At a conference in Chicago, the International Council for High-Rise and Urban Environments (CTBUH) selected the best tower in the world from the four regional finalists we have written about in detail. It was Jean Nouvel's Doha Tower, located in the capital of Qatar, Doha.
The jury recognized this office building (238 m, 46 floors) for combining new technology with local tradition. As in his famous Institute of the Arab World in Paris, Nouvel covered the façade with an imitation of the wooden lattice of musharabiya, characteristic of Islamic architecture. In this case, its shape is repeated by an openwork external screen, which protects the interiors from the sun's rays.
Also, Doha Tower became the first high-rise building, inside which reinforced concrete columns were used, forming a diagonal lattice system. Thanks to this solution, there is no powerful central "pivot" in the tower, which increased the usable area of the building.
In Frankfurt am Main, the International Highrise Award 2012 was awarded to an Australian building by the German architect: 1 Bligh Street Christoph Ingenhoven in Sydney. This office building (139 m, 28 floors) was also on the CTBUH shortlist. The organizers of the award (Frankfurt authorities, DAM German Museum of Architecture and DekaBank) recognized him for the comfortable environment created in the interior. All workplaces are located at a distance of 8 meters or less from the 130-meter atrium or from the fully glazed façade. The building is slightly offset from the street and offers views of Sydney Harbor and Harbor Bridge from all offices. It also features Australia's first naturally ventilated double façade. At street level, a plaza has been created around the tower, it is comfortable to sit on the steps of the main entrance, and there is also space for an open cafe.
Ingenhoven and his Australian partners and investors received a commemorative badge, designed by Thomas Demand, and a € 50,000 prize, which the winners will use to create a grant fund at the University of New South Wales (Sydney) for students designing sustainable commercial skyscrapers.
Finalists for the biennial award included Norman Foster's Troika Towers in Kuala Lumpur, MAD's Absolute World Towers in Canada (CTBUH laureate), Pinnacle @ Duxton by ARC Studio Architecture + Urbanism in Singapore, Frank Gehry's in New York … A special prize was awarded to the green reconstruction of the twin skyscrapers of Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt, designed by Mario Bellini, with the participation of gmp.
