Award for iConic Daventry building

A new 'green' building in Daventry has received special recognition from industry experts.

The iCon Innovation Centre - part of an £8.5million scheme - has won a British Council for Offices Award. It was also successful in the ‘Best Commercial Workplace’ category and will now go forward to the national final in October.

The state-of-the-art building provides office accommodation and support for firms working in green technologies. It includes 54 business incubation units for start-up companies, public exhibition spaces and conferencing facilities for 300 people.

The scheme was led by the West Northamptonshire Development Corporation, and is now owned and operated by the University of Northampton.

Liz Pickard, Consarc Architects’ Managing Director said: "The project set out to inform and educate the industry through its low carbon approach, new methods of superstructure and built in building monitoring equipment and post occupancy evaluation. To that goal, it has more than exceeded itself."

The iCon was funded by a partnership including the European Regional Development Fund, the East Midlands Development Agency and the West Northamptonshire Development Corporation. Daventry District Council and Northamptonshire County Council donated the land for the project.