Gordon Murray + Alan Dunlop Architects, recipents of one of CBE's KTTBE Awards, have won a DesignShare Honor Award for their design of the Hazlewood School for the Multiple Sensory Impaired. The 'Scottish Constuction News' published the below article on what is the first school in Britain to recieve such an award.

GM+AD-DESIGNED ACADEMY WINS DESIGNSHARE AWARD

The awards programme, based in the USA, is the world's most widely recognised programme focusing on the design of innovative learning environments. The Honor Award is the highest category in this annual international awards programme.

Alan Dunlop said: "It is the award we most wanted to win, for it goes way beyond an architecture award for you are judged as much on the performance of the school, your philosophy and approach as well as the quality of the architecture. No school from Britain has ever won it. It is a great honour, or honor, for us, for the school and for Glasgow. So we're absolutely delighted."

Arnie Dunn, President of the RIAS, added: "Murray + Dunlop's international success is a huge credit to their practice and is indicative of the good health of Scottish architecture. Hazelwood School is a highly sensitive and thoughtful building which addresses the needs of some of our most vulnerable citizens in a respectful way."

Hazelwood School caters for 60 students with multiple disabilities, aged from two to 19. Each student has a combination of two or more of the following impairments: visual impairment, hearing impairment, mobility or cognitive impairment. The design focused on creating a safe, stimulating environment for pupils and staff. Gordon Murray + Alan Dunlop Architects set out to eliminate any institutional feel and worked to avoid conventional/standard details, creating a bespoke design that incorporates visual, sound and tactile clues.

Hazelwood School has also been nominated for a World Festival of Architecture Award.

Since 2000, the annual DesignShare Awards program has been redefining the global vocabulary for educational facility design by challenging traditional standards and committing to learner-centred, cost-efficient and sustainable learning environments.