Two MICA projects shortlisted for RICS Awards 2020

The H B Allen Centre and Lincoln’s Inn have recently been shortlisted for RICS Social Impact Awards 2020. These awards highlight excellence at a regional and national level, identifying the projects making a positive impact in the built environment on people’s lives.

MICA’s H B Allen Centre, Oxford has been shortlisted in the Education category, South East region. The innovative new building is a multi-faceted amenity for Keble College which maximises development in the central Oxford site. The primary function of the building was to deliver 250 graduate student bedrooms, much needed in the centre of the University city. The brief expanded to encompass a research hotel for visiting academics, a tech start-up incubator, teaching and research spaces, conference facilities, a café, common room and leisure amenities for the residents, and extensive external landscape, all within a 1.7 hectare site in the North Oxford Victorian Suburb Conservation Area, built around the Grade II listed Acland House by TG Jackson. The new quad complex is fully accessible, offering integrated residential accommodation that meets the needs of those with mobility impairments, and dedicated rooms for allergy sufferers, which have proved immensely popular. The building completed and opened in September 2019.

The Lincoln's Inn Great Hall and Library has been shortlisted in the Heritage category, London region. The project involved sensitive refurbishment of the Grade II* Listed Great Hall and insertion of new education, library and administrative facilities, consolidating the Inn’s core activities at the heart of the estate. MICA took a holistic approach to the complex of buildings, removing insensitive 20th century additions to reveal the character of the Great Hall and introducing new elements that integrate seamlessly with historic fabric and add to the Inn’s rich history of buildings. The new and improved buildings provide the Inn with much improved accommodation that preserves and enhances the Inn's ability to meet the needs of its legal community.

The awards results will be announced early June.

To read more about Lincoln's Inn click here, and to read more about H B Allen Centre click here.