A SMALL specialist design and structure company with some of the world's biggest clients has scooped an award for its contribution to the arts.

Chepstow firm Architen Landrell, a leading tensile structure company provides outlandish and beautiful designs in the construction service, using lightweight tensile structures made of steel and canvas.

Just days after winning the lucrative contract to build David Beckham's Football Academy in east London this summer, Architen Landrell was voted the winner of the small business partnership category at the annual 'Arts and Business' organisation awards.

The award, presented at a glitzy ceremony at the Millennium Centre in Cardiff, recognises the vital support given to the arts by a business with fewer than 100 employees.

Internationally-recognized Architen Landrell, whose clients include Apple, Audi, Ford, Nokia, Orange and Sainsbury's, has been working closely with a sculptor and installation artist in residence, Irene Rogan, to allow "a process of mutual enquiry" to take place, developing creative ideas as the working relationship evolved.

Architen Landrell's staff members were exposed to a more creative way of working, while the artist became familiar with materials, processes and construction methods.

Marketing director Kevin Hemmings said: "What we are doing is a very specialised part of the building industry.

"We present new solutions to old problems with a blend of aesthetics and economics.

"Our work can range from what you'd call art to very functional parts of a building's structure and it's clear our staff and Irene Rogan have been inspired by a mutually beneficial partnership."

The project ranged from in-house work with the business' staff to the national exposure offered by a high profile London exhibition.

The artist and the business have already collaborated on a number of arts projects in South East Wales and more are planned.

The residency benefited from further investment from New Partners and Architen Landrell has been inspired to find fresh ways of involvement with the arts.

The judges praised the vision of what they called 'a real partnership' and were impressed by its combination of experimental and practical aspects.