Marshall Building wins the top prize at 2023 Civic Trust Awards

The Marshall Building at the London School of Economics has won the top prize at the Civic Trust Awards.

The prestigious awards, which have been running since 1959, recognise the best work in the built environment and reward schemes that create a sense of place and identity for communities.

The awards ceremony, which was held in 'The Grand Hall' at The Marshall Building on March 31, brought together 300 architects, council leaders and built environment professionals from all over the world to celebrate the year's best work in architecture, urban design, planning, public realm and public art.

Six Special Awards were presented to schemes that demonstrated excellence in a specific field, with The Marshall Building winning the National Panel Special Award after being selected by award judges as their favourite scheme from this year’s projects.

Award judges praised the scheme, which was led by Grafton Architects with team that included Mace as contractor and AKT II as structural engineers, for being “exceptional in its contribution to the experience of its users and to the urban context which it helps to define”. They added: “The Marshall building is definitely a world class work of design.”

We, provided MEP, environmental, lighting and BREEAM consultancy services for the project, which achieved a BREEAM Excellent certification in design.

Our early-stage parametric modelling of the site informed the façade design, while our MEP strategy focused on passive design and creating unique solutions to match the architect’s aspirations for an expressive concrete structure with limited visible services.

We also conducted operational energy modelling with the university as part of our work and carried out a CFD (computational fluid dynamic) study for the lecture theatres to validate use of a low energy displacement ventilation system for thermal comfort high-occupancy areas.

The university has partnered with chapmanbdsp for MEP and environmental consultancy on its last three major projects, the Saw Swee Hock, Centre Building and The Marshall Building, in a relationship spanning more than a decade.

You can read more about our work on the project HERE.