d-on architects ltd won the following award for Skainos - RICS Building of the Year. The Skainos Project is a multi use community project located in East Belfast. Facilities include various community resources including seminar rooms, community hall, sports hall; classrooms, IT learning suite, day facilities, café, residential units, dance and music studio, an auditorium as well as a new public civic square. The site for Skainos was a full city block on which the existing buildings were demolished & the new buildings constructed. Extensive archeological works were required on site prior to the construction works commencing. Skainos contains a diverse range of facilities and stakeholders on the one site. The various new buildings accommodated include a college facility for Belfast Metropolitian College, Church, Sports Facility, Day Care for elderly, Day Care for children, living accommodation for homeless & apartments for a housing association. The design evolved around the idea of creating a new civic space off the Newtwonards Road to create public space in an area that had very little public space as many of the streets were narrow terraces devoid of trees. The public space was designed to be fully pedestrian with access for emergency vehicles if required. All the facilities were designed around this new public space. The main entrance and secondary entrances were all located around the civic square. The café was at one corner of the civic square with large glazed screens that opened out onto the square. A three storey green living wall was designed to the end of this space to address the Newtownards Road and create the enclosed staircase to access the apartments on the upper floors. The green wall and green roofs throughout Skainos create a green area equivalent to the whole site being covered in greenery, turning what was once tarmac and concrete into green space. We worked with local artists to incorporate art into the building from the large scale panels on the main facade to the Newtownards Road down to small details such as the ceramic sculptures that fit into the concrete wall formwork holes.