The University of Glasgow’s new, world-leading, James McCune Smith Learning Hub has won ‘Project of the Year’ and ‘Pupil/Student experience’ and came highly commended in the ‘Inspiring Learning Spaces category’ at the Learning Places Scotland Awards. It has also been recognised at the GIA Awards, winning the ‘Education’ award for its outstanding contribution to the education sector.

JMSLH delivers a bold vision inspired and driven by user consultation at every level, emphasising the student experience to provide an environment that is open and accessible for all. Creating a memorable gateway building that sits at the heart of a conservation area, the hub provides state of the art learning and teaching facilities for over 2,500 students and focuses on general teaching in a shared learning hub that embraces new teaching pedagogies and optimises space utilisation in a highly sustainable BREEAM Excellent facility.

Residential project, Lochside House, won the ‘Sustainability’, ‘Small Residential’, and ‘Supreme’ awards at the GIA Awards. With a connection to nature at the forefront of its design, it is a response to the challenging topography and geology of the site, and sits along the natural contours, making the most of its unique natural surroundings and views across the Loch to the mountains beyond.

The ‘Supreme’ award is a particularly important accolade, as this award isn’t distributed every year, and is “only awarded when the quality and ambition of the work is truly exceptional and outstanding”.

These wins acknowledge the HLM team’s dedication to progressive, sustainable architecture across different sectors.

Patrick Clark, associate director, said of the wins: “This is just fantastic for the team to have won these awards and to receive an award for both a large-scale civic building and a small scale house project. There is one thing in common to both, however, and that is how both projects benefitted from having a client who could articulate a clear vision and deliver a bold brief for us to design to – and not waver along the design journey. That is the foundation for good design across all projects.”