We begin our series profiling the winners of The Journal's third Landmark Awards with a look at The Rivergreen Centre. Rebekah Ashby reports on the 2006 Journal Landmark of the Year and the winner of the Environmental award.

Designing an environmentally sensitive building - complete with an orchard in the car park and an internal rammed earth wall - which is also a high specification workplace impressed the judges of The Journal's third Landmark awards.

So much so that the Rivergreen Centre at Aykley Heads, Durham, just next door to the police headquarters, not only took away the Environmental award but the sought-after Landmark of the Year title last week.

Developer and contractor Rivergreen Developments plc worked with Newcastle architect Jane Darbyshire & David Kendall with the intention of minimising the effect on the environment at every stage - from the building orientation to the choice of materials.

David Kendall, director of Jane Darbyshire and David Kendall, was delighted the development won the pair of awards after developing a relationship spanning 15 years with client Peter Candler at Rivergreen Developments.

Mr Kendall said: "As far as the dedication to this project goes, I think it's thoroughly deserved - there's been a huge commitment from the client and everyone who's worked on that scheme.

"The client has taken a lot of risk in delivering something with the impact of that building and done it without compromising the commercial characteristics of the scheme.

"We have developed a long-standing relationship with the client, so one of the most rewarding things was the way the decisions could be made quite quickly because of the understanding we had of each other.

"Also the building belongs to the client and they are based there so lots of the decisions were made at a very personal level, so it was nice."

The interior spaces at Rivergreen are bright, airy and efficient - despite all ventilation being natural - and externally the building sits comfortably in the landscape.

Landmark judge Simon Murray of CITB-ConstructionSkills said: "The building has been designed and constructed in an extremely sympathetic manner, taking into account the greenfield site, surrounding woodland, mature hedging and surrounding countryside and wildlife.

"The design and specification of the development was based upon the philosophy of minimum environmental impact in terms of material sourcing, construction processes used on site, effective use of the building and its impact upon the existing environment.

"There are some really interesting aspects to the scheme, including its live sedum roof, the rammed earth wall, comprehensive energy management system, as well as an orchard in the car park.

"The centre has been awarded a Breeam excellent rating and the judges were impressed that the developers were based in the building themselves, as well as producing a high quality working environment where cost and disposal were not the primary drivers for this project."

Rita Callender, partner of The Environment Practice and member of the judging panel, said: "The bottom line is that climate change is happening.

"The environmental footprint of our buildings is of tremendous importance in helping to fight global warming.

"We need to recognise that the buildings in which we live and work do have very significant environmental impacts.

"I am very pleased to say that this year's shortlist in the Environmental category saw some wonderful projects.

"They all performed very well against the judging criteria of design, innovation, energy efficiency and sustainability but the Rivergreen Centre went the extra mile in every part of the development."