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Building products manufacturer Forterra is celebrating after a successful night at the Brick Development Association’s Brick Awards 2019, where it picked up three awards for The Interlock and was highly commended for York House. 
The Interlock – a newly-built, five-storey building in London’s Fitzrovia, which blends historic and contemporary aesthetics – won the Innovation, Small Housing Development and Architects Choice awards for Forterra and Bureau de Change Architects. The development was among nine projects shortlisted in the Small Housing Development category and was one of six shortlisted for Innovation.
York House, a 1980s office building in Kings Cross which has recently been transformed into a contemporary, high-specification workspace in an ambitious collaboration between Forterra and architects dMFK, was highly commended in the Innovation category.
Forterra’s Cradley Special Brick division provided bespoke bricks for both projects: Staffordshire Blue Clay bricks with a matt finish for The Interlock, and a Blue Brindle for the façade of York House. 
Speaking about the building’s innovation and design, the judges added: “Whilst not an innovation in the traditional ‘product’ since this is a highly innovative use of 3D design and collaboration with a manufacturer to produce a unique façade. This along with the innovative use of print templates, which essentially produce a ‘Lego’ map for the positioning of bricks, could greatly enhance the use of more complex or dynamic brick facades and increase both quality and productivity of workmanship.
“The façade is an exceptional design showing phenomenal attention to detail. The innovative use of 3D design and bespoke brick manufacture shows just what a versatile material brick can be. Brick is the most appropriate choice in the locality. Even though it is a blue brick rather than red or yellow, the brick blends an audacious design into context.
For more information about Forterra, please visit www.forterra.co.uk. You can also follow the company on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram via @ForterraUK, or subscribe to the Forterra YouTube channel.
