Nationwide Building Society today announces the winners of the second Nationwide Sustainable Housing Awards. Launched in September 2009 in partnership with the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), this second in a series of three annual ideas competitions, was open to undergraduate architecture and design students. The theme for the 2009/2010 awards was ‘Suburban Urban - Secure and Green' with sub categories of new build, refurbishment and community projects.

As the third largest mortgage provider, Nationwide has a strong interest in housing issues. The Society is committed to supporting sustainable and affordable housing for all, and is confident the new competition will stimulate and reward innovative thinking about how people can live more sustainably in the future.

Design ideas were received from 44 students from 20 Schools and 9 submissions from America. The prizes were awarded by Wayne Hemingway, of Hemingway Design, at a ceremony at the RIBA's London HQ on Tuesday 8th June 2010. The winners were:

Overall winner, Community and New build category

Community category

New build category

In the same category, commendations were given to:

And special mentions to:

Refurbishment/regeneration category
A commendation was given to: Amelie von Celsing - Central Saint Martins, London

To recognise the support given to this initiative by the Schools of Architecture, the judging panel decided to award a special prize to the School of Architecture that has most embraced and supported the Nationwide Awards. This award of £2000 is given to the Welsh School of Architecture.

Graham Beale, chief executive at Nationwide, said: "We are delighted to announce the winners of these second annual awards and I would like to thank all the students who took part. There were some fantastic entries which made it very difficult for the judging panel to select the winners.

"As a mutual organisation and the UK's third largest mortgage provider, Nationwide is committed to affordable home ownership and supporting sustainable housing and communities for the future. This fits neatly with this year's ‘Suburban Urban' theme, which will encourage young architects and design students to build sustainability into their future designs."

Notes to editors

Details of the 2011 awards will be available to Schools of Architecture from summer 2011.

More information about the competition can be found at: www.nationwide.co.uk/mediacentre/PressRelease_last.asp?ID=1476

More information about the winners can be found at: www.architecture.com/competitions.
Commitments Nationwide has made to the pursuit of a sustainable future include:

• Recycling 100% of paper from all of its UK sites;
• Donating surplus furniture and office equipment to a charity near its Swindon headquarters, which donates corporate furniture and equipment to local schools and charities;
• Recycling used and obsolete corporate clothing;
• Offering members who use the Society's on line facilities and who have a FlexAccount, card-based savings accounts or credit card the option to receive online rather than paper based statements.