Emerging architects and their bold, witty, functional and resource-efficient designs, which are recognized by the AR Awards for Emerging Architecture, are always striking in their relevance and relevance. The ability and desire to work with a limited budget and on a small scale, as well as overcoming all kinds of difficulties and limitations, are invaluable qualities at any time, and especially now. Therefore, the presentation of the next group of laureates is always eagerly awaited.
This year, Anna Heringer again got into the top three, and again with a project for Bangladesh. This time, a small complex of buildings in Rudrapur was marked: three residential buildings and a small school for future electricians. The building structure is based on adobe structures, complemented by supports, ceilings, sun screens and bamboo partitions. All buildings are more spacious and more hygienic than traditional buildings in the region. Solar panels generate 100% of the electricity required for the complex; water is also heated using solar energy. In the building of the school, in addition to classes, there are administrative premises and housing for teachers.
No less green is the work of another winner, Alberto Mozo from Chile. His three-story wooden office building and a computer company store in Santiago can be easily disassembled and reassembled if the site he currently occupies is needed for a larger project. All parts used in the construction are standard size, but this structure with emphasized diagonal axes differs sharply from the usual prefabricated structures made of wooden beams.
The third laureate was the Bureau of Emiliano López and Mónica Rivera with their hotel in the semi-desert of Bardenas in Navarra. Small complex assumes minimal environmental impact; guests are given the opportunity to be almost alone with nature, without suffering from sudden changes in the harsh climate.
Among the projects that received "special praise" is Copenhagen's Mountain Dwellings by BIG, the only AR Award-winning participant to have near-star status. Also among them is the amazing Kaito workshop for the Kanagawa Institute of Technology by architect Junya Ishigami: a reference to Mies van der Rohe's "universal space" and his buildings for IIT in the form of a building with a rhombus with a side of 45 m in plan and with 305 supports in the interior. These snow-white pillars are arranged randomly, at intervals of 4 meters to 4 millimeters. Together they should create the impression of a kind of ideal forest with paths laid between tree trunks.
A small 8-apartment motorcyclist home in Tokyo, also in the second-best category of the award, has already received critical attention. Its architects Yuji Nakae, Akiyoshi Takagi and Hirofumi Ohno built a complex with a courtyard and three-story (sic!) Apartments on a small irregular plot. The first tier of each is occupied by a garage for a motorcycle, which can be accessed from the courtyard of the building. Of the “small forms” noted, the “tent” made of wood and plastic for seven people should be named M. E. S. H. 7 British architect Amir Sanei: The architect designed it for his large family.
An Honorable Mention was given to C + S Associati for its design of a wastewater treatment plant on the island of Sant'Erasmo in Venice: it is almost entirely underground, and its surface of concrete and iroko wood looks like a modern sculpture, not a utilitarian structure. The public toilet on the banks of the Colorado River in Austin, Texas also bears little resemblance to a sanitary facility; This small building made of Corten steel panels by Miró Rivera Architects, 2006 laureates, does not require any ventilation or lighting, no special maintenance, and its appearance is slightly reminiscent of the work of Richard Serra. Also among the "encouraged" is the real "crooked house" of the TNA bureau in Tokyo. The concrete prism of the building was bent so that its glass roof captures maximum light: this is necessary to maintain the same level of interior illumination when taller buildings are erected around.
