Double win for ZED PODS at BCI Awards
The winners of the 2023 British Construction Industry Awards – jointly organised by New Civil Engineer and the Institution of Civil Engineers – were announced on 11 October at the Grosvenor House Hotel, London. The Awards, celebrating its 36th anniversary in 2023, brought together more than 1,000 of the UK’s leading clients, consultants and contractors.
ZED PODS’ housing scheme, Hill Street House in Newport, Wales won the Residential Project of the Year category. After face-to-face review by a panel of expert judges, the social housing scheme designed and built by ZED PODS in partnership with Linc Cymru and Newport City Council, was crowned as the winner. The judges commented: “A quality product that transforms the way small projects are delivered on small, underutilised sites…. This project provides a unique solution that addresses social inequality, in particular addressing homelessness and providing a safe place for people to live while providing them with renewed confidence.”
The collaboration between ZED PODS and Mid Devon District Council won the Partnership Initiative of the Year, with the judges saying: “A good example of applying Project 13 principles and creating a partnership approach in the broadest sense. The project is meeting societal needs on a multitude of levels (affordable housing, MDDC Local Authority challenges on land availability, reclamation of brownfield sites, prisoner reform programme, net zero and decarbonisation of infrastructure). This is an innovative approach to solving an affordable housing need, which is sensitive to Local Authority and site-specific needs.”
ZED PODS offers an integrated
design, planning and principal contractor build service using timber offsite
volumetric housing. The units are space standard compliant, highly energy
efficient with ‘fabric first’ approach and renewable technologies to keep
lowest possible utility costs for the residents. Tom Northway, Chairman of ZED
PODS said: “We are extremely delighted to win both the awards amidst tough
competition which included some very large infrastructure projects. Both awards
demonstrate the quality of work by our inhouse architects, operations team, in
collaboration our clients. We successfully overcame numerous challenges to
design and build zero operational carbon social housing on brownfield sites
using modern methods of construction.”
