The names of the winners of the regional stage of the international competition Holcim Awards 2014 were announced at a press conference in the building of the Stalinist skyscraper of the Hotel Ukraine on September 5th. All authors of the projects of the winners in the Europe region gathered in the Column Hall of the hotel on an early sunny morning.
The competition, aimed at identifying and promoting the latest trends in sustainable construction, is held in five regions of the world once every three years at the initiative of the Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction, founded in 2003 in Zurich. This year, more than four thousand applications were received for the European stage of the competition, two and a half of them, executed in full accordance with the task of the competition, were considered and evaluated by an independent jury headed by Frenchman Jean-Philippe Vassal. The authors of the twelve best works shared a total prize fund of $ 300,000 and came to Moscow for the awards ceremony, which took place the day before in the building of the School of Dramatic Art theater.
The main criterion for evaluating projects was their compliance with the principles of sustainable construction: environmental friendliness, social and economic efficiency, as well as high architectural qualities and the possibility of re-applying ideas. Bernard Fontana, one of the jury members, highlighted the importance of discovering innovative projects with a respect for heritage, as well as their dialogue with the environment. According to him, to date, no such works have been created that would meet all the specified criteria by 100%. However, the jury always gives preference to those of them that are as close as possible to the ideal - at least in some of the main parameters. As a result of this approach, very optimistic statistics have been formed: more than half of the projects presented for all years within the framework of the award have already been implemented or are under construction.
The winning projects were presented to the press by their authors. Gold
Anthropic Park Project in Salina Ionian, Italy
Grupo aranea and AutonomeForme
The project aims to restore the environment in one of the areas on the coast of southern Italy, which has fallen into disrepair due to the activities of numerous industrial facilities. The authors proposed to create a new ecological reserve at this place, with minimal interference with nature. For this purpose, a serious program was developed to restore the natural balance of the environment, the formation of a mobile ecosystem with respect for flora and fauna. Particular attention was paid to the issue of bird migration.
The jury highly appreciated the role of architectural solutions and findings in the field of landscape design, and also noted the importance of the project for the ecology of the entire area.
Silver
Multipurpose University Building Project in Paris, France
Bureau Muoto architects
The public building is designed on the territory of the small university town of Paris-Saclay, which claims to be a new international hub. The architects propose to use the simplest, raw materials, while ensuring the durability of the building using modern construction methods and technologies. The discovery was open spaces and the principle of vertical placement of various functions on top of each other. There is an opportunity for sports, indoor and outdoor sports grounds, terraces with outdoor cafes located on them, a public square and car parking. You can even play football or basketball on the roof of the building.
The jury liked the minimalism of architectural, technical and economic solutions. They called the balance of economics and aesthetics phenomenal.
Bronze
Urban development project in Vienna, Austria
Bureau Arenas Basabe Palacios arquitectos
A team from Spain led by Enrique Arenas, Luis Basabe and Luis Palacios designed the urban area in Vienna, focusing on democratic principles of governance and the active participation of the residents themselves in the creation of the project. The architects proposed to create a dense network of green gardens, within which compact residential buildings grow. Thus, it is both a building and a large city park, created with minimal intervention of builders and developing gradually, following the rhythm of the people living here.
The developed management system, collective development planning and the very idea of an urban garden brought the project to third place in the competition.
Next Generation The Next Generation awards were awarded to six teams of young professionals for innovative concepts in sustainable construction, but only two projects were shown to journalists.
Next Generation / first prize
Dat Pangea
The winner in the nomination was DAT Pangea from Spain for a series of three socially oriented architectural concepts, which, in essence, offer a program of using architectural techniques as an effective tool for solving social problems. The jury assessed the territorial plan and agricultural restructuring, the fruit garden, as well as the space for temporary public events.
Next Generation / second prize
Alexander Veshnyakov, Dmitry Ivanov, Natalia Mikhailova, Alexandra Tyron and Nadezhda Pavlova
According to the organizers, Russian architects have shown great interest in the competition this year. Russia not only entered the top ten countries in terms of the number of participants, one of the Russian projects took an honorable second place in the Next Generation nomination.
The architects presented an interesting project that considers small Russian cities rather than capital cities. For them, the idea of creating a number of public and leisure centers is proposed, which, communicating with each other via the Internet, will form a kind of virtual network. Communication between cities will provide a return from virtual to real communication. “Real virtuality” - this is how the authors designate their project, which, according to their plan, will help to understand the essence of small towns. As Alexandra Tyron explained, the goal of the project is to improve the quality of life in the towns, to create new centers of social life inside them, thereby uniting the “users of the virtual network”.
The city of Sortavala, located in the northwest of Russia, is taken as an example. The community center, whose architectural solution, according to Alexandra, is based on the principles of Russian constructivists, in a technical sense, uses all the innovations in energy efficient and sustainable construction. Its space can be changed due to media effects - for example, the building itself is used for broadcasting concerts and other events.
The jury was interested in the idea of creating a new "architectural tool" that would help revitalize small towns in Russia.
*** Special awards
Honorable mention
for an energy efficient office building in Holderbank, Switzerland. By Christian Kerez
In addition to the main awards, there were also honorable mention prizes. For the first time this year, the Honorable Mention award was introduced to Holcim's center of excellence, which brings together research laboratories, offices and classrooms. The center is a building cut through by a perfectly circular atrium that gives a sense of volume inside. Modern energy solutions were especially noted.
Special prizes for building materials projects from Belgium and Germany The TETRA architecten team won the prize for the logistics and processing center project in the port of Brussels, and Carola Dirichs and Achim Menges from the Institute for Computer Design at the University of Stuttgart received an honorable mention for an interdisciplinary research project in the field of materials science.
