Civic commendation for Mareel
Mareel has been awarded a commendation from the Civic Trust Awards for its architectural quality.
The building, managed by Shetland Arts, is one of five Scottish projects to receive the honour.
From 238 applications, 134 were considered by a national panel including 12 from Scotland. In total 79 received an award, commendation or community recognition.
Commendations go to projects that "make a significant contribution to the quality and appearance of the built environment and demonstrate a good standard of architecture or design, sustainability, universal design and provide a positive social, cultural, environmental or economic benefit to the local community".
Shetland Arts’ director, Gwilym Gibbons, described the building as a huge cultural asset and said the facilities meant it was a "creative hub" in "Shetland and beyond".
He said: “Mareel is a very special venue. A tribute to the design is the speed and the way in which people have made Mareel their new creative home."
He added: "It has become a buzzing creative hub with a busy cafe bar which doubles up as an important social and business meeting point. Mareel a huge cultural asset, an asset that has value far beyond Shetland shores and for generations to come.”
In their commendation the Civic Trust Awards described Mareel as: “a key element in the regeneration of [the] waterfront edge of the town.” They added: “The architectural response reflects the tradition of simple, robust forms and echoes the materiality of the fishing industry buildings dotted along the waterfront."