Clanmil Housing's transformation of a 101 year old listed building on Durham Street in Belfast has scooped a top prize at this year's Chartered Institute of Housing's awards.
 

The new housing scheme, which includes the restored former Blood Transfusion Building, was named 'Best Housing Development' at the CIH awards ceremony on Friday 21 February at Titanic Belfast.

CIH, the professional body for the housing sector, hold the awards each year to recognise the outstanding contributions made by people working in housing and homelessness across Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. The restoration was part of a £3.3 million housing scheme providing a total of 23 homes. The development, completed in June 2019, was part funded by the Department for Communities and has given the previously derelict listed building afuture.

In order to preserve the building's original features whilst creating modern comfortable homes, contractors Geda Construction reinstated the sash windows with secondary glazing, restored the brick and sandstone detailing, repointed the original lime and improved the insulation.

The building was also extended sympathetically, to bring the total number of apartments to 12, with a glass atrium linking the old and the new. The development also includes 10 new family houses and a bungalow. Clare McCarty, Group Chief Executive at Clanmil, is delighted by this recognition for the new scheme. She said;

"We are very proud of our scheme at Durham Street. We worked closely with local political representatives and St Mary's Community Group to preserve this building,

which is really important to the local community, and to ensure we built the right housing mix to meet the need in this area.

"We also benefitted from the expertise of Harry Rolston Architect, Turley Planning, and Geda Construction, who helped ensure this architecturally-significant listed building was restored to its former glory and brought back to life for community use."

Clanmil is also a partner in the successful Housing Associations Integration Project (HAIP) which was awarded the 'More than Bricks and Mortar' award on the night for its good relations work in bringing communities from different backgrounds together across Northern Ireland.