RCKa is thrilled and honoured to have been awarded the Building Design 2022 Architect Of The Year Award for Social Value.
We’re particularly proud to receive this award as it celebrates both our body of recent work – which spans housing, education and community sectors – and the central ethos of the practice: to make a positive difference to the lives of people, communities and wider society.
Social value, now more than ever, must be considered over-and-above matters of aesthetics or beauty. This is also why we’re super selective about the awards we support. If a project’s not visited, or a client and user’s viewpoint is not considered, then at best any award is of little value to the industry and at worst it demotes lived experience to a meaningless two-dimensional snapshot.
The Social Impact Award, on the other hand, encourages architects to use their unique problem-solving skills, optimism and tenacity to bring people together around plans to improve their neighbourhoods. Having also won the inaugural prize in 2020, our work at the forefront of community resilience was similarly recognised at this year’s awards.
Our focus has pivoted towards lasting impact and legacy, embedding design processes and governance structures that make space for stakeholders at every stage of the journey; including long after a design team or construction organisation has left the building.
But none of this would be possible without our fantastic team, supportive and like-minded clients and collaborators, and the communities with whom we’re privileged to work daily to create a more equitable built environment for everyone.