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The ��������'s Ravelin Sports Centre has won best Leisure Project at the AJ Architecture Awards 2023, which celebrates the very best in architecture across the UK.

The sports centre was recognised for its “incredibly successful” design integration and for how locals had “embraced” the facility.

Competition judges also praised the pairing of different materials and productive working partnership between the architect, FaulknerBrowns Architects, and service engineers. 

The showcases exceptional projects that demonstrate design excellence, sustainability and overall contribution to the built environment and local communities. Winners were selected by a panel of industry-leading judges who visited every shortlisted building in each of the 20 categories. 

During their visit, Ravelin Sports Centre was admired for being “full of school kids and families. It really felt like local people had adopted it, which isn’t the case with a lot of university facilities.”

Paul Tilley, Director of Sport and Recreation, said: “To win Leisure Project of the year at the prestigious AJ Awards is an amazing achievement and something the University can be incredibly proud of. This latest award proves our commitment to delivering something special and unique and is worth all the hard work and dedication from everyone involved. 

“The real winners, though, continue to be our students and other users of the Sports Centre who are benefitting from life changing experiences through sport and physical activity in the heart of our campus.”

The award-winning centre, which opened last year, has now won a series of accolades for its innovative design. In October, it was the only facility in the United Kingdom to be awarded the 2023 IOC IPC IAKS Architecture Prize. It also won the Public Sector Project: Design Stage Award at the BREEAM Awards 2020, and received a top rating of ‘Outstanding’ from BREEAM UK, the world’s leading sustainability assessment for building. 

One of the UK’s most sustainable sports facilities, Ravelin’s features include creating renewable energy from roof solar panels and internal heat recovery systems, grey water recycling methods by reusing wastewater from showers, hand basins and pools for flushing toilets, waste water drainage by creating an urban orchard, and having a biodiverse grassed roof. It has been graded A, the most efficient rating for energy use in buildings, in a recent Display Energy Certificate (DEC) assessment. 

The University is committed to sustainability and aims to become climate positive by 2030, with this outstanding sports centre setting the standard for all new future developments.