* The winner of the best housing project will also receive a complementary trial membership of The Housing Forum – the cross-sector network for housing organisations

This award is open to housebuilders, housing providers, developers or members of their project teams who have completed a large development in the UK of at least 15 new units between April 2023 and April 2024. (For large phased developments, at least one major phase must have been completed during this time frame). It is very important to include photographs of the completed development.

You should include pictures to illustrate highlighted project and entries will be judged on the following criteria:

• The look and aesthetics of the scheme: Is it well planned, attractive and eye-catching? Does it integrate private and any public housing provision successfully? Highlight your approach to the public realm aspects of the scheme and explain, if applicable, how you have integrated the scheme into an existing community.
• Innovation: Does the scheme have any especially innovative or novel features that made it stand out from the crowd? Were any innovative or unusual technical solutions adopted for the project’s design and delivery?
• Sustainability: What sustainability and other benchmarks have been applied to the project and what ratings does it achieve? And what if any arrangements have been made to assess operational building performance?
• Commercial performance: How has the scheme performed commercially? What are the facts and figures that highlight the scheme’s successful realisation?
  

The category is open to all members of the project team for an international project that has been completed (or at least one major phase has been completed) between April 2023 and April 2024. The project must be located outside the UK, and at least one UK-headquartered firm must have been involved in its delivery. The award is open to all types of construction firm that helped to deliver the project.

You should include pictures to illustrate highlighted project and entries will be judged on the following criteria:

• The look and aesthetics: Is it well planned, attractive and eye catching? Outline the client brief and the design response. What are the facts and figures that highlight its successful realisation?
• Innovation: Does the scheme have any especially innovative or novel features that made it stand out from the crowd? Were any innovative or unusual technical solutions adopted for the project’s design and delivery?
• Sustainability: What sustainability and other benchmarks have been applied to the project and what ratings does it achieve? And what if any arrangements have been made to assess operational building performance?
• Construction performance: Was it finished on time and to budget? What budgetary constraints did you come up against, if any, and how did you overcome them? Were there any particular challenges related to the region the project is located in, for example local regulations, policies or supply chain working?
• Team work with the client: How involved was the client? Please provide a testimonial from the client where possible.
  

The category is open to all members of a project team involved in a project constructed using offsite construction techniques. The project must be substantially constructed from elements fabricated offsite with the majority of site work restricted to assembly. Entries will also be considered for projects where one major element of the project has been constructed using offsite techniques, for example the building services. The project must have been completed between April 2023 and April 2024. This award is open to all firms, including manufacturers that have been involved in the offsite elements of the project. You should include pictures to illustrate highlighted project and entries will be judged on the following criteria: Project delivery/performance: (How did the use of offsite construction techniques save time and money? Was it finished on time and to budget? Please quantify time and cost savings. How did offsite construction increase quality and certainty of delivery?) Innovation: (Were any innovative or unusual technical solutions adopted for the offsite elements of the project’s design and delivery?) The look and aesthetics of the scheme: (Is it well planned, attractive and eye catching?) Sustainability: (What sustainability and other benchmarks have been applied to the project and how did offsite construction help with this? Have any arrangements have been made to assess operational building performance?) Team work with the client: (How involved was the client? Please include a client testimonial where possible. 

This contractor category is aimed at firms with over £500m turnover, working as main contractors. The projects and construction work your firm has been involved with in the last 12 months (April 2023-April 2024) demonstrates outstanding features and innovative solutions to difficult problems.

You should include pictures to illustrate highlighted projects and entries will be judged on the following criteria:

• How your firm is responding to the current market conditions (Consider questions such as: What are you doing differently? What is your approach to partnering with clients and suppliers? What new products, services or processes have you introduced this year?)
• How your firm resources training and R&D (Highlight how much you invest in people, skills and research & development)
• How your firm measures customer satisfaction (Highlight systems used and how often satisfaction levels are measured)
• Your firm's approach to sustainability in business operations and projects (Highlight specific achievements this year)
• How your firm approaches health and safety policy and corporate social responsibility (Highlight any achievements in these areas over the last year)
  

This award recognises the manufacturers who have really gone the extra mile in their partnerships with the construction industry. Any organisation that supplies a product or software to the industry is eligible to enter. Please refer to reasons that you deserve to win the award this year, with particular note to any initiatives that have spanned across April 2023-April 2024.

You should include pictures to illustrate highlighted project and entries will be judged on the following criteria:

• Customer service: (Demonstrate how challenges faced by the industry are solved by proactively offering initiatives or products that deliver success for their clients. Highlight systems used and how often satisfaction levels are measured)
• Innovation: (Explain how your solutions and products are innovative. Evidence can include metrics, product development information to solve a specific issue)
• How your firm is responding to the current market conditions (Consider questions such as: What are you doing differently? What is your approach to partnering with clients and suppliers?)

This category is open to all members of the project team for a project in the UK that has been completed (or at least one major phase has been completed) between April 2023 and April 2024, with evidence that the project has made an outstanding contribution towards reducing carbon emissions from the built environment. Projects entered into this category can include the reduction of the emissions from construction, operation and deconstruction of buildings. The award is also open to any initiative that promotes the net zero agenda. This could include design tools and monitoring and reporting mechanisms and tools that are focused on achieving net zero within buildings.

You should include pictures to illustrate highlighted project and entries will be judged on the following criteria:

• How you reduced emissions or achieved net zero targets: (Provide a clear explanation of the project/how the initiative works)
• The innovation in your approach: (Provide details of the technologies used to reduce carbon)
• The delivery of the project/initiative: (Was it finished on time and to budget? What budgetary constraints did you come up against, if any, and how did you overcome them?)
• Your ongoing commitment to wider environmental issues throughout this project and your supply chain: (Share the bigger vision behind this initiative, show the wider benefits to the environment)  

The category is open to all members of the project team involved in remodelling an existing structure in the UK that has been completed (or at least one major phase has been completed) between April 2023 and April 2024. The award is open to all types of construction firm that helped to deliver the project. Projects will be judged on design, sustainability, innovation and construction performance and procurement and team work with the client.

You should include pictures to illustrate highlighted project and entries will be judged on the following criteria:

• The look and aesthetics: Is it well planned, attractive and eye catching? Outline the client brief and the design response. What are the facts and figures that highlight its successful realisation?
• Innovation: Does the scheme have any especially innovative or novel features that made it stand out from the crowd? Were any innovative or unusual technical solutions adopted for the project’s design and delivery?
• Sustainability: What sustainability and other benchmarks have been applied to the project and what ratings does it achieve? And what if any arrangements have been made to assess operational building performance?
• Construction performance: Was it finished on time and to budget? What budgetary constraints did you come up against, if any, and how did you overcome them?
• Team work with the client: How involved was the client? Please provide a testimonial from the client where possible.

The category is open to all members of the project team for a project within the UK, with a construction value of up to £5m, that has been completed between April 2023 and April 2024. The award is open to all types of construction firm that helped to deliver the project. Projects will be judged on design, sustainability, innovation and construction performance and procurement and team work with the client.

You should include pictures to illustrate highlighted project and entries will be judged on the following criteria:

• The look and aesthetics: Is it well planned, attractive and eye catching? Outline the client brief and the design response. What are the facts and figures that highlight its successful realisation?
• Innovation: Does the scheme have any especially innovative or novel features that made it stand out from the crowd? Were any innovative or unusual technical solutions adopted for the project’s design and delivery?
• Sustainability: What sustainability and other benchmarks have been applied to the project and what ratings does it achieve? And what if any arrangements have been made to assess operational building performance?
• Construction performance: Was it finished on time and to budget? What budgetary constraints did you come up against, if any, and how did you overcome them?
• Team work with the client: How involved was the client? Please provide a testimonial from the client where possible.
  

The specialist contractor award is aimed at specialist sub-contractors - but not specialist divisions of main contractors that undertake, for example, housing refurbishment work. Specialist firms owned by large contractors are able to enter. NB please note that a specialist firm that operates principally as a main contractor should be entered into the relevant main contractor category rather than the specialist contractor category. The projects and construction work your firm has been involved with in the last 12 months (April 2023-April 2024) demonstrates outstanding features and innovative solutions to difficult problems. You should include pictures to illustrate highlighted projects and entries will be judged on the following criteria:

• How your firm is responding to the current market conditions (Consider questions such as: What are you doing differently? What is your approach to partnering with clients and suppliers? What new products, services or processes have you introduced this year?)
• How your firm resources training and R&D (Highlight how much you invest in people, skills and research & development)
• How your firm measures customer satisfaction (Highlight systems used and how often satisfaction levels are measured) Your firm's approach to sustainability in business operations and projects (Highlight specific achievements this year)
• How your firm approaches health and safety policy and corporate social responsibility (Highlight any achievements in these areas over the last year)