{"id":1037651,"date":"2026-06-19T23:07:21","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T23:07:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1037651\/"},"modified":"2026-06-19T23:07:21","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T23:07:21","slug":"aj100-client-of-the-year-2026-named","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1037651\/","title":{"rendered":"AJ100 Client of the Year 2026 named"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\">The trust \u2018exemplified what every architect hopes for in a client\u2019, according to Purcell, which nominated it for the award. The Shoemakers Museum, a purpose-built visitor attraction housing an archive of 25,000 shoes in Street, Somerset,\u00a0opened in September 2025 and celebrates the shoemaking heritage of Clarks, which was established in the town 200 years ago.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Purcell praised the trust\u2019s \u2018clarity of vision and unwavering commitment to quality\u2019. \u2018Their Quaker values, community before self, quality over expedience and long-term stewardship over short-term gain were present in every conversation and every decision,\u2019 said the practice.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-828909 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/AY8ZRRLADCCZDMJ_1794_-_NickGuttridgePhotographer-ShoemakersMuseum-Purcell-025-1-683x1024.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"683\" height=\"1024\"  \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Shoemakers Museum gift shop<\/p>\n<p class=\"inline_image_source\" style=\"font-size:12px; max-width: 693px;\">Source: Nick Guttridge<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">Judges were impressed with the trust\u2019s commitment, enterprise and sophisticated approach to sustainability at the museum, which combines new build with two listed buildings. This attitude included not hesitating to liquidate shares to fund a doubling of the PV array after energy modelling at Stage 4 showed that this would meet 100 per cent of the museum\u2019s peak energy demands. This decision, said the practice, captures the client\u2019s character better than anything else on the project.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">Throughout, said Purcell, the client sought to deliver actual carbon reduction, performance and longevity, rather than certification badges. They embraced early use of CLT and timber-concrete composite construction, a decision that, Purcell said, \u2018required real trust in the design team\u2019s judgement\u2019.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-828910 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Shoemakers-Stills00215883credit-Shoemakers-Museum-1024x576.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\"  \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Visitors at the museum<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">The client supported Purcell\u2019s desire to salvage materials, source locally and design for future re-use. Bricks came from Gloucester and glulam from the UK\u2019s only domestic supplier. Lime mortar was specified throughout for future disassembly and 70 per cent of the Blue Lias stone was salvaged from a demolished link building. An independent life cycle carbon assessment commissioned by Purcell gave the project a LETI A result.<\/p>\n<p><b>Shortlist<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li class=\"p1\"><b>Bruntwood SciTech <\/b>nominated by Sheppard Robson<\/li>\n<li class=\"p1\"><b>Earls Court Development Company <\/b>nominated by Hawkins\\Brown and Studio Egret West<\/li>\n<li class=\"p1\"><b>Elea Data Centers <\/b>nominated by Hyphen<\/li>\n<li class=\"p1\"><b>Haringey Council <\/b>nominated by Levitt Bernstein<\/li>\n<li class=\"p1\"><b>Theatr Clwyd <\/b>nominated by Haworth Tompkins<\/li>\n<li class=\"p1\"><b>Tide Construction <\/b>nominated by Assael Architecture<\/li>\n<li class=\"p1\"><b>Wandsworth Council <\/b>nominated by HTA Design<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The trust \u2018exemplified what every architect hopes for in a client\u2019, according to Purcell, which nominated it for&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1037652,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3939],"tags":[270817,285883,4021,4020,4022,77,31953,137364,1474,16,15],"class_list":["post-1037651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-aj100-2026","tag-aj100-awards","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-museum","tag-purcell","tag-somerset","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116779290718986740","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1037651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1037651"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1037651\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1037652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1037651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1037651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1037651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}