It was a great honour for us to be invited to participate in the 2016 Manchester Society of Architects Awards during July. Rather than being present as guests alone, our founder Phil Coffey was given the opportunity to deliver the prestigious opening address, as well as to reveal a very worthy winner of one of the awards.

This fantastic event was as informative as it was entertaining and thoroughly enjoyable. Whilst those who are familiar with Manchester will be only too aware of how welcoming the city is to guests, with everyone seemingly determined that all should have a good time, we thought it would be of value to share some insights into what we mean by events like this being informative. In quite a number of respects with regards to this it can be said that architects awards are quite different from similar ceremonies in other sectors.

One of the starkest differences between architects’ awards ceremonies like this one and others is that quite often it’s an unfinished work which is presented and awarded. There are two streams for the awards given by the Manchester Society, with one recognizing built work and one focused on unbuilt work. We found both this year to be highly informative, and to have significant bearing on our own commercial architecture work.

The two different award styles are particularly telling in respect of commercial architecture work. In terms of the nominated work for completed buildings, it lets us see how the architectural requirements and ambitions are translated into a viable working place. By contrast, the works nominated for as yet unbuilt commercial buildings give us a sense of the direction in which architecture for businesses is moving, providing valuable insights into how modern styles are embracing the ever changing requirements of this sector.

Once again we’d like to say how delighted we were to be able to participate in this award ceremony. It was truly inspirational to see the magnificent work being produced by our contemporaries from across the country and overseas too, with the evening providing us with many elements to consider in our own commercial architecture work.