Greeen! Architects have been awarded an honorable mention for their Eco Towers, an office building in Hamburg, Germany for the Building and Environment Authorities. The office will accommodate 1400 people and will include several public areas as well as green gardens to “give room to nature and a create a green ambiance to all workers and visitors.”
More about the Eco Towers after the break.
We are always looking forward to see the results of an awarded competition. As we feature a lot of them, we might as well do a second part of our awarded competitions Round Up. Check out the first one here!
A few months ago, we shared the University of Melbourne’s six short-listed finalists for their new Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning building (short list can be read here). Of the six finalists, the team of Melbourne-based John Wardle Architects and Boston-based Office dA have been named the winners. Professor Tom Kvan, Dean of the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning, stated, “The winning design showed a detailed understanding of the teaching and research activities of the Faculty and the potential for contribution to research across the campus.”
More images and more about the winning project after the break.
BIG was recently awarded with the first prize on an open international design competition for Kazakhstan’s new National Library in Astana.
The new building has an area of 33.000 sqm, arranged as a continuous circulation on a Möbius Strip, as the result of 2 interlocking structures: the perfect circle and the public spiral. The sections (see below) clearly show how the horizontal program shifts to a vertical configuration, combining vertical hierarchy, horizontal connectivity and diagonal view lines. The skin, which changes from wall to roof as the strip develops. It sounds a bit complicated, but the sections and diagrams explain this pretty well, and you can get the idea on how the spaces and diagonal views relate on the renderings. In short words, a clear lineal organization (ideal for an archive, library) is mixed with an infinite loop.
“What is a library but an efficient archive of books… and a path for the public to reach them” (Thomas Christoffersen, Project Leader)
This shape also looks forward to become a symbol for the nation: “the circle, the rotunda, the arch and the yurt are merged into the form of a Moebius strip. The clarity of the circle, the courtyard of the rotunda, the gateway of the arch and the soft silhouette of the yurt are combined to create a new national monument appearing local and universal, contemporary and timeless, unique and archetypal at the same time” (Bjarke Ingels).
But once again, BIG diagram´s are way better to explain this than my words. See the diagrams, sections and renderings after the break:
Inhabitat and Dwell have just announced the winners of the Reburbia Design Competition. The competition, which has been running for the past 6 weeks, challenged architects, designers and concerned citizens to come up with solutions that would address the problems that plague present-day suburbia by envisioning different scenarios for the future.
Proposals tackled foreclosed McMansions, vacant big box stores, strip malls, parking lots and more with design fixes ranging from community agriculture and algae-based biofuels to zeppelin-based transit and pools transformed into water treatment plants. The competition drew over 400 entries from countries all over the world.
Winners after the break.
The Steel Structures Education Foundation organized a competition designed for students to fuse their conceptual ideas with the reality of physical structure. With the program and scale left to the discretion of the designer, the proposal had to emphasize the “essential relationship” between the exploration of form and material, with regards to surfaces, members and connections. As an academic project, students also had to use their details to communicate with the steel fabrication industry as a way to expose ”the opportunities and restraints inherent in realizing conceptual design.” “It is important for students of architecture to grasp the fact that structural design lies not just in the realm of the engineer, but can be a means for architects of arriving at a meaningful realization of architectural ideas,” explained the SSEF. The winner, student Matt Schmid from the University of Waterloo, designed a bird sanctuary in Niagara Gorge in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada.
More about the winning entry after the break.
A restricted competition for a new museum in the middle of one of the most iconic places in Rio de Janeiro, the Avenida Atlantica at Copacabana, has just been awarded.
The building will host the Museu da Imagen e de Som (Image and Audio Museum), that as of now is desegregated through the city in separate offices. The new building will host in one place facilities for the conservation and study of the brazilian visual heritage, along with a state-of-art museum.
The competition included the local practice Bernardes & Jacobsen, that has been previously featured on ArchDaily, along with Sao Paulo´s Isay Weinfeld (see his previous works featured on AD), Brasil Arquitetura and Tacoa Arquitetos. On the international side we have the regulars Daniel Libeskind and Diller Scofidio + Renfro, along with the japanese architect Shigeru Ban.
Just when I was writing this post, I found that the competition was awarded to Diller Scofidio + Renfro, at a ceremony held today.
I´ve heard a lot of buzz about this competition in Twitter and Facebook from our brazilian readers, it seems to be generating a lot of debate as of now. And it´s very obvious, as the building will be erected on a very iconic avenue, at a close distance from Museum of Modern Art by Affonse Eduardo Reidy and the Niteroi Contemporary Art Museum by Brazilian master Oscar Niemeyer.
Not much to say about the winning entry by DS+R, it´s just another project along their line. But it´s not just the jury who voted unanimously for their project, they also won a reader´s poll at the main Brazilian news site O Globo.
And Libeskind… seriously?
My vote goes to Isay Weinfeld. And yours?
Images from all the projects so you can be the judge, after the break.
GAZ Arquitectos were recently announced as the winners of the headquarters design for the Higher School of Music in Basque Country in San Sebastián, Spain. The proposal, entitled Muskiene, compiles a dense program in a relatively small site, causing the volumes to almost exceed local regulations.
More about Muskiene and more images after the break.
The Re: Vision Dallas competition named three winners, two of which we previously featured on AD (DB + P and Atelier Data + Moov). The third winner is Little, a studio based in North Carolina, with their Entangled Bank proposal. “Entangled Bank combines heavy duty technological prowess with artistic integration of systems. The building is designed as a holistic, integrated design…The Entangled Bank entry materials was incredibly impressive… Each unit type was designed, completed with suggested sale price and amount of energy consumption. A wide array of green collar job programs were provided that work with the design of the building to engage residents and educate visitors. All of the jurors were struck by the thorough and joyous submission of Entangled Bank,” explained juror Eric Corey Freed.
More about the project (including a great video) after the break.
Our friends from F451 Arquitectura, a Barcelona-based office have shared with us their design of a ferry terminal that won a competition in Spain. The terminal will be located in the Mahón Port, on the island of Menorca. More images after the break.
KSP Engel und Zimmermann Architekten has shared their winning proposal for the new Art Museum for Nanjing, China. The museum lies near the cultural axis which is comprised of Changjiang Road to the south and the “revolution road”, Zhongshan East Road, to the north. These roads are slightly angled toward one another creating a “trapeze-shaped plot of land”. This distinct site inspired the team to respond to its critical surroundings. Components in the museum such as the Revolution Cube and the Culture Cube, are strategically placed to honor the project’s location.
More images and more about the museum after the break.
Many great projects are a result of important competitions around the world. So to start this week’s Round Up, we bring you previously featured awarded competitions from Croatia, Denmark, France, Spain, and Norway.
After 6 months and 4 rounds of jurying, Architecture for Humanity, a charitable organization that seeks architectural solutions to humanitarian crisis and brings professional design services to needy communities, just recognized eight team finalists for the 2009 Open Architect Challenge: Classrooms. The competition attracted 10,000 architects, teachers and students who came together to develop designs for more than 500 schools in 65 countries. “This initiative invited the architecture, design and engineering community to collaborate directly with students and teachers to rethink the classroom of the future. Designers entering the competition were given a simple mandate: collaborate with real students in real schools in their community to develop real solutions,” explained Cameron Sinclair, the co-founder for Architecture for Humanity and this competition.
The finalists include: Adaptable Hillside Classroom by Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios & Architecture for Humanity UK, Bamboowood School by Petr Kostner, Martina Sobotkova, Sona Huberova, Classroom for the Saltpan Community by Cohesion Foundation: Rajesh Kapoor, Prashant Solanky, Bharat Karamchandani, Kiran Vaghela, Teton Valley Community School by Section Eight Design, A Sustainable Community Classroom by Gifford, House In The Wood by Built Form, LLC / Northwestern University Settlement House, Justified Architecture in a Landscape of Transformation by Arquitectura Justa: Wolfgang Timmer, Fabiola Uribe, T. Luke Young, and Blurred Classroom by Gensler.
We would like to congratulate not only the eight finalists, but all participants who dedicated their time, effort and design skills for such an importance cause.
Project descriptions and images of the eight finalists after the break.
Our friends from 3LHD shared their awarded competition proposal for a private medical center for Firule in Split, Croatia. The Polyclinic is situated close to the sea and its fresh air, near an existing hospital complex.
More about the clinic after the break.
Turkey based Aboutblank Architects have been awarded an honorable mention for their housing project for the Istanbul Kayabasi Housing Design Competition. The young firm focuses on urban design approaches, while working on a multidisciplinary level.
More about the housing project after the break.
The winners of the idea competition for the International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam (IABR) 2009 in collaboration with Ikatan Arsitek Indonesia (Indonesian Institute of Architects Jakarta Chapter) have just been announced. The IABR introduced this competition to ‘explore to what extent architects, with their knowledge, skills, and imaginative powers, can contribute to solving urgent problems in contemporary society. It therefore challenges the design disciplines, using the specific expertise of architecture, to conduct “research by design” and to develop concrete proposals, based on the Biennale’s theme’. The theme of this year’s competition Gotong Royong City (translated to be “mutual assistance”) is took create an “urban condition that enables diverse cultures and lifestyles to coexist….in the context of the extended metropolitan region of Jakarta.”
First prize was awarded to Jakarta Bersih!, second place was awarded to Let’s Catch the Water! Jakarta Sponge City, third place for Field Estate: A Platform for Symbiotic Urbanism, and special mentions to Ojek City: Permeable Mobility, Stitching the Strip, and Eco Gate as Border Device.
Winning project descriptions and images after the break.
In addition to the Benetton competition providing participants with the possibility to redefine the influence of retail in an urban landscape, the competition also provided participants with the choice to design “Building A” or “Building B”. While we shared some of the winning proposals for Building A (Grzegorz Witold Woronowicz and Giuseppe Iodice), we now share Maarten Scheurwater and Oliver van den Hoven‘s proposal for Building B, which placed second in the competition.
More about the winning proposal after the break.
Architectural Design Competition d3 is pleased to announce the winners of the Natural Systems competition for 2009. The program promotes investigation of natural systems from microscopic to universal toward determining new architectonic strategies.
The competition invited architects, designers, engineers, and students to collectively explore the potential for analyzing, documenting, and deploying nature-based, sustainable influences in urbanism, architecture, interiors, and designed objects.
The competition awarded seven prizes, with first place captured by London-based Kenny Kinugasa-Tsui and Lorene Faure for their project: “Urban Agriculture: Hybridized Farm Bridge as City Garden”. Some of the awards, after the break.