He practices architecture as an artful endeavor in private commissions and in designs for the public realm and epitomizes the revival of a more socially engaged architect.
Alejandro Aravena of Chile has been selected as the 2016 Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureate, Tom Pritzker announced today. Mr. Pritzker is Chairman and President of The Hyatt Foundation, which sponsors the prize. The formal award ceremony for what has come to be known internationally as architecture’s highest honor will be at United Nations Headquarters in New York on April 4, 2016.
Alejandro Aravena
The 48-year-old Aravena is an architect based in Santiago, Chile. He becomes the 41st laureate of the Pritzker Prize, the first Pritzker Laureate from Chile, and the fourth from Latin America, after Luis Barragán (1980), Oscar Niemeyer (1988), and Paulo Mendes da Rocha (2006).
Mr. Pritzker said, “The jury has selected an architect who deepens our understanding of what is truly great design. Alejandro Aravena has pioneered a collaborative practice that produces powerful works of architecture and also addresses key challenges of the 21st century. His built work gives economic opportunity to the less privileged, mitigates the effects of natural disasters, reduces energy consumption, and provides welcoming public space. Innovative and inspiring, he shows how architecture at its best can improve people’s lives.”
INSIDE – World Festival of Interiors has announced the five award winners on the second day of the festival at Marina Bay Sands in Singapore. The schemes selected demonstrate the strength of creative design around the world with winning projects selected from four different continents.
The Shepherd’s Bush Pavilion Hotel in London by Flanagan Lawrence won the Creative Re-use category. The Grade II listed former cinema in west London was transformed into a hotel that preserved the building’s civic pride whilst creating additions including a grand atrium featuring golden hooped balconies that rise to the full height of the structure. The judges described the atrium as “instrumental” to the design and contributed to the creation of an “elegant and sophisticated interior”.
A cinema resembling a scene from a disaster movie triumphed in the Civic, Culture & Transport category. ‘Exploded’ in China by One Plus Partnership places cinema-goers at the heart of the action with a chaotic composition of sharp lines and box-like structures to bridge the gap between the big screen and the viewer.
Civic culture and Transport category: Exploded by One Plus Partnership, Hong Hong
Medibank Workplace by HASSELL grabbed the Offices prize for this major new project in Australia. The project sees the creation of one of the world’s healthiest workplaces and the judges acknowledged the scheme as a key demonstrator for “the power of design”. There was one Highly Commended project in the category for Uralchen Headquarters by Pedra Silva Architects.
Office catagory: Medibank Workplace by Hassell, Australia
In the Health and Education category the University of Queensland Oral Health Centre was announced the victor. Designed by Cox Rayner Architects, the project places the craft of dentistry at the heart of the scheme, creating forms and shapes inspired by the profession. Judges commended the project for “humanising a clinical environment [that] re-imagines dental education”.
Health and Education category: The University of Queensland Oral Health Centre by Cox Rayner Architects, Australia
In the final category of the day, Ward Village Information Centre by Woods Bagot received the Display award. The project reinvents the historic IBM Building in Haiwaii into a sensitive centre of sales and information and offers “a tactile, warm and sensitive” approach.
Display category: Ward Village Information Centre by Woods Bagot, Australia
All of winners will go head to head with the four other category winners from day one of the festival in an attempt to be named World Interior of the Year 2015. The nine category winners will present live to the jury on the final day of the festival.
London, United Kingdom – A Manhattan transport hub, a ballet school in St Petersburg and an olive oil factory in Uruguay are all winners at World Architecture Festival Awards and took part in the battle to seize ultimate accolade of World Building of the Year 2015.
In the Culture Completed Buildings category, Soma City Home for All in Japan, by Klein Dytham Architecture, was victorious. This pro bono project is an indoor play space for children between the ages of 0-4, positioned at the heart of the acres of temporary housing that were built to replace the 250,000 homes destroyed in the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami. Conceived as a large straw hat held aloft by trees, this building provides a safe indoor play space that is an important amenity for the community amidst ongoing concerns about background radiation levels. The judges commented that the project ‘clearly demonstrates the potential of architecture to be genuinely transformatory and shows how culture can take root and lift spirits in the most challenging circumstances’.
Health project of the year was named as Walumba Elders Centre, Australia, by Iredale Pedersen Hook. After the town of Warmun was devastated by a catastrophic flood, Iredale Pedersen Hook Architects was tasked with rebuilding the community facility buildings and the old Walumba Aged Care centre, working directly with the community elders and care staff to achieve what judges describe as ‘an informed and sensitive response to the social and environmental context’.
Hotel and Leisure was won by Lanserhof, Lake Tegernby Ingenhoven Architects, Germany. A health resort where sustainable architecture combines exquisite hotel facilities and state-of-the-art medical care. The room-height glazing and generous loggia at the front of each room also provide broad views of the natural landscape of the Tegernsee valley while respecting the surrounding landscape. Judges said Ingenhoven Architects ‘demonstrated a wonderful dexterity in creating human scaled spaces, fully supporting the brief for wellness design’.
Hotel and Leisure category: Lanserhof, Lake Tegern, Germany, Ingenhoven Architects
The Courtyard House Plugin, China, by People’s Architecture Office, won the New and Old category, which covers the addition or insertion of excellent new architecture into historic urban fabric or buildings. The prefabricated modular system is designed to bring modern living standards and energy efficiency to buildings that are centuries old, while keeping them fully intact. The building is commended for its ‘innovation, control and the prevention of traditional neighbourhood housing against the threat of demolition’.
The award for Production, Energy and Recycling was given Fabrica de Oliva, Uruguay, by Marcelo Daglio Arquitectos. This revived olive oil factory was described as ‘lifting the often banal factory form and language to a sublime exemplar’.
Production, Energy & Recycling category: Fabrica de Oliva, Uruguay, Marcelo Daglio Arquitectos
In the Religion category, Qatar Faculty of Islamic Studies by the Qatar Foundation and Mangera Yvars Architects is ‘a school and prayer place pushing the boundaries of traditional Islamic architecture’, say WAF judges. A space dedicated to research and debate about Islam, the architects employed geometric patterns, developed as an interpretation of traditional Islamic designs. The building corridors display relief panels depicting the beauty of elements of the architectural heritage of the Muslim world, and all interiors have visual or physical access to gardens. Calligraphy wraps around the central courtyards and minarets in a manner consistent with the overall architectural design.
Religion category: Qatar Faculty of Islamic Studies, Qatar, by Mangera Yvars Architects
The Ballet School, St Petersburg, by Studio 44 Architects won the Schools category with a design that ‘re-establishes a series of heritage buildings using a restrained palette of materials contrast with the early Russian industrial aesthetic of the gritty area’. The project includes two new buildings – teaching and dormitory blocks. The space between the new volumes is interpreted as an atrium, where recreation spaces co-exist with ballet classrooms. The walls of recreation spaces and ballet classes are realized in semi-transparent glass, which serves to flood the building with natural light.
Schools category: Ballet School, Russia, by Studio 44 Architects
The Sport category was claimed by San Mamés Stadium by Azcárate (ACXT-IDOM), Spain, a ‘truly local stadium for its local club that is the beating heart of the city’. The home of Athletico Bilbao, the stadium was conceived as an urban building for the community rather than a mere sports facility.
Transport was won by The Fulton Center, Manhattan’s new transport hub by Grimshaw/Arup/James Carpenter/HDR/Page Ayres Cowley. Judges commended the structure as ‘a sophisticated and powerful response, skilfully integrating the art commission to create an uplifting new landmark for the city’. Servicing 300,000 daily transit passengers in the heart of lower Manhattan, the Fulton Center is design to be a catalyst for the redevelopment of the area.
Transport category: Fulton Center, USA, by Grimshaw / Arup / James Carpenter / HDR Page Ayres Cowley
The Commercial Mixed Use category was claimed by Gardens at Punggol, Singapore, by Serie + Multiply Consultants. The floating hawker centre celebrates Singapore’s intimate relationship to the water. WAF representatives commented ‘in an age of austerity and authenticity, it is important to retain culture and reinterpret tradition, which this scheme does effortlessly’.
Commercial Mixed Use category: Gardens at Punggol, Singapore, by Serie + Multiply Consultants
Future projects Competition Entries was won by Quay Quarter, on the waterfront in Sydney, Australia. Designed by Francis-Jones Morehen, judges thought the concept showed ‘respect for the environment as well as fluid, functional spaces’. A responsive and organic city tower in Sydney’s Circular Quay offers a rich architectural expression and enhanced social amenity for both the building inhabitants and public alike.
In Future Projects Education, the Wellington College Performing Arts Centre by Seilern Architects, UK, was awarded for ‘a poetic relationship between the planned spaces and the existing building and landscape’. The scheme comprises a radical rethink of the theatrical and musical teaching and performance spaces found at the college. The buildings have been designed to sit into the steep slope to minimise impacts to the surroundings and to sit appropriately within the vernacular,a dense forest, with large full height thick charred timber cladding to mimic and blend in with the forest’s bark textures.
Future Projects Education category: Performing Arts Centre, UK, by Studio Seilern Architects
In the experimental category, Home Farm by SPARK, Singapore, is ‘a culturally, socially and environmentally sustainable project that offers a real model for the future and gives real thought to the value of the elderly population’, say judges. A conceptual proposal for the next generation of urban retirement housing, the project presents a living typology for Singapore that incorporates vertical urban farming and presents a sustainable way to enhance the city state’s food security, as opposed to the 90% of food currently being imported to the city state.
Projects Experimental category: Home Farm, Singapore, by SPARK
Future Projects Residential was claimed by Bjarke Ingells Group with its Vancouver House concept in Canada. The project negotiates a difficult site trisected by an overpass, with BIG’s response optimising the conditions for its future inhabitants — in the air as well as on the street. ‘The project demonstrates how architecture can successfully transform residual urban spaces by taking advantage of the air rights above, creating an intelligent and sculptural form that is both purposeful and beautiful’.
Future Projects Residential category: Vancouver House, Canada, BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group
All of winners will go on to present their projects at final crit sessions in front of the WAF 2015 Super Jurors, which include Manuelle Gautrand, Sou Fujimoto and Sir Peter Cook. The Landscape, Future Project and World Building of the Year 2015 was announced at a gala dinner at Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands on the evening of Friday 6 November.
INSIDE – World Festival of Interiors has announced the best interior designs of 2015 across the categories of Hotels, Bars & Restaurants, Residential and Retail. The annual awards, which started at the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore, encompass the best interior designs from the past 12 months from around the globe and this years winners include a hotel lobby made from fragmented pieces of wood and a converted warehouse in Bangkok.
The Hotels category went to the aptly name Hotel Hotel. Located in Canberra, the design for the hotel centredaround a welcoming lobby constructed from fractured wood fragments that direct the visitors through the interior spaces and create a stark contrast to the polished walls that surround it. The project by March Studio was awarded the prize for their creative and passionate approach that saw the studio use unorthodox materials to create an unexpected result, a design approach that could have appeared soulless if executed by the wrong designer according to the judges.
Hotels category: Hotel Hotel by March Studio, Australia
Vivarium by Hypothesis claimed the Bars & Restaurants category for its thoughtful approach and clear connection to the area and the client’s brief. The project comprised of the conversion of a warehouse in Bangkok into a vibrant new restaurant. Serving a fusion of Thai and Japanese cuisine, the building honours the industrial heritage of the site and features contemporary additions with a vibrant use of colour.
Bars & Restaurants category: Vivarium by Hypothesis, Thailand
Italian architecture practice MdAA won the Residential category for their Tree House. The regeneration of an old stable saw the practice create a statement column in the middle of the living space which has come to define the project. Monoform Living @ STRATA in Singapore by Produce Workshop was Highly Commended in the category.
Residential category: Tree House by MdAA Architetti Associati, Italy
KKi Sweets and the Little Drom Store by Produce Workshop was awarded the Retail category. Created in the historic School of Arts in Singapore, the project created a direct connection with its parent building and features a series of volumes that form intimate spaces throughout.
Retail category: KKi Sweets and the Little Drom Store by Produce Workshop, Singapore
The four category winners were announced at the end of day one at the INSIDE – World Festival of Interiors and will be followed by a further five categories winners. The nine category winners will then go head-to-head on the final day to be named the World Interior of the Year 2015.
London, United Kingdom – A house made from scrap material, the proposed redevelopment of a Russian city ravaged by war and a vertical village in Singapore named winners in global architecture awards.
World Architecture Festival, the world’s largest international architectural event, has announced the first of two sets of category winners for 2015. Among Wednesday’s victorious practices are EAA Emre Arolat, Ole Scheeren/OMA and Populous.
Ranging from a house in Vietnam created from discarded materials to a reimagining of London’s Olympic stadium, each of winning projects will now compete on Friday, the final day of the festival, to be crowned World Building of the Year.
The completed buildings that were named as the best in show from today’s contenders were The Interlace, a ‘vertical village’ in Singapore by OMA and Buro Ole Scheeren which won the Housing category. Judges selected the project for its ‘radical and alternative approach’ to contemporary living in a tropical environment.
Saigon House, by a21 studio was awarded the House category for its ‘playful and communal’ approach to living. Built using bricks, roof and floor tiles, doors and windows, and furniture found in local scrap markets, last year’s World Building of the Year winner will return to defend their title thanks to this sustainable approach to construction.
House category: Saigon House by a21 studio, Vietnam
Another project which demonstrated a commitment to using locally sourced materials and resources, the Cam Thanh Community House won the Completed Building: Civic and Community prize for ‘a beautifully simple building designed for the community, by the community’.
Civic and Community category: Cam Thanh Community House
The most impressive Mixed-Use development of the year went to SJB Architect for its Casba project in Australia, which was judged to successfully blend public realm with retail and residential purposes.
Mixed-Use development category: Casba project by SJB Architect, Australia
The Brazilian Expo Pavilion by Studio Arthur Casas and Marko Brajovic was crowned best Display project. The box-like temporary structure expresses the identity of Brazil in an unconventional way, drawing on the ideas of play and discovery.
Pavilion category: The Brazilian Expo Pavilion by Studio Arthur Casas and Marko Brajovic
In the field of completed offices, Nakayama Architects’ project HIGO were awarded top marks for a ‘magical, habitable, almost invisible structure’ that was deemed a spectacular feat, particularly as it is located in an earthquake zone.
Office category: HIGO by Nakayama Architects, Japan
In the Higher Education & Research category, Toho Gakuen School of Music, Japan, by Nikken Sekkei, was victorious. The building was designed so that each space ensures optimal acoustic performance for a particular instrument.
Higher Education & Research category: Toho Gakuen School of Music by Nikken Sekkei, Japan
Toho Gakuen School of Music by Nikken Sekkei, Japan
The Sino-Ocean Taikoo Li Chengdu in China by Oval Partnership was judged first class in the Shopping shortlist for its ‘sympathetic urban plan in terms of scale, social integration and walkability’.
Shopping category: Sino-Ocean Taikoo Li Chengdu by Oval Partnership, China
EAA Emre Arolat Architects was the big winner of WAF’s first day, with two category wins and one highly commended project. The practice’s visionary approach won plaudits from judges, winning the Future Projects: Culture category for its Museum of Painting and Sculpture and the Future Projects: Infrastructure category for its Cukurova Airport, both located in the practice’s native Turkey.
Infrastructure category: Cukurova Airport by EAA Emre Arolat Architects, Turkey
The best future Masterplan was Kaliningrad Development Concept in Russia by Studio 44 Architects. The project promises to be a human revival of a city brutalised by its history. Judges praised the strategy of using buried basements, the only surviving elements of the area’s urban fabric, to make direct connections between the city’s past and present.
Future Masterplan category: Kaliningrad Development Concept by Studio 44 Architects, Russia
The London Olympic Stadium Transformation by Populous was awarded Future Leisure-Led Development of 2015, with its multipurpose stadium which was ‘sustainable, efficient and respectful of London’s Olympic heritage’, according to judges.
Future Leisure-Led Development category: London Olympic Stadium Transformation by Populous, UK
Topping the Future Projects Health category,the HDR Rice Daubney project Al Maha Centre for Children and Young Adults will provide a non-institutional and non-intimidating setting, which is intended to combine clinical excellence with a reassuring domestic ambience.
Future Projects Health category: Al Maha Centre for Children and Young Adults by HDR Rice Daubney, United Arab Emirates
The Future Projects Office category was claimed by Reservoir by Sanjay Puri Architects, for a design which adopts the traditional Indian stepped well form to create a water collection pit come office amidst the desert land of Rajasthan.
Future Projects Office category : Reservoir by Sanjay Puri Architects, India
Of the Future Projects House category, the ISSA Grotto/Hill House by PROARH was victorious. The minimalist, straw roof topped structure seamlessly integrates with the sloping Croatian landscape, with its existence only given away by the sight of a swimming pool which can be glimpsed from above.
Future Projects House category: ISSA Grotto/Hill House by PROARH, Croatia
Each of today’s winning practices will go head to head with a second set of category winners, to be announced tomorrow, in the hope of achieving the accolade of World Building of the Year 2015.
WAF 2015 takes place at Marina Bay Sands, Singapore, until Friday 6 November.
Lord Foster has launched proposals for the Droneport project in Africa to support cargo drone routes capable of delivering urgent and precious supplies to remote areas on a massive scale. The project is a collaboration between Redline partners led by Afrotech, École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL); the Norman Foster Foundation; and Foster + Partners. Cargo drone routes have utility wherever there is a lack of roads. Just as mobile phones dispensed with landlines, cargo drones can transcend geographical barriers such as mountains, lakes, and unnavigable rivers without the need for large-scale physical infrastructure. Just a third of Africans live within two kilometres of an all-season road, and there are no continental motorways, almost no tunnels, and not enough bridges that can reach people living in far-flung areas of the continent.
Replacing an existing structure used as a barn on a farm in the region of Bio Bio, it is requested to rebuild a higher-capacity version with 4 stables, 2 cellars and 1 trough. Because of the distance and the labour shortage, it is devised a mechanized construction system to be assembled on the site by two carpenters on a short time.The system combines a series of galvanized steel precast units with pine wood modular elements and the reuse of old demolition roof tiles.
align, interior architects and designers and specialists in original workplace thinking, have created a dynamic, 19,000 sq ft, three-storey suite of offices for fast-growing brand and packaging design specialists BrandOpus; a finalist scheme in the Small/Medium Commercial Project of the Year category of the 2015 MIX Magazine Mixology Awards.
Spaces and objects contain within them the presence of human beings. Human bodies imprint themselves on the very walls between which they live and along which they walk. Landscape can thus be read as a topography of invisible layers left behind by humans.
The work “Camera Obscura” was created for the competition SMACH.IT http://smach.it a competition of land art in the Dolomites in Trentino, in San Martino in Val Badia, on “Border”
Here the link to my location:
http://smach.it/location3/(photos and interviews in to the site are of Gustav Willeit) For some time I worked about the idea of using lenses and building works into the landscape.
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