JAJA Architects has won second prize in an open competition for a combined affordable housing and market hall in the heart of Katrineholm, Sweden. Designed for a site currently occupied by an arcade and bus stop, the hybrid proposal, known as "Torghallen," focuses on reconnecting two open plazas by devoting the ground floor to the public.
The jury, which selected JAJA’s design ahead of 135 other proposals, stated: “The clear concept of a light building that touches the ground in few points creates a strong connection and transparency between the surrounding urban spaces.”
Powerhouse Company and De Zwarte Hond (Team A) have won an international competition to redesign the Assen railway station in the Netherlands. The winning scheme, marked by a triangular latticed canopy, is designed to reconnect the east and west side of the city with an “inviting and recognizable” transit hub.
Claiming second place in a recent competition for Korea Midland Power (KOMIPO), HAEAHN Architects, in partnership with Haenglim, have put forth a daring new design that combines power plant and office building. The dual use structure, which will include a park and a restaurant, was conceived as a way of breaking the raw, industrial image of the traditional power plant. In keeping with this idea, the design would be built over and replace Danginlee, the first power plant ever constructed in South Korea. The architects intended for the new plant to commemorate the old, while at the same time attracting more local traffic to the area. See the details of this award-winning design, after the break.
designcamp moonpark dmp has won a competition to design the new cultural arts center in Asan, South Korea. The winning proposal, inspired by an "Echoing Sculpture," balances mass and void with two theaters and a cultural arts building that frames a garden and civic waterfront plaza.
The Busan Port Authority (BPA) has named the SYNWHA Consortium winners of an international competition for the Busan North Port Redevelopment in South Korea. The winning proposal is an "Interactive Pier" slated to transform the original port into a cultural center that celebrates the marriage of mountains, river, and sea, while crafting dynamic connections between the city of Busan and its seaside.
COBE, DISSING+WEITLING and COWI have been announced as winners of an international competition to design a 225-meter-long pedestrian bridge, station, 32,000-square-meter park and associated park-and-ride facility for the Danish city of Køge. The winning design, selected over three other invited submissions, will stretch across a unique traffic “hot-spot” where Denmark’s most trafficked freeway, an existing train line and a planned double-tracked high-speed rail line meet.
More about the Køge North Station, which is expected serve 90,000 people daily as a “new gateway to Copenhagen” by 2018, after the break.
The city of Esbjerg has selected Dorte Mandrup Arkitekter through a competition to extend and refurbish the Wadden Sea Center in Vester Vedsted. A UNESCO World Heritage area, the Wadden Sea is Denmark’s largest National park. The new center aims to “create awareness and understanding for the marshland and the Wadden Sea,” as jury member and leader of the center Klaus Melbye explains. “The architecture is sustainable, visionary and bold and brings forth the Centre as an didactic information centre of the future.”
More about Dorte Mandrup’s winning design, after the break.
Nadau Architects, the winning team of the Reanimate the Ruins international ideas contest, have shared with us their proposal to revive Detroit's historic Packard Automotive Plant, the former factory which has become an icon of the city's post-industrial decline. By developing a proposal which frees the land from unwanted structures and knits the colossal 1 kilometer-long building back into the urban landscape, Nadau Lavergne Architects have created a design which returns both a sense of community and some economic hope back to the building.
"Modular Landscapes" was designed in response to the 2011 Japanese earthquake. Image Courtesy of Architecture for Humanity Vancouver Chapter
Architecture for HumanityVancouver Chapter has unveiled the winners of "NEXT BIG ONE," an open call for design solutions to high-magnitude earthquake and tsunami events that plague cities around the world. Project teams were challenged to propose a solution that "can mitigate natural disasters while simultaneously providing community permanence."
A jury comprised of leading architects and professionals from Architecture Research Office (Stephen Cassell), Perkins + Will (Susan Gushe), Bing Thom Architects (Eileen Keenan), Scott & Scott Architects (David Scott), and the City of Vancouver (Doug Smith) evaluated the projects. Entries were evaluated based on three key criteria: the exemplification of innovation in disaster design, promotion of community resiliency before and after disasters, and compliance with multi-hazard parameters for worst-case disaster scenarios.
NORD Architects has released designs for a new Marine Education Centre in Malmö, Sweden. The Copenhagen-based practice, awarded the commission through an invited competition, hopes to “blur the distinction between architecture and landscape” with a facility that helps users gain a “deeper understanding of marine life.”
“With the changing climate, rising oceans and increased severity of cloudbursts, there is a need more than ever to understand the profound influence that marine life and the oceans have on our lives”, says Johannes Molander Pedersen, partner at NORD Architects.
Nomad Office Architects (NOA) has shared with us their proposal for the Dalseong Citizen’s Gymnasium open ideas competition, which was awarded honorable mention. As part of the district’s centennial anniversary, the competition aimed to replace an existing, outdated sports hall with a new gymnasium complex for the local residents of Hyeonpung-myeon neighborhood within the Daegu district of Dalseong-gun.
OSPA Architecture and Urbanism has won a national competition for the new UFCSPA (Federal University of Health Sciences of Porto Alegre) Campus Igara in Canoas, Brazil. The goal of the sports campus is to integrate itself within the community so it may serve as both a public institution and a public space. You can learn more about the winning scheme, after the break.
Stockholm-based Kjellander + Sjöberg Architects (K + S) has won first prize in a competition to design the “Skärvet” urban neighborhood in Växjö, Sweden. A starting point for Bäckaslöv, a long term vision for a sustainable community by developer Skanska, the new neighborhood will take shape along the railway line connecting Växjö to Norra Bergundasjon.
Fundamentalhas shared with us their vision for the House of Hungarian Music, as part of the Liget Budapest Competition. Inspired by the Neo-Baroque and Neo-Gothic spires of the park’s monuments which surrounding it, the modest house features a folded, white canopy rooftop which illuminates its surroundings and provides natural light deep into its interiors.
AM3 Architetti Associatihas been awarded first prize in a competition to design a new boarding school in Malles (Bozen, Italy). The proposed building takes full advantage of the landscape, opening onto views towards Mount Stelvio and the Mustair Valley. Drawing inspiration from this unique context, AM3 crafts a design that integrates opportunities for active participation between building and land, and student with nature.
playze and Schmidhuber have been selected as winners of an invited competition to design the Urban Planning Exhibition Center in Ningbo, China. Inspired by the ancient artform of the Chinese ribbon dance, the exhibition center aims to “blur the lines” between citizens and decision makers in a way that grants the public “rare access into the inner-workings of the city” in an effort to strengthen the relationship between local government and community.
The idea of the Chinese “Urban Planning Museums” is the nation’s response to the rapid urban growth occurring in many of its major cities. The museums are intended to communicate city planning and development issues to the public. You can learn more about playze and Schmidhuber’s design, after the break.
Henning Larsen Architects, in collaboration with an international team consisting of Tredje Natur, MOE and Railway Procurement Agency, has won Frederikssund municipality’s architecture competition to design a regional train station and new quarter in the future town of Vinge. While primarily serving to connect Vinge to the regional public transit system, the undulating, circular urban hub is designed to prevent the railway from dividing the town in two halves.
“The proposal best connects the train station, nature and town structure as one united whole,” lauded the selection committee regarding Henning Larsen’s winning scheme.
MVRDV, together with Munich-based morePlatz, have been selected among seven teams in an international competition to design two office buildings in Mainz, Germany. The five- and eleven-story “Hafenspitze” structures are expected to spearhead the transformation of the former Zollhafen industrial harbor, which plans to become a new mixed-use city quarter over the coming decades.
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