Washington, D.C., April 22, 2008 The American Institute of Architects (AIA) and its Committee on the Environment (COTE) have selected the top ten examples of sustainable architecture and green design solutions that protect and enhance the environment. The projects will be honored at the AIA 2008 National Convention and Design Exposition in Boston.

The project descriptions highlight both the design innovations and sustainable strategies, along with the metrics achieved in terms of reduced carbon emissions, reduced energy consumption and improved building functionality.

“These projects were judged against a rigorous set of criteria to determine the best examples of sustainable design concepts and intentions,” said Henry Siegel, FAIA, chair of the AIA Committee on the Environment. “In addition to examining their architectural innovation, the buildings had to have shown design elements within their regional / community context, land use and site ecology that benefits surrounding ecosystems, resource conservation through bioclimatic design and the health benefits associated with improved lighting and indoor air quality.”

The 2008 COTE Top Ten Green Projects program celebrates projects that are the result of a thoroughly integrated approach to architecture, natural systems and technology. They make a positive contribution to their communities, improve comfort for building occupants and reduce environmental impacts through strategies such as reuse of existing structures, connection to transit systems, low-impact and regenerative site development, energy and water conservation, use of sustainable or renewable construction materials, and design that improves indoor air quality.

Siegel added, “All of the projects succeed in all the measures. Some projects demonstrated true innovation in one or more measures, and all of them help illustrate how much farther the design and construction community will need to go in the coming years to reach truly sustainable design.”

Members of the jury include: Glenn Murcutt, Hon. FAIA, Glenn Murcutt Architecture; Jason McLennan, AIA, CEO of the Cascadia Region Green Building Council; Susan T. Rodriguez, FAIA, Polshek Partnership Architects; Gail Brager, PhD, University of California at Berkeley; Marvin Malecha, FAIA, North Carolina State University; and Rebecca Henn, AIA, PhD candidate at the University of Michigan.

The 2008 Top Ten Green Projects (listed in alphabetical order):

Aldo Leopold Legacy Center
The Kubala Washatko Architects, Inc., Cedarburg, WI
Completed in spring, 2007, the 12,000sf building includes office and meeting spaces, interpretive hall, archive and workshop. The Center was envisioned as a small complex of structures organized around a central courtyard. This design provides flexibility in managing energy use based on program requirements, creates outdoor spaces for work and gathering, and reduces the scale of the buildings on site. The Aldo Leopold Legacy Center is the first building recognized by LEED as carbon-neutral in operation.

Photo credit: Mark F. Heffron

Juror Marvin Malecha said, “Through its demonstrable energy conservation and reduced heating, cooling and operating costs, this is an excellent example of how a building can achieve carbon neutrality.”

Cesar Chavez Library
Line and Space, LLC, Tucson, AZ
In order to protect the outdoor and indoor space from the sun’s radiation, the building uses extensive overhangs to create a ‘hat’ in the desert. The scarcity of water led to roof top rainwater collection for irrigation, while water reducing fixtures are used indoors. Always a concern in the desert, an area of high consumption, the building was carefully cut into the site and the excavated material was used to berm the building for further thermal mass. The windows are also properly shaded to reduce solar gains.

Photo credit: Bill Timmerman

Juror Susan T. Rodriguez said, “We saw leadership on the part of the city here, given the selection of this site for this building—it’s in a place where it can help solve a problem. There’s a 37,000 square foot roofscape that is a part of irrigating a 40-acre park. We felt this showed strong vision to solve multiple problems at once.”

Discovery Center at South Lake Union
The Miller/Hull Partnership, Seattle, WA
A primary program element for this particular center, alongside numerous other environmental goals, was to create a building and core that could provide adaptable exhibit space, capable of being reconfigured and reused for the presentation of multiple residential neighborhoods throughout the South Lake Union Region over a lengthy period of time. In addition to creating flexible interior space, the building itself was designed to be demountable, separating at three integrated joints to break into four separate modules capable of being transported along surface streets.

Photo credit: Lara Swimmer Photography

Juror Jason McLennan said, “I really like the notion of saying, ‘This building type was supposed to be temporary, and we are going to reject that in favor of disassembly.’ This is sustainable at the elemental level.”

Pocono Environmental Education Center
Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, Wilkes-Barre, PA
The building is designed to reinforce the mission of environmental stewardship and education. Through careful site and materials selection, analysis and design of building systems, the structure outwardly expresses the principles of sustainable design. The building is a flexible, multi-purpose gathering space for dining, meetings, lectures and other environmental learning activities. As part of the site design, native grasses were planted to provide a landscape that is low maintenance and integrates the project into its natural surroundings.

Rodriguez added, “This is a dramatic transformation of a site by using the materials removed from its cleanup, to create the exterior envelope, which is exciting to see. The use of the recycled tires and the texture they produce are inventive.”

Garthwaite Center for Science and Art, Cambridge School of Weston
Architerra, Inc., Boston, MA
The facility is designed to advance sustainability, creating an exemplar and educational tool through a design process that engaged the entire community. This LEED Platinum design incorporates dozens of green features that students can view as well as measure and manipulate. The result is a compelling model for educational institutions. Fifty-five detailed sustainability goals included renewable energy, no water to be discharged to the local sewer, 100% storm water infiltration on-site, artificial lighting designed to less than one watt per square foot and minimal maintenance for 20 years.

Juror Rebecca Henn said, “There is a lot of education here; this is a true teaching tool. The students participated in the design of the building. They treat all their wastewater, and these strategies are integrated into the pedagogy. There are only three small spaces that are conditioned in this building; all other spaces are naturally ventilated.”

Lavin-Bernick Center for University Life
VJAA, Minneapolis, MN
The existing building was stripped to the concrete frame, expanded by 33% and redesigned with a variety of environmental systems. The hot and humid New Orleans climate is further tempered with strategies for expanding the comfort zone; including programming for thermal zoning, and technically innovative systems for variable shading, moving air and radiant cooling. Despite its high ambitions, the project had a modest budget and was completed for $189/SF, fourteen months after Hurricane Katrina. Since then, Tulane sees the project as a new model for sustainable design in New Orleans.

Photo credit: Paul Crosby

Juror Glenn Murcott said, “One intriguing feature of this project was that it has a Punkah, a traditional Indian system to move air.”

Macallen Building Condominiums
Office dA Inc. and Burt Hill Inc., Boston, MA
The 140-unit condominium is a conscious and deliberate effort by both client/developer and the architectural and engineering team to incorporate sustainable design measures. It utilizes green design as a way of marketing a lifestyle and concern for the environment, while simultaneously increasing revenue from the design project as a business strategy. The building, just completed in South Boston, is striving for LEED Gold certification in sustainable design. Some of the green building features include innovative technologies that will save over 600,000 gallons of water annually while consuming 30% less electricity than a conventional building.

Malecha added, “This project was built on an environmentally challenged site that was previously unused space. So not only does in enhance the environment, but it provides valuable inner city housing and shows a certain amount of urban savvy.”

Queens Botanical Garden Visitor & Administration Center
BKSK Architects, New York, NY
In looking to the future, the Garden has propelled itself into the front ranks of its field as the first botanical garden in the country devoted to sustainable environmental stewardship. The goal has been to integrate a beautiful contemporary building into the experience of its varied gardens and landscapes, heightening the visitor experience of the natural environment and conveying the key elements of successful sustainability. A water channel surrounds the building and weaves through the garden, fed by rainwater that cascades off of the sheltering roof canopy.

Juror Gail Brager said, “I especially appreciated the focus on water—which is a critical and often overlooked aspect of sustainable design. In addition to the project’s significant attention to storm water management, rainwater collection, and a graywater system, water was also used as a strong design element to unify the building and landscape, and raise people’s awareness of the water cycle at the site and building scale.”

The Nueva School, Hillside Learning Complex
Leddy Maytum Stacy Architects, San Francisco, CA
The 33-acre campus, located in the semi-rural coastal hills of the San Francisco Peninsula, features a thriving coast live oak woodland ecosystem, a variety of dispersed structures and dramatic views of San Francisco Bay. The design is grounded in the desire to integrate straightforward, appropriate and cost-effective sustainable design solutions within the broader language of contemporary architectural expression. Through a variety of simple, observable systems and strategies, reduce site energy use by at least 65% from the national average for schools and meet the 2030 Challenge.

McLennan added, “This seemed to be a very successful project. They did a good job of balancing design and performance; they had particularly notable energy and water metrics.”

Yale University Sculpture Building and Gallery
KieranTimberlake Associates LLP, Philadelphia, PA
Situated on a former brownfield site, the new complex is comprised of three new buildings. To provide maximum daylight and exceptional energy efficiency, a wall system was designed that incorporates solar shading, a triple glazed low-e vision panel, 8-foot high operable windows and a translucent double cavity spandrel panel. Consequently, the entire skin of the building admits natural light. The green roof on the gallery and native plant landscaping, which includes mature trees, serves as a connective habitat patch for avian species moving through the urban corridor between these parks.

Photo credit: Peter Aaron, Esto

Brager added, “The high-performance façade is impressive in the way it balances warm and cold season operation, integrating shading and alternating panels of operable windows, aerogel insulation, and ventilation aperatures in a double-skin thermal cavity.”

Honorable Mention 2008 Top Ten Green Project:

Internal Revenue Service - Kansas City Service Center
BNIM / 360 Inc., Kansas City, MO
Natural light and open views of the surrounding urban fabric were salient sustainable design features for this project. Through architectural techniques, including clerestories, skylights, atrium, and building orientation, an unprecedented 80 percent of workspaces are served by natural light. Internal courtyards provide views of vegetated environments that also serve as workday respites. From inside the IRS processing Center one gets a sense of being part of a bigger whole; one that represents equilibrium between nature and the build environment, public and private, community and government.

About the AIA Committee on the Environment Top Ten Green Awards
The AIA’s Committee on the Environment represents more than 8,700 AIA members committed to making sustainable or “green” design integral to the practice of architecture. The AIA/COTE Top Ten Green Project Awards initiative was developed by the AIA in partnership with the U.S. Department of Energy and BuildingGreen.com, publishers of Environmental Building News magazine. In 2003 The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s ENERGY STAR® Program joined as an additional sponsor.

San Francisco, May 2, 2008 A Bay Area architect and professor at the California College of Arts has been chosen as this year’s winner of the prestigious Metropolis Next Generation® Design Prize.

Next Generation® Design Prize winner Eric Olsen (Image: Amy MacWilliamson)

The winner, Eric Olsen, was honored by the architecture and design community at a gala awards celebration last night at the BATH+BEYOND showroom in San Francisco. The event was cohosted by competition sponsors Duravit and Geberit. Herman Miller, Inc., Maharam, and Sherwin-Williams also sponsored the competition. Olsen was presented with the $10,000 Next Generation® prize for his innovative design of an easy-to-carry device for transporting and purifying water.

Image: Eric Olsen

Olsen’s design is a Solar Water Disinfecting Tarpaulin, a flexible, adaptable vessel that can be easily filled with water and carried home, where it works to make the water potable. The pleated tarpaulin-constructed from laser-cut clear low-density polyethylene (LDPE) and dark rubberized nylon-is designed to hold up to 20 liters of water and can be rolled into a bundle or worn as a shawl-like kanga for carrying. It can be laid across a rooftop, spread on the ground or hung vertically to allow ultraviolet radiation from the sun to disinfect the water inside. This World Health Organization-approved purification method takes only five hours in hot climates. The tarpaulin is designed for use in a wide variety of settings, from urban disaster sites to remote third-world villages. Ten additional Next Generation proposals were also honored as runners-up at the awards event. (See below for details.) 

Image: Eric Olsen

“This year’s winner and the very noteworthy runners-up once again confirm our belief in young designers’ ability to address complex social, cultural and environmental issues with enthusiasm and a high level of creativity,” said Metropolis publisher Horace Havemeyer III. “I’m also proud of them for submitting clear-headed business plans,” adds Havemeyer, noting that the “competition is unique among design competitions in that it asks for entrants to submit a business plan.”
“It is clear to us that the next generation of designers cares deeply about our natural resources,” says Metropolis editor in chief Susan S. Szenasy. “Their inventive proposals were focused on water, an endangered resource worldwide, and serve to create a dialogue around a crucial topic. Designers, they’re saying, have useful answers to offer a thirsty world.”
The judges for the 2008 Next Generation Design Competition were Lance Hosey, director at William McDonough + Partners; Eric Chan, president of ECCO Design Inc.; Fiona Cousins, principal and mechanical engineer at Arup; and Pam Light, senior vice president at HOK. Szenasy moderated the deliberations.

Created by Metropolis magazine, the annual Next Generation Design Competition, now in its fifth year, recognizes outstanding ideas from young architects and designers for making our built environment better, safer and more sustainable. This year, entrants were asked to submit proposals relating to water.

Image: Eric Olsen

2008 Next Generation Design Prize Runners-Up:

Andrea Brivio, Davide Conti and Fabio Galli (Italy): “S_M_L,” a housing project designed for the city of Melaka, Malaysia, that harnesses the power of the region’s daily rainfall and uses it to produce electricity and replenish gray water systems

Yuichi Watanabe, Katz Miyahara and Yoshi Ogawa (Seattle): “Polarfloat,” large floating structures in the Arctic Ocean that provide places for polar bears to land as the ice melts

Joseph Cory and Eyal Malka (Israel): “WatAir,” a simple unit with an integrated infrastructure for collecting dew and rainwater

Paul Giacomantonio, Vera Templeman, William Sorich and Kat Taylor (Pescadero, CA): “The Sun Curve,” a self-sustaining aquaponic food growing system, powered by solar and wind energy

Charles Lee (San Francisco): “Pacific Coast Interpretive Center for Ocean Health,” living systems that recycle gray water and runoff by filtering wetlands, cooling the gray water with ocean water and producing energy with tidal generators

Lars Mayer (Germany): “Sustainable Water,” a surface water purification solution that is suited to the needs of developing countries and based on natural processes, using the seeds of the moringa tree

Robyn Perkins (Boston): “emergeMUMBAI,” a method of rainwater harvesting that is used as a spatial backbone, a flood mitigation tool, and a water source for redeveloping public housing lands in Mumbai, India

Gerald Lindner, Jeroen Tacx, Beate Lendt, Peter Heidman, and Martin Oostenrijk (Netherlands) “Water Harvester,” a double-tubed solar water distiller that is made of polyethylene film and uses a solar-powered water desalinator to make fresh water from polluted or salt water

Renata Fenton and Enrique Lomnitz (Mexico): “Isla Urbana,” small, modular, inexpensive and expandable rainwater harvesting systems that can be affordably purchased by the low-income households in Mexico City most affected by the rapidly increasing water shortages

Thomas Kosbau and Tyson Gillard (New York): “Vena: Water Courses from Air,” a biomimetic low-cost, low-energy solution for people in climates that lack consistent rainfall or clean ground sources to harvest vast amounts of drinking water from the atmosphere

The obvious need for accommodation and entertainment of the visitors has lead to major decisions in the recent Master Plan of the city. The Master Planning Vision has shifted from the strategy of isolation of the shrine via a green belt to a strategy of reconnection via boulevards. These boulevards are lined with large scale buildings with pilgrim accommodation and shopping as major functions. The site of the competition is located on one of the three main boulevards and acts as one of the three gateways to the religious site.

The competition called for entries for a 5-star hotel, hotel apartments, residential spaces, commercial spaces, a public park and a multi-story public parking in a development of about 80,000 m2. The site consists of 5 plots, however the brief allows for and the master plan of the city encourages the project to merge the 5 sites into one.

The competition was held by an architecture office; The Eight Company. The client was a private Iranian bank- Bank-e Pasargad. Of the twelve teams invited to the competition, 4 had been widely known foreign office associates (Atelier Bow-Wow from Japan, BIG from Denmark, BRT from Germany and Guallart Architects from Spain).

The Jury was composed of architects and developers from the city of Mashhad and prominent Iranian architects from the Association of Iranian Architects, including Iraj Kalantari, Abolfath Sepanloo, along with Seyed Reza Hashemi. Of the remaining 11 entries from 8 participating offices, 3 winners and 2 honorable mentions were awarded. The three winners of first to third place will be awarded monetary prizes. In addition, the first place winner will be awarded a contract to execute the project.

First Place: BRT Engineering GmbH (Germany) + Design Core [4s] Architects (Iran)

Design Team:
Iran: Sam Tehranchi, Maryam Kompany, Ali Nabi
Germany: Hadi Tehrani, Ingo Hartfil, Heike Heister, Alice Pape, Manal Fakhouri, Zarko Serafimowski, Evgeny Stolyarov
Structure: Markus Maier, Angelos Tsirigotis from LAP
Renderings: Bloomimages

The formal concept of the building results from stipulated building lines and construction heights in addition to site axis and road alignments. Thus, it creates a monolithic shape that follows the heterogeneous character of the plot in a subtle way.

A continuous band folds down on one end and defines a gateway toward the Holy Shrine while enclosing the block. Its continuity and elongated form emphasizes the direction along the main northern boulevard toward the religious site.

Public, semi- public and private spaces are created within the curves and folds of the structure. Thus a variety of public spaces, from loud and lively to spaces of reflection are created that respond to the brief. The shape of the building, defines an entry to the quiet courtyard in the back. This courtyard is planted with tall trees and water features which emphasize its peaceful character. With the access to the café, and controlled entry via a water feature, it provides a quiet space to linger in.

The hotel is located in a prominent space along the eastern main road on top of the building and defines its presence on the main intersection. It has a central lobby within a glass envelope that is equally accessed from the crossroad and the courtyard.

The residential is located in the western wing of the building. It is an independent part of the complex; technically, statically and functionally it is self-sufficient and can be constructed and operated individually.

Commercial spaces are located on the ground and first floors along the main northern boulevard as well as around the courtyard and form a pedestal for the building. An arcade runs around the pedestal in front of the shops on all sides and allows visitors to stroll around the building throughout the year.

Second Place: Bonsar Architecture Office (Iran), Guallart Architects (Spain), Delnaz Yekrangian (Iran)
(Mohamad Majidi, Vicente Guallart, Delnaz Yekrangian)

Design Team: Azar Farshidi, Vicente Guallart, Mehran Haghbin, Zahra Khaniki, Mohammad Majidi, Mehrnush Safdari, Hossein Salavati Khoshghalb, Delnaz Yekrangian
Structure: Mehdi Mirkhosravi
Sustainibility: Afsaneh Tafazoli
Renderings: Babak Taghikhani

A 5-star hotel, hotel apartments and a residential complex merge with a commercial center that contains in addition to shopping, opportunities for cultural, educational, health and religious promenades not only to accommodate but also to entertain the visitors. In a city where stroll in the city is the main tourist activity next to pilgrimage, the possibility of a stroll within the complex becomes a necessity.

Eight gardens within the project with individual characteristics defined by their location, activities, or their particular vegetation connected via public spaces compose this promenade as an extension of the city within the project. The strategy of the linked gardens provides an opportunity to combine pleasure with sustainability. The openness of the project and its permeability make natural light and ventilation accessible everywhere inside.

The structure of the building is derived from a decorative motif found on the entry courtyard to the Shrine. The decorative calligraphy is exaggerated in scale and defines the entire building. The interpretation is done in a subtle way to avoid an iconic presence for the project which tries to pay homage to the only icon of the city; the holy Shrine of Imam Reza.

The Zarih and the readings of it done by contemporary Iranian artists, in particular Tanavoli are inspiration for the simple orthogonal façades.

Third Place: Fluid Motion Architects
(Catherine Spiridonoff – Reza Daneshmir)

Design Team: Pouria Khodaeiani, Mohsen Tajeddin, Ehsan Hasanpour, Mehdi Bakhshizadeh, Ahmad Khosravi ,Avideh Kamrani, Bahareh Alaei
Structure: Hooman Farrokhi
Mechanical & Electrical: Mohammad Reza Ghoddusizadeh

Land plats
The project begins with an evaluation of the 5 sites- that all together form the L-shaped site- based on geometry, views and sound pollution. Then it dedicates the brief’s different programs to each site. The plat along the main boulevard and away from the crowded intersection is dedicated to the 5-star hotel. The middle plat to the apartment hotel, the plat along the east boulevard to residential and the other plats are dedicated to the park and the multi-floor public parking, according to the brief.

Architectural Concept
Considering the similarity among the plats’ functions, the necessity of harmony in the project composition and in order to make an effective urban character, the design process is developed as below:

• First, the potential occupied area and the demanded gross area of buildings on each plat, and the over-all massing are determined according to the brief and the master plan codes.
• The permitted ground area and masses to build for each complex are extracted from the L-shaped site and transformed into an unshaped abstract and generic form.
• The ground plate and the generic abstract form are sliced by the lines defining entrances and opening areas, and again revamped to the initial form.

Wall
The idea of a continuous wall, containing the 5-star hotel and small apartment units, is developed in a twisted form along the 3 plats of the site. The entrances and the inner courts emerge from the rotations and fractures of the wall. The wall, in addition to the variety in form, gives a distinctive urban identity to the project. All in all, the wall and the opening areas of the complex are connected to each other via the slicing lines, providing a single continuous landscape.

Spatial organization
The first and second floors are dedicated to commercial and public activities as the codes demand these functions projected on the northern Boulevard. As a result, the 5-star hotel and the commercial spaces are connected and tied together on the first floor via two separated ramps, one emerging from the interior space of the hotel and the other from the outdoor space.

Honorable Mention: RAVAND-E-HAMAHANG [LINK] (Iran) + BIG (Denmark)

Design Team:
Iran: Ali Hamidi Moghadam, Nima Farzaneh, Neda Heidary, Saina Majidi, Mahan Abolghasem Shirazi
Denmark: Bjarke Ingels, Doug A Stechschulte, Kai-Uwe Bergmann, Kuba Snopek, Cat Huang, Gaetan Brunet, Takumi Iwasawa

What is a hotel? 

To reach the required density and respond to the city codes, the two buildings are bent into two V-shaped volumes creating three triangular urban spaces: a sunken market, an open courtyard and a public park in the middle. To meet the demands and desires of individual guests, the hotel has been designed inside out. As a result each V-shaped slab is composed of a fish bone structure of rooms looking towards the Holy Shrine of Imam Reza.

Considering that the site of the project forms the eastern gateway to the urban area around the Holy Shrine, the project proposes a building that shelters the residences and public spaces from the unpleasant noise and the crowd on the main Boulevard while opening up towards the religious area.  Moving towards the shrine, one experiences a closed and simple façade respecting Mashhad’s Holy icon. The scale of the wall is broken down; it is an accumulation of single rooms of different types based on a specific geometric pattern. Moving in the opposite direction, away from the shrine, one faces maximum transparency as the facades open up towards the holy site.

The complex is designed to provide each pilgrim or tourist with an optimal experience of the religious site. Each unit is sheltered from the traffic noise, screened from the views of neighbors and by-passers and only opens up toward the view of the shrine. The resulting architecture is simultaneously calm and varied, well integrated and outstanding, traditional and contemporary.

House
Klein Bottle House, Rye, Australia by Mc Bride Charles Ryan, Melbourne, Australia - Previously featured on Bustler

Civic & Community
Emergency Terminal, Zagreb, Croatia by Produkcija 004, Zagreb, Croatia

Culture
Mapungubwe Interpretation Centre by Peter Rich Architects, Johannesburg, South Africa

Holiday
Restaurant Tusen, Ramundberget, Sweden by Murman Arkitekter, Stockholm, Sweden

Shopping
Havaianas Shop, São Paulo by Isay Weinfeld, São Paulo, Brazil

Housing
The Met, Bangkok by WOHA, Singapore, Republic of Singapore

Learning
Pearl Academy of Fashion, Jaipur by Morphogenesis, New Delhi, India

New & Old
TKTS Booth / Redevelopment of Father Duffy Square, New York by Choi Ropiha, Manly, Australia & Perkins Eastman, USA & William Fellows/PKSB Architects, USA

Office
Unileverhaus, Hamburg by Behnisch Architekten, Germany

Norreport Train Station is the busiest train station in Denmark with around 250,000 persons passing daily. The new train station and surrounding urban space will be a new attraction for the area and a natural gathering place.

The project is conceived as a series of rounded, almost floating roofs covering individual transparent glass pavilions. All station facilities will be visible and easily accessible and the station will appear like an open and welcoming public space.

The project wants to show that Copenhagen is proud to be called the world’s best bicycle city. This is why all bicycle parking will be a visible and central element in the future urban space. In order to create a clear hierarchy between the area for bicycles and the area for city life, all bicycle parking is placed 40 cm below the city floor. The bicycle parking will be lighted by innumerable LED lights in the night.

Furthermore 11 ventilation towers will be placed on the plaza surrounding the train station. They will provide fresh air to the underlying train platforms. The towers will also function as lighting on the plaza and as digital information pillars with fully integrated LED screens for information about train departures, cultural events, advertisement etc.

“Norreport Train Station has a special significance for all residents in Copenhagen. We look forward to develop our proposal and deliver a new train station which will be a new useful urban space for all people in Copenhagen,” says Dan Stubbergaard, Partner-in-Charge, COBE.

Images: COBE

Here’s a first glimpse at the entry that won Danish office JDS Architects / Julien de Smedt an honorable mention in this international competition:

Here a brief description from the JDS blog:

MORE THAN SYMBOLIC

The image of TAIPEI POP MUSIC CENTER should be able to present the innovative, vital and free essence of the unique lifestyle of the pop music scene. Differing from typical iconic buildings in Taipei City which symbolize only the appearance, we propose a space where events and activities are the symbol itself. The concept is to provide an open framework that generates its own creative space for constant flow of information exchange, performance, and activities.

Images: JDS Architects

Presenting the awards and commenting on this year’s winners, Jury Chair and award-winning architect Howard Tanner said: “2009 represented a strong year for architecture, with new benchmarks set in a number of key categories – such as commercial architecture. In public architecture, educational projects spanning primary to tertiary facilities were also outstanding, with many Australian universities now comprehending the need for world class facilities to attract students.”

Topping the list of winners, is the recipient of Australia’s top annual national architecture award - the 2009 Sir Zelman Cowen Award for Public Architecture, awarded this year to the National Portrait Gallery in the ACT by Sydney-based practice Johnson Pilton Walker (JPW). In a double win for the firm, the gallery also received a National Architecture Award for Interior Architecture. The gallery is the most recent in a long list of major arts facilities designed by JPW, including the New Asian Galleries at the AGNSW and the Museum of Sydney, and is their first Sir Zelman Cowen Award.

Mr Tanner said: “The monumental concrete edifices of the National Gallery and the High Court dominate this precinct, to which the National Portrait Gallery is the new family member. Smaller, more precious, it seeks to resolve a public presence and public gallery with the intimate, often domestic-scaled nature of portraiture. He added: “The building, while a triumph in cultural terms and popular appreciation, is clearly too small for its public role and purpose – a reflection of contemporary governments’ aspirations and budgets. Government probably never foresaw that this would be an attraction to rival the National Gallery and the War Memorial.” Accordingly, the architects have designed the building for extension to the west in a series of pavilions.

National Awards for Public Architecture were also presented to educational facilities in Sydney and Melbourne - the All Saints Primary School at Belmore in NSW by Angelo Candalepas Associates and the Monash Centre for Electron Microscopy by Architectus Melbourne.

Melbourne’s newest and iconic center for the performing arts – the Melbourne Recital Centre and MTC Theatre Project by ARM – was awarded the Emil Sodersten Award for Interior Architecture, with the jury saying “all three performing arts venues achieve a very high standard of architecture in terms of excellent functionality within distinctive and memorable interiors”. They said the complex contains the most significant new performing arts venues in Melbourne, with easy access and effective egress being givens, along with sizeable lobbies and public areas, and a functional back of house. They added: “The most important aspect of the development is the performing arts spaces, their adequacy, sightlines and acoustics. All three are effectively boxes within boxes, isolated from the outside world and the ground to minimize noise and vibration transfer.”

Australia’s top award for international architecture, the Jorn Utzøn Award for International Architecture, was awarded to a small project in one of the ‘largest’, most iconic theater locations in the world, New York’s Times Square – being awarded to the ‘red steps’ TKTS Booth/Redevelopment of Duffy Square, New York by young Sydney firm Choi Ropiha, with Perkins Eastman, PKSB. (see separate media release)

The jury noted the particular strength of this year’s Commercial Architecture, which set new benchmarks in terms of providing exemplary ‘social’ spaces, adaptive re-use, regional architecture and staff accommodation where ‘happiness’ is acknowledged as a business asset. The Harry Seidler Award for Commercial Architecture was presented to ivy on Sydney’s busy George Street by Woods Bagot, in collaboration with Merivale Group and Hecker Phelan & Guthrie. In a double win, the project also received a National Award for Urban Design, with the jury saying: “The popular palaces of culture – the cinemas, stadia, and pubs and clubs – have, in recent years, rarely presented themselves as high architecture. ivy is a remarkable exception. Part Roman baths, part smart restaurants, part urbane gathering place, it has been fused into the city’s fabric in a presentable and ingenious way.” They added: “Ash Street and Palings Lane (now relocated to advantage) have become vibrant pedestrian thoroughfares, lined with shops, bars and cafes. In a clever move, this open space has become an urban hub, giving access to both the existing City Recital Hall and the two ivy facilities.”

National Awards for Commercial Architecture were also presented to Headquarter Sussan Sportsgirl in Melbourne’s Cremorne by Sydney practice Durbach Block Architects and Bendigo Bank Headquarters in regional Victoria by BVN Architecture + Gray Puksand – with the jury noting that both achieved new benchmarks. Sussan Sportsgirl set new precedents for workplaces, being designed to provide “one place for the client’s family of businesses, her art collection and her love of gardens, where happiness is a business asset, gained through a combination of light, openness, views, art and gardens”.

For the first time in four years, Australia’s most prestigious residential award returned to the nation’s biggest housing market – with the Robin Boyd Award for Residential Architecture - Houses, going to an innovative house on Sydney’s northern beaches – the Freshwater House by young Sydney husband and wife team Tony Chenchow and Stephanie Little of Chenchow Little Architects. In describing the project, a four-bedroom home for a young family of five on a small 332 sq m site, the jury said: “The design provides an outstanding solution for an elevated site, and achieves a private compound, screened from the neighbours, yet open and expansive towards an outdoor lawn terrace, the beach and sea.”

In a second major win for the couple, Chenchow Little Architects shared the National Award for Small Project Architecture for the Ang House in Sydney’s Mosman, with young Victorian firm Bellemo & Cat for their Polygreen House in the Melbourne suburb of Northcote.

In a double scoop for fellow young Sydney-based husband and wife team Rachel Neeson and Nick Murcutt of Neeson Murcutt Architecture, the couple received National Awards for Residential Architecture for two strikingly unique houses in NSW and Victoria - the Whale Beach House at Whale Beach in Sydney and Zac’s House at Sorrento on the Mornington Peninsular.

The Frederick Romberg Award for Residential Architecture - Multiple Housing was presented to Melbourne-based practice Wood Marsh for the 22-story Balencia Apartments on St Kilda Road in Melbourne. The jury said: “St Kilda Road, conceived as Melbourne’s grand boulevard, was once lined by imposing houses, now largely replaced by dull high rise buildings. Balencea counters this trend, recognizing the importance of its position on a corner site, and the opportunity to achieve intrigue through its fluted form and slenderness, when viewed from certain positions. The use of mysterious inky blue glass provides a heightened fragility to the sculptured skin. The architects have demonstrated sensitivity, skill and experience in negotiating an impressive balance between the commercial interests of the client, the comfort and amenity of the occupants and architecture’s responsibility to the public domain. They have created an exemplary model for sophisticated multiple housing in an urban setting.”

The prestigious Lachlan Macquarie Award for Heritage was this year awarded to the St.Paul’s Cathedral, Conservation of the Fabric, by Falkinger and Andronas, Architects, Heritage Consultants. The jury said: “Gothic cathedrals are complex structures and constructions, requiring careful management and maintenance if they are to survive in good order and serve changing patterns of use. Falkinger and Andronas have been responsible for the conservation of both of Melbourne’s major cathedrals, and at St Paul’s have been involved for over nine years. The decay of the building has been slowed, stormwater failures have been addressed and the building surfaces cleansed, so that we can more readily appreciate the visual qualities of the cathedral as its designers intended.”

An iconic venue in Melbourne, The Sidney Myer Music Bowl by Yuncken, Freeman Brothers, Griffiths and Simpson, received the National 25 Year Award for Enduring Architecture, being described by the jury as “one of the great tent-like suspension structures of the world”, and “a clear indicator of the vibrant creative forces active in Australia circa 1960, that were allowed realization to great acclaim”. Conserved and upgraded in 2000 by Gregory Burgess Architects, the venue is a “much-loved icon, and part of the social fabric of Melbourne and the nation”. It “remains an architectural engineering triumph perhaps without equal in Australia”.

The Walter Burley Griffin Award for Urban Design has been awarded to the Armory Wharf Precinct at Sydney Olympic Park by Hargreaves Associates, Lahz Nimmo Architects and Lacoste + Stevenson Architects. “The Armory Wharf Precinct is a remarkably attractive park precinct with much-enjoyed, well-designed public facilities. It is a most agreeable place to visit, uncluttered, well resolved, and in harmony with the natural and man-modified landscape.”

The new headquarters for a state water agency based in Adelaide - VS1/SA Water Head Office by HASSELL – has received the National Award for Sustainable Architecture. “VS1/SA Water is the first building in South Australia to achieve a GBCA 6 Star Green Star design rating, delivered at competitive market rental. It sets a new benchmark in ESD, promoting best practice for a healthy office environment, with reduced energy usage, waste, and harmful emissions.”

The Colorbond Award for Steel Architecture was presented to young Sydney-based architect James Stockwell for the Snowy Mountains House overlooking Lake Jindabyne. “James Stockwell’s commission to create a robust, economical house for an extended family carefully addresses issues of climatic extremes, simple maintenance, and sustainable objectives. It has its origins in simple alpine huts and basic ski lodges, but here delivered with a straightforward finesse. The house combines autonomy with reasonable construction cost, minimum maintenance, and good longevity, achieving excellent sustainable credentials.”

London-based practice ACME was one of the 13 invited offices and eventually won the 1st prize in the public voting process and was awarded the 2nd prize from the professional jury.

The project site is located below the dense medieval city center of Weilburg, in the steep landscape of the surrounding river valley.

The design of the Rathaus-Terrassen develops a typology of terraced landscape building as an integral part of the context, creating a very urban character towards the city while blending into the valley landscape on all other sides.

The horizontal stone fin facade varies to account for the differing demands of the building program of retail, restaurants, housing, and car parking by changing the form, density, dimension and frequency of the stone fins.

Here’s some more information from ACME:

The site is the largest continuous open space within the dense medieval city of Weilburg, where the stark and scenic contrast between the walled town and the surrounding sweeping landscape of the river valley remains clearly legible.

A building as an integral part of the landscape allows the project to blend into the surrounding context while inviting inhabitation and managing to create specific urban character towards some if its city context. In this way, an active urban frontage can be created facing the old city centre, while the facade towards the river valley blends into the rhythm of rock cliffs and forested slopes along the Lahn river.

The project provides the required program of 19,200sqm of retail, surgeries, housing and car parking within a stratified massing, where vertical routes are carved in at specific moments to create connective visual sight lines and public routes between the city centre and river. In order to maximise activities within the project, functions like gastronomy and housing are dispersed widely within the overall massing. Access to each unit is provided through the new pedestrian cross-routes within the project and through lifts from the proposed public park landscape above. While the retail space orientates itself towards the city centre, the other functions differ in position and orientation to maximise south facing aspects, privacy and stunning views into the Lahn valley. The creation of new routes, public parks and a multitude of commercial and private programs ensures that the complex has a wide variety of uses, thereby maximizing its contribution to the regeneration of Weilburg’s historic core.

Similar to the strongly layered geological rock visible around the site, the building envelope is structured in horizontal layers. The fine scale of layers allows the envelope to change gradually from vertical to horizontal orientation, inviting different forms of use and inhabitation on its surface. The horizontally organized reconstituted stone fins filter daylight and natural ventilation to open areas such as corridors and the carpark while providing sun shading for other functions. Externally, the fins are used as steps, planters, benches and circulation spaces to create public routes and parks within the project. Variation of the fin thickness, spacing and position are used to form larger openings like entrances, balconies and windows where required.

Project Facts

Location: Weilburg, Germany
Client: City of Weilburg/ Nassauische Heimstätte (Projektstadt) in cooperation with a private investor
Functions: approx. 6,000 sqm retail, 2,000 sqm residential, 1,200 sqm Surgery/ Doctors Practices, and 280 parking spaces
Total GFA: 19,200 sqm
Project costs: approximately 15-19 Million Euro ($22-28 Million)

Credits

ACME: Julia Cano, Kelvin Chu, Sebastian Drewes, Deena Fakhro, Michael Haller, Daewon Kwak, Friedrich Ludewig, Isabel de la Mora, Andreas Reeg, Teresa Yeh

Images: ACME

The Zliten campus is a new branch of Al-Asmariya University, 120 km southeast of Tripoli. RMJM’s architects designed a campus master plan for the development of the 82-hectare site. Core academic functions are organized in four quadrants within a perimeter ‘habitable wall’ that contains faculty offices and academic support functions.

Gordon Hood, RMJM said: “We are absolutely delighted to win this prestigious award for Islamic Architecture. It is a true testament to the success of our Global Education Studio and emphasizes the strength that RMJM maintains in its understanding of local culture and traditions. We are particularly grateful to Dr Mustafa Mezughi of ODAC in Libya, without whose advice this project would not have been possible”

The success of the work on the Zliten Campus is largely down to the development of RMJM’s Global Education Studio. The studio allows for talents in educational architecture from across RMJM’s international network to pool together, providing architectural services which combine international and local expertise.

Images: RMJM

The development totals approx. 90,000 m² of offices, commercial space and possibly housing, located at one of Oslo’s most valuable sites, the former postal sorting office adjacent to the central station. ‘Crystal Clear’ ties in with the city’s skyline, and the string of developing landmark projects that will help turn Oslo into one of Europe’s most modern capitals.

Here’s some more info from the architects:

A high-rise development, located at Norway’s most important traffic hub in central Oslo, and with fantastic views of the waterfront and fjord-landscape beyond. The idea is to create a landmark sculptural ensemble of towers, yet observe the harmony with the surrounding, low-rise urban fabric of the capital. The three towers of approx. 110, 65 and 55 m height, are arranged along the edges of the site, and the tallest tower is aligned with the existing nearby Oslo Plaza and Postgirobygget towers, while the lower buildings form the link to the city.

The three towers have clear-cut and vertical elevations to the exterior of the site, with large openings and setbacks forming windows to selected viewpoints. In contrast, the elevations towards the interior of the site are composed of stacked, glazed volumes, freely arranged to form a prismatic and crystalline appearance. The layout secures the views over the water, not only for the three new buildings but also the city beyond.

In between the towers, a two-story base containing shops and restaurants forms an undulating landscape that connects to street level via ramps, plateaus and stairs. This base creates a calm urban garden, framed by the tall buildings, with recreational space and cafes for the city and the buildings occupants. The towers are designed with a high degree of flexibility to house offices, hotels and possibly housing.

Project Facts and Credits:

Address: Biskop Gunnerus gate 14 b, 0185 Oslo, Norway
Client: KLP Eiendom AS
Year: 2009
Year of competition: 1st prize in architectural competition, 2009
Architect: Kristin Jarmund Architects in collaboration with C. F. Møller Architects
Landscape : Kristin Jarmund Architects in collaboration with C. F. Møller Architects
Competition collaborators: ATKINS, Erichsen & Horgen AS, MIR (illustrations), Oslo Modellverksted (model)
Area: 92,000 m² (75,000 m² above ground)

Chicago’s Bloomingdale railroad viaduct runs through the city’s heart, connecting neighborhoods, the city’s park system, and the Chicago River. The three-mile long elevated rail line was abandoned in the 1980s and currently sits neglected, overtaken by vegetation, garbage, and debris. It is at once an eyesore as well as a beautiful wilderness set against a dense urban backdrop.

“Our city’s challenges are too significant and the Bloomingdale Line’s potential too great for it to be just another park,” said Gensler design director Brian Vitale. “The Bloomingdale Line is worthy of a greater purpose, one that will directly affect people in most need within the city.”

In Gensler’s proposed solution, the greenhouse above produces food while the hydrogen generator below creates electricity to split water molecules into pure Hydrogen and Oxygen. This new fuel cell energy will be used to power nearby Chicago Public Schools, in turn helping the CPS reverse its budget shortfall from last year which resulted in teacher layoffs to offset rising utility bills. Simply put, Hydrogen = Teachers. The excess Hydrogen will be sold to alternative fuel vehicles at depots throughout the line.

As it produces this much needed food and energy, the Hydrogenerator simultaneously releases oxygen as the by-product of photosynthesis and hydrogen production, a truly sustainable loop.

“A highly visible beacon day or night, the Hydrogenerator stands as a symbol for a new paradigm that involves examining abandoned and underused infrastructure for new energy bearing technologies,” said Vitale. “The more local, the more clean the energy, the more stable and healthy the society.” 

Images: Gensler

The World Village of Women Sports seeks to create a natural gathering place for the research, education and training in all areas connected to the development of women’s sports. Located in the center of Malmø, the 100,000 m2 facility will create a regional landmark and new attraction for the area. The winning design was chosen among five submissions by a jury, comprised of the founder and main financier of the World Village of Women Sports, Kent Widding Persson, the co-founder and entrepreneur Mårten Hedlund, City of Malmø Architect,Ingemar Gråhamn and Architects Mats Jacobson and Cecilia Hansson together with representatives from the City of Malmø.

“BIGs design places great emphasis on architecture tailored to women with an unconstrained atmosphere and a feeling of well-being. The architects see the WVOWS as a town within a town rather than just a sports complex. The decisive factor has been the holistic approach and the overall impression of the design – the ability to interact with the neighborhood and environment, and creating attractive housing and functions at the same time.” - Mats Jacobson, Jury Member, WVOWS

Composed as a village rather than a sports complex the WVOWS combines individual buildings with a variety of uses with open spaces and public gardens. The sloping roofscapes and alternating building volumes provide the complex with the varying identity of a small village thus reducing its scale to the adjacent neighborhood. The interior streets animated through public functions resemble a medieval downtown, supporting all aspects of human life – generous living, work and intensive play.

“Considering the special requirements of women of all cultures and all ages, special attention has been given, to provide the sports village with a feeling of intimacy and well being often lacking in the more masculine industrial-style sports complexes that are more like factories for physical exercise, than temples for body and mind.” - Bjarke Ingels, Partner-In-Charge, BIG

The central hall is large enough to accommodate professional football matches as well as concerts, conferences, exhibitions and flea markets. Rather than being an introverted sports arena shut off from the surrounding city – it appears like an open and welcoming public space, visible from all of the surrounding streets – generously offering its interior life to the passers-by. The pedestrian network around the main sports hall plugs into the surrounding street networks as well as the interior galleries of Kronprinsen, turning it into a complete ecosystem of urban life.

“The WVOWS fuses high levels of ambition within public space and private accommodation, living and working, health and recreation, sport and culture. Like a village rather than sports complex it merges the modern utopianism of the neighboring Kronprinsen with the intimate scale and specificity of the nearby historical city center of Malmø.” - Bjarke Ingels, Partner-In-Charge, BIG

“From the main football field at its heart, to the gyms and auditoria, from the handball halls of the university to the laboratories of the health facility, it is an entire village committed to sport.” - Nanna Gyldholm Møller, Project Leader, BIG

WORLD VILLAGE OF WOMEN SPORTS CREDIT LIST:

PROJECT: WVOWS
TYPE: Invited Competition
CLIENT: H-Hagen Fastighets AB
COLLABORATORS: AKT, Tyréns, Transsolar
SIZE: 100,000 m2
LOCATION: Malmø, Sweden
STATUS: 1st Prize
Partner-in-Charge: Bjarke Ingels
Project Leader: Nanna Gyldholm Møller
Team: Gabrielle Nadeau, Daniel Sundlin, Jonas Barre, Nicklas Antoni Rasch, Jin Kyung Park, Fan Zhang, Steve Huang, Flavien Menu, Ken Aoki

And here some more of BIG’s famous concept diagrams:

Images: BIG

Design Den Haag 2010-2018 researches the relation between Design and Government in Europe within an international context, from cultural, economic and social viewpoints. Starting summer 2010, Design Den Haag will organize a total of five public events biennially in the field of design, architecture and visual communication, with exhibitions, publications, lectures and debates, workshops and documentary films. Each edition will entail a collaboration between Den Haag and another European government Capital: Berlin, Stockholm, Rome, London and Paris. Every edition will be evaluated. The final evaluation of the five editions will be submitted as report to the European Union at the end of 2018. This report will contain recommendations concerning the betterment of relations between design and governance, and on governmental funds for the quality of design, architecture and visual communication.

Here are some ‘Design and Government’ examples from the Netherlands and Germany:

“The inspiring cooperation with our colleagues from Lund+Slaatto has surely contributed to our winning the project. We would consider expanding our collaboration with them in future projects if they fit both our profiles,” said John Lassen, responsible partner for schmidt hammer lassen architects.

schmidt hammer lassen architects have targeted the Baltic countries for a while as a potential market for their architecture. In 2008, the company won a competition for the sustainable master plan project EcoBay in Tallinn, Estonia.

The project is situated in the rapidly growing Snipiskes district in the north of Vilnius and comprises offices, apartments, shopping, fitness and conference facilities, and a hotel.
The complex has three high building volumes creating a dynamic composition both within the block and towards the future neighboring buildings. The buildings define the central space and the various passages and respect the objective of creating a coherent skyline in the region with four different height zones on the site. Each of the three constellations comprises individual units which can be built in separate building phases – and in any sequence one might find desirable at the time.

In the northeastern part of the site, an architectural peak has been added to the volume, whereby the height is escalated in a rotational movement from the lowest element in the south east towards the tallest element in the northeast. The buildings are situated displaced from each other resulting in interesting interactions with the other volumes within the block.

The offices are located in the highest building, which gives an opportunity for company exposure due to its landmark character. The north-western building contains offices and residential units on the top floors positioned to receive good sunlight and views. The hotel is located in the foremost building and easy access towards Konstitucjos. On the ground floor, retail shops are directly accessible from the main streets to contribute to urban life along and through the city block.

Sustainability
The city block has a strong visual environmental profile with an extensive use of green roofs and accompanying brown-water handling. Resource and area efficient solutions are achieved through rational and flexible building volumes in particular in the interaction with sustainable use of materials. The design of the facades is developed from a principle that allows for flexibility in the degree of enclosed/ glazed surfaces and sun exposure/ cooling. The buildings are also oriented according to the passage of the sun to achieve a balanced thermal heating in relation to working hours and the need for cooling.

Address: 21 Constitucijos prospektas, Snipiskes, Vilnius, Lithuania
Surface:  52,863 m2
Total built area: 72,303 m2
Award: 1st prize
Competition year: 2009
Competition type: Restricted, international
Client: UAB Sektor Real Estate, UAB Nodulus (through the company UAB Forumas)
Architect: schmidt hammer lassen architects/Lund & Slaatto Arkitekter, Oslo, Norway
Landscape architect: schmidt hammer lassen architects/ Lund & Slaatto Arkitekter, Oslo, Norway
Partner responsible architects:  John Lassen and Kim Holst Jensen

Images: SHL

Now the council summoned again in Chicago at its annual CTBUH conference and awarded “Linked Hybrid” also with the highest praise of the title 2009 “Best Tall Building Overall.”

At the awards ceremony, CTBUH Awards Committee Chairman Gordon Gill stated, “This project is so rich in thought, both programmatically and architecturally. It presents an advances typology for dense urban living.”

CTBUH Executive Director Antony Wood said, “This project […] points the way forward for the intensified multi-use, multi-level connected cities of the future.”

The 220,000 square-meter Linked Hybrid complex includes eight towers linked by a ring of eight sky bridges housing a variety of public functions. The complex is located adjacent to the former city perimeter of Beijing. To counter the current privatized urban development trends in China, the complex forms a new twenty-first century porous urban space, inviting and open to the public from every side. In addition to more than 750 apartments, the complex includes public, commercial, and recreational facilities as well as a hotel and school.

With sightlines around, over, and through multifaceted spatial layers, this “city within a city” has as one of its central aims the concept of public space within an urban environment, and can support all the activities and programs for the daily lives of over 2500 inhabitants. From the 18th floor a multi-functional series of skybridges with swimming pool, fitness center, cafe, gallery, tearoom, etcetera connects the eight towers and offers views of the city. Together with the ground level passages and public programs, the skybridges aim to constantly generate random relationships; functioning as social condensers in a special experience of city life for both residents and visitors.

Geo-thermal wells (660 at 100 meters deep) provide Linked Hybrid with cooling in summer and heating in winter. All the water in the project is recycled, using a grey water system that reuses an estimated 220,000 liters of water each day, resulting in a 41% decrease in potable water usage. These strategies make Linked Hybrid one of the largest green residential projects.

The jury comprised Abigail Coover (Hume Coover Studio, suckerPUNCH), Nathan Hume (Hume Coover Studio, suckerPUNCH), Mike Szivos (SOFTlab), Jose Gonzalez (SOFTlab), Armand Graham (Asymptote), Serra Kiziltan (Gage Clemenceau Architects), and Philip Mana (Studio Daniel Libeskind).

And these are the winning designs:

1st Place: “Water Fields”
Pablo Esteban Zamorano & Marcos Cardenas (Santiago de Chile, Chile)

An art factory, an open public space, a beach, a picnic field, a crop garden, a space for the community and for culture, a land open to the water, the city and the arts. The border condition (water-land) of this site made us think about how these limits could react with each other to create something new. An hybrid space product of a simple movement: the inundation of the site, the analysis of a close up view of the canal and the projection of that into the site as a geometry, to translate what used to be water into land but now as a construction of the memory of the canal. The Gowanus Canal is now a new public space for the city that brings the canal back to the people.

2nd Place: “Lavender Lake Art Factory”
David Jaubert (Brooklyn, New York)

Given the disparate relationship between the factory typology and public place exemplified by the surrounding context, the project seeks to explore the tension between the two as an impetus for a potential hybrid type. By shifting the ground plane on the site, the project’s parti allows for the multiplicity of the datum rather than it’s displacement, resulting in a site condition that aims to extend the synthesis between the public and private domain.

3rd Place: “Lavender Lake Art Factory”
Chiara Gambassi & Jan Kudlicka (Bucine, Italy)

What or who influenced this project: Typical rude ambience of Brooklyn, train bridge on one side and the river on the other side. The urbanistic juxtaposition of the industry in the east and the living area in the west. Missing of the green places. So we tried to make a project which has got some similar story with the surroundings but with using new materials. Create the place with the symbiosis between the park/building.

Honorable Mention: “HydroCarbon Architecture”
Cesare Griffa, Davide Guerra + Federico Rizzo/r&d Architecture (Turin, Italy)

The Gowanus site is A toxic body in which the degeneration of the space is a direct consequence of the industrial and criminal activities that took place here over time. The environmental clean up is a necessity. There is an hygienic problem that needs to be addressed, and social potential that need to be unveiled. A mere sterilization of the site is not enough, there is a need of oxygen to sustain life. The appearance of a Gowanus social movement can be the engine of renovation. Such a movement requires a specific space that embed also the dark and degenerated aspects of the area within an hygienic project.

Honorable Mention: “YMCArt Center on the Gowanus”
Vanessa Keith/Studioteka Design (Brooklyn, New York)

Our project emphasizes public space for the community, a YMCA with a twist: art spaces + community spaces + research spaces. The main building, located to the north along fifth street, combines space for art with an environmental research and remediation program, including offices and research labs, which makes the project economically sustainable. We were intrigued by the concept of industrial symbiosis and the notion that the site’s industrial legacy could be transformed into an amenity for local residents. By incorporating site remediation within the program and structure, the project serves as a demonstration of a new locally focused strategy.

Images: suckerPUNCH

The two winning entries have now been announced: David Mares’s “CBS – Cork Block Shelter”, which won the People’s Prize after receiving 64,875 votes out of more than 100,000 votes submitted online by voters around the world; and David Eltang’s “SeaShelter”, which was selected by a jury of architecture and design experts for the Juried Prize.

People’s Prize Winner:
CBS – Cork Block Shelter
David Mares (Setúbal, Portugal)

CBS is located at Vale dos Barris. It was designed to be an ecological and living block. In a microclimate that ranges from the dry heat to damp cold, the application of cork is a good way of thermally isolating the shelter and also providing acoustic insulation for study/sleep. The dynamic facade gives visual interaction when in living-studying mode; in rest-sleep mode it closes to provide privacy for its occupant.

Juried Prize Winner:
SeaShelter
David Eltang (Aarhus, Denmark)

SeaShelter is situated in the Wadden-sea, a unique coastline, with shallow water but tides of 1-3 meters and exposed seabed at low tide. It is habitat for a variety of birds and seals. SeaShelter offers opportunity to stay in the Wadden-sea even at high tide, and opportunity to discover wildlife and seabed when flooded. Interior Workspace: Horizontal view, ‘Tidal Stair’: Sea-level view, ‘Observation and resting Tower’: Non-flooded panoramic view.

The center is a brand new building that will have a great impact on the local community. The project is a hybrid, with mixed use facilities: multipurpose sports hall, new library, civic center, local administration offices, bars, shops and a parking garage.

The design of Zamet Center is the result of an invited competition that 3LHD won the first price for.

Here’s some information from 3LHD:

Situated in Rijeka’s quarter Zamet, the new Zamet Centre in complete size of 16,830 m2 hosts various facilities: sports hall with max 2,380 seats, local community offices, library, 13 retail and service spaces and a garage with 250 parking spaces.

One third of the sports hall’s volume is cut in the ground, and the rest of the Centre is fully fitted into the surrounding landscape. The building’s main architectural element are ribbon-like linear stripes stretching over the site in a north-south direction, functioning at the same time as an architectural design element of the object and as a zoning element which forms a public square and a link between the park on the north and school and B. Vidas street on the south.

The stripes were inspired by “gromača”, a type of rocks specific to Rijeka, which the centre artificially reinterprets by colour and shape. They are paved with 51.000 ceramic tiles designed by 3LHD and manufactured specially for the centre. The steel construction, girder span of 55 meters and their varying height allow the natural light illumination of the sports hall.

The hall has been designed in accordance with the latest world sports standards for major international sports competitions. The concept is based on flexibility of space. Playground size is 46 x 44 meters, for two handball courts. The hall contains all the supporting facilities for professional training and competition, and the auditorium designed as a system of telescopic stands enables the transformation for everyday use as well as for other activities such as concerts, conferences and congresses. Selected interior materials - wood and acoustic panels, suggests that the hall is a large living room for athletes. The main access to the hall and other facilities is located west of the hall from the public square and from the underground garage.

Project name: Zamet Center
Program: public, cultural, business, sport
Status: completed
Project year: 2004
Project start date: 2004
Project end date: Jan 2008
Construction start date: 12/21/2007
Construction end date: 9/10/2009
Address: B. Vidas Street, Zamet
City: Rijeka, Croatia
Site area (m2): 12289
Size (m2): 16,830
Volume (m3): 88,075
Footprint (m2): 4,724
Entry level: 103
Budget: 20M EUR ($30M)
Client: Grad Rijeka / Rijeka Sport d.o.o.
Author: 3LHD

Project team: Sasa Begovic, Tatjana Grozdanic Begovic, Marko Dabrovic, Silvije Novak, Paula Kukuljica, Zvonimir Marcic, Leon Lazaneo, Eugen Popovic, Nives Krsnik Rister, Andrea Vukojic
Colaborators: Mateo Bilus, Building Physics / Details; Berislav Medic, UPI-2M, Structural Engineering; Branko Čorko, IPZ-elektroinzenjering 22, Electrical Engineering; Mario Lukenda, Termoinzenjering-projektiranje d.o.o., HVAC; Slavko Simunović, HIT PROJEKT, MEP Engineering - Plumbing; Nenad Semenov, PASTOR, sprinkler installation; Rok Pietri, LIFT MODUS, elevators; Zeljko Arbanas, IGH PC Rijeka, diaphragm wall; Zeljko Stipković, Fire Protection; Ivica Babic, Zavod za zastitu na radu Rijeka, Safety at Work; Marija Babojelic, Special Consultant - Cost Consultant; Ines Hrdalo, Landscape Architect; Damir Bralić, Lana Cavar i Narcisa Vukojevic, signage and environmental graphics design; Nikola Durek, “Typonine Zamet” typeface design, Main contractor: GP Krk

ADC Young Guns is the only international, cross-disciplinary, portfolio-based awards competition that identifies today’s vanguard of young creative professionals age 30 or younger. Selected from entries received from 84 countries (up from 46 countries last year), these ADC Young Guns 7 winners represent an impressive global roster of young talent in the fields of graphic design, photography, illustration, advertising and art direction, environmental design, film, animation & video, interactive design, product design and typography.

This year for the first time, ADC Young Guns-Moleskine grants were awarded to top winners.  Based upon jury scores, Moleskine awarded $1,000 to Siggi Eggertsson, Germany, as the top-ranked ADC Young Guns 7 winner, and $250 to each to Fx&Mat, France and Mario Hugo, USA, as the two runners-up. 

The complete ADC Young Guns 7 class is as follows:

North America:

• Wesley Allsbrook - Self-employed, USA
• Lindsay Ballant - Public Service Bureau, USA
• Nina Boesch - And Partners, USA
• Karim Charlebois-Zariffa - Sagmeister Inc., Canada
• Yong Choe - Ralph Lauren Media, USA
• Brian Close - Lifelong Friendship Society, USA
• Sylvain Dumais - Self-employed, Canada
• Yoko Furusho - Self-employed, USA

• Timothy Goodman - COLLINS:, USA
• Jessica Hische - Self-employed, USA
• Mario Hugo - Hugo & Marie, USA

• Kitman Keung - Kitman Keung Ltd., Canada

• Mixtape Club - Self-employed, USA
• Oliver Munday - Oliver Munday Design, USA
• Sean Pecknold - Grandchildren, USA
• Qian Qian - McCann Erickson, USA
• Keren Richter - Self-employed, USA
• Dan Saelinger - Self-employed, USA
• Michael Schachtner and Julia Neumann - Y&R, USA
• Stewart Smith - Stewdio, USA

• Matt Smithson - Self-employed, USA
• Will Staehle - JibJab, USA

• Ben Steiger Levine - Self-employed, Canada
• Isaac Tobin - University of Chicago Press, USA

• Sam Weber - Self-employed, USA

• Ben Wiseman - Rodrigo Corral Design, USA

Latin America:

• Danilo Boer - AlmapBBDO, Brazil

• Guiga Giacomo - AlmapBBDO, Brazil

Europe/UK:

• Bendita Gloria (Alba Rosell and Santi Fuster), Spain
• Dora Budor and Maja Cule, budor+cule, Croatia
• Laura Carlin - Self-employed, UK
• Siggi Eggertsson - Self-employed, Germany

• Verónica Fuerte - Hey, Spain
• Fx&Mat - Self-employed, France

• Yves Geleyn - Self-employed, France

• Raúl Goñi Fdez - Self-employed, Spain
• David Kamp - Kamp Music & Sound Design, Germany
• Johnny Kelly - Self-employed, UK
• PetPunk (Andrius Kirvela & Gediminas Šiaulys) - Lithuania
• Adam Simpson - Self-employed, UK

• Jim Stoten - Self-employed, UK
• Richard Vijgen - Self-employed, Netherlands
• Bianca Wendt - Bianca Wendt Ltd., UK
• Greg White - Self-employed, UK

• Peter Michael Willer - MMIX, Denmark

Africa/Asia Pacific:

• Clinton Duncan - Self-employed, Australia
• Ivana Martinovic - Landor Associates, Australia
• NOSIGNER - Self-employed, Japan

• Jake Smallman - Paper Stone Scissors, Australia
• Joanne van der Linde - Net#work BBDO, South Africa

A selection of their winning work, comprised of both professional and personal projects, is being exhibited at ADC Gallery (106 W. 29th St., New York) from October 22 to November 6, Monday-Friday, 10:00 am – 6:00 pm. 

This work will also be printed in a commemorative, limited-edition volume published exclusively for the Art Directors Club by Moleskine.  The full body of winners’ submitted work will be available in November 2009 as part of ADC’s permanent collection online.  Members of ADC Young Guns 7 class receive the iconic ADC Young Guns Cube, complimentary one-year membership to ADC, and an assortment of career-boosting benefits from ADC Young Guns sponsors.

Winners also get a chance to create original artwork for the recently opened New York location of Ace Hotel.  Dubbed “the country’s most original new hotel” by The New York Times, Ace Hotel’s vintage-mod aesthetic caters to the urban nomad on a mission for experience.  Ace Hotel will be selecting artists from the ADC Young Guns 7 winning class later this year.

This year’s 50 winners joins an elite group of past winners, including then-rising stars who went on to become leaders in their chosen fields such as Stefan Sagmeister and James Victore (graphic design),  Deanne Cheuk (illustration), Jeremy Floto and Cassandra Warner (aka floto+warner, photography), Alexander Gelman (advertising), Rei Inamoto and Jerome Austria (interactive media), Mike Mills (film and video), Alex Trochut (typography), Todd St. John (animation) and others.

To elevate the spirit of competition among ADC Young Guns and encourage a strong sense of community, a panel of 23 past ADC Young Guns served as the jury for this ADC YG7 competition. 

Images: ADC Young Guns

Further commendations have been awarded to the entries by Gall & Medek Architects with the Queensland College of Art, GU, Masters of Design Futures program; as well as DC8 studio; LVO’ Architecture Pty Ltd; and Matt Drysdale.

The Gold Coast is Australia’s sixth largest city and one of the fastest growing regions in our country. The city’s population is around 500,000 and, if as forecast, it continues to grow by 13,000 to 16,000 annually, it will be home to 900,000 residents by 2030. The 16.5 hectare site is located at 135 Bundall Road and is bordered on three sides by rivers and canals. Formerly a simple rural cane farm, the site is now at the heart of a growing city with views across the skyline of Surfers Paradise, Main Beach and Broadbeach.

The competition sought to generate creative new visions and ideas for the future of this key site and its facilities, stimulate community discussion about the future of the Gold Coast Cultural and Civic Precinct, as well as identify specific design features/strategies to be incorporated in the future development of the site.

The jury was chaired by Professor Michael Keniger and also included Professor Brit Andresen, Philip Follent, Rosie Kennedy, and Chris Gee. The competition was held by the Gold Coast City Council, with endorsement of the Australian Institute of Architects.

Super Colossal’s project provides new facilities for the Gold Coast Council, including a Performing Arts Center, Visual Arts and Heritage Center, cinema complex, restaurants, city council accommodation, significant park lands and an integrated pedestrian and bicycle network for the city.

The proud members of the Super Colossal team are Matthew Bennett, Erin Field, and Marcus Trimble.

From the jury report:

In common with many entries this proposal recognises that the site of the Gold Coast Cultural and Civic Precinct lies within the flood plain of the Nerang River and is therefore vulnerable to inundation from predicted future sea level rise; initially flooding low-laying land and later almost half the site.

This scheme creates a decisive subdivision over the site to defend the land by both consolidating and raising the low-laying areas to form the precinct as an ‘Island of Culture’.

By designing a defended cultural and civic precinct as a hybrid - “is it a building island or is it a landscape island?”- this bold scheme presents a new urban type for the Gold Coast whilst simultaneously recalling the ancient islands in the Laguna Veneta such as the Isola Murano and Isola San Michele.

The winning scheme proposes a civic square, located at the heart of the ‘Island of Culture’ envisaged as a grand outdoor place with a central address at the intersection of three bridging pathways that reach out from the island to the community.

The bridges connecting the city to the ‘Island of Culture’ can also extend pedestrian and bicycle routes through to the civic square creating the potential for a lively public place at the centre of this visible, iconic landmark.

By concentrating the civic and cultural functions on the ‘Island of Culture’ the remaining site is proposed as open parkland not only retaining the green edge at this point in the city but also extending the opportunity to link with a sequence of forest parks that would create significant linear landscapes stretching into the south-west hinterland.
With the scarcity of public open space for the future flood-free City of the Gold Coast these open park lands will make a significant contribution.

Images: Super Colossal

Among the five finalists was also the very exciting entry “Rebuilding 2.0” by the team comprising New York architects REX in collaboration with Croxton Collaborative and NOW.

Here’s a closer look at the “Rebuilding 2.0” concept with a detailed description we received from REX:

Sustainability mandates systemic change. Systemic change requires doing more. Sustainability requires impacting less. REBUILDING 2.0 is a strategy for Finland to impact less by doing more.

THE REBUILDING is the first step.

From the competition boards:

CLIENT: Sitra, The Finnish Innovation Fund
PROGRAM: Mixed-use sustainable development containing 14,000 m² of residential units, an 8,000 m² headquarters, and 13,200 m² of “Urban Infill”
AREA: 35,200 m² (378,900 sf)
PROJECT COST: NA
STATUS: Limited competition, second prize, 2009
ARCHITECT: REX | Croxton Collaborative | NOW
KEY REX PERSONNEL: Garrick Ambrose, Haviland Argo, E. Sean Bailey, Thomas Baker, Christopher Barley, Behrang Behin, Barrett Brown, Keith Burns, Wayne Congar, Juilanne Gola, Adam Koogler, Joshua Prince-Ramus, Jacob Reidel, Troy Therrien
CONSULTANTS: 2x4, Arup New York, Bureau Bas Smets, Front, Jonathan Rose Companies, Magnusson Klemencic, Transsolar

In early September, Bustler published the five finalists, including Claus en Kaan Architecten, Mecanoo Architecten, Meyer en van Schooten Architecten, and SeARCH.

The design, led by OMA partners Reinier de Graaf and Rem Koolhaas, was chosen from five submissions by Dutch architecture companies following a public consultation period and the deliberation of an expert jury, which commented: “OMA’s design was the perfect combination of innovation and suitability for the surrounding context.”

OMA conceived a modular building with repeated units gradually set back from the street as they rise into two irregular peaks. The building’s composition of smaller cells creates an impressive, complex form when viewed from Coolsingel, one of Rotterdam’s main arteries, and allows for subtlety and adaptability as the Stadskantoor abuts the adjacent municipal building from the 1950s, the Stadstimmerhuis.

The Stadskantoor’s innovative structural system generates maximum efficiency and versatility both in construction and in program: units can be added or even dismounted from the structure as demands on the building change over time, and can adapt to either office space or residential parameters as desired. Green terraces on higher levels provide the possibility of an apartment with a garden in the heart of urban Rotterdam.

The building’s concept of flexibility – together with a climate regulated by warm air stored in summer and released in winter, and vice versa, and the use of hi-tech translucent insulation in the building’s glass façade – allowed OMA to meet the design brief’s requirement of making the Stadskantoor the most sustainable building in the Netherlands.

Reinier de Graaf commented: “Rather than posing as the city’s next superlative, the design for the Stadskantoor is partly a building, partly an urban condition – a skyline in its own right. The design attempts to mediate between the adjacent town hall, post office and Stadstimmerhuis. Through an intentional ambiguity, the mass immerses itself in the city’s diverse architectural periods, absorbing the scales and styles of its immediate context.”

Images: OMA

The bridge-like design proposal by Fars Studio blends traditional Thai architecture with state-of-the-art technology on an area of 15,000 square meters. The costs for this structure are proposed with 200 Million Baht ($6 Million).

Here is how Fars Studio explain their entry:

The River Ping, Wang, Yom and Naan combining together become Chao Phraya River, the largest river in Thailand. Nakorn Sawan Municipality and ASA create this competition due to the symbol of this River where it occurs. This site has an extraordinary context: during the flood season, differentiate between low and high-tide is up to 9 meters. The river on the north side of the island has a green color and the south side is red. After those two rivers combine green and red color still tracking itself along Chao Phraya River creates a resonance stripe. This significant area not only has a phenomenon but also contained with the history of the country. Unfortunately this area is being abandoned for a long time as a result of the enormous number of the different tide level.

This landmark “Pasaan” situated on the tip of the island where the confluence occurs, in order to revitalize the area and attract Thai people and tourist. In our opinion, the site itself is already a potential landmark; we just need to underline it by attach an element to the site as modest as possible. Our purpose is to reflect the River’s chronicle, tradition and quality of life of the city by 2 following conditions:

First, Inside the Yom island, architecture becomes the complement of the nature; nothing can explain how beautiful the nature better than the river itself. In one axis, parallel to the River’s resonance stripe, we optimize numerous locations, elevation and appropriate angle on the site for people to perceive all the sceneries of the Rivers. In one route the architecture leads the people to each imperative locations such as; the point where people see 2 river all together, the point where people can see the whole city around the area, and the point where people see the confluence.

Second, from outside of the island, the architecture becomes a symbol the river represented through the weaving stripes. The bridge-like architecture accentuates visual connection and creates physical connection between 2 sides of the river; allowing people to sail pass and make the memorial alive during the high tide period.

For us, the essence of the traditional Thai architectures is the attention their designers paid to the quality of the human scale. Therefore, we generate the form out of the 2 conditions (previously mention), the constraints and the outline pattern from Thai artistic/architectural elements into the shape of the weaving stripes. Due to the local construction technology and the materials that resistance to flood, concrete is a major structure on the area between high and low tide and steel is for the rest. The cladding for the stripes is a combination between copper panel and wood.

Images: Fars Studio

David Nelson and Stefan Behling of Foster & Partners, and Richard Hassell and Wong Mun Summ of WOHA will attempt to envision not only these issues, but use Singapore as a case study of a city with limited resources for the next 40 years.

Foster & Partners will explore qualities that make up Singapore’s ‘metabolism’ – how it provides assured energy and food, while creating a sense of well-being for its residents.
“As architects, we will focus on urban sustainability as an immediate opportunity for a rapidly urbanizing world and explore the role of buildings in this evolution.” Say David and Stefan. “The creation of sustainable and humane habitats will determine the long-term success of humans on earth.”

WOHA will test new cross-programmed infrastructure, urban and architectural typologies to address the pressing issues of water, food and energy security that a city like Singapore will face tomorrow. “In the spirit of seeing a country as simply a large design challenge, we aim to renovate Singapore for the massive changes of the coming century.” Say Richard and Mun Summ.

Toshiko Mori, Principle of Toshiko Mori Architect has a slightly different approach to building urban areas of the future. She believes that when it comes to urban planning, a designer should investigate beyond the city itself and analyse its network of rural support systems including natural infrastructure, wild zones and undeveloped land. Her aim is to renegotiate the notion of the ‘rural’ within the current climate of intense urban scrutiny and develop analytical design plans that take into account the surrounding agriculture, biodiversity and rural land use to sustain the city.

Catch Foster & Partners, WOHA and Toshiko Mori Architect exploring how urban areas will be experienced in 2050 at the Icsid World Design Congress from November 23 to 25, 2009 in Singapore.

Portrait images: Icsid World Design Congress

Given the record numbers of entries this year and the widest geographic distribution of buildings worldwide, The International Architecture Awards have become a global event of an unprecedented scale—an important barometer for the future direction of new architectural design and thinking today—celebrating, recognizing, and highlighting the world’s foremost architectural solutions for the designs of new skyscrapers, corporate buildings, institutions, arts facilities, airports, private homes, industrial structures, and urban planning projects from London to Singapore.

The selected projects challenge new approaches to design that are beyond the envelope of the everyday, while providing cities with key civic building that celebrate and harmonize architecture as a high art while finding answers to the complicated problems of environment, social context, improving quality of life, and sustainability.

For the 2009 International Architecture Awards, the museum received hundreds of submissions from design firms in Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, and the Americas. The submissions ranged from the latest new corporate high-tech headquarters to smaller planning projects, bridges, memorials, sacred spaces, and private residences. All submitted projects were designed by architects in their respective countries of origin or abroad for both built and unbuilt projects alike, as of January 1, 2006.

This year’s jury for awards took place in Helsinki, Finland under the auspices of the Finnish Association of Architects (SAFA) and included some of the most influential design minds in Finland:

• Rainer Mahlamäki, President, Finnish Association of Architects (SAFA), Helsinski, Finland and Principal, Architects Lahdelma & Mahlamäki, Helsinki, Finland
• Kaj Forsblom, Galerie Forsblom, Heksinki, Finland
• Kivi Sotamaa, Principal of SOTAMMA DESIGN, Ltd. and Visiting Professor, Department of Architecture, UCLA, Los Angles, California, USA
• Anne Stenros, Vice President/Design Director, KONE Ojy., Espoo, Finland
• Ilkka Suppanen, Architect/Designer, Studio Suppanen, Helsinki, Finland and Professor, University of Art and Design Helsinki, Finland
• Markku Valkonen, Director, EMMA Espoo Museum of Modern Art, Espoo, Finland

The International Architecture Awards are curated and organized by Christian K. Narkiewicz-Laine, the Finnish Architecture Critic and President, The Chicago Athenaeum and assisted by Lary L. Sommers, Director of Administration/Marketing and Ioannis Karalias, Museum Vice President, The Chicago Athenaeum, and Kieran Conlon, Director/COO from the European Centre for Architecture, Art, Design, and Urban Studies.

Out of the ninety-seven (97) projects selected for awards, the United States received the highest number of thirteen (13) awards, followed by China with eight (8), Japan and Great Britain with each seven (7) and Germany having six (6) awards. The Netherlands, Brazil, Italy, Canada won four (4) awards each.

Here’s a small selection of this year’s award winners (see here for the complete list):

The presentation of the UK’s premier architectural award took place at a special awards ceremony last Saturday at Old Billingsgate in London, and was televised on British National TV.

According to the Stirling Prize jurors, Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners’ Maggie’s Centre exceeds at every level in fulfilling the most demanding of briefs: to create a sanctuary for terminally ill cancer sufferers with client Charles Jencks, whose deep conviction of architecture’s power to shape our experience has led to a series of cancer care centers creating a fitting memorial to his wife Maggie.

This quietly confident building is truly, unquestionably a haven for those who have been diagnosed with cancer. Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners’ achievement is in having created a completely informal, home-like sanctuary to help patients learn to live with cancer.

Conceived as a two-story pavilion, the center’s positive spirit is signaled with a bold roof canopy that hovers high above the walls to sail protectively over a series of intimate internal gardens, courtyards and roof terraces. A deep orange rendered wall puts a protective arm around it, making it a place apart without denying it is a part of the city.  This antithesis of a hospital provides an open house in the city.

Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners has produced a timeless work of architecture that not only distills the intentions of this brief but expresses in built form compassion, sensitivity and a deep sense of our common humanity.

RIBA President Ruth Reed announced the winner, and former RIBA President Marco Goldschmied awarded the £20,000 cash prize, which was generously donated by the Marco Goldschmied Foundation, to Richard Rogers.

Speaking at the awards ceremony last Saturday, RIBA President Ruth Reed said:

“The shortlist for this year’s RIBA Stirling Prize was of an exceptionally high standard, and I would like to congratulate each of the shortlisted entries. In the Maggie’s Centre we have a much deserved winner, and I am delighted to award Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners with architecture’s highest accolade.”

Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners has won the RIBA Stirling Prize once before in 2006 for Barajas Airport in Spain. This is the second time they have been shortlisted twice in the same year, the practice was also nominated for National Assembly for Wales (2006).

Maggie’s Centre was chosen from five outstanding shortlisted entries (previously on Bustler):

• 5 Aldermanbury Square, Londonby Eric Parry Architects
• Bodegas Protos, Spain by Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners
• Fuglsang Kunstmuseum, Denmark by Tony Fretton Architects
• Kentish Town Health Centre,London by Allford Hall Monaghan Morris
• LiverpooolOne Master Plan, Liverpool by BDP

The RIBA Stirling Prize jury was comprised of: John Tuomey, architect and chair of the panel; Stephen Bates, architect.; Thomas Heatherwick, designer; Sir John Sorrell, Chair of CABE; and Benedetta Tagliabue, architect.

This is the 14th year the RIBA Stirling Prize has been presented. Last year’s winner was Accordia by Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios, Alison Brooks Architects, and Maccreanor Lavington. The previous winners are: Museum of Modern Literature by David Chipperfield Architects, Barajas Airport in Madrid by Richard Rogers Partnership, The Scottish Parliament, designed by EMBT / RMJM, 30 St. Mary Axe by Foster and Partners; the Laban Centre, London by Herzog & de Meuron; Gateshead Millennium Bridge by Wilkinson Eyre; Magna, Rotherham by Wilkinson Eyre; Peckham Library and Media Centre by Alsop and Störmer; the NatWest Media Centre at Lord’s Cricket Ground by Future Systems; the American Air Museum at Duxford by Foster and Partners; The Music School, Stuttgart by Michael Wilford and Partners; and the Centenary Building, University of Salford, by Hodder Associates.

The following winners of the RIBA Special Awards were also announced and presented at the ceremony last Saturday:

• Gap House in London by Pitman Tozer won the Manser Medal sponsored by the Rooflight Company for the best one-off house or housing scheme designed by an architect in the UK.
• El Ray, a private house in Kent, by Simon Conder Associates won the Stephen Lawrence Prize funded by the Marco Goldschmied Foundation, for the best example of a building with a construction budget of less than £1 million.
• CastlefordBridge in Yorkshire by McDowell and Benedetti won the RIBA CABE Public Space Award, which celebrates publicly accessible external space.
• The Midland Hotel in Morecambe won The Crown Estate Conservation Award.  The prize is awarded to the best work of conservation which demonstrates successful restoration or adaptation of an architecturally significant building.
• MinsterSchoolin Southwell, Nottinghamshire by Penoyre & Prasad won the RIBA Sorrell Foundation Schools Award, was presented to the architects of the best RIBA award-winning school - primary or secondary - with the aim of raising the standards of design in all new school building.
• The RIBA Client of the Year 2009 award, which recognizes the extraordinarily high standard of this year’s shortlist and the different skills involved in architectural patronage, was presented to all six shortlisted entries. Peter Sharpe on behalf of the Kielder Partnership, for the Kielder Observatory in Northumberland by Charles Barclay Architects; Dr Roy Macgregor on behalf of Camden & Islington Community Solutions, for the Kentish Town Health Centre in London by Allford Hall Monaghan Morris; Peter Millican on behalf of Parabola Land, for Kings Place in London by Dixon Jones; Rod Holmes on behalf of Grosvenor, for the Liverpool One Master Plan, Liverpool by BDP; Laura Lee on behalf of Maggie’s, for Maggie’s Centre, London by Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners; amd Rev Nicholas Holtam for St Martin-in-the-Fields, London by Eric Parry Architects and Caroe & Partners (Conservation Architect).

After 9 days and 10 contests, Team Germany reached the highest overall scores, closely followed by Team Illinois and Team California (previously on Bustler). Dubbed “the big, black monolith,” surPLUShome is almost entirely covered with photovoltaic panels that managed to generate 19 kilowatts during one day of test runs—more than twice as much as some other Solar Decathlon contestants.

The Solar Decathlon—a competition in which 20 teams of college and university students compete to design, build, and operate the most attractive, effective, and energy-efficient solar-powered house—was hosted by the U.S. Department of Energy for three weeks this October. The contest is also an event to which the public is invited to observe the powerful combination of solar energy, energy efficiency, and the best in home design.

Here’s some more info from TU Darmstadt’s Team Germany about surPLUShome:

The Solar Decathlon design of the Darmstadt University of Technology is aimed to demonstrate innovative sustainable design and to make it an object of discussion. Our architectural vision offers an alternate lifestyle which introduces the concept of energy efficiency and sustainability as a substantial element of everyday life.

The functions are stored away into cupboards and cavities – consequently the main room is open and flexible to provide adequate space for different activities.

Emotional Space
We defined different zones and atmospheres within our single room concept. Varying elevation changes on ground level and the gallery enables a distinction of spacious public and cozy personal room qualities. The integrative design of furnishings such as the bed which can be stored away beneath the flooring are essential to preserve the room qualities.

Windows are placed to support the different functions and ambiences of the room and allow different views from and into the in- and outside.

Within the past process of Solar Decathlon, Team Germany has always intended to design new solutions for the integration of photovoltaic cells into the building surface.

The construction of the façade is based on the traditional principle of shingles, which is commonly practiced with slate or wooden plates. We picked up this technique and transferred the principle onto a new appearance and modern materials such as glass PV-modules and acrylic glass.
We achieved a façade-system which is in accordance to all different requirements of building façades. Besides the architectural claims, it also features constructive moisture proof and technical exhaust ventilation.
Furthermore the façade offers effective shading and lighting control system all in one. In order to generate an energy gaining façade that functions in all orientations we used thin-film CIS cells which are characterized by the ability to function with diffuse solar radiation.

Examples of sustainable design integration
A sustainable development doesn’t only take place on the visual design level, there is more to it than what meets the eye. The challenge is to integrate functions, design and innovative technologies into one coherent concept. Some examples are:

Technical footprint
For the reduction of the energy demand, the building shell consists of highly insulated and airtight components, Vacuum Insulation Panels (VIP). A vacuum insulation panel with a breadth of 5 cm has the equivalent insulation properties of 25 cm of common insulation materials. As a result the extra 20 cm were added to our interior space. Additionally the complete building can is reduced to a surface area of approximately 2 m².

Ecological Footprint
Wood is a renewable resource with positive life cycle assessment. To reduce the ecological impact of the building, we decided for a wooden primary construction. As strong but light material it offers high material efficiency. Furthermore it has high heat storage properties. Therefore we increased the use of local wood (spruce for construction and ceiling, oak for flooring and frames).
To point out the positive impact of such a way of planning, we use the certification method of the German sustainable building Council (DGNB) and we will try to show a pre-certificate on the National Mall in Washington D.C.

Here is a project description from the architects:

A complex of 9,000 m2 constructed that there constitute teaching areas (lecture rooms and workshops), library, audio-visual, auditorium, administrative area, restoration, facilities and services and parking.

The winning project presented by A-cero, raises the centre as a landscape operation blurring the limits between architecture and free space. The horizontal plane of the plot bends producing a new orography marked by fissures that will be the spaces of access to the centre and exterior spaces of the teaching areas. The resultant geometry north - south looks for the orientation for the interior program. The surrounding one (walls and covering) triangulated specializes and diversifies adopting different solutions as orientation and conditions of use. The idea is that it is possible to cover the “covering” as a park where there coexist green areas (indigenous vegetation and gardens) with areas destined for solar, photovoltaic panels, and other systems of clean energies and energy saving.

It is finally a project of clear commitment of respect to the environment and with high sustainability grade. What the architecture Studio A-cero that Joaquín Torres directs with his collaborating associate Rafael Llamazares, he has betting for years of research and development of ideas that promote this concept of sustainable architecture.

Images: A-cero

This is how the architect explains his building:

Situated in a typical nondescript subdivision of Eastern Pennsylvania, this home is surrounded by other single-family houses of all shapes and sizes, redolent with clichés and conventions which can be just as easily elsewhere as here. For that reason it is the surrounding landscape and history of the region that largely determines the design. The primary building materials, site poured concrete and various concrete products, pay respect to the history of Northampton – the birthplace of American Portland Cement.

Permanently embedded into the landscape of Northampton and now standing proudly in ruin, are the industrial artifacts which record the history of cement making. Kilns which were used to melt the rock quarried here, developed over time. The initial Dome kilns were inefficient and gave way to the Schoefer kilns which could operate continuously. Within a decade, the Schoefer kilns were replaced with rotary kilns whose technology remains in existence.

Today’s modern cement plant stands as a strong form consisting of framed boxes perched atop a series of concrete monoliths which loom in the partially monotonous and chaotic surroundings that are suburbia. These industrial machines, along with the material they produce, greatly influence the design of this home.

The house is not a solitary cube that might have been sited anywhere, but one which penetrates into the landscape and becomes one with it. This single-family, three bedroom home deviates in scale and appearance from the neighboring houses. In fact it seems closer in spirit to the forest and topography it nestles within. The main living area, whose face is half buried into the landscape, offers no views to the east except that of its walled courtyard. It is to be a peaceful place, a kind of oasis sheltered from sound and views of the subdivision thus creating an outdoor room that opens to the sky. The interior space is open, intimate, and neutral with domestic objects articulated as furnishings placed within. Hues of blue skin echo the mottled limestone quarried here.

The base of the home is constructed of concrete. This seemingly unnatural mixture of fluid stone and steel reinforcement is quite sufficiently different from historical materials. However, it is a material that offers the rough, tactile charm that often emanate from the irregularities of mature buildings. Deliberately crude in its execution, the concrete monolith is treated as an existing condition, or ruin, whose subsequent wood-framed, cementitious clad boxes are carefully inserted. The ruin’s powerful presence is derived from its material qualities and from the way it is linked to the ground. It penetrates into the earth and engages a platform which becomes clearly defined as the topography falls away.

The planted concrete ruin looks as though it is going to be in the location it has found for itself for a long time. Unlike its surrounding production housing counterparts, it is not even thinking of moving away from the place it occupies and defines by its very existence. The concrete is allowed to age, become rough and perhaps slowly erode. The intangible dimension of time could then be recorded by the traces left on the walls. Eventually, gravel will be exposed and particles of dirt, algae, and moss will take hold.

This home is an architecture that involves all the senses. The surfaces and details demand to be felt. The spaces and special sequences require to be grasped by the senses that apprehend gravity, driving forces, and temperature. Details involving human contact such as entrance areas, steps, handles and hand rails are treated with particular care. The restricted tolerances of construction elegantly contrasts with the random nature of the organic while the massing, textures, and unevenness of weathering surfaces transmit similar sensations to the landscape.

Images: Steven Wolfe Photography

The Healthcare Center for Cancer Patients is a new typology between the tranquility of a home and the sophisticated treatment at a hospital. The center’s design was inspired by the concept of ‘Maggie’s Center’ in the UK. The building is run in collaboration with the Danish Cancer Society.

Collaborators in the design are also Hellerup Byg, Bravida Danmark, Wessberg Ingeniører and Metopos Landscape.

Client: Municipality of Copenhagen
Site: Nørrebro, Copenhagen
Year: 2009
Program: Healthcare Center for Cancer Patients
Size: 1,800 m2
Budget: 40M DKK ($8M)

Images: NORD Architects/MIR

The EPA awards recognized student and professional designs for buildings and building projects, as well as special categories, including the creation of green jobs.

“Designing buildings and building products with front-end lifecycle thinking is the key to real green building,” said Lisa Heinzerling, associate administrator for EPA’s Office of Policy, Economics, and Innovation. “These innovators are great examples of how we can build sustainable structures that help meet the needs of this and future generations.”

Lifecycle building is designing structures to facilitate disassembly and material reuse to minimize waste, energy consumption, and associated greenhouse gas emissions. Also known as design for disassembly and design for deconstruction, lifecycle building describes the idea of creating high-performance buildings today that are stocks of resources for the future. EPA recently reported that doubling the reuse and recycling of construction and demolition debris would result in an emissions savings of 150 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent per year, equal to the entire annual carbon emissions from the state of North Carolina.

EPA, along with its partners, the American Institute of Architects, West Coast Green, the Collaborative for High Performance Schools, and StopWaste.Org, invited professionals and students nationwide to submit designs and ideas that support cost-effective disassembly and anticipate future use of building materials. The competition was open to architects, reuse experts, engineers, designers, planners, contractors, builders, educators, environmental advocates and students. This year, the competition was extended to include international participants who hailed from Singapore, Taiwan, Argentina, Colombia, France, Egypt, and the United Kingdom.

These are the winners from the United States:

[Un] Modular Design for Deconstruction
David Fleming, University of Cincinnati, Richfield, MN
Category: Building—Student

This construction trade school design redefines “building” as a temporary resting place for materials to be traded, upgraded and reused. The project shows the potential for a building to evolve with time as materials, fashions, technologies, and uses change. The adaptable structural system can create almost any column, beam and wall configuration. Rather than attempting to find an infinitely reusable module, the project creates a framework for creative materials reuse.

Arboretum and Research Visitors’ Center
Kira Gould, William McDonough + Partners, Charlottesville, VA
Category: Building—Professional Built

The visitors’ center design roots the building firmly in its woodland context by blurring distinctions between the indoors and outdoors, and by incorporating the surrounding forest into the building’s lifecycle analysis. Construction emphasized safe, closed material loops of biological nutrients, which break down to safely return to forest soil; and technical nutrients, which can be remanufactured into new objects. The mechanical connections and reconfigurable modules allow for building alterations. The project performs 51% better than the ASHRAE-compliant base case used to measure the greenhouse gas reduction.

Modular Temporary Construction Wall/Barricade
Douglas Spear and Aaron Barnes, ENVY Modular Wall Systems LLC, Las Vegas, NV
Category: Product—Professional Built

This modular temporary construction wall system consists of panels and extruded joining parts that are recyclable, reusable and can be recycled into new products with zero waste. It replaces wall systems that are used for a short period of time (1-18 months) and often end up in a landfill. Replacing conventional materials used to create temporary walls saves approximately 1 ton of material from the landfill per 70 linear feet of standard height wall. The modular temporary construction wall system is being used in the MGM Mirage City Center Project in Las Vegas, Nevada where it will conserve over 100 tons of construction debris.

Outstanding Achievement Awards:

Best Green Job Creation:
ReAnimateLA: Center for Ecological & Urban Recovery
Hayley Stewart, Cal Poly Pomona, Pomona, CA

ReAnimate LA would create up to 100 green jobs maintaining the sustainable elements of the building, such as the extraction and reuse of salvaged materials in construction, photovoltaic and ground-source heat pump systems, and bioremediation planting. ReAnimate LA speaks to the changing public values on environmental policy and the urban networks that are essential in bringing back value to a localized, organic way of life in the American city.

Best Greenhouse Gas Reduction:
Arboretum and Research Visitors’ Center
Kira Gould, William McDonough + Partners, Charlottesville, VA

The visitors’ center design roots the building firmly in its woodland context by blurring distinctions between the indoors and outdoors, and by incorporating the surrounding forest into the building’s lifecycle analysis. Construction emphasized safe, closed material loops of biological nutrients, which break down to safely return to forest soil; and technical nutrients, which can be remanufactured into new objects. The mechanical connections and reconfigurable modules allow for building alterations. The project performs 51% better than the ASHRAE-compliant base case used to measure the greenhouse gas reduction.

Best School Design:
School M.O.D.
Yosuke Kawai and Ikue Nomura, University of Pennsylvania, Dayton, OH
Honorable Mention for Category: Building—Student

This prototype school building focuses on feasibility and maximizing flexibility. The usual constraints of fixed areas are resolved by combining modular (M), open (O), and dual structural (D) systems. This construction technique allows any individual to build with locally available materials to meet immediate needs while providing the opportunity for future growth.

Honorable Mention for Reclamation of Materials:
Reclaimed Space: Sustainable, Modern
Zak Hardage, Tracen Gardner, and Kimber Reed-Barber, Reclaimed Space, Austin, TX
Category: Building—Professional Built

This modern, sustainable designed home values reclaimed materials that are the product of disassembly. The average home generates 8,000 pounds of waste, 80% of which is recyclable while Reclaimed Space homes create less than 300 pounds of waste, nearly all of which is recycled. These energy sipping homes feature solar and rain catchment systems, recycled newspaper insulation and reclaimed 100-year old hardwood oak flooring.

Honorable Mention for Innovative Reuse:
Political Ply - An Arid Zone Shade Structure
Jason Griffiths, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ
Category: Product—Student

Political Ply explores methods of re-purposing existing political campaign signs to form a temporary arid-zone shade structure. The structure is composed of hexagons and each cell has a self contained cooling structure. The project is designed for disassembly, and each hexagonal cell is tapered to allow cells to stack together for convenient transportation.

And here are the International Winners:

The Worm Bar
Miaoling Li, National University of Singapore, Singapore
Category: Building—Student

The Worm Bar integrates a worm farm, salad bar, and educational gallery into a temporary pavilion structure. More than 90% of the pavilion components come from the adaptation of an existing scaffolding system that can be easily disassembled for use in other projects. Highlighting the processing of our waste by humble earthworms, the pavilion aims to increase the awareness of consumption patterns, and provoke discussion on alternative methods of waste management. The project even envisions visitors leaving with a souvenir bag of vermicompost!
Political Ply explores methods of re-purposing existing political campaign signs to form a temporary arid-zone shade structure. The structure is composed of hexagons and each cell has a self contained cooling structure. The project is designed for disassembly, and each hexagonal cell is tapered to allow cells to stack together for convenient transportation.

Honorable Mention:
Carapace Communion
Rhys Owen, University Of Westminster, United Kingdom
Category: Building—Student

The Carapace Communion project celebrates disassembly by investigating the relationships created when a community’s need for a sheltered meeting space results in the creation of a stronger and more environmentally aware society. Each communion member owns a construction component, but only when multiple elements are assembled (through use of removable fasteners) can a functioning structure be created. These structures can be disassembled to give each member their element back and the structure can be assembled, disassembled or adapted very quickly.

Honorable Mention:
CLOTHed PAVILLION
Hui Ying Lim, National University of Singapore, Singapore
Category: Building—Student

This temporary pavilion of recycled compressed clothing challenges the limitations of an abundant source of recyclable cloth, by converting it into architectural components. Fabrics currently have very low recycling rate—12% in Singapore. Re-purposing fabric heightens environmental awareness and would result in 169,000 sets of clothes (230 tonnes) being reused. The cloth bales are starched hard and treated for additional strength, and can be de-starched without damaging the material. The pavilion uses standard wall modules to create partitions and furniture that can be easily reconfigured.

Honorable Mention:
Garden Toilet
Caijin Huang, National University of Singapore, Singapore
Category: Building—Student

This is a small project designed as a temporary “public convenience” structure to provide the public with bathrooms and showers at on-site events. The walls are tall enough to provide basic privacy. The structure’s hollow walls can be filled with natural materials (fallen leaves, pebbles, stone) or reclaimed materials (bottles and cans). The shower screens are made of layers of overlapping of bamboo to maximize privacy while creating openness and ventilation. The building can be taken down easily and some of the materials can be returned to nature.

Images: Lifecycle Building Challenge

The three finalist entries Tripod, urbanCLOUD, and Urban Umbrella will advance to Stage II, and further develop their designs with the assistance of a Technical Advisory Group. The jury selected three additional projects for honorable mention.

These are the three finalists:

And here are the three honorable mentions:

The urbanSHED competition is seeking a fresh, new sidewalk shed design that’s sustainable, economical, meets or exceeds current safety requirements and City regulations, improves technical and structural performance – and creates a better environment for the people who live in, work in and visit New York City.

Images: urbanSHED

Evaluating three main factors—architectural elements, holistic design, and inspiration—the jurors praised Team California’s house as “beautiful in every respect.” They commented specifically on its “excellent project documentation, crystal-clear concept, and successful translation of a regional architecture to Washington DC.”

“This project broke out of the box and made exterior and interior space appear as one,” they continued, “with a varied series of sensations from the cool, shaded entry to the cantilevered balconies and a series of microclimates above and beyond” the requirements of the competition.

Team California also placed third today in the market viability contest, in a tie with Iowa State University, scoring 92 out of a possible 100. The jurors praised Team California’s “excellent drawings” and were impressed with the fact that the team interacted with its target market, even inviting them over for coffee.

CCA’s Director of Architecture Ila Berman commented, “The Solar Decathlon has been a tremendous opportunity for CCA students to apply their capacity for creative innovation in culture, media, and technology. They are thinking about the future of our planet and generating new, responsible models for green living. Our collaboration with Santa Clara’s Engineering Department was a remarkable experience, embodying one of our leading goals: to engage in multidisciplinary research and design in support of important, project-based initiatives. Our future as architects, designers, and engineers depends on our ability to collectively, creatively, and intelligently deal with the kinds of challenges that this competition proposes. I am thrilled that we had the opportunity to participate, and I am very proud of the students.”

Refract House Design

Team California has proven that you can live sustainably without compromising aesthetically. Its entry in the competition, titled Refract House, takes advantage of the latest advances in both technology and design.
Inspired by the outdoor lifestyle of the West Coast, Refract House has an expansive feel despite its compact, 800-square-foot footprint. The house creates strong connections between indoor and outdoor spaces, with 700 square feet of decking that includes a large central courtyard. Strategically placed openings extend each living space to the outside, contributing to the overall feeling of spaciousness.

The lighting design also creates a sense of bringing the outdoors in by utilizing different daylighting strategies such as clerestory windows and large sliding doors. This has the added benefit of minimizing the electric load. The inviting, tranquil interior design incorporates materials and products from individuals and companies that have demonstrated their dedication to sustainable practices.

There are some surprising elements, for instance a lamp made from plastic drinking straws. Reclaimed California redwood rainscreen covers the house’s exterior, providing a warm hue and varied texture.

Collaborative Effort

Students from many different disciplines—including architecture, ceramics, engineering, fashion design, furniture, glass, graphic design, and interior design—contributed to Refract House. From the California clay plateware to the fine art on the walls, the furniture, and the clothing in the closet, all of the elements of Refract House were created or designed by students. CCA’s Project Manager (and CCA architecture student) Kyle Belcher comments, “It’s exciting to see the results of two years of intense collaboration, not only between two schools, but also among architects, engineers, graphic designers, business students, artists, and interior designers.” Says SCU’s Project Manager Allison Kopf, “Santa Clara University is proud of how much it’s accomplished with California College of the Arts. We seamlessly merged engineering and design to create a luxurious, comfortable, eco-friendly home.”

Architecture Programs at CCACCA’s undergraduate and graduate architecture programs currently have an enrollment of 250 students. Both are accredited by the National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB). The undergraduate program, established in 1986, offers a five-year professional bachelor of architecture degree. CCA’s Master of Architecture Program was launched in 2004 and was formally granted NAAB accreditation in January 2008.

In the Solar Decathlon, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, 20 university-led teams from around the world compete to design, build, and operate the most attractive, functional, and energy-efficient solar-powered home.

Images: Team California’s Flickr Stream

The winners of the competition were announced last night at experimentadesign lisboa:

1st Prize: Telmo Cruz + Maximina Almeida (Portugal)

2nd Prize: Moxon Architects Limited (Great Britain)

3rd Prize: Impromptu Arquitectos + Selahattin Tuysuz Architecture (Portugal)

Honorable Mention: Studio Kawamuka Ganjavian (Spain)

Honorable Mention: Atelier do Cardoso (Spain)

Special Mention: Tiago Barros + Jorge Pereira (Portugal)

The winning work and jury shortlist is currently on display at the Lounging Space during EXD’09, between October 4 and November 8, 2009.

One project stood out especially due to its…let’s say…experimental approach towards a cycling bridge which won it the special mention prize: “High-Speed Car Ramp” by Portuguese Tiago Barros + Jorge Pereira. Below is some project info from the team:

Project Architects: Tiago Barros + Jorge Pereira
Team: Ines Valente and Joao Paulo Fernandes

The ramp will provide a long lasting event. An event that will take place every second a car goes by. This long lasting show will bring people from all over the world. A new tourist attraction takes place. The arrival of this new catalyst will foster the redevelopment of the whole region.

Images: Tiago Barros + Jorge Pereira

Given in recognition of a lifetime’s work, the Royal Gold Medal is approved personally by the Queen of England and is given to a person or group of people who have had a significant influence “either directly or indirectly on the advancement of architecture”.

I. M. Pei is one of the most prolific architects of all time having completed over 170 projects and more than 50 master plans. At the age of 92, he remains actively engaged in architecture. His work easily spans the divide between commercial and cultural architecture, and he is equally respected and sought after by clients in all fields.

Ieoh Ming Pei (always known as I. M.) is a Chinese American architect, born in China in 1917. He traveled to the United States in 1935 to study architecture, and never returned to live in his home country. He graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and received a Masters degree from Harvard Graduate School of Design, where he studied under Gropius and Breuer, coming under the influence of the International Style which was to inspire his work for almost 70 years. His first commission was for the noted planner-developer William Zeckendorf: the Miesian Mile High Center in Denver. He set up his own practice in 1955. His best known buildings are probably the National Center for Atmospheric Research Boulder, Colorado (1961-67), the East Wing of the National Gallery Washington DC (1968-78), the John F Kennedy Library, Boston (1965-79), the Bank of China, Hong Kong (1982-89), the Grand Louvre expansion and renovation (1983-93) and the Miho Museum in Shiga, Japan (1991-97). In recent years he has completed major museum projects in Luxembourg, China and Qatar. His only building in the UK is a private commission: a tiny pavilion in Wiltshire.

I. M. Pei has been honored by America, France, Germany, Japan and the UK where he is an Honorary Academician of the Royal Academy of Arts (1993). He has been awarded the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Medal for Architecture (1976); the American Institute of Architects - the Gold Medal (1979); the American Academy of Arts & Letters - Gold Medal for Architecture (1979); La Grande Médaille d’Or of l’Académie d’Architecture, France (1981), the Pritzker Architecture Prize (1983); the Praemium Imperiale for lifetime achievement in architecture, Japan (1989); Officier de La Légion d’Honneur, France (1993) and the Thomas Jefferson Medal for distinguished achievement in the arts, humanities, or social sciences (2001).

Speaking from New York, I. M. Pei said of the honour,

‘It is a great honor to receive the Royal Gold Medal from the Royal Institute of British Architects. I am humbled indeed to read the names of those who have preceded me as recipients. I look forward to attending the ceremony in February, and to thanking personally RIBA President Ruth Reed and the Honors Committee, and David Adjaye, who nominated me.’

I. M. Pei was nominated for the 2010 Royal Gold Medal by David Adjaye. His citation concludes with a personal tribute: ‘When I began my studies in architecture, I. M. Pei was already a giant in the cannon of greats. His work seemed effortlessly capable of creating extraordinary clarity out of complex and conflicting demands. His is an agile ability, working with Heads of State, Kings and Queens, “hard nosed” developers and non profit institutions, in each case creating revealing, extraordinary works of precision with quality and detail.

‘I remember as a young student first visiting the Louvre in Paris and marveling at its extraordinary ability to unify and modernize what was a much loved but disparate institution and behold its magnificent, gravity defying, glass pyramid. He became a role model for me as a young architect.’

RIBA President Ruth Reed, who chaired the Honors Committee which selects to Royal Gold medal winner said,

“Chairing the Honors Committee was my very first duty as President and it was an honor for me too. The Royal Gold Medal is a most auspicious award and we have chosen in I. M. Pei a very special winner. He is one of the greats of 20th - and 21st - century architecture; a man whose work I have always admired. A list of his influences and those he has influenced reads like a roll-call of the Modern Movement. Seldom has such a reward been so overdue or so just.”

I. M. Pei will be presented with the Royal Gold Medal on February 11, 2010 at a ceremony at the Royal Institute of British Architects in London, when the 2010 RIBA International and Honorary Fellowships will also be presented.

The Royal Gold Medal was inaugurated by Queen Victoria in 1848 and is conferred annually by the Sovereign on ‘some distinguished architect for work or high merit, or on some distinguished person whose work has promoted either directly or indirectly the advancement of architecture.’

Previous winners have included Sir Charles Barry, Sir George Gilbert Scott, Alfred Waterhouse, Sir Edwin Lutyens, Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, Charles Voysey, Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius, Alvar Aalto, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Kenzo Tange, Ove Arup, Sir Nikolaus Pevsner, Louis Kahn, James Stirling, Berthold Lubetkin, Norman Foster, Richard Rogers, Oscar Niemeyer, Jean Nouvel, Rem Koolhaas, Toyo Ito and Alvaro Siza.

This year’s RIBA Honors Committee was chaired by the President of the RIBA, Ruth Reed with David Adjaye OBE, architect, Adjaye Associates; Edward Cullinan CBE, architect, Edward Cullinan Architects; Max Fordham, Environmental Engineer, Max Fordham Partnership; Anne Lacaton, architect, Lacaton & Vassal (Paris); and Laura Lee, Client, Maggie’s.

Populous has also designed the master plan and overlay plan for competition and non-competition venues and facilities in Sochi, and now adds designing the main 40,000 seat stadium to their expanding role on the 2014 Games. Populous is joined in the design consortium by Russian contractor Engeocom and Botta Management.

“The main stadium design, in addition to the venue overlay plan we have prepared for the 2014 Games, delivers a wonderful vision for the winter Olympics, and a lasting sustainable legacy for Sochi. Its sweeping form responds to both its coastal location and mountainous backdrop, whilst its crystalline skin engages with its surroundings by day, and provides an iconic representation of the color and spectacle of the games when illuminated at night.  We are proud to be involved on such a level with Olympstroy,” said John Barrow, Populous senior principal.

“The stadium in Winter Olympics mode will be used for the Opening and Closing and Medal Ceremonies in Sochi. Later it will become a football venue for local and national teams,” he said. 

Populous, formerly HOK Sport Venue Event, has its main Asian office in Brisbane, but its work in Russia is carried out from its London office.

This is the 25th year of Populous’ involvement in Olympic and Paralympic Games, and believes it is now the first design practice to have been officially appointed for the design of two Olympic Stadiums at one time. Populous is the architecture firm responsible for the main Stadium and venues overlay for the London 2012 Games.

Image: Populous

The design weaves together the collective spirit of the spectators with the public realm and the urban context of the building. The main stadium houses spectator seating, TV broadcasting center, administration areas, VIP lounge, players facilities and public concourse in a layered envelope which extends on ground level to provide outdoor public areas above decked parking facilities. In addition, the design incorporates two training fields on the 144,000 m2 site.

According to Ben van Berkel, “The design of the Dalian Football Stadium is inspired by the classic Chinese football, which was made by layering colored bamboo. For the stadium design, we appropriated this effect to generate a double-layered roof structure. This structure operates as a double concourse enclosure, encircling the tribunes. Splits and openings in between broad bands of the lattice structure enable views from the outside in and from the inside out.”

Stadium design

Essential to the stadium typology is the experience of the spectator. Aside from the basic function of a stadium as an arena for spectator sport with one central focal point, stadium design requires the consideration of many essential structural, programmatic, contextual, infrastructural and stylistic elements and the incorporation of these into a strong, integral gesture. Infrastructural considerations include ease of access and evacuation, visitor routing and parking facilities, while contextual considerations form an important element in both the relationship of the stadium to the city, its surroundings and its orientation with regard to nearby transport modes.

UNStudio’s design for the Dalian stadium presents an inclusive approach to stadium design where the articulation of the structure and the openings and overlapping moments of its double-layered envelope serve as the starting point for visitor experience and programmatic and infrastructural requirements, in addition to heightening spectator experience in terms of proximity to the playing field.

Ben van Berkel says, “A key feature of the Dalian Stadium is the proximity of the spectators to the pitch, thereby ensuring the best views from the tribunes and creating a true sense of engagement. As in theatre design specific views and focal points are required. In the Dalian stadium, we envisioned the playing field as the stage. A two tier seating system and curved outlines optimize the corners of the tribunes and allow the spectators to be as close as possible to the playing field.”

Dalian

With a population of 5.7 million, Dalian is the largest port in Northeast China and forms an important center of trade, industry and tourism. In 1984, the State Council approved Dalian as a coastal open city during China’s opening up to the West. In the mid-90s, Dalian began an ambitious undertaking to become a world-class port city on the level of Rotterdam, and a host to international events. Radical city planning policies were implemented, improving the aesthetic appearance of the city and eventually transforming the center of Dalian with architectural styles reminiscent of the Mediterranean and Sweden, thereby making it a unique city in China.

UNStudio’s design for the Dalian Football Stadium reacts to this setting by orientating the building in order to maximize both the use of existing transport modes and the views of the surrounding sea and mountains, whilst providing a unique sporting venue for the population of the Dalian.

Dalian Football Stadium, Dalian, China, 2009
Client: Dalian City Bureau of Urban Planning,
Location: Dalian, China
Building surface: 38,500 m2

Building site: 144,000 m2

Capacity: 40,000 spectators

Program: Football stadium with two additional training grounds

Status: Competition 1st prize

Credits
UNStudio: Ben van Berkel, Caroline Bos, Astrid Piber with Nuno Almeida, Ger Gijzen and Cynthia Markhoff, Luis Etchegorry, Shu Yan Chan, Ramon van der Heijden, Marcin Koltunski, Fernie Lai, Patrik Noome

Advisors

Engineering consultants: ARUP Shanghai, China
Arup International Consultants (Shanghai) Co., Ltd

Sports consultant: ASS Planungs GMBH Freie Architekten, Germany

Traffic consultant: MVA Hong Kong LTD.

Visualizations: UNStudio / and SZ Silkroad Digi Tech Co. LTD., China

Animation: IDF Global Pty Ltd.

Images: UNStudio

Selected from five shortlisted projects (previously on Bustler), the outright winner was the Archaeology Museum of Vitoria, Spain, designed by Mangado y Asociados. Extensive use of cast bronze elements creates contrasting elevational treatments. From the street it seems tough and hermetic with a real air of mystery enticing the visitor in. Then, it reveals more of its nature and grows increasingly open with the changing architectural rhythm on entering the courtyard. The judges were particularly impressed with the building’s stunning effect of a timeless fortress in its urban setting.

Also from Spain, Mediacomplex 22@ in Barcelona by Patrick Genard y Asociados and Ferrater & Asociados was Highly Commended by the judges for its superb response to a tight, complex urban setting, forming new public spaces of lasting value. Here, a solid, horizontal block clad with panels of perforated copper contrasts with a vertical tower shrouded in a strong vertical grid of deeply recessed, copper-faced screens.

Three other projects received Commendations. Davide Macullo Architects’ sensitive design for the Ticino House responds to its beautiful rural setting in Switzerland and incorporates an extensive arrangement of copper mesh panels. In complete contrast, the Clip House in Madrid, Spain, by Bernalte-León Asociados is a highly sculptural design defined by sinuous curving copper bands cantilevered from a vertical concrete spine. Finally, the judges considered Dissing+Weitling Architecture’s copper-clad Frederikskaj project in Copenhagen, Denmark to set the standard for high-density urban housing.

In addition, a discretionary award for Innovation was made for the inventive use of art applied to bronze panels on Stanton Williams’ Bristol Department Store. The essential role of craftsmen in realizing designers’ aspirations for copper in architecture was also recognized with three Craftsmanship awards for projects in Belgium and the UK.

The well-established Copper in Architecture Awards recognize architectural excellence and celebrate the use of copper in all its forms. The last two decades have seen their transformation from a UK-based program highlighting craftsmanship, into a major, design-led Awards event for projects across Europe. For the first time, the 2009 Awards considered all entries together - judged by a European panel of eight architects and editors, chaired by Paul Finch, the recently appointed chairman of CABE - the UK government’s advisors on architecture and urban design.

Photos of the other four shortlisted projects, can be seen here.

Images: Copper Development Association

The company - which has also won awards for other maritime architecture projects throughout the world - clinched the top place with a design called ‘Sculpted by Wind and Wave.’ This winning scheme was chosen from among 73 international and local entries for the competition run by the Landscape Institute on behalf of the Council. The competition was run with the support of RIBA Competitions.

The four other shortlisted design teams were:

• Wilkinson Eyre Architects with Schonherr Landscape and Conisbee
• Hugh Broughton Architects with Land Use Consultants, SKM and Spiers and Major Associates
• HOK
• LandLab with Ushida Findlay Architects, Atkins Bennett and United Creatives.

The Landscape Institute is an educational charity and chartered body responsible for protecting, conserving and enhancing the natural and built environment for the benefit of the public. This contest aimed to encourage ways to revitalize the Pier Head environment and devise innovative designs, enabling established leisure, recreation and tourism uses, to continue in an attractive, high quality and appealing setting.

According to the report, White arkitekter clearly demonstrated the theme of ‘maritime, environmental and relaxed recreation’ which was chosen by the public after a major consultation with residents and visitors. This winning firm, if ratified by Cabinet and Council, would work in conjunction with British-based engineers Price & Myers to produce the scheme.

“We are excited to be selected as winners in Southend Pier Head competition. This project presents an opportunity to work on a site that calls for a unique landmark, this is why the competition caught our eye. We look forward to bringing the competition design to the next stage” - Niels de Bruin, White arkitekter.

Councillor John Lamb, Southend-on-Sea Borough Council’s Executive Councilor for Enterprise, Tourism and the Environment, says: “This has proved to be a most exciting competition which attracted international entries. We were thrilled to receive so many applications of interest, from which five very high quality proposals were shortlisted, and the winner was chosen from these five.

“The next step is for us to recommend that councilors will ratify the choice of the winner and engage White arkitekter as the lead designer.”

“This would be a multi-million pound development, which depends on us receiving a substantial Sea Change grant from the Government. We are likely to find out the outcome of our bid for funding this autumn, but have so far had very positive indications of success.”

Tom Lonsdale, who chaired the judging process for the Landscape Institute says: “The final decision was never going to be easy with such a diverse range of high quality approaches, but White arkitekter impressed the most because of their exceptional sensitivity to the location and a very polished design. We could see the potential for a memorable landmark and destination to which visitors would be drawn again and again.”

The team’s two-part ‘NOW + WHEN Australian Urbanism’ exhibition will highlight three of Australia’s most interesting urban regions as they are ‘now’, before dramatically representing futuristic urban environments as they may be ‘when’ we reach 2100.

Opening in September 2010, the exhibition will feature a range of dazzlingly visceral digital stereoscopic images*, which will fill the two-level Philip Cox-designed Australian Pavilion and represent both the NOW and WHEN components.

On the pavilion’s upper level, NOW will feature current urban environments in Sydney, Melbourne and Surfers Paradise. Stereoscopic visuals will show contrasting views of these cities from macro-scapes at 20,000 feet to ‘helicoptering’ views of urban and architectural icons at close range. All three cities will be filmed at dusk, when the ‘Australian urban spectacle becomes luminous and articulate in conveying the way our cities work’.

On the pavilion’s lower level, WHEN will dare to imagine Australian urban spaces in 91 years time, with the intent of ‘catapulting urban debate into eye-popping visceral entertainment set in a soundscape’. Australian architects will be asked to submit 3D entries for inclusion by entering an ‘Ideas for Australian Cities 2100’ national competition. A range of entries will then be chosen focusing on the creative potential of architecture.

Two stereo screens mounted back to back at the rear of the upper and lower exhibition spaces will be the focus of the installation. An urban themed black and white geometric matrix will be projected on the walls, floors and ceilings of both levels leading to two stereo screens, which will feature the urban environments in continuous three minute loop cycles.

Announcing the Creative Directors at functions in Sydney and Melbourne, recently appointed Venice Biennale Commissioner Mrs Janet Holmes à Court said: “As countries around the world continue to move into a post-GFC economic recovery phase, it’s vital that Australia maximizes every opportunity to reinforce the nation’s competitive strengths and standing on the world stage.”

“The Venice Architecture Biennale, now widely regarded as the most important event on the international architecture calendar, is one of these un-missable opportunities. While the 2008 event attracted 130,000 informed visitors from around the globe over 10 weeks, we have every reason to believe the 2010 Biennale will eclipse this.

“I have every confidence that the appointment of our 2010 Creative Director team – led by John Gollings and Ivan Rijavec – affords us a great head-start in the promotion of the nation’s incredibly rich and diverse architectural talent.”

The full 2010 Creative Directors Team comprises Australia’s preeminent architectural photographer John Gollings, leading Melbourne-based architect Ivan Rijavec, graphic designer David Pidgeon, astrophysicist Professor Jeffrey Shaw, architect and sound designer Nick Murray and 3D experts Sam Slicer and Daniel Flood.

A total of 29 submissions were received for the role of Creative Director, with five proposals shortlisted in a rigorous selection process ahead of today’s announcement of the winning team.

The Venice Architecture Biennale was inaugurated in 1980 and is now held every two years, alternating with the Art Biennale. Thousands of the world’s leading architects and city planners plus more than 52,000 people visited the 2008 Australian Pavilion.

Australia’s attendance at the Venice Architecture Biennale is an initiative of the Australian Institute of Architects, who pledged funding for each of three Venice Architecture Biennales - 2006, 2008 and 2010. Fundraising efforts continue to guarantee an ongoing presence in Venice.

The Institute would like to thank our Network Venice practices, significant donors, and our sponsors, specifically Austral Bricks, Virgin Atlantic Airways, Zip Industries, Architecture Media, Café di Stasio, and the Australia Council for the Arts

*Stereoscopic imaging will form the basis of this exhibition. Stereoscopy, stereoscopic imaging or 3-D (three-dimensional) imaging is any technique capable of recording three-dimensional visual information or creating the illusion of depth in an image. This illusion of depth - in a photograph, movie, or other two-dimensional image - is created by presenting a slightly different image to each eye.

“To create a successful ‘place,’ each new building, open space and streetscape element has to follow a similar set of rules—some written, some unwritten—so that the sum of parts works as a coherent, well-proportioned whole, despite being built by many individuals and over a long period of time,” said Robert Freedman, Director of Urban Design at the City of Toronto. “We have worked hard over the years to refine the submission requirements to emphasize place-making and context and we have observed an enthusiastic response from the design community and noticeable improvements in the urban design quality of submissions.”

The 2009 jury was composed of Ian Chodikoff, Editor - Canadian Architect; Jack Diamond, Principal – Diamond + Schmitt Architects Inc.; Eha Naylor, Principal – ENVision – The Hough Group Limited; and Michael Van Valkenburgh, Principal – Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates Inc.

The winning projects are on view at Toronto Metro Hall until tomorrow, October 2, and will further be exhibited at Etobicoke CC (October 5 - 9), Scarborough CC (October 19 - 23), and North York CC (October 27 - November 2).

These are the 2009 prize winners sorted by award categories:

Buildings in Context - Private

Buildings in Context - Public

Small Open Spaces

Visions and Master Plans

Student Projects

Images: Toronto Urban Design Awards

Populous Senior Principal, Andrew James, said the key to the new stadium’s success, will be its operation in legacy mode.

“The stadium explores the successful marriage of temporary and permanent. The stadium design is based on an asymmetrical configuration with the main corporate and management facilities located on the permanent western side, creating efficiencies both in terms of construction and operations.  The Eastern side will be a lighter solution, the temporary modular seating structure will disappear after the games, and the stadium structure integrate into the local landscape.”

Symbolism is important to Korean culture. Populous project architect, Daekwon Park said the traditional Buddhist ritual Seung Moo dances, provided the image that reflected perfectly the drama of Incheon stadium – flowing form and space around dynamic movement.

“In architecture, as in dance, dynamic movement creates form, but can also be recognized by the space voids created around its form. The yin and yang of complementary opposites within a greater whole are represented inside the form of the master plan of the stadium, and the left over space around that form, becomes the main access to the building.”

“The Seung Moo dancer extends his arms, the stick he is holding is almost a continuation of the long sweeping sleeves of his robes. The main stadium roof likewise extends; at one end leading to the main plaza, beckoning people in; at the other merging with the landscape, creating a singular fluid movement.“

Images: Populous

The Finalists

Design number 024 - Andrius Gedgaudas, Architect, Shanghai China.

The design offers a simple and strong public realm experience, with the potential for activities and uses beneath the inclined platform to be well related to adjacent public open spaces. Despite the stark simplicity of the proposal, the design would offer significant scope for the addition of other elements as patterns of use on Queens Wharf evolve over time. The contoured landscape feature will require further consideration in relation to the need for adaptable and robust event spaces. However, an abstract reinterpretation of landform which also accommodates everyday use and larger gatherings may be possible.

Design number 046 - Den Aitken, Pete Griffith and Hamish Foote, Field Landscape Architecture, Auckland.

The panel considered that although highly schematic, the submission presented a design approach with considerable potential. However, the proposal would need to be carefully developed and tested in response to the Stage 2 design brief. The basis for the proposed undulations within the promenade would need to be reviewed and clarified in the Stage 2 submission.

Design number 170 - David Gibbs and Aaron Sills, Construkt / SVB, Auckland.

The design establishes a major public open space across the full width of the northern portion of Queens Wharf, capable of being configured in a variety of ways. The panel questioned the proposal to partially enclose this space with structures comprising curved ribs and the proposal for an “urban beach” beyond the northern end of the wharf. The panel noted the variety of spatial conditions developed in a transverse east-west direction, and the potential to organize these in a sequential manner, in order to encourage pedestrian movement along the length of the wharf.

Design number 195 - John Coop, Tasman Studio, Auckland.

The proposal demonstrates how redevelopment of the wharf might positively inter-relate existing and new buildings. Building forms are bold and simple, and respond well to the scale and drama of the wharf and its setting.

Design number 216 - Simon Williams, Williams Architects Ltd, Auckland.

A covered pedestrian walkway extends for the length of the wharf, skirting the western face of the terminal building with opportunities to develop active edges. This walkway has been duplicated at an upper level and extends southwards to Customs Street. The panel questioned the merits of this feature, and of the water feature that extends the length of the wharf. The panel commended the use of simple sculptural forms for the terminal and the way in which the space at the northern end of the wharf connected to the water and engaged with the harbor setting.

View full details on the competition website

Here some text from Julien de Smedt Architects:

The Holmenkollen hill plays a significant part identifying Oslo. In the Oslo panorama its characteristic profile is a clear icon, up close its majestic steepness rises towards the sky, making heads tilt and from the top, the panorama view towards the fjord are fantastic. It is a building beyond conventions, and it is no wonder that it is one of Oslo’s most visited tourist attractions. To create a new slope on the soil of the old requires full awareness of its traditions.

The new Holmenkollen Beacon is extending tradition… to the sky! In emphasizing the existing landmark’s values, it strives to keep the fine balance between majestic and simple, while introducing contemporary materials and design. Conceptually the project works with three stages of visibility: the far-away panorama, the close-up at the foot of the slope and the view outward from the top. The shape of the silhouette is emphasized with a sharp and simply cut.

The given wind protection profile is utilized and offset in a parallel manner downward, creating a smooth bended rectangle hosting the slope, the main elevators and the top in-run program. The top is then sliced horizontally to accommodate a viewing platform. The Knoll building is moved further up the hill to serve as an anchor point for the structure, letting it cantilever and avoid visually disruptive structural supports. From a distance the structure will appear as a milky-white sharp profile extending further into the sky with a diffused beam of light; a beacon for Oslo.

Project Team

Partner in Charge: Julien De Smedt

Project Managers: Kamilla Heskje, Morten Sletbak Have

Project Team: Aleksandra Kiszkielis, Alex Dent, Alf Lassen Nielsen, Andrea Weisser, Carlos Cabrera, Derrick Lai, Dries Rodet, Edna Lueddecke, Elina Manninen, Erik Olav Marstein, Felix Luong, Filip Lipinsky, Gunnar Hoess, Ieva Maknickaite, James McBennett, Johanna Kliment, Joue Gillet, Kristoffer Harling, Liz Kelzey, Magda Kusowska, Marco Boella, Michaela Weisskirchner, Pauline Parcollet, Robert Huebser, Tineke Vanduffel, Torkel Njå, Wolfgang Mitterer, Wouter Dons

Competition Team: Babara Costa, Derrick Lai, Mads Knak-Nielsen, Mikkel H. Sørensen, Victoria Diemer Bennetzen

Product Design: Wouter Dons

Animation Team: Shiftcontrol Studios / Jørgen Skogmo, Patrik Svensson

Image and news source: v2com

The winning projects and honorable mentions were selected by the Squatcity-Urbaninform jury out of 60 entries in the categories: DESIGN (Space, Technology and Material), SOCIO-ECONOMICS (Participation and Empowerment) and POLITICS (Good Urban Governance).

The Jury was composed of members of the IABR curatorial team: Tim Rieniets (IABR), Fabienne Hoelzl (IABR), Can Altay (IABR-Refuge), Michelle Provoost (IABR-Makable Society), Georgeen Theodore (IABR-Community), Stephen Cairns (IABR-Reciprocity), Bart Goldhoorn (IABR-Collective) and Rainer Hehl (IABR-Squat).

Here are the winners:

FIRST PRIZE: Manavsadhna Creche - Waste Recycling, Yatin Pandya

SECOND PRIZE: Productive Public Space in Kibera Nairobi, Kounguey Design Initiative

THIRD PRIZE: The Cook, the Farmer, his Wife and their Neighbor, Marjetica Potrc and Wilde Westen group

HONORABLE MENTION (Runner-up on third prize): Rikea, Antonio Scarponi and Marco Lampugnani

HONORABLE MENTION (Subcurators’ selection outside of the competition): MYC4 - Eradicating poverty through business, Mille Kristine Klink and MYC4

The entry ‘Manavasadhna Creche-Waste Recycling’ from Yatin Pandya won first prize, with overwhelming acceptance. The project inspired the jury not only as a best-practice project that shows how to upgrade living conditions in an informal settlement by the integration of an community creche, but also by showing how to build a center entirely out of recycled material as a participatory process!

The second prize was awarded to the Kounguey Design Initiative with their project “Productive Public Space in Kibera Nairobi”, and the third prize went to the Wilde Western group with their project “The cook, the farmer, his wife and their neighbor”, Amsterdam. Both projects convinced the jury as strong design and community building initiatives to revitalize neighborhoods.

Because of its exemplary character, the curatorial team has decided to award a Honorable Mention to “Rikea” by Antonio Scarponi and Marco Lampugnani and also to “MYC4 - eradicating poverty through business, Mille Kristine Klink/MYC4”, although the project was not part of the competition.

The Squatcity-Urbaninform Competition went from February until end of May 2009 and helped collecting projects to kick off the Urbaninform platform. The Urbaninform Platform is a web-based network for best practices in the Informal City. Initiators are Rainer Hehl and Jörg Stollmann, curators of the section “Squat - The Informal City under Construction” of the 4th International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam, IABR 2009.

Local stakeholders, researchers, architects, city officials, NGOs, and other actors involved in the transformation processes of the Informal City can publish their projects on Urbaninform and hence contribute to the ongoing discussion about the future of our cities. With urbaninform, microenvironments and their actors will get globally connected to a network for knowledge exchange and exemplary practice.

Images: Urbaninform

Make It Right, which was announced as a “commitment” at the 2007 CGI meeting, has already LEED Platinum certified 13 homes and is building at least 150 sustainable, storm-resistant LEED Platinum homes in a Lower 9th Ward neighborhood of New Orleans wiped out by the Hurricane Katrina and that was nearest to the disastrous breech of the Industrial Canal levee.

“In transforming the Lower 9th Ward, Make It Right is showing us how we can transform those parts of our nation that have fallen behind the most, whether through neglect, poverty or disaster,” President Clinton said. “Make It Right offers a blueprint for how to build homes that instill pride and combine to form communities of hope and opportunity. By following the Make It Right model, we can generate the green collar jobs our economy needs to move forward and advance building practices that reduce carbon emissions, while at the same time growing neighborhoods where families can thrive.”

“Through Make It Right we are reminded that our work is not about buildings, but rather about the people within them,” said USGBC’s Rick Fedrizzi. “In facing our nation’s unprecedented economic and environmental crises, we must change the way the places in which we live, work, learn and play are built and operated. What we’re seeing with green building goes beyond energy-efficiency to a transformation of entire communities – and the lives of the people who live there. Make It Right has proved that green building can be both affordable and high performing.”

“While Katrina gave us the opportunity to think creatively about how to make green homes affordable for the low-income families who need them the most, it shouldn’t take a hurricane to make that happen in other cities,” Pitt said. “Our plan is to take what we have learned in New Orleans and help other communities build healthy, safe and affordable green homes. Our hope is to make these homes the norm, not the exception.”

“The devastation caused by Katrina and delay in rebuilding created an opportunity to turn tragedy into a turning point in home building in New Orleans and other cities,” said Tom Darden, Executive Director, Make it Right. “We did not want to repeat the mistakes of the past, but to build homes that were green and affordable, strong enough to weather the next storm and made from sustainable materials.”

Fedrizzi presented a LEED plaque to Pitt, Darden and Make It Right resident and Katrina-survivor Deidre Taylor in recognition of the initiative’s 150+ planned and 13 already certified LEED Platinum homes. No other community comprises as many LEED Platinum certified homes. LEED Platinum is the highest possible green building certification.

“We are honored to accept this official designation on behalf of every homeowner, builder and the 22 architectural firms who helped turn this concept into a community,” Darden added.

On the same day, President Clinton; Pitt; Fedrizzi; Darden, Taylor; Architect William McDonough, Principal, William McDonough + Partners; and Dr. Nawal Al-Hosany, Director of Sustainability, Masdar City, UAE International, addressed the progress Make It Right has made, as well as how green building should play a role in revitalizing the nation’s economy and tackling environmental challenges, in a session moderated by White House Domestic Policy Adviser Melody Barnes.

Make It Right is a collaboration between actor Brad Pitt, Steve Bing, Graft Architects, Cherokee Gives Back and William McDonough + Partners. Make it Right will have 50 homes by December 2009 and 150 by December 2010.

The USGBC’s LEED green building certification system is the leading program in the U.S. for the design, construction and operation of green buildings. Its residential LEED for Homes certification system promotes the design and construction of high-performance green homes. Green homes use less energy, water and natural resources, create less waste, and are more durable and comfortable for residents. More than 3,000 homes have been certified since the system’s inception two years ago, and fully 40% of those homes qualify as affordable housing.

The USGBC comprises 20,000+ member companies and organizations, 78 local chapters and affiliates and nearly 132,000 LEED Credentialed Professionals, and leads an industry that is projected to increase to $60 billion by 2010.

The green and energy-saving features of Make It Right homes include solar power, geothermal heating and cooling systems, tankless water heaters, ENERGY STAR appliances, superior insulation, and efficient lighting. In addition to being the “largest green community in the world,” the neighborhood is also home to the largest congregation of high-design homes created by different architects working on the same project. Twenty-one acclaimed local, national and international architects have contributed designs to the project.

Make It Right homes include storm-resistant features like: 5’ or 8’ elevations to protect the home from flooding, impact resistant glass or hurricane fabric to protect windows, rooftop access, and mold-free paperless dry wall.

Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast on August 29, 2005, flooding 80 percent of the city of New Orleans and killing 1,577 in Louisiana. Hardest hit was the Lower 9th Ward, where more than 4,000 homes were destroyed by the storm and the surge of water caused by the breach in the Industrial Canal levee. Today, according to the New Orleans Data Center, close to 80 percent of residents have returned to the city. In the Lower 9th Ward, which in addition to being hardest-hit by Katrina was one of the city’s poorest areas, only 19 percent of residents have come home. Make It Right is working to address the reasons residents have not returned – building housing, increasing neighborhood sustainability and investing in infrastructure repairs and improvements.

At the 2006 Clinton Global Initiative Conference, USGBC committed to launching the first program in a comprehensive yearlong campaign to educate consumers about the benefits of green homes. The Green Home Guide greenhomeguiide.org is an educational website for consumers to learn about the benefits of a green home and connect with green home professionals.

The garden compliments the list of numerous projects of Balmori Associates in Bilbao that includes Abandoibarra Master Plan (competition winner, 1997), Plaza Euskadi (under construction), Campa de los Ingleses (competition winner, 2007), and the most recent selection of Balmori Associates as finalist in the Bay of Pasaia Master Plan Competition (previously on Bustler).

Here’s a project description from Balmori Associates:

The garden climbs the stairs, running in undulating lines of different textures and colors. Envisioned as a dynamic urban space; it moves in time and with the seasons. Its lush planting cascades down as though the garden was flowing or melting, bleeding the colors into each other. In one gesture, it narrates a story of landscape taking over and expanding over the Public Space and Architecture, therefore transforming the way that the stairs and the space is perceived and read by the user. It is a garden of contrasts: the contrast between native and exotic plants, between the red flowers and the green grass, between the green grass and the grey paving. In form, the garden engages the horizontal plaza with the rising vertical plane of the steps and the upright gesture of Eduardo Chillida’s sculpture. Like the famous Spanish Steps in Rome, the garden is not only designed for visitors to ascend and descend, but for them to linger, and just be.

The competition organizers announced the five teams that were chosen from the 47 teams that applied including MVRDV, BIG, Dominque Perrault, Oriol Bohigas, Richard Rogers, FOA, and Estudio Lamela. The five teams selected are rewarded a prize of 50,000 euros and are given four months to submit their proposals.

Balmori Associates international team also includes environmental consultants Battle McCarthy (London), and two local consultants: technical consultants Lantec (Bilbao) and socio-economic consultants IKEI Research (San Sebastian).

Balmori Associates’ other urban regeneration projects in Spain include Abandoibarra Master Plan, Bilbao (competition winner,1997), Plaza Euskadi, Bilbao (under construction), Campa de los Ingleses Park, Bilbao (competition winner, 2007.)

Background to Master Plan

The Port of Pasaia is planning to undertake work on an outer harbor for the bay in the period between 2011 - 2020. In spite of the physical limitations specific to the bay and the fact that it does not have a bulk liquid handling dock, current port activity moves an annual cargo of around 5 million tons, which contributes approximately 1.8% to the domestic product of Gipuzkoa and generates direct employment for more than 4,000 workers.

In this context of priority activity for the region, Gipuzkoa Aurrera, the institution formed for the development of strategic projects for the territory by the public and private bodies which are the Provincial Government of Gipuzkoa, Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Navigation of Gipuzkoa, Kutxa, Grupo Mondragón and Adegi, organized a competition to allow for reflection on a key area in the society and economy of Gipuzkoa.

The approximate surface area in the bay area is 68 Ha. The complexity of the area, its position on the sea front, the relationship with the existing urban centers which belong to four different municipalities and, above all, the opportunity for development in the center of the conurbation known as the Bayonne-San Sebastian Basque Eurocity, makes it necessary for there to be a master plan which contains guidelines common to the entire area surrounding the bay.

“The concept from Allied Works truly captured the heart and soul of this project,” said Andrew Mosker, executive director of the Cantos Music Foundation. “Brad and his team will give us an innovative building that fits with Calgary, Alberta, the West, and is symbolic of something that is truly uniquely Canadian. This is an exciting day for Calgarians.”

Brad Cloepfil founded Allied Works Architecture in his native Portland, Oregon. In recent years, Allied Works has focused on several significant cultural and educational buildings in the United States and can now add Cantos’ National Music Centre to their roster of impressive projects.

“The National Music Centre is an extraordinary instrument, silent and powerful, brought to life by its programs, collections and performances. The new building forms rise as sentinels around the re-born King Eddy, marking the entry to the East Village and new Music District,” commented Brad Cloepfil, Allied Works Architecture.

Based in Portland, Oregon and New York, New York, Allied Works Architecture is a globally recognized architectural firm with wide experience in the design of cultural, educational, and art institutions. Recent and current projects include the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, a major addition to the Seattle Art Museum, the University of Michigan Museum of Art, the Museum of Arts and Design’s new facility at Two Columbus Circle in New York, the Clyfford Still Museum in Denver, Colorado, the Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Dallas, Texas, a new animation studio for Pixar in Emeryville, California, and two major residential projects – the Dutchess County Residence and Guest House and the Hudson Street Loft in New York. In the last two years, the firm’s work has been featured in Architectural Record / Record Houses, Architectural Review, Space Magazine, Wallpaper, The New Yorker, Blueprint, Metropolis, and others.

On July 23rd, 2009, five world-renowned architects were asked to develop and present a bold vision for the future of the Cantos Music Foundation and the National Music Centre. The request included the public presentation of concepts honouring the iconic King Eddy Hotel while creating over 80,000 square-feet of space for programs and exhibitions. The Centre was required to house an education research centre, museum, collection of instruments and memorabilia, recording studios, a radio station, a seven-days-a-week live music venue and a suite of innovative and creative programs for people of all ages.

The four other competing architects were:
Studio Pali Fekete Architects: Los Angeles, California
Diller Scofidio + Renfro: New York, NY
Jean Nouvel Workshop: Paris, France
Saucier + Perrotte: Montreal, Quebec

The submissions were reviewed by a selection advisory committee comprised of musicians, architects, business experts, museum experts and others.

The competition resulted in more than 50 inquiries and 22 formal entries received from around the globe, including proposals centered on cities in India, Mexico, Israel, Tibet, Germany, as well as the USA and Canada. “Many of the entries presented very credible and implementable solutions that could be utilized today to move our cities towards greater resiliency,” said Craig Applegath, founding member and moderator of ResilientCity.

The grand prize winner, “From the Ground Up”, by Michael Haggerty and Raj Kottamasu, of Brooklyn, NY, USA, examined how to create food self-sufficiency in the urban neighborhood of Westside in Newark, New Jersey. Their neighborhood plan looks at how to provide a hierarchy of food production and processing facilities through adaptation of various kinds of ground. These are connected by a new green corridor system that is a space of congregation, distribution, and exchange. The proposal emphasizes, in particular, the ‘Resilient City Design Principles’ of Systems diversity, Systems redundancy, Local self-sufficiency, and Waste = Food. According to the jury, “The winner did a thorough job of understanding and interpreting all the principles of resiliency, and presented them in a highly legible fashion. The solutions used cultural, social and economic elements to effectively integrate a new food supply source into an economically viable model.” Craig Applegath said, “Indeed, this was a very bottom-up, grassroots approach, very do-able in a neighborhood context.”

The winner of the Urban Design Category was “Food=Utility”, by Robert Shepherd at Grey Studio, in San Francisco, CA. This entry presented a very inspired proposal to reclassify food and access to food, now considered as a commercial venture, turning it into a public utility. This concept would allow available public land to become arable, private land to be capitalized, and just-in-time processing methods that promote local and regional food access. With such a proposal, the rezoning of land becomes a key tool to changing the way food is produced and distributed. As the author states: “The project Food=Utility is a speculative proposal for reclassifying food and access to food; from a commercial prospect to a public utility. This proposal came in part, from an interest in using zoning models to produce planning strategies, which are generative rather than static, and from the recognition that zoning models based on commercial development models are insufficient for dealing with the problems associated with food and food access.” This concept was considered the most innovative one, and well thought out, but the jury felt that it might have pushed the exploration of its concepts a bit further.

In architectural category of submissions, the jury awarded two honorable mentions. The first was the “Hydronic Deformation” proposal by L. Garofalo and A. Adderley, a project that explored how an existing curtain-wall clad high-rise building might be re-clad with a network of metal tubing that would circulate warm water to precondition air around the building, as well as to serve as a scaffolding for growing hanging vines for shading the window surfaces in summer months. The second was the “Urban Villas” project by Alexander Eisenschmidt of Chicago, Illinois, that explored the opportunity to create a low-rise mixed use urban block in the town of Quedlinburg, Germany.

“The purpose of this competition was to stimulate dialogue, to get people thinking and talking about ways to meet the challenges of designing cities for a future faced with large population growth, significant climatic changes and more self-sufficient energy sources,” said Applegath. “To get people asking: How will our cities have to change to survive and thrive in this new environment? What responsibilities do urban designers, city planners and architects have to make the necessary changes? By this measure I think the competition was a great success!”

One of the exhibited entries is the proposal by Portuguese EXTRASTUDIO in collaboration with landscape architects Oficina dos Jardins that reached an honorable mention. Here is a description from the architects:

The joint venture between EXTRASTUDIO and the landscape architects Oficina dos Jardins, was awarded an Honorable Mention on the International Competition for Madrid´s Valdebebas Urban Park. The competition, developed in two phases, selected 6 proposals for a second phase. EXTRASTUDIO’s proposal was ranked 4th among 163 international practices.

Valdebebas new urban park, with an area of 80 hectares, is part of Madrid´s largest expansion plan, which includes Real de Madrid’s new Sport City, the new IFEMA extension (Madrid’s Trade Fair Centre), the new Barajas airport terminal and Campus de Justicia, with projects by Norman Foster, Richard Rogers, Foreign Office Architects and Zaha Hadid.

EXTRASTUDIO’s proposal, Enlace, features a park generated by an organic system of fluxes, for pedestrians and bicycles, connecting the overall urban fabric. Focusing specially in self-sufficiency and sustainability, the proposal incorporates a system of water reservoirs and superficial drainage channels, los caminos energéticos, emancipating the park’s watering needs in a low-cost strategy.

The jury report highlights the wide pedestrian path network creating public clearings, the introduction of educational facilities for organic vegetable production and the creation of a system of water reservoirs.

Credits:
Architecture: EXTRASTUDIO - João Ferrão, João Costa Ribeiro, Maria João Oliveira, Tiago Pinhal, Madalena Atouguia, Sónia Oliveira,Daniela Freire, Evelina Betina, Andreia Teixeira, Manuel Sanchez-Vera, Pablo Vaggione;
Landscape architecture: OFICINA DOS JARDINS - Inês Bordado, Sónia Caldeira, Inês Valadas, Sílvia Figueira: Bartolomeu Perestrelo;
Landscape architecture consultants: CITEREA;
Foundations & structural engineering, services, traffic, Irrigation, electrical, fire & safety and sustainability consultants: SENER -Jesús Rodrigues, Carolina Suárez, Osvaldo Gandini, Rosario Díaz, José Moro, Nora Larrea, César Marrón, David Ocio, Carlos Villanueva, José Arana, Javier Vázquez, Natalia Artigas, Cristina Alonso, Ana Bueno, José Antonio Galletero, Isabel Navarro, Gabriela Pereyra, Juan Francisco Paz, María del Lluc Sierra

The CGarchitect.com Architectural 3D Awards were started in 2004 to recognize outstanding achievement in the field of architectural visualization. Over the past five years, many extremely talented individuals and companies have gone on to form new alliances and partnerships and advanced their careers. This year, CGarchitect have expanded the awards to recognize eight more categories of work including a new category for real-time presentations.

The 2009 jury comprised Matthew Bannister (dbox), Gus Capote (Neoscape), Kim O’Brien Chalmers (steelblue), Jim Chen (Sunup CG), Marc Gruber-Laux (Pure), Jamie Gwilliam (Autodesk), Thomas Livings (Burning Boy Studio), Ximo Peris (Crystal CG), Dan Southgate (Seventh Art Group), Martin Summers (Morphosis Architects), Leonard Teo (Autodesk), and Lewis Quinn (Hayes Davidson).

In the category “Architectural Film/Animation”, British studios Uniform and The Neighbourhood won first prizes for Best Overall Architectural Film/Animation, Best Editing, Most Original Film/Animation Treatment, and Industry Choice.

In the category “Architectural Image”, Juan Altieri of Uruguay collected more first prizes than any other entry. Further first prize winners were Sanders.Shiers from the UK and Olivier Defaye/AOKI/CG World from France.

Here are some very exciting images that were nominated in their respective category:

In the category “Real-Time Presentation”, Dutch INDG were awarded the first prize.

Images and videos via CGarchitect.com

Here are the lucky winners:

General Design Category

Award of Excellence
The White Forest: Density and the Void
Frederick G. Besançon, Associate ASLA
Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, R.I.
Faculty advisors: Isabel Zempel and Elke Berger

Honor Awards
Reconciling Purity and Nature: A Bathing Pool for Daingerfield Island
Allison Thurmond, Student ASLA
Virginia Tech Washington Alexandria Architecture Consortium, Alexandria, Va.
Faculty advisors: Paul Kelsch, ASLA and Paul Emmons

LOOPSCAPE
Kyung Eui Park, Associate ASLA
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
Faculty advisor: Valerio Morabito

Living with Floods
Chen-Wei Wu, Student Affiliate ASLA, Shih-Chia Chiu, Student Affiliate ASLA, I-Chun Chien, Student Affiliate ASLA, Shih-Yeu Hou, Student Affiliate ASLA, and Jheng-Ru Li, Student Affiliate ASLA
Chinese Culture University, Taipei, Taiwan
Faculty advisors: Shiau-Yun Lu and Shian-Po Liao

Residential Design Category

Honor Award
The Productive Landscape: Urban Housing for Autistic Adults
John Gough, Student ASLA, and Adam C. Nordfors, Student ASLA
Arizona State University, Tempe, Ariz.
Faculty advisor: Kim Steele

Analysis & Planning Category

Award of Excellence
Switching Trajectories in the Rhine Delta
Matanya Sack, Student Affiliate ASLA, and Liesl Vanautgaerden, Student Affiliate ASLA
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich, Switzerland
Faculty advisors: Christophe Girot and Sebastien Marot

Honor Awards
Remediation Infrastructure:A Comprehensive Development Strategy for the Remediation of the Gowanus Canal
Heather