Architect has designs on awards glory

A project carried out by architects Morrison Design for the University of Derby has secured a glut of award nominations.

The university’s Bioscience Superlab has received four award shortlist nominations across two major industry award programmes, recognising the project’s innovation, sustainability and collaborative delivery.

The project has been shortlisted in the Best New Campus Development and Best Retrofit & Reuse Building categories at the CN Life Sciences, Tech and Research Clusters Awards 2026.

The Superlab has also been shortlisted at the Constructing Excellence East Midlands Awards in the Retrofit Project of the Year and Building Project of the Year categories.

The project transformed former office accommodation into a flexible, future-focused teaching and research environment for bioscience, demonstrating how existing buildings can be successfully reimagined to support modern STEM education.

A key feature of the scheme is the creation of three teaching zones within a single open laboratory space, enabling multiple classes to operate simultaneously.

As well as Morrison Design, the project team included Rodgers Leask and AtkinsRéalis.