European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture / Mies van der Rohe Award

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The history of the city of Katowice is closely tied with the themes of heavy industry and mining. They have left behind distinctive artificial landscapes, industrial complexes, and buildings and are anchored in the collective consciousness as an unmistakable cultural heritage endowing a sense of identity.

The opening of the Principia Archaeological Park in Rijeka, in February 2014, enriched the topography of ancient sites on the Adriatic’s eastern shore, adding a monumental locus, unique in the type and the shaping level of presentation. As for the type, the Principia was an architectural and town-planning element of castrum, a Roman military encampment or town, one of the many scattered along the boundaries of the Roman Empire (limites).

R50 – cohousing is a joint building venture project in Berlin-Kreuzberg. It was initiated by the architects during the course of a concept-based award procedure for building plots and implemented in close cooperation with the clients. The building proposal is founded on a clear urban design position, robust and precisely detailed architectural design, and both a collective and individual process of occupancy.

Following Bulgaria’s recent accession to the European Union, Phase I of the National Museum Complex in Sofia, comes at a time when Bulgarian society is undergoing a reevaluation of cultural values and is in great need of a new self-assured and positive identity.

Introduction

Conceptual framework: 

NoXX Apartment is located in a narrow dead end in Cihangir. Due to the location of the Project and the short timing for construction, conventional construction techniques seem unattainable, therefore a steel structure apartment building is designed with an industrial sensibility and as a homage to the rare standing structures from early century typical of the area.

« Maison d’accueil de l’enfance Eleanor Roosevelt » is an emergency residential centre managed by the local department of child welfare (Aide Sociale à l’Enfance- ASE) in Paris. It provides emergency shelter for minors under legal guardianship.

The ambitions of AG SOB (Ghent Urban Development Corporation) go further than developing new urban districts and redrawing, in broad gestures, the existing urban fabric. Their Kavel project is an exercise in the precise implementation of small-scale housing following unconventional principles. The corporation seeks opportunities within the urban fabric – arising if necessary through demolition – to build new homes, either individually or in groups ranging from two or three to seven or eight. However, they do not manage everything themselves. Instead, they offer the site to a young or otherwise suitable family, selected from a number of candidates, as a package complete with a selected architect, on highly advantageous terms. The deal is also bound by stringent conditions for financing and program requirements: a high grade of sustainability is required on a practically impossible budget.

The so-called Muziekpaleis is a spectacular endeavour. When we first learnt about the project we could hardly believe its radicality. The project is part of the renovation of the station area. The idea was to construct a music building with 4 halls on top of the existing concert hall Vredenburg. That would mean to partly demolish the Hertzberger Masterpiece! It also would bring together totally different target groups in one building: in addition to the symphony hall, the complex will feature a 2000 people hall dedicated to pop music, a jazz hall, a room for chamber music and the so-called Crossoverzaal. These ‘Biotopes’ will be developed by 4 different architects within the master plan by Architectuurstudio HH. In a way it is a super-sized ‘showcase’ containing stacked ‘buildings’: 3D Urbanism!

PXATHENS, the initiative

The ‘Nieuwe Park Rozenburgschool’ is an elementary school in Rotterdam’s quarter Kralingen-Crooswijk with children from various ethnic, cultural and social backgrounds. The school has been spread over two locations within the district. With the extension of one of the locations all school facilities could be united again and help the school function as one institution.

Specific features of this location originate from the fact that primordial modernist setting of the New Belgrade, extremely modernized throughout the principles of Le Corbusier’s Ville Radieuse was interrupted by so called investor’s (speculators) architecture during the past few decades. One of the outcomes of such conflict is the fact that new-formed, fragmentized sites are in huge disproportion compared to existing structures and primarily, sites marked for the complementary functions such as educational facilities are in large scale undersized. So it is the case with this site for the kindergarten. That fact as well as the nearness of heavy traffic corridor were predominant in the process of designing. Circular form was the most appropriate as a response to the built environment as well as to the very intensive traffic which backside of the building faces.

Where in the past a small square marked the medieval gateway to the old town district of Ennsdorf, the garden house stands today. Arisen from an old farmhouse which was entirely ruinous it shapes the counterpart of the historical tollhouse. The traces of the past have slightly vanished, the wayside shrine, that once stood impressive in front of the tollhouse's gable wall, has been moved to the right. The hedges have become too close to the free area.

The apartment building lies on a sloping site that faces onto three streets and is comprised of 5 stories with apartments, a pilotis and 4 underground levels ― 1900m².

Wellness and recreation center is designed in a remarkable place alongside Anyksciai pinewood, famous for its unique beauty of the natural environment, depicted by notable Lithuanian poets. Great respect for the subtle natural surroundings encouraged to look for non-standart architecture design solutions.

In the heart of Kreuzberg, Berlin’s new, big inner-city park is opening this summer: The “Park am Gleisdreieck”, a former triangular junction. The first half of an altogether 36 hectares area spanning in the Western part of Berlin was already opened in September 2011 („Gleisdreieck - Eastpark“).

Goztepe is a southern neighborhood in the Asian side of Istanbul. The area is a densely arranged fabric of isolated towers made in the last 50 years usually in close proximity to each other. As Istanbul grows its footprint outwards the city, urban planners have put forward a strategy to counterbalance this trend by allowing densification of existing neighborhoods.