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Civic Trust Awards

The Assessment Team

Assessment Teams can be made of up to 4 built environment professionals from various backgrounds, each responsible for submitting feedback to the online Assessment Centre for projects they have visited.

Please consider the time implications required to undertake this role, which is likely to involve 1 full day of visits depending on the location and number of projects entered from the area. An additional half day/evening should be set aside to complete the online feedback for each project visited.

Assessors not only consider architectural design merit, but sustainable building practice, accessibility for all and whether a scheme has made a positive impact on the community they serve. We are proud of the high standards and rigour our judging process has, and that the Civic Trust Awards is the only awards scheme in the built environment industry that considers all of these elements within its judging criteria. 

To ensure judging remains impartial and allow for Assessors to experience the project as a visitor/user, judging is blind with access provided by a member of onsite staff or client. 

We endeavour to assign Assessors local to the projects to be visited, as well as offering the opportunity to undertake Assessments to as many volunteers as possible.

At the end of the assessment day(s) the team must have a consensus on what level of award the scheme is put forward for. Each member of the team must then submit a report on each scheme taken from their view point.

Assessor Roles

  • Architect Assessor: their role is to consider the architectural and design merits of the scheme in addition to other aspects of design such as sustainability, accessibility, and civic contribution. If the Architect Assessor is visiting a scheme where a Universal Design Assessor is not present, we ask that they also consider accessibility within their feedback (compliance with Part M and K of the Building Regulations as a minimum requirement).
  • Universal Design Assessor: their role is to ensure that the scheme has been designed with the needs of all users in mind. This ranges from people with decreased mobility, parents with small children, people with sensory impairments and everything in-between.
  • Community Assessor: their role is to provide feedback on the civic contribution of the scheme. How has it delivered a positive social, cultural, economic, or environmental benefit to the local community. The Community Assessor can be a practicing architect, a built environment professional such as engineer, PR/Marketing, journalist. Or non-professional representative with an interest in the built environment such as a representative from a community group or civic societies.
  • Local Authority Representative: a member of the local or county council who can provide guidance on specific or non-specific planning issues relating to the scheme. The LA Representative can be from the LA that the scheme is in, or another area.

In some cases (where available), the assessment team may be accompanied by:

Student Representative - In some areas, we are providing an opportunity for architecture students (University level) to accompany and shadow the assessment team on their visits. Student representatives will have read-only access to the application system and assessment feedback, providing them with a valuable learning opportunity. Where student representatives have been assigned, we ask that the assessor team offer their full support.