SPACE Celebrates ESG and Heritage Wins at the 2025 CENE Awards

SPACE Architects is proud to have been recognised at this year’s Constructing Excellence North East Awards, receiving the ESG Award, a Highly Commended for Hopetown Darlington, and the Conservation and Regeneration accolade for our Remaking Beamish project.

Clear targets, detailed measurements, and open dialogue define our ESG strategy. We actively track our carbon emissions across Scopes 1, 2, and 3, investing in research to better understand embodied and operational carbon within our projects. We believe in knowledge sharing, supporting our team’s growth through an employee development platform and university partnerships, while our annual climate conference has become a fixture in the regional calendar, bringing together voices across the built environment to share insight and challenge convention.

At Hopetown Darlington, we restored the site’s historic assets while introducing innovative interpretation that brings the legacy of the Stockton and Darlington Railway to life. Through interactive displays, immersive experiences, and placemaking environments, visitors are invited to engage with the history of this important site in new and meaningful ways.

Our work at Beamish exemplifies our commitment to conservation and regeneration. With funding from the National Lottery, we recreated The Grand cinema from Ryhope and introduced ‘new shops’ within the 1950s town, while simultaneously conserving farm buildings to become a Drover’s tavern, rural pottery and visitor accommodation within the Georgian landscape. The project has expanded the museum’s live-history experience and strengthened its role as a regional heritage champion.

Together, these projects demonstrate how our ESG principles are translated into tangible outcomes that deliver lasting value. They reflect our belief that architecture must extend beyond function, shaping places that support positive social and environmental change through context-led design.

We extend our thanks to the organisers and judges for this recognition and to the clients and collaborators who joined us on the evening. It was a wonderful opportunity to celebrate the achievements of our team and the collective progress being made across the region.