The Brick Awards 2000 celebrate exceptional standards of work in brick. More than 200 buildings were entered for 10 categories, plus an overall award for the Building of the Year. This year's awards ceremony, held on Tuesday at London's Café Royal, was compered by Building editor Adrian Barrick and organised by The Builder Group and the Brick Development Association. The prestigious event was sponsored by Travis Perkins and barbourexpert.com, the new internet portal for the construction industry from the publisher of Building.
Best public building and BDA Building of the Year is Coventry Library and Learning Resource Centre. This dynamic piece of architecture creates a new brick vernacular that reflects the objective of sustainability. As well as being an impressive contribution to the skyline of Coventry, this imaginative six-storey university scheme is designed to be environment-conscious. Central to its concept is the natural ventilation system. Fresh air enters into a plenum on the ground floor, and 10 brick towers around the perimeter extract stale air using a stacking effect. The design reduces energy requirements and sets a new standard in valuable, high-quality university accommodation. It is a landmark building.

Best public building and Brick Development Association Building of the Year
Coventry Library and Learning Resource Centre
client University of Coventry
designer Alan Short & Associates
structural engineer Taylor Boyd & Hancock
main contractor/builder Totty Group
brick manufacturer Marshalls Clay Products

The award for best single house goes to Balihoo in Caversham, a stylish riverside house that embodies strongly expressed architectural forms and refined details.

Best single house
Balihoo, Caversham, Berkshire
client Jeremy Paxton
designer Adrian James Architects
structural engineer Alan Barnes
main contractor/builder G Cox Builders
brick manufacturer Bovingdon Brickworks

The towers and terraces that constitute Blackwall Basin, the best private housing development, demonstrate carefully detailed design. Dramatic views of the Thames are exploited to good effect, and the scheme also boasts attractive, sunny courtyards.

Best private housing development
Blackwall Basin, east London
client Wates Built Homes
designer David Richmond & Partners
structural engineer Aspen Burrow Crocker
main contractor/builder Wates Built Homes
brick manufacturers Ibstock Brick, Ambion Brick

The best public housing development is a student accommodation scheme in Belfast. The warm, congenial atmosphere of Beveridge Hall has been achieved by the colour and texture of the materials, the detailed design of the buildings and the sensitive landscaping of the spaces between them.

Best public housing development
Beveridge Hall, Belfast
client The Queen's University of Belfast
designer Roger McMichael
structural engineer Kirk McClure Morton
main contractor/builder Felix O'Hare & Co
brick manufacturer Baggeridge Brick

The World of Glass Museum in St Helens shows the best structural use of brick. The robust solidity of structural brickwork, in conical and fin-wall forms, contrasts strikingly with the airy transparency of the glass-enveloped linking spaces of this new heritage museum.

Best structural use of brick
The World of Glass Museum, St Helens, Merseyside
client The World of Glass Museum
designer Geoffrey Reid Associates
structural engineer Building Design Partnership
main contractor/builder Taylor Woodrow
brick manufacturer Ibstock Brick

The corporate headquarters development for Canon UK in Reigate is chosen as the best landscape project because of how well the hard landscape elements have been integrated with the buildings. This has been achieved not only by the use of complementary materials, but also by arresting sculptural and planting features that pass through the glazing that separates interior and exterior space.

Best landscape project
Canon UK, Reigate, Surrey
client Canon UK
designer Holden Liversedge
structural engineer Curtins Consulting Engineers
main contractor/builder Wates Construction
brick manufacturer Baggeridge Brick

This elegant headquarters complex is also considered to be this year's

best commercial building. Harmonious proportions and refined linearity pervade the scheme, and design standards are high throughout, from major spaces to fine detail.

Best commercial building
Canon UK, Reigate, Surrey
client Canon UK
designer Holden Liversedge
structural engineer Curtins Consulting Engineers
main contractor/builder Wates Construction
brick manufacturer Baggeridge Brick

Best refurbishment project is Ikon Gallery in Birmingham. The gallery designers showed remarkable sensitivity in deciding the degree of intervention necessary to re-establish the building's quality of appearance, while taking care to retain benign evidence of age.

Best refurbishment project
Ikon Gallery, Birmingham
client Ikon Gallery
designer Levitt Bernstein
structural engineer Peel and Fowler
main contractor/builder Carillion Building
brick manufacturer Ibstock Brick

The Church of Corpus Christi won the award for best craftsmanship because of the consistently high standards achieved in constructing a variety of challenging details. Facing brickwork is used externally and internally, with several arches and many decorative features that use special shaped bricks.

Best craftsmanship award
Church of Corpus Christi (RC), Tring, Hertfordshire
client Corpus Christi Parish
designer Anthony Delarue Associates
structural engineer Robert Tucker Associates
main contractor/builder EW Rayment & Co
brick manufacturers Charnwood Forest Brick, Sussex Hand Made Brick, Chelwood Brick

Winner of the award for best export, Tallaght Regional Hospital in Dublin achieves a warm, welcoming, human scale in spite of its large size. Plain buff brickwork, relieved by band courses of dark blue brindle bricks, is used externally and internally, giving a strong sense of unity to the extensive complex. The use of brick in a new hospital is unusual, but here seems an ideal choice – durable, maintenance-free, and of fine appearance.

Best export award
Tallaght Regional Hospital, Dublin
client Tallaght Hospital Board
designer Robinson Keefe & Devane
structural engineer Thomas Garland & Partners
main contractor/builder Laing/John Paul Construction
brick manufacturer Ambion Brick