See Derby as never before …
Derby is changing. Everyone who lives here or visits can see exciting new developments in our city centre and suburbs. The city centre in particular is seeing more new development than it’s seen for a long, long time.
A display about some of the recent changes was launched for National Architecture Week 
and Derby City Partnership Week in June 2006. It featured a selection of developments of quality and interest from around the city. National Architecture Week is an annual public celebration of historical and contemporary architecture in the UK. ‘See Derby as never before’ was the theme for Derby City Partnership Week 2006.
The display was linked with a new award, the Derby City Design Award, made jointly by the Council and Derby Cityscape at the end of the year. The award was for the building judged to make the best ‘townscape’ contribution to the changing appearance of our city.
It covered recently completed new build development, including new build components of regeneration schemes for heritage buildings.
The purpose of both the award scheme and the display was:
- to help raise awareness of, and enthusiasm for, good design principles and practice in urban design and architecture in Derby
- to help to demonstrate that good design is being delivered within the city.
Winner of the Derby City Design Award 2006
The winning scheme was The Millhouse, Brook Street 
755kb. The Derby Evening Telegraph ran a story under the heading ‘Luxury Apartments Win Design Award’. The story included the following:
‘Two Derby companies are celebrating after winning an award for the design and construction of a block of luxury flats. Montague Architects and Radleigh Homes picked up the inaugural Derby City Design Award for The Millhouse, in Brook Street.
The £5m development of 24 apartments was completed in 2005 as a so-called city living-style project. It was up against nine other schemes for the award, launched jointly by Derby Cityscape and Derby City Council …
But a panel of judges ruled that The Millhouse - which won Radleigh's own award for architectural excellence in 2005 - was top of the pile.
Among the judges was Councillor Chris Wynn, the council's cabinet member for planning. He said: "It's an outstanding example of the type of building we want to see in Derby.
"The judging panel was particularly impressed with how the design complements the local identity - echoing the strong industrial heritage of this part of the city centre."
Fellow judge Nick Corbett, Cityscape's principal urban designer, added: "One of the things we were looking for was the way in which buildings don't just fit in with but add to a street scene."
Award certificates were presented to Chris Neve, Radleigh's joint managing director, and to Montague directors Jeff James, Paul McLocklin and David Swann.
Chris Neve said "For a company like Radleigh to win this award in its home city is a real honour. We're delighted." Paul Mclocklin said "It's an honour. We're pleased with the design and this makes it all the more satisfying." As Cityscape chief executive John Cadwallader commented: "Good building design is vital to the regeneration of the city centre and of Derby as a whole."
Derwent Stepping Stones nursery and training centre in St Mark's Road 811kb, designed by Redmak Architecture and Urban Design, was ‘highly commended’ by the judging panel.
As well as those mentioned above, the panel included Maxwell Craven, Chair of the City’s Conservation Area Advisory Committee, Sebastian Greenall, Westfield's Executive Architect -Concept Design, and Phil Murnaghan, Head of Environmental Sustainability at the City Council. As Cityscape’s Nick Corbett commented, “together we represented engineers, architects, urban designers, planners, developers, city council, urban regeneration company, and amenity society; a good balance”. The panel also had the benefit of an informal written assessment of each of the selections from OPUN, the Architecture and Built Environment Centre for the East Midlands.
Files about the other 8 selections included in the exercise are listed and can be downloaded. The files contain an appreciation of and photographs of each of the buildings.
For further information please contact the Built Environment Team
Telephone 01332 255060 Minicom 01332 256666 Fax 01332 255989 e-mail built.heritage@derby.gov.uk
