There were three award winners in 2026, with the plaques being presented at the Design Awards event on 7 July, held in the spectacular ground floor atrium area of the new Welcome Building on Avon Street, in the Temple Quarter Enterprise Zone, with the kind cooperation of its owners.
Ambition Lawrence Weston – Ambition House
The building places local people at the centre of both the brief and the outcome. It provides flexible and adaptable space for a wide range of community uses and, more importantly, reflects years of local ambition and determination.
The panel was particularly impressed by how clearly community priorities had shaped the final result. This is not a project where engagement was added as an afterthought. It is a project that exists because the community was prepared to define a vision and see it through.
At a time when community engagement is frequently discussed but not always realised meaningfully, Ambition House offers a compelling example of what can be achieved when local people are genuinely involved in shaping their surroundings.
Gap House, Bell Close
Bristol continues to face significant housing challenges, and the panel was keen to recognise projects that respond thoughtfully to those pressures.
Gap House stood out because of its clarity and simplicity. It demonstrates how underused land can be transformed into high-quality homes through careful design, efficient use of space and a disciplined development approach.
What impressed the panel most was not simply the quality of the individual homes, but the wider implications of the concept. This is a model with potential application across Bristol, helping to unlock smaller sites that are often overlooked yet collectively could make a meaningful contribution to housing supply.
Modest in scale but ambitious in intent, Gap House demonstrates how innovation can emerge through practicality as much as through technology.
The Welcome Building
Commercial buildings play an important role in shaping Bristol’s identity, yet discussions about design quality can sometimes focus more heavily on community facilities or residential schemes. The panel felt it was important to recognise a project that demonstrates how major, landmark development can make a positive contribution to the wider city.
The Welcome Building impressed through the consistency and confidence of its design approach, the quality of its internal spaces and the integration of ambitious sustainability credentials within a commercially successful scheme.
Importantly, the building also makes a meaningful contribution to the public realm around it. Rather than simply occupying a site, it engages with its surroundings and helps shape the character of this part of the city centre.
The project reflects the Civic Society’s wider role in influencing and supporting high-quality development across Bristol, including large-scale commercial projects.