James Jones’s visitor building scoops two Scottish Design Awards

The Scottish Design Awards are open to all architects, engineers, graphic, interior and digital designers to celebrate class leading work, best practice, sustainability and innovation in all its forms.

“As a business, they're putting their stamp on the building,” said the judges. “Simple, elegant, sustainable and a showcase for its owner.”

The Lockerbie site is the largest single site sawmill complex in the UK and the most technically advanced. As such, pre-pandemic, Lockerbie received a high number of visitors – including small groups of customer visits, customer training courses, academic institutions, and industry events.

The idea for the building recognised the need to provide increased office accommodation, better visitor facilities, and the opportunity to host on-site training courses and industry meetings, which previously had to be conducted offsite. James Jones & Sons held a design competition between two architectural firms and the winning team was Konishi Gaffney from Edinburgh, led by Kieran Gaffney.

“We are really pleased and proud to have been recognised in these awards,” said Kieran Gaffney. “Both in the commercial category, which had some very strong work, and the Grand Prix for Architecture which is a very exciting achievement. Working with James Jones & Sons on their visitor building was a brilliant opportunity to showcase their materials and explore the possibilities of timber construction. We'd like to thank them for their trust in us; our consultant team for their expertise and the builder for their hard work and patience. Lastly thanks to the Scottish Design Awards for this huge honour.”

“We are delighted the new building received two architectural awards in last week’s virtual ceremony,” added Rob MacKenna, general manager at the Lockerbie site . “The striking design and innovative use of solid and engineered timber products are a great example of how timber can be used to deliver high quality office and meeting areas. Konishi Gaffney architects were able to articulate this in the building’s design and its fantastic their efforts have been recognised by the Scottish Design Awards. Congratulations to all of the evening’s winners, thanks to Scottish Design Awards as virtual hosts, and we’re looking forward to welcoming visitors to our Lockerbie site very soon”.