Griff Rhys Jones launches the third year of the Civic Voice Design Awards

The third annual Civic Voice Design Awards has been launched today by TV Personality and Civic Voice president, Griff Rhys Jones.

Civic Voice, the national charity for the civic movement, has today announced that the Civic Voice Design Awards 2017 is officially open for applications.

The Civic Voice Design Awards are the people’s choice for architecture and the built environment. It is the only design awards scheme in England which allows communities to celebrate the buildings, places and spaces they love for their high quality design and positive impact on the local community.

Following on from the success of the 2015 and 2016 awards, Civic Voice once again, invites nominations from community groups, neighbourhood forums and residents' associations nationwide for the 2017 awards. The deadline for applications for this year’s awards is 14th February 2017, with the winners being announced at an awards ceremony in Parliament in May.

We want this year to be even bigger.

In particular, Civic Voice wants to hear about well-designed housing developments from across the country and has announced two new categories this year for new housing: one for developments of up to 50 dwellings and another for larger schemes.

The new categories come at a vital time, with the country currently divided between wanting to get housing built as quickly as possible and communities demanding quality homes and development. 

‘New Build’, ‘Historic Buildings’ and ‘Public Realm’ categories are all returning for the third year. 

Griff Rhys Jones, President of Civic Voice, said of the awards, “The Civic Voice Design Awards are a wonderful opportunity for local communities up and down the country to nominate local buildings and designers for recognition. I am thrilled to be able to play host to this annual programme and hope it continues for many years.”

Max Farrell, Partner at award winning architect-planners, Farrells and chair of the Civic Voice Design Awards judging panel echoed this message: “I’m thrilled to be chairing the Civic Voice Design Awards. It is great to hear the community stories behind the nominated projects and to see architecture and urban design having a tangible positive impact on the lives of people throughout the country.”

Civic Voice Executive Director, Ian Harvey added, “Civic Voice Design Awards recognise those places that are loved by local people and make a positive contribution to their area. After seeing such a great response from local communities for last year’s awards, we want even more communities to come forward and tell us about developments in their community that they are proud of.”

Notes for Editors

If you would like to learn more about the Civic Voice Design Awards please click here.

About Civic Voice

Civic Voice is the national charity for the civic movement in England. Our mission is to develop a society where everyone can say “I care about where I live”. We promote civic pride through our network of over 75,000 individual members.