Blog: SECBE Awards 2022 finalist - Noviun Architects

29 March 2022

SME of the Year sponsored by Baxall

SME of the Year SECBE Awards 2022 finalist - Noviun Architects  

Now in its 25^th year, Noviun Architects have gone from strength to strength in delivering projects across various sectors, including residential, leisure and health and education seeing a number of projects complete on site as well as breaking ground.

Since becoming the signatories of the LETI (London Energy Transformation Initiative), which believes that by 2030 all new building will need to operate at net zero carbon (annual net zero carbon emissions), meaning that by 2025 100% of all new building must be net zero, the company is applying these principles to an increasing amount of new project. Noviun Architects see the climate crisis as the most important initiative within the industry to date and are striving to achieve these goals set to help change the future for many generations.

This year the company has supported two of our architects to become Passivhaus designers and consultants which means it is now able to actively contribute to improving the quality of its buildings using the Passivhaus principals.

Noviun are proud to be continuously supporting several charities. For a number of years, the company has been raising money for Jeans for Genes Day, a charity that supports children with life changing genetic disorders. At the beginning of the pandemic, Noviun also took the initiative of raising money for the National Emergencies Trust, which helped local trusts and those most effected by the coronavirus outbreak. The team wanted to encourage people to stay active during first lockdown. They did this to help their own mental wellbeing as well as to inspire others to do the same, which was very successful.

During the pandemic when there was a national shortage of face masks, Noviun helped supply 300+ face masks to local frontline staff across the south coast in an initiative started by Industry Prints.

The company has also begun to extend its knowledge in the industry to the peers at events like the Education Estates, Festival of Learning Spaces and Inclusive Learning Environments shows. Senior Architect Zane Putne has given talks on ‘Stress Reduction by Good Design in SEN Schools’ whilst Director Alastair Mallett also gave a talk about ‘Sustainable Learning Environments’.

Noviun feels it’s important to share the knowledge they have as a practice and collective group with the wider industry to help support a more sustainable and health-conscious industry all-round.

As well as our continued growth in the industry Noviun has also become RIBA mentors and have started taking part in the RIBA Future Architects student mentoring scheme. This scheme aims to introduce students to realities of practice, help them make informed choices about their future education and give support and guidance from experienced architects within the industry.

In the last year, Noviun have risen in the Top 150 consultants as well as in the Top 50 Architecture firms to 44 list by Building Magazine which is a testament to the hard work and dedication to everyone at the practice.

Key achievements:

• Several projects now being designed with net-zero carbon emissions in mind including 2 members of staff becoming Passivhaus Designers.

• Noviun have continued to expand the practice into different sectors of the industry including, residential, health and social care and leisure.

• The company has listened to its staff over the last year and implemented ideas across the practice to ensure that they are working smarter and more efficiently including new working from home arrangements and adapting their current flexi-time arrangements.

Find more about Noviun Architects:

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Find out who wins at the Constructing Excellence SECBE Awards 2022 Ceremony on Thurs 30th June 2022.

About the SME of the Year Award (sponsored by Baxall Construction): 

SMEs are the backbone of the industry and are recognised by Constructing Excellence for their dominance of and contribution to the supply chain. Department for Business Innovation and Skills suggest that 99.9% of UK construction contracting businesses are SMEs and some of the greatest innovation and best practice can be identified in this sector. More info.

>> Find out more about the other Constructing Excellence SECBE Awards finalists here