In the beginning of December, we shared the news of Steven Holl‘s 2012 AIA Gold Medal award; a prestigious honor given to those who continually push the field forward with their “humanist approach to formal experimentation.” A few short weeks later, Holl’s Cité de l’Océan et du Surf (translated to Museum of Ocean and Surf) has received a 2011 Annual Design Review Award. This new museum in Biarritz, France is a collaborative effort with Solange Fabião and has attracted international attention for its spatial duality of crafting an atmosphere “under the sky” and “under the sea”.
More about the award after the break.
Juror Joe Valerio stated, “The thing that is beautiful about this is the idea that it’s about the surf. You take an architectonic form and you make it roll like the ocean, and then the function slips underneath. To connect the surf with the function underneath, you have this lantern, this white, glass lantern that runs through it.” In typical Holl fashion, the museum’s quality of light greatly adds to the museum, and the jury noted, “ appears to change over the course of the day, and that the differentiated spaces reflect the notion of a wave as water suspended in air.”
The museum just opened in June, and earlier this year, the Cité de l’Ocean et du Surf was named Public Building of the Year by the 2011 Emirates Glass LEAF Awards.
