Speyside visitor attraction is a double award winner

A popular Speyside tourist attraction has won two accolades at a prestigious national architecture awards ceremony this week.

Knockando Woolmill and Forres-based LDN Architects were awarded the Historic Scotland Conservation & Climate change award and the Tourism award at the 2014 Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland (RIAS) awards on Wednesday.

The Speyside attraction had been shortlisted with 26 Scottish projects but won through when the judges deemed the woolmill “reinterpreted” elements of Scotland’s past.

RIAS awards celebrate Scottish architecture with other winners including the Commonwealth Games Athletes’ Village, Glasgow and the Grassmarket Community Project, Edinburgh.

After declaring them as winners judges at the event said: “The mill and its adjoining buildings, previously very much at risk, have been given new life. Visitor facilities and accommodation are subtle and understated, preserving and reinterpreting important elements from Scotland’s past.”

Winners of the RIAS awards automatically become the shortlist for the RIAS Andrew Doolan Best Building in Scotland Award 2014, which is announced in November.

The success at last night’s RIAS awards builds on the Woolmill’s Project of the Year and Community Project titles, which were won at the 2014 RICS awards.

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