Specification Awards

The awards are sponsored by the Guild of Architectural Ironmongers in conjunction with the Royal Institute of British Architects, they are designed to identify and reward excellence in the specification of Architectural Ironmongery in several categories. Over 50 buildings were nominated for the awards this year; both an independent architect and an architectural ironmonger visited each nominated project.

Jointly they produced reports on each product submitted, from these reports a National Judging panel were able to determine which projects were deserving of an Award.

The Trevor Gibbens unit at Maidstone Hospital, designed by Building Ideas also of Maidstone, is a 26 bed forensic psychiatric unit offering care in a medium secure setting for the rehabilitation and treatment of mentally disordered offenders.

The project required ironmongery offering maximum security with limited opportunity for self harm whilst creating a warm 'homely' feel.

Hafele's project team achieved this brief by specifying specially designed and colour co-ordinated anti-ligature pull handles, which were installed with tamper proof fixings, electronic locks were linked to a full online access system with a 12 month audit trail.

Head of Hafele UK's Architectural Ironmongery dept, Mike Kelly commented 'Although this was a difficult project, our estimating team rose to the challenged to provide a top class solution'.

'The judges noted that this was an above average specification with a non institutional design combined with eye-catching colour'.

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