A pioneering Michael Hopkins & Partners office development for the government’s tax-collection operations has been awarded grade II-listed status in recognition of its ground-breaking design and “interesting mix of new and old idioms”.

The practice’s Inland Revenue Centre at Castle Meadow in Nottingham brings together six office buildings and an amenity building with a fabric roof suspended from steel masts. It was designed as a base for around 1,800 civil servants being relocated from the capital.

Hopkins – now Hopkins Architects – won a design competition for the project in 1992 after local opposition halted earlier proposals for the site created by Percy Thomas Partnership. The RIBA-run competition to find a more suitable scheme was the first such exercise for a government building in 30 years. Richard Rogers Partnership was on the shortlist that Hopkins’ designs beat.

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