Highly Commended Award at 2026 Scottish Property Awards
Carbon Futures has received recognition at the 2026 Scottish Property Awards for its work on the Take A Bow Opportunity Centre refurbishment in Kilmarnock, East Ayrshire. The scheme was Highly Commended in the category for Net Zero Development of the Year, at a ceremony held at the Hilton Doubletree in Glasgow on Thursday 26 February.
The building began life in the 1970s as the New Farm Loch Community Centre and had fallen into poor condition by 2019, when the Take A Bow Development Trust bought it. The charity's aim was to turn it into an energy-efficient community hub, run by its users, serving the arts in East Ayrshire and local people more generally.
The retrofit was led by O'Donnell Brown Architects. Carbon Futures joined early in the design process and drew up an energy strategy intended to cut the building's carbon footprint sharply, improve how it runs and keep future energy bills down. The work is expected to lengthen the building's life and bring it into line with net zero performance standards.
Insulation was added to the walls, roof and floor, and air source heat pumps and LED lighting were installed. As a result, energy use is forecast to drop from 265kWh/m2 to 82kWh/m2, a 65% cut in both consumption and carbon emissions. The design also meets net zero targets set by industry guidance, including the UK Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard and LETI's Climate Emergency Design Guide.
The award was collected on the project team's behalf by David MacConnell, a director at Carbon Futures, who said the firm was very proud, noted the strength of the other nominees and credited the trust's ambition for making the project happen.
John McManus, who chairs the Take A Bow Development Trust, said energy efficiency and lower emissions had been at the core of the 2.7m refurbishment, and that the result showed what imaginative design can achieve for a community building.