d3 is pleased to announce the winners of the Housing Tomorrow competition for 2010. The program, developed by co-directors Gregory Marinic and Mary-Jo Schlachter, promotes investigation of housing typologies toward determining new architectonic strategies for living in the future. The competition invites architects, designers, engineers, and students to collectively explore, document, analyze, transform, and deploy innovative approaches to residential urbanism, architecture, interiors, and designed objects.
The competition awarded three prizes and eight special mentions, with first prize captured by Liminal Projects for their project: Home Spun: Water Harvesting Prefab Urban Housing for the Great Lakes Region. See the three prizes after the break. Special Mentions projects can be seen in the competition’s official website.
UR Architectswere awarded first prize for their design of a sports center in Antwerp. The center, which is intended for non-competition sports, is aligned with the existing sports hall along the main street of the new master plan development. The building attempts “to communicate” on all sides as the sports hall, dance hall and rental depot are positioned on the edge, interconnected by a T-shaped service area. This extroverted model opens the building to the community and the architecture reflects the modernism of the surrounding buildings. The roof is designed as a fifth facade to relate to the nearby housing blocks of Renaat Braem while the facades of the halls are made of multi-layered polycarbonate. Partly translucent, partly transparent, this material combines the dynamic spectacle of changing light and shade, with diffuse daylight admission and a high insulation value, resulting in a low energy building.
WORKac‘s design for a 1-kilometer section of Hua Qiang Bei Road in Shenzhen was awarded first prize. The design responds to the area’s growing commercial character which has unfortunately created traffic problems. For the proposal, the road becomes a series of “strategic interventions” where “five iconic lanterns”, (twisting bands of required program) create unique, visible destinations through a process of “urban acupuncture”.
More images and more about the design after the break.
The Tafoni Floating Home is a conceptual project from designer Joanna Borek-Clement. The primary goal is to change the attitude towards living on a houseboat and promote a lifestyle that limits disruption of the environment. Tafoni is spacious, yet compact. Typical houseboats have low ceilings and often feel cramped, which can detract from comfort many residents desire of their homes. In contrast, even though Tafoni has a relatively small floor plate, it is spacious because of the high ceiling and the minimal amount of full-height interior partitions.
The partial-height sculptural walls divide the space visually and increase the interaction between people without limiting views. Tafoni is a multi-purpose living pavilion that serves as a permanent house, a weekend retreat, a relaxing summer destination or a place to entertain friends and hold business parties. In the current era of overpopulation and decreasing greenfields, building houseboats is a solution we should consider. More after the break.
OMA in association with Leigh & Orange Architects have won the international competition for a 28,000m2 campus for the Chu Hai College of Higher Education in Hong Kong.
The project consists on two 8-stories tall parallel volumes with a rich public space in between, housing three faculties (arts, science and engineering, business), with 10 departments and 2 research centers.
What I like about this project is how OMA incorporated the multidisciplinary focus of this college, trough a rich public space between these two volumes, a topography with library, cafeteria, gym and lecture theaters, which given its ramps, steps and shaded platforms, generate several different spaces for socializing, meeting, studying, etc. So, students from this 3 faculties will flow into this central public space, mixing together.
This project is led by Rem Koolhaas, General Manager of OMA Asia (Hong Kong) David Gianotten and associate Chris van Duijn.
The Bohemian Flats, located in an old residential area of Minneapolis, Minnesota has a long history of flooding. According to FEMA, the site has a 1% chance of flooding every year. To respond to this history and promote the longevity of the project, the entire structure rests on a PVC (vinyl) floatation system, allowing the building to move in sequence with the unpredictable nature of the site. The boat house also has the ability to move off site and become an extension elsewhere.
Full architect’s description and more images after the break.
Martin Angelov shared his funky concept for a new urban way of transportation dubbed “Kolelinia” with us . Kolelinia proposes that we ride our bicycles on a steel wire as a new type of bicycle lane. The idea was awarded first for the international “Line of Site” competition.
Perkins+Will’s master plan for SANY Beijing was awarded first prize in the “Conceptual Design” category at the 8th International Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism due to the project’s strength in the categories of spatiality, connectivity, originality and sustainability. SANY is the largest heavy equipment manufacturer in China and one of the top 10 heavy equipment manufacturers in the world. The company wanted to achieve a higher degree of efficiency in their manufacturing process and create a memorable visitor experience.
Couple of weeks ago we launched a competition through our Facebook Fan Page to find the best architectural animation video you could send us. After looking at 34 videos and receiving more than 2,500 votes, we have a winner!
Armir Shapllo, with his Space Camp Nou video (see it after the break), received more than 800 votes to win a brand new iPod Touch. Matej Štefanac came second and Alex Roman third. Congratulations to Armir, and to everyone who participated. And remember to follow us through Twitter and our Facebook Fan Page for more competitions!
KSP Jürgen Engel Architekten was awarded first prize for their proposal for the Beijing Patent Office. Located in downtown Beijing, the site is near a new subway line and sits opposite the entrance hall of Caishikou Station. The proposal integrates the Patent Office into the site’s sustainable traffic infrastructure. The building is divided into a central hall, towers, bridges, open spaces and spacious rooftop gardens that creates an interconnected, communicative structure. A surrounding strip embraces the individual parts of the building, extending from the roof to the façade, spanning open spaces, thereby giving the Beijing Patent Office a specific identity in the urban context.
More about the proposal and more images after the break.
And now, they won the competition for the Frederiksberg Courthouse in Denmark, an extension to a neo-classical building. The new building follows the line of the neighborhood’s architecture, reinterpreted in a contemporary style, following the horizontal lines, materials and roof.
From the public square right next to the building, the heavy volume looks lighter as the opening in the corner give a sense of cantilevering.
More images and the architect’s description after the break:
Spanish architect Jordi Badia, BAAS, shared with us a recent entry for a competition, awarded with the 1st prize.
This office has been doing a very good work lately, clean lines, pure materials… I recommend checking out the recently opened CAM Framis museum in Barcelona.
Project description and mor eimages after the break.
BIG, in collaboration with AKT, Tyréns and Transsolar, just won the competition for the World Village of Women Sports in Malmo, Sweden, a 100.000sqm complex for research, education and training of women’s sports.
Rather than a program organized around a sports arena disconnected from the city, the project becomes a town inside a town, offering rich public spaces as you can see on the renderings.
The central space of the village offers a large area for public gathering, which can host professional football matches, concerts, conferences, exhibitions and flea markets. Around this space we find a series of sloped buildings, which reduce the visual impact of the complex to the adjacent neighborhood.
Between these buildings we find a pedestrian network around the main sports hall which plugs into the surrounding street networks as well as the interior galleries of Kronprinsen, turning it into a complete ecosystem of urban life.
The Chicago and Shanghai offices of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (SOM) won the international design competition to expand the Beijing Central Business District (CBD). This project was also awarded an AIA Honor Award.
Basically, their plan proposes the creation of 3 new districts anchored by parks and green boulevards as you can see on the renderings. But the an important aspects of this project is on the small scale, a network of walkable blocks to offer pedestrian (and bike) friendly scale for development. Because sustainable doesn´t have to mean just “green”, but also to offer an environment on which people can actually establish social relations on a neighborhood scale.
The plan also proposes an express commuter rail service between the Beijing Capital International Airport, the CBD, and high speed rail service at Beijing South Station. A new streetcar system is proposed to conveniently link all areas of the CBD.
Sometimes, a good transportation system and focusing on the pedestrian scale sound obvious, but they are the foundations to establish neighborhoods that can bring life to parts of the city 24/7, instead of business districts that die at night with dormitory cities with a lack of services.
Ninety seven projects and urban schemes have been recognized as part of this year’s International Architecture Awards program. For the 2009 Awards, the jury received a record number of entries, from firms in Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and the Americas. The International Architecture Awards has “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.”
Out of the 97 projects awarded, the United States received the highest number of thirteen awards, followed by China with eight, Japan and Great Britain with each seven and Germany having six awards. The Netherlands, Brazil, Italy, Canada won four awards each. The winning projects all an innovative approach to design while providing buildings that attempt to respond to the problems of environment, social context, improving quality of life, and sustainability.
More images of the winning projects after the break.
London-based architecture firm ACMEwas awarded third prize in a recent competition to design a United Nations memorial. Initiated by the city of Chungju in South Korea, the selected memorial will rest in the city’s UN Peace Park. ACME’s proposal is comprised of a 1,500 seating assembly, two conference halls, a theater and exhibition spaces. The organization of the memorial is metaphorically modeled similarly to the United Nations, where many parts make up the whole.
