One Hundred Shoreditch, formally the Ace Hotel

Brick Award Winner 2014 -  Best Refurbishment and Renovation Project

Architect - Universal Design Studio

Brickwork Contractor - Winchmore Brickwork

Brick - Staffordshire Blue solid bricks and specials and  matching Staffs Blue brick slips

The judges thought this was a very high quality refurbishment of the former Crowne Plaza Hotels in London's developing Shoreditch area.  The blue brick used has created a "uber-cool" feel which, with great craftsmanship, creates a sleek and modern look.

A combination of Ketley's Staffordshire Blue brick slips, solid bricks and specials helped to complete the transformation of a formerly dreary, blocky, business hotel, into  the uber hip Ace Hotel in trendy Shoreditch.  The designers, Universal Design Studio, have managed to plug this building back into its surroundings and at the same time have created a beacon of urban style. The clunking street façade has been broken up into a series of shopfronts more in scale with the ragged, mostly Victorian fabric of the Shoreditch streetscape, once a warren of cabinetry workshops and small retailers. The ground-floor walls have been clad in Ketley's staffs blue bricks and slips, which have been laid in complex patterns that appear almost to weave the façade back into the city.