Gold for the Brighton Dome Corn Exchange at the Wood Awards 2024
Two NBJ projects shortlisted for the Wood Awards, with Exeter College running in at a close second for the Education and Public Sector award, and Brighton Dome Corn Exchange winning across three categories.
In the heart of the City, situated nearby to London Wall and behind the Portland stone bridge stretching over the famed Throgmorton Avenue, you’ll find an organisation that has promoted the highest standards of woodworking craftsmanship for a very long time; the Carpenters’ Company, or historically known as the Worshipful Company of Carpenters.
Established some 750 years ago as a medieval trade guild, it carried the primary purpose of safeguarding interests of carpenters at a time when almost all of the City of London was built in timber. The organisation has a vast history, seeing through changes between the Tudors, Stuarts, Great Fire of London, Georgian, Industrial Revolution, Victorian and Edwardian periods, prior to entering the current modern era, which is set to present its own transformational challenges through the remainder of the 21st Century. The Carpenters’ Company’s mission evolves to suit the needs of the time, but its activities today mainly focus on charitable works, supporting the woodworking industry and crafts, providing scholarships, organising a variety of competitions and working closely with the Building Crafts College in Stratford.
It is also at the Carpenters’ Hall, in the delightful Banqueting Hall - which rather appropriately includes plenty of carved framework, with crown elm and utile mahogany decorative panelling, octagonal pattern cedar ceiling and Zimbabwean teak flooring - where the Wood Awards are fittingly held each year.
Established in 1971 (at the time of origin, called the Carpenters’ Award, until 2003), the Wood Awards could arguably be called the Oscars of the woodworking world. The judging criteria is stringent and rigorous, with an independent panel of industry professionals and experts led by Jim Greaves, Principal at Hopkins Architects, for the Building categories; and, Sebastian Cox, renowned designer and maker of furniture, for the Furniture and Product categories. Each and every shortlisted project must be visited and viewed in person, making for a rewarding and fiercely contested competition.
At NBJ, we had our first involvement with the Wood Awards in 2008, receiving an award for the for the complex timber panelling forming the oak clad balconies in the Taylor Library, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. In 2022, we also won in the best Interior category for our work in St. Paul’s Cathedral with the Remember Me portico, constructed in home grown English oak and recognised as being the first major addition to the magnificent St. Paul’s in 150 years.
The Wood Awards 2024 long-list had an impressive roster, with over two hundred entries whittled down to a shortlist of eighteen for Buildings and fifteen for Furniture and Product. The Buildings awards are then separated into Education and Public Sector, Small Project, Private, Commercial and Leisure, Restoration and Reuse and Interiors. Furniture and Product is categorised into Bespoke, Production, Student and Sculptured Objects, with the latter being a new category for 2024.
The competition for this year opened on 24 May 2024, with a midterm exhibition held at the Gallery@Oxo between 18-21 September 2024, aligning with the London Design Festival (and benefits from the designers and industry peers descending upon London for the popular and internationally renowned event). After the buildings, projects and products have been thoroughly assessed and adjudicated by the esteemed judges, the final ceremony took place at the Carpenters’ Hall on Wednesday 20 November 2024. We were delighted to have provided the joinery and interior woodwork for two of the shortlisted entries and finalists, The Jackson Library, Exeter College in Oxford; and, the Brighton Dome Corn Exchange.
Exeter College Library, now referred to as The Jackson Library, formed part of the college enlargement works designed by the famous Gothic Revival architect Sir George Gilbert Scott, known for his work on the Midland Grand Hotel (these days, it’s called the St. Pancras Renaissance Hotel) and the rebuilding of St. Nicholas’ Church in Hamburg, amongst many other 19th Century landmarks where he acted as the Master Builder.
The L-shaped college library is Grade II listed, and it was essential that the refurbishment works maintained a deep respect for this sensitive historic site. As such, Nex Architecture and Donald Insall Associates ensured that contextualism remained at the forefront of any thoughtfully considered changes. As main contractor, South-West and Oxford builder E.W. Beard, known for their high quality work, were responsible for pulling together and coordinating the trade works, as well as employing NBJ to undertake the specialist joinery.
Oak finishes were a prominent feature within the refurbished library space, with the crafted slats and cladding to the 15 metre cantilevered mezzanine, bookcases, readers’ desks, two new staircases, entrance panelling and internal doorsets throughout. All joinery was constructed in a carefully considered combination of solid oak and oak veneered birch plywood, with quality and longevity being core aims of the project. It is intended that the library will be enjoyed by students in hundreds of years’ time.
The Jackson Library ultimately came in at a close second for the Education and Public Sector category, with the new River Wing at Clare College in Cambridge securing the win. A worthy winner with the intricate oak glulam structural frame, comprising 525 individual structural connection details and put together with traditional carpentry jointing methods.
Our other finalist project, the Brighton Dome Corn Exchange, meant that we would be able to leave Carpenters’ Hall with a scoop of awards, including the Restoration and Reuse prize, Structural category - and amazingly, the prestigious Gold Award, which is bestowed on the overall top project of the Wood Awards 2024.
Working on the restoration was a true labour of love. It’s not every day you get to work on a Grade I listed Regency-era former riding house, built for the dissolute and rebellious Prince George IV and designed with the help of his architect William Porden in the early 1800s.
Fast forward a little over 200 years, and Feilden Clegg Bradley (FCB Studios) took on the challenging task of architect and principal designer for the ambitious remodel and refurbishment, an undertaking that began in 2013, after being instructed by Brighton and Hove City Council. The building works commenced in 2017 with R. Durtnell & Sons as main contractor, who went into administration in 2019, and were completed in 2023 by Westridge Construction. NBJ started our journey in 2018, and worked with both main contractors during the project up to handover in May 2023, just in time for the Van Gogh Live exhibition that was held at the venue immediately on opening!
The scale of panelling to clad the room was remarkable, with 6,500 linear metres of oak machined, finished and installed, a quantity that would get you half way along Brighton’s expansive shoreline and beach, which tallies to a mammoth length of 12,800 linear metres, or eight miles. Interior wood features include the 34 decorative pilasters, which are five metres high and replicate the detailing in the original Prince Regent riding house. Another key detail is the ten curved ‘eyelid’ arches at roof level cladding the dormer window internals, which were formed by bending thin layers of plywood and oak.
The Concert Hall boasts an impressive 763 square metres of floor space, providing flexibility for stage sets, seating and freestyle exhibitions. Whether you are looking down, forwards, sideways or up, the warm tones and timeless elegance of oak shine through. The entire room has become a stage and every day, the Brighton Dome Corn Exchange is hosting a performance showcasing the beauty and qualities of natural wood.
Jim Greaves, lead judge for the Wood Awards, commented:
“This team has put heart and soul into this endeavour. The Brighton Dome Corn Exchange & Studio Theatre stands as an excellent example of restoration and reuse which we can all learn from. It demonstrates that advanced engineering and skilled craftsmanship, allied with a sensitive approach to design, can deliver a repurposed building fit for the 21st century.”
The Prince Regent was notorious for his exuberant style, as illustrated with his other well-known building interventions at Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle - and it’s a joy to have worked on this scheme, which strings together the original features, while upgrading and protecting this landmark for many generations to follow.
Thank you to Nex Architecture and FCB Studios for nominating the two projects. We also would like to extend our gratitude to the sponsors American Hardwood Export Council, the Carpenters' Company and Timber Development UK for organising the event each year. Hopefully, we will be fortunate enough to have projects shortlisted for future events, as it’s always a pleasure to attend and celebrate the craftsmanship in our industry!
