WHO Headquarters after intervention. Image Courtesy of Latitude Studio
Latitude Studio’s entry for the World Health Organization’s (WHO) design competition to expand its Geneva headquarters seeks to embody WHO’s sustainable and collaborative approach to enhancing universal health. Their design consolidates individual offices and open workspaces within one facility, maximizing areas for collaboration and communication, while solar panels and rainwater collection systems improve the building’s sustainability. If chosen, the proposal would become one of three main buildings at the WHO headquarters.
Finnish firm Verstas Architects has been awarded first place in a competition for the expansion of Finland's Lapland central hospital for their design of a functional complex of "healing architecture." Responding to the challenge of Finland's aging population and changes in municipal funding, the winning proposal reflects the "hospital of tomorrow," creating a flexible and functional space in conversation with its urban surrounds.
A team of architects from the Danish design firm Kullegaard have been awarded first place in a competition for the seaport municipality of Holbæk in Denmark. Seeking to form a connection with the surrounding architecture, their proposal for a mixed-use complex, entitled "Holbæk HavneBy," derives its form from the distinction of public and private spaces.
Read more on the $22 million proposal after the break.
This first-prize competition winning proposal by nps tchoban voss and Hager Partner gives new life to the municipal outdoor pool facility in Nauen, Germany. Commissioned for future construction, the recreation center brings a multi-functional layout to the complex, activating the space year round and providing the public with a recreational hub.
Recent graduates Bumjin Kim of MIT and Minyoung Kim of Columbia University have won first place in ARCHmedium's Lisbon Open Room competition for their project "Urban Platform".
One of 67 teams to enter the competition's "Young Architects" category, the team developed a modular urban intervention for Lisbon, Portugal, with the intention of "[providing] a more flexible space" for the city's urban centre. Learn more about the winning project and view selected images after the break.
AZPML and SHARE architects have won a competition to the design a new prominent office tower in Vienna. The building, Schnirchgasse 11 “aims to strike a balance between a distinctive identity for the complex and an efficient operation, both in terms of flexibility of use and environmental performance,” by taking on a rhomboidal shape derived from the site’s geometry and shade conditions.
More about the competition-winning scheme, after the break.
Wiel Arets Architects (WAA) has won a competition to design a cluster of four mixed-use towers adjacent to Munich’s Hirschgarten station. Each “horseshoe-shaped” building, perched upon a six to seven story plinth, will offer space for office, hotel and retail space as part of the “Am Hirschgarten” development.
Read on to learn more about WAA's winning proposal.
Spanish studio Rafael de La-Hoz and Chinese design institute Architectural Design and Research Institute of Harbin Institute of Technology (ADRI-HIT) have been announced as the winners of a competition to construct a new cultural centre in Meishan, China. Located in Sichuan province in the nation's south, the complex will combine a sports centre with five museums, a library, and exhibition hall.
Occupying a sprawling 260,000-square-meters, the new complex is sited near the campus of the University of Meishan, and responds to the terraced topography of Sichuan's rice paddies. Learn more about the project and view selected images after the break.
"It is refreshing to see how the Dutch have dealt with this design task," says the jury in regards to the team's community-centric, winning scheme. "The Dutch are one step further in thinking about how neighborhoods should function."
More about their winning entry "Neue Nachbarschaften," after the break.
The green interior courtyard. Image Courtesy of ADEPT
ADEPT has won a competition to design a new city gate in the German city of Flensburg along Bahnhofstrasse - a central urban axis leading to the city’s main station. Designed as a “small piece of the city,” the winning proposal adapts itself to the existing typology by combining different types of “facade expressions” that creates a “playful synergy between new and old.”
“The proposal gives us a unique chance to transform and influence our future city at a very high level of quality and creativity - Bahnhofstrasse can really become a real and vibrant piece of city,” says the client.
Ennead Architects has won an international competition to design the Shanghai Planetarium. The “celestial” design hopes to elevate the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum’s (SSTM) “scientific and technological capacity” while redefine the district Lingang upon its completion in 2018.
“Drawing inspiration form astronomical principles, our design strategy provides a platform for the experience of orbital motion, and utilizes that as a metaphorical reference and generator of form,” says Ennead Architects.
Named for its location at the intersection of Vasastaden and "the Haga city" of Hagastaden, Belatchew Arkitekter's "HagaTwist" has been selected by Atrium Ljungberg as the winner of an invited architectural competition for the construction of a public building in Stockholm. Envisioned as a "meeting place" for visitors, workers, and locals alike, the project will feature a flexible program and incorporate a restaurant and rooftop terrace.
This active multi-use pavilion by Bence Pap and Parsa Khalili took second prize in the OUE Artling ArchiPavilion Design Competition in Singapore. Designed around the principles of continuity and flexibility, the Artling Pavilion provides an adaptable space that accommodates evolving programs and ensures constant adherence to the occupants' needs.
The first-place competition winner from KM 429 architecture, this proposal for the Isola Garibaldi Civic Center draws inspiration from Milan’s historic architectural tradition superimposed within the modern urban context. Through its refusal to be monumentalized, the Civic Center generates a new language within its neighborhood and looks to the city's past to create a vital civic architecture to serve present, and future, needs.
SO-IL, in collaboration with FREAKS freearchitects, has been selected as the first-prize winner of a competition to reinvent the historic Site Verrier in France. Located in the Northern Vosges Natural Park, the updated plan addresses three elements of the site's industrial past while providing a dynamic space for cultural interaction and historic exploration of Site Verrier's glass factory days.
RTA-Office has released its first-prize winning proposal for the Wuhu Urban Planning Exhibition, Office, and Archive. The design stems from the idea of an “urban cultural container,” holding both knowledge and space, and extracts its sculptural form from the surrounding mountainous landscape.
Pushing for the Exhibition Hall to be a recognizable landmark, the design is largely driven by its surrounding context. The building as a whole derives its shape from the rocky faces of the nearby Yashan Mountain, giving it a strong sense of place. Similarly, the structure is divided into three distinct sections all grounded by a central public space, each informed by the same rocky inspiration. The cracks in the rocks’ surfaces are mirrored in the irregular entrances and windows carved into the building’s volumes.
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Winning Entry: Exhibition Space. Image Courtesy of UNESCO
UNESCO, in collaboration with the Afghan Ministry of Information and Culture, have announced the winning proposal for the Bamiyan Cultural Centre. An Argentina-based team, lead by Carlos Nahuel Recabarren alongside Manuel Alberto Martínez Catalán and Franco Morero, were selected from 1,070 design entries from 117 countries. Prepatory work on implementing their scheme, entitled Descriptive Memory: The Eternal Presence of Absence, "will start immediately" close to the boundaries of the Bamiyan World Heritage site.
See the winning entry and the four runners-up after the break.
Auerbach Halevy Architects have been announced as winner of a competition to design a museum to display the history and future of Jewish sports in the heart of the Maccabiah Village – a 22 acre sports complex at the outskirts of Ramat Gan, Israel. With over 700,000 business travelers and tourists entering its gates each year, the complex plans to join the museum with a 350-seat auditorium, three-star hotel and education spaces to maximize its appeal and use. The building will also include the Maccabi House archives - the world's largest repository and collection of documents and objects related to the living heritage of Jewish sports.
