The winner is...

Jun 15 2009 by Kelley Price, Evening Gazette

A FLAGSHIP building for Middlesbrough’s new digital hub has been handed a prestigious environmental award.

The LABC (Local Authorities Building Control) has voted the ultra-modern Boho One the most sustainable in the northern region.

The building, at the heart of the town’s up-and-coming Boho Zone is carving a name for itself as a North-east hotbed for creative and digital industries - a key sector in the Great North Revolution, launched last week by the Gazette and the CBI to map out a strategy for growing the regional economy.

The first businesses have moved into the low-carbon building ahead of an official launch in July. Now it has become the first in the Tees Valley to achieve BREEAM (Building Research Establishment) Excellent status.

Tim Bailey, partner at Newcastle’s xsite architects who headed up the £10m project, said: “We wanted to show how a large visual statement can help the place around it change for the better.”

Energy-efficient ground source heat pumps and vertical access wind turbines are among the low-carbon methods used. Up to 30 companies will occupy the building, which is the first of three in the supercluster.

Mark Elliott, director of project clients DigitalCity business, said: “It’s an amazingly well thought out building, unrivalled in design. It’s early days, but we know from being in the building for a few weeks it will work brilliantly.”

Competition finals take place in London on October 20.