Recognising architects and their buildings since 2017

What we’ve seen this year is a refinement of what’s going on in the country. A lot of what’s being built is ordinary and what we were looking for was the extraordinary and I think we’ve found it in the Building of the Year that we’ve awarded to the new Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland building on York Street in Dublin.

I’m encouraged this evening to see that so many people are considering the environment and sustainability which is very important; that people are actually thinking and doing things that are worthwhile.

The standards have been really excellent, I mean we’ve seen really the best example of both architectural practices, of design, of construction and delivery of these prestigious projects.

This is massive for my brand because even in the last 3 years since we sponsored the Fit Out Awards and the Building and Architect of the Year Awards people are a lot more aware of our brand and you know when I’m phoning up and making appointments everybody knows Vescom now and a big part of that is down to sponsoring these awards.

I think this is just terrific because this is an opportunity to meet with colleagues: one meets a lot of colleagues from the industry, one also meets potential clients but more importantly one gets to socialise with people whom one works with a lot and often socialise with clients.

Having face-to-face networking opportunities is vital for our type of business and being able to talk to people and actually look into their eyes and for them to understand what kind of services you offer in a setting like this is so much better than any marketing we can ever do.