The Catalyst scoops sustainability award at Constructing Excellence National Awards

The Catalyst has received the Sustainability accolade at the prestigious Constructing Excellence National Awards.

The Catalyst is part of the ground-breaking new innovation district in Newcastle, known as ‘The Helix’, which has regenerated 24 acres of former industrial land into a new mixed-use community innovation hub, providing a variety of research and development, educational, business and residential uses in the heart of Newcastle.

Gillespies supported GSS architects to deliver the public realm around the Catalyst, home to the national innovation centre for ageing and national innovation centre for data.

Sustainability was at the heart of the masterplanning and design process. Vast swathes of flowering perennials form part of the wider campus green infrastructure and a network of swales, raingardens and over land flood routes showcase a holistic water and flood management strategy. Gillespies also worked closely with the University research teams to develop the public realm as a live test bed, and ‘outdoor living lab’, for exploring the pioneering research on combating climate change through soil carbon capture.

At last year’s Constructing Excellence North East awards, the project took home the Building Project of the Year, Integrated and Collaborative Working and Sustainability awards. These wins guaranteed the project a place at the national awards, which brings together the eight regional winners in each of fourteen categories to celebrate the very best of the best.