Franklin Conservatories scoops top prize at Conservatory Design Competition

Monday 10th April, 2006

Franklin Conservatories, based near Leeds, has scooped the top prize in the prestigious Glassex Conservatory Design Competition 2006 sponsored by Ultraframe. Selected from hundreds of entries from all over the UK, Europe and even as far as the United States, Franklin won both the gold and silver awards in the large conventional category for two stunning conservatory installations. Their gold winning conservatory was then chosen as the Supreme Winner by a panel of industry experts from all the category winners and announced at Glassex 06.

Franklin was presented with its awards and a prize of £5,000 worth of state of the art specialist conservatory IT equipment from sponsor Ultraframe at the Conservatory Design Competition’s presentation ceremony at Glassex.

Franklin’s beautiful overall winning conservatory features a low maintenance aluminium roof with ash hardwood frames inside. The client had spent over 12 years researching orangeries and the judges saw this reflected in the attention to fine details, such as the pillars and cornice details. The family run company had to overcome a number of site complications during the design process, such as ensuring that the large orangery did not compromise the views from the upstairs windows of the property.

Describing the conservatory, competition judge Barry Dunlop said; “This is an outstanding conservatory that is a true luxury room. The care and attention to detail is evident everywhere.”

David Franklin, Managing Director of Franklin Conservatories, commented: “We are thrilled to receive this highly esteemed award because it recognises our efforts to provide conservatories of the highest technical quality, whilst also striving to offer our customers the utmost in stylish design. We have been established for over 30 years and are a truly dedicated family company with unrivalled skills and knowledge. Our strong commitment to quality and customer care is shown in the fact that 78% of our work comes through recommendations.”

Vanda Murray OBE, Managing Director of Ultraframe said: “At Ultraframe we believe it is important to celebrate and recognise the many reliable and skilled installation companies in our industry. The The Glassex Conservatory Design Competition honours the most talented installation companies in terms of innovation, creativity and design quality. This year’s competition has received a record number of entries displaying an impressive high standard and variety of the designs. Both Franklin’s winning entries were outstanding and truly inspiring.”

The judging of the Conservatory Design Competition took place in February and winners were presented with their awards by Ultraframe’s Managing Director, Vanda Murray at Glassex 2006. Entries were awarded Gold, Silver, Bronze and Ultraframe Merit in four different categories – Small Conventional, Large Conventional, Large Span (Portal) and Innovative Design.