Cowes RNLI’s lifeboat station’s show-piece reputation, already enhanced by being opened in 2012 by HRH Queen Elizabeth, has now been further boosted by a handsome plaque recognising the quality and ingenuity of its design.
The comprehensive conversion from its former role as a HM Customs house has won a coveted Open Award for Excellence from the Chartered Institute of Architectural Technologists.
The principal criteria for the award is that technical excellence is achieved through functionality, build ability, performance innovation and sustainability.
The citation described the conversion of an existing harbour-side building into a fully functional lifeboat station as an ‘extremely impressive example’ of how a project team overcame a number of technical and logistical issues.
CIAT technical vice president Kevin Crawford recalled that access to the site and the physical layout of the building was restricted, necessitating extensive re-modelling.
“The new slipway and the boathouse were the cornerstone of this project. All of the works had to be carried out whilst respecting the structural constraints of the existing building and the fact that the site was in a conservation area.”
Furthermore the new lightweight steel slipway had to take account of high and low water spring tides.
Overall this was an innovative technical solution to an extremely complicated project which the judges unanimously agreed deserved a ‘Commended’ award.
Although news of the award was announced last November, the Cowes plaque has only now been officially presented at the station by the CIAT’s president, Karl Grace. It was received by Julie Staunton architectural technologist of Winchester-based Studio Four Architects Ltd, responsible for the station, who then passed it on to the station’s operations manager, Mark Southwell.
