BCO_National_Awards_2026_Suplement - Flipbook - Page 7
PRESIDENT’S AWARD
BCO Awards 2026
President’s Award
Professor Janice Kirkpatrick OBE
T
he BCO President’s Award
recognises a career of leadership,
a sustained influence on the built
environment, innovation in workplace
thinking and a lasting contribution to our
profession and its wider purpose. Few
people embody those qualities more fully
than Professor Janice Kirkpatrick OBE,
Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
Born in Dumfries, Janice graduated
from The Glasgow School of Art in 1984,
winning the Newbery Medal as the
outstanding student across its schools.
Two years later, against a backdrop
of historically high unemployment,
she co-founded Graven with her
architect husband. It was an ambitious
act at a time when Scotland had
no cross-disciplinary international
design businesses.
Four decades on, that ambition
has become an extraordinary body
of work across many sectors in more
than 40 countries. Janice and Graven
bring together brand, communication,
interiors, architecture and workplace
engagement. Her skill as a creative
director and generosity as a listener bring
people with her as she artfully connects
what an organisation believes with what
its people and visitors experience.
Her contribution is both sustained and
measurable. Across 18 years, Janice and
Graven have been associated with eight
BCO Regional Awards and three National
Awards, spanning five categories.
Projects range from BBC Scotland
at Pacific Quay and the Loch Lomond
and The Trossachs National Park
headquarters, to the regeneration of
the former weaving sheds at Lingfield
Point for the Student Loans Company,
Registers of Scotland’s SVP Platform and
Statkraft’s workplace at Glasgow’s historic
Garment Factory.
These are far more than attractive
interiors. At Registers of Scotland,
the ambition was a healthy workplace
supporting creativity, innovation,
effectiveness and enjoyment. At
Statkraft, reclaimed, recycled and
bco.org.uk
“Janice has always
understood that
workplace design does
not stop at the office
door. A workplace
belongs to a street;
a street belongs to
a neighbourhood;
and a successful
neighbourhood
contributes to economic
and civic life”
upcycled materials were used to create a
collaborative workplace that respects the
character of an existing building.
Janice has always understood
that workplace design does not
stop at the office door. A workplace
belongs to a street; a street belongs
to a neighbourhood; and a successful
neighbourhood contributes to economic
and civic life. She is a driver of the
creative economy and that is why
her contribution to placemaking is
so significant.
For 10 years, she was a founding
trustee and chair of The Lighthouse
— Scotland’s Centre for Architecture,
Design and the City. Graven also led
the place-branding work that helped
consolidate Glasgow’s Merchant City
and contributed to the Glasgow City
Innovation District.
She regards historic buildings, local
identity and traditional skills not as
constraints, but asks how they can
become part of its future.
That philosophy runs through her
contribution to SMEs. As a Senior
Enterprise Fellow at the University of
Strathclyde, she shares her experience
with aspiring entrepreneurs. More
recently she helped create Wilson’s
Foundry, in which creative businesses
are supercharged by working inside
successful creative SME businesses that
make things.
Her expertise is recognised by
today’s policymakers, deepening their
understanding that great creative design
is economic infrastructure. She leads
the Creative Economy workstream
for Glasgow Economic Leadership,
contributes to Scotland’s Creative
Industries Leadership Group and has
advised governments and public bodies
on design-led growth.
The BCO President’s Award should
recognise not only what someone has
made, but what they have made possible
for others. Across four decades, Janice
has made possible better workplaces,
stronger businesses, renewed places,
economic placemaking, new careers
and a more ambitious understanding
of the value of creative design. As the
importance of the creative economy
grows, her wisdom has never been
more needed.
ANDY McBAIN
President, BCO 2026
October 2026 • ESTATES GAZETTE • 7
