RIBA International Award Winners Announced
Following our previous announcement revealing the 2012 RIBA Award recipients, we now present to you 12 international projects that have also received top honors from RIBA. Buildings outside the European Union by RIBE Chartered Architects and RIBA International Fellows are eligible for this award. These 2012 RIBA International Award winners will now compete for the RIBA Lubetkin Prize – an award named in honor of the Georgia-born architect who worked in Paris before coming to London in the 1930s to establish the influential Tecton Group. In 2009, the RIBA Lubetkin Prize went to the National Stadium Beijing by Herzog & de Meuron with China Architectural Design & Research Group and Arup Sport for National Stadium Company.
And now, the 12 RIBA International Award winners are…
2012 RIBA Award Winners Announced
The 2012 RIBA Award winners have been announced! Since 1966, RIBA has set the standard for architectural excellence across the UK with the RIBA Awards. As bdonline points out, this year RIBA has halved the number of projects who have received awards in an attempt to harden the competition. Shortlisted from 739 entries, the 59 winners chosen from the UK and EU will now be considered for the 2012 RIBA Stirling Prize – the UK’s most prestigious architecture prize whose 2011 winner was the Evelyn Grace Academy by Zaha Hadid Architects.
RIBA president Angela Brady said: “The judges were delighted to see so many well considered, crafted and innovative projects, and the use of beautiful materials; these projects are truly exciting and inspiring.”
Continue after the break to review the RIBA Award winners.
Warsaw’s National Stadium Selected for World Stadium Award 2012 / gmp Architekten
Designed by gmp Architekten, Warsaw’s National Stadium prevailed against international competition and won the World Stadium Award in the best multifunctional stadium design and most innovative use of technology categories in stadium design. On the occasion of the 2012 UEFA European Football Championship, the stadium was reconstructed on top of the existing – but since 1988 no longer used and dilapidated – earth wall stadium (Stadion Dziesieciolecia), and re-opened in January of this year. More images and architects’ description after the break. (more…)
ArtPlace Announces $15.4 Million in Grants for 47 Projects Across the U.S.
SCI-Arc will design and build two new arts venues that will energize and transform downtown Los Angeles, while an undeveloped light rail station in Minneapolis accelerates transit oriented development by transforming into a cultural gateway and arts market, and an abandoned six-building, two-block public school campus in New Orleans’ Tremé neighborhood will be redeveloped into an arts and education center that will provide 73 units of affordable live/work space for low income families.
Creative placemaking initiatives are sweeping the nation, and the three projects above are just a few examples of what’s going to become of it. ArtPlace has awarded 47 projects across the United States with $15.4 million in grants in order to support the use of the arts and design to improve quality of place and transform communities.
“As a result of these Artplace grants, 47 art and cultural projects will play a critical role in 33 local communities, driving the revitalization of a diverse group of neighborhoods across the country,” said philanthropist and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. “This is an important, innovative program that highlights the positive impact and essential contribution the arts can have on the economic vitality of neighborhoods and the communities they serve.”
Continue after the break to review all 47 projects and see what may be happening in your city!
Capilla del Retiro by Undurraga + Devés, winner of the Premio Internazionale di Architettura Sacra Frate Sole
The Capilla del Retiro (Retirement Chapel) by Chilean office Undurraga + Devés has been announced as the winner of the prestigious Premio Internazionale di Architettura Sacra Frate Sole, now in its 5th edition.
The award, given by the Frate Sole Foundation every four years, has been conferred in the past to architects such as Tadao Ando (Church of the Light, Church in the Water, Church in Rokko, 1996), Alvaro Siza (Santa María Church, 2000), Richard Meier (Jubilee Church, 2004) and John Pawson (Novy Dvru Monastery, 2008).
With this recognition the small concrete chapel formed by 4 concrete beams floating over a rustic excavation in Auco, Chile, joins a group of iconic contemporary religious buildings, where the delicate balance of light and matter are the common denominator.
The chapel rises as a confirmation of the extraordinary geography that surrounds it, while respecting the axes established by the series of preexisting buildings. Concrete is the main material of the building’s structure. Its volume, strictly economical, rises up from a crosspiece of 4 beams in the shape of a cross that is supported with the least possible structural elements so that its relationship with the ground is slight but sufficient. Shape and structure here are an indissoluble synthesis.
Under the strict geometry of the concrete a patio was excavated, whose rustic stone wall rises hazardously up and around the chapel, compressing and expanding that space of light. As a counterpoint to the magnitude of the geographic surroundings, the interior was designed in the shape of a wooden box recycled from old railway lines. This box hangs from the concrete structure and lies 2 meters under the beams that support it, limiting the view of the emptiness outside.
Learn more about the Capilla del Retiro in our previous article at ArchDaily.
2012 Buckminster Fuller Challenge Winner announced!
The Buckminster Fuller Institute has announced “The Living Building Challenge” as winner for the 2012 Buckminster Fuller Challenge. Dubbed “Socially-Responsible Design’s Highest Award” by Metropolis Magazine, the Buckminster Fuller Challenge annually awards a $100,000 prize to support the on-going development and implementation of a strategy that has significant potential to solve humanity’s must pressing issues.
A quote from the 2012 Jury Statement: “Deeply rooted in ecological design principles, The Living Building Challenge successfully shows how humans and their built environment can be harmoniously, benignly integrated within ecosystems. Above all, its rigorous standards and daringly innovative, revolutionary approach to building are already having a considerable impact on the thinking of designers and architects around the world, influencing all levels of design and technological approaches, radically pushing forward the field.”
Continue after the break to read a comprehensive overview of The Living Building Challenge, provided by The Buckminster Fuller Institute. (more…)
Kaap Skil, Maritime and Beachcombers’ Museum Wins Daylight Award 2012 / Mecanoo Architecten
This year’s Daylight Award, a prestigious prize awarded by the Living Daylights Foundation that honors projects that reach an optimum result in combining daylight, artificial light and design, has been given to the Kaap Skil, Maritime and Beachcombers’ Museum on the Dutch island of Texl. Designed by Mecanoo Architecten, one can almost feel the weather because of the transparency of the building, according to the jury. “Sun, clouds, thunder and rain: outdoors comes inside as perception and emotion and this is a core quality for a building with the Wadden Sea at your doorstep.” More images and architects’ description after the break. (more…)
North Las Vegas City Hall and Civic Plaza Wins National Award / Fentress Architects
Chosen for its outstanding construction management techniques and environmental sensitivity, the North Las Vegas City Hall and Civic Plaza was recently named 2012 Project of the Year by the American Public Works Association (APWA). Designed by Fentress Architects, the project was completed $17 million under budget in 2011 and as a result of a downtown revitalization effort, North Las Vegas’ new City Hall successfully consolidates the city’s departments into a one-stop-shop offering convenience, efficiency and ease of navigation for both city staff and residents. More architects’ description after the break. (more…)
Nykredit Motivation Prize 2012 Awarded to Powerhouse Company
Powerhouse Company, an office that focuses on the fields of architecture, urban design and research, was recently awarded the Nykredit Motivation Prize 2012. The prize of over 13.000 euros was handed out by the Danish Minister for Culture, Uffe Elbæk, at a ceremony held at Nykredit’s headquarters in Copenhagen. A practice established by architects Nanne de Ru and Charles Bessard with offices in respectively Rotterdam and Copenhagen, they are an example of one of the new global-Danish architectural practices starting to mark its presence on the Danish architectural scene. More information after the break. (more…)
2012 AIA Housing Awards for Architecture
The American Institute of Architects (AIA) has selected the 10 recipients of the 2012 Housing Awards. The AIA’s Housing Awards Program, now in its 12th year, was established to recognize the best in housing design and promote the importance of good housing as a necessity of life, a sanctuary for the human spirit and a valuable national resource.
Continue after the break to view the 2012 recipients.
HP Tree House / mmp Architects
Coinciding with our earlier post announcing the Cairns Botanic Gardens Visitors Centre as recipient of the 2012 Eddie Oribin Award for Building of the Year, the Australian Institute of Architects (AIA) has awarded this rainforest tree house as the 2012 House of the Year. Suspended above the forest floor on a secluded and private lot on the flanks of Mt Whitfield in Cairns, mmp Architects strived to create a low maintenance home that embodies a relaxed ambience, structural honesty, plentiful natural light and airflow, and generous reference to the site and the forest.
Continue after the break for more.
Cairns Botanic Gardens Visitors Centre / Charles Wright Architects
Camouflaged in an Australian rainforest located in Far North Queensland, this unique gateway into the Cairns Botanic Gardens Visitors Centre is the recipient of the 2012 Eddie Oribin Award for Building of the Year presented by the Australian Institute of Architects (AIA). In June 2009, Charles Wright Architects (CWA) was invited by the Cairns Regional Council to enter a limited competition for the design of a new Visitors’ Centre for the Cairns Botanical Gardens. The Council sought fresh and challenging ideas to create a memorable piece of tropical architecture that would blend seamlessly into the surrounding environment.
Continue after the break for more.
2012 Pritzker Prize Ceremony: Wang Shu
(Chinese readers can watch this video at Youku)
Last Friday we attended the 2012 Pritzker Prize ceremony in Beijing, where Chinese architect Wang Shu from Amateur Studio received the “Nobel of Architecture”.
Last year the ceremony was held in Washington DC with the presence of President Obama, and this year the event was also held in an important political context, at the People’s Hall of Beijing, with the presence of important Chinese government officials related to the urban process of China, including the Mayor of Beijing and the Minister of Housing and Urban-Rural Development.
In my opinion Wang Shu’s architecture presents a contemporary and progressive approach that acknowledges the rich tradition of Chinese architecture, considering not only projects in dense urban contexts but also in the rural areas of China. As the next generations of Chinese architects are influenced by his architecture, a generation that will be an active part of China’s growth, he will indirectly influence how millions will live in the next years.
I think that for the first time the Pritzker Prize became something beyond a mere recognition to the great work of a living architect, turning into a statement on how architecture should face the rapid growth of our cities in the Urban Age to improve the quality of life of the next 3 billion that will move into cities in the next 40 years.
Wang Shu’s acceptance speech:
COBE Awarded Nykredit’s Architecture Prize 2012
Skandinavia’s largest architecture prize, Nykredit’s Architecture Prize of DKK 500,000, is this year awarded to the architectural practice COBE based in Copenhagen represented by architect, Dan Stubbergaard. In its choice the jury emphasised the fact that COBE spans the full professional spectrum from minor construction and urban space design to strategic planning and research. Currently, COBE is most renowned for the design and realisation of the new Nørreport Train Station and is currently detailing the development of the Nordhavn harbour area – one of Scandinavia’s largest and most ambitious metropolitan development projects, says the chairman of the prize jury, Mette Kynne Frandsen, Architect and CEO.
Fourth Annual Leonore and Walter Annenberg Award for Diplomacy through the Arts Presented to I.M. Pei
The Foundation for Art and Preservation in Embassies (FAPE) recently announced that it will honor architect I.M. Pei with the fourth annual Leonore and Walter Annenberg Award for Diplomacy through the Arts. The award will be presented at a dinner at the U.S. Department of State’s Diplomatic Reception Rooms today, May 15, 2012. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will host FAPE’s members at the event, and FAPE Chairman Jo Carole Lauder, will present the award to Mr. Pei. The award was established to recognize American individuals who have demonstrated long-term excellence and creative innovation, and recent past honorees include: Agnes Gund, and Mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg. More information on the award after the break. (more…)
Tucker Design Award 2012 / Gustafson Guthrie Nichol + Crosby Schlessinger Smallridge
Gustafson Guthrie Nichol (GGN), with Crosby Schlessinger Smallridge (CSS) of Boston, were recently announced as the recipients of the biennial Tucker Design Award for 2012 for their North End Parks in Boston, MA. First presented in 1977, the award is a nationally recognized architectural design award in both the building and landscape industries and honors those whose work demonstrates excellence in concept, design, construction and use of natural stone. More information on the awards after the break. (more…)
Wienerberger Brick Award 2012 and “Brick’12″ Book
The winners of the Wienerberger Brick Award 2012 have been announced at a ceremony in Vienna’s City Hall. Five international architects were awarded for their outstanding work, for projects using brick as a construction material. The five-person jury chose South African architect Peter Rich as grand prize winner and winner of the category “Special Solution with Brick” for the Mapungubwe Interpretation Center in South Africa. Additionally, the accompanying book “Brick’12” features the award-winning buildings as well as the 45 other nominated projects from 28 countries and five continents, presented by renowned architecture writers from around the world. More images and information on the awards after the break. (more…)
Rafael Moneo receives the 2012 Prince of Asturias Award
Announced today on his 75th birthday, Spanish Architect Rafael Moneo has been named winner of the prestigious Prince of Asturias Award for the Arts – an award bestowed to an individual, institution or group of individuals or institutions whose work in Cinematography, Theatre, Dance, Music, Photography, Painting, Sculpture, Architecture or any other form of artistic expression constitutes a significant contribution to Mankind’s culture heritage.
As the 32nd laureate, Rafael Moneo is the fifth architect who has received this award, following Oscar Niemeyer in 1989, Santiago Calatrava in 1999, Franciscco Javier Sáenz de Oíza in 1993 and Lord Foster in 2009.
Continue after the break for more. (more…)
Aedas Receives 8 Honors at the Asia Pacific Property Awards
Aedas recently won 8 prestigious awards at the Asia Pacific Property Awards presentation ceremony, which was held on April 28 in Kuala Lumpur. Center 66 from Hang Lung Properties, a mixed use development of 376,800 sqm straddling across two sites conjoined by a public plaza hosting a cluster of heritage buildings in Wuxi, PRC, won “5 Star Award, Best Mixed Use Architecture for China”, and subsequently won “Best Mixed Use Architecture Award for Asia Pacific”. More information on their awards after the break. (more…)
World Architecture Festival 2012
Now in its fifth year, the World Architecture Festival moves from Spain to Singapore (October 3rd-5th). And for this year, we are happy to announce ArchDaily as a media partner, and as part of the jury!
The architecturally intense event includes the awards and a festival gallery, with more than 700 entries from around the world in 30 categories, accompanied by live presentations from the finalists, a seminar and keynotes with renowned international architects. In these, and other activities (full summary), you will be able to exchange ideas with over 2000 architects representing more than 65 countries, broaden your horizons and your contacts book.
Learn more about the conference rates, and details on how to submit your projects.
More details about the WAF after the break.
Riverside Museum Wins European Museum Academy Micheletti Award 2012 / Zaha Hadid Architects
Attracting more than 1.4 million visitors since opening in June, the Riverside Museum, designed by Zaha Hadid Architects, recently won the European Museum Academy Micheletti Award 2012. Named the most innovative museum in the fields of technology, labor and social history, Riverside competed against museums in 12 other European countries to win the 17th annual award. More information on the award after the break. (more…)
