Last Thursday in Marseille, the winners of the European session of the LafargeHolcim Awards were awarded: 11 laureates shared 330,000 USD from the impressive prize pool of the award, totaling 2 million.
The award was established in 2003 and it is not without understandable pride that it calls itself the most significant in the field of sustainable architecture. The ideal is understood broadly and comprehensively: including innovation, social and environmental values, economic feasibility and resource saving, as well as aesthetics, which is put on the last place in the list of ideals, but nevertheless taken into account, - in general, the foundation considers its task to develop creativity " sustainable "structures. The organizers also pay attention to the prospects of implementation, distancing themselves from unfounded fantasies and "castles in the air": about half of the awarded projects are either already built or will soon be. So in 2017, a new nomination "Implementation - the best recognition" was established, it is awarded to the winners of previous years for the implementation of the object; however, this award does not imply a monetary equivalent.
In 2017, a total of 5,085 applications from 121 countries were submitted for the award, 70% of them were selected - according to the jury, this is a high figure. In the European Prize, 11 projects out of 792 considered by the jury received awards. Half of the selected works belonged to young architects and students, which experts also highlighted as a sign of the responsibility of the new generation. One of the young winners was Anna Andronova, a student from Kazan, read more about her project below, as well as in the interview.
The chairman of the European jury for the prize, Harry Gugger, has decided to cancel this year's silver award and award two gold awards, dividing the award ex aequo in half between the two winners, USD 75,000 each. Both projects are intended for the dynamically developing area of the Willebroek Canal in Brussels. A new master plan has recently been developed for it, which envisions a transformation from an industrial to an urban one worthy of an EU capital, but - quite unexpectedly - preserving functional diversity. That is, the consequence of the renewal of the area will not be its complete liberation from industrial zones with their withdrawal from the boundaries of the agglomeration; The master plan retains some of the industrial functions both for the sake of the places of employment of unskilled labor, and for the sake of the potential for the development of Brussels as a dynamic and prosperous city.
Gold / 1
Waste collection company logistics hub / flexible structure
Tetra architecten / client NET Brussel / government order / start March 2018 / Belgium, Brussels
The building is located in the northern part of Brussels, between the northern edge of the Meudon Park and the canal. Only industrial zones are located along the canal; the park separates them from residential buildings, charmingly Belgian, three-story and quite green. On the opposite bank of the canal there is a huge railway marshalling station, of many branches. The new garbage hub will be located among industrial neighbors and will bring another industrial function into the context, such as collection and sorting of waste.
However, the building provides for an open passage for the townspeople from the park to the canal embankment. Moreover, since the building is built into the relief of the coast, one passage spreads along the ground with two stairs, and the other in the future will allow you to go along the roof to the console overlooking the water. In addition, the building is a semblance of a large patio-peristyle, the vast courtyard of which, planted with trees - also a mini-park of a kind, is intended, on the one hand, to continue the greenery of Meudon, forming not just a passage, but a "green corridor". On the other hand, the yard should become a resting place for company employees, and trees will absorb noise and emissions from trucks, and generate oxygen.
The building also provides many environmentally friendly solutions, including passive energy sources: solar panels provide, in particular, floor heating, it is planned to use rain and "gray" water and several cycles of cooling and heating with its help. Several charging stations for electric cars have now been laid, and in the future it is planned that the engines of the garbage trucks will also be electric.
But the main feature of the project is that it is transformable. The architects have considered options for the gradual transformation of a building with a number of transitional stages from a multifunctional industrial to a multifunctional residential one:
The pathos of the project, therefore, is twofold: on the one hand, instead of removing the industrial component from the renovated part of the city, it adds a new one to it, asserting the importance of the diversity of typology and the value of the proximity of such, in particular, a function as waste collection, for its more efficient work for the benefit of citizens. On the other hand, the structure of the building is simple and potentially universal: “a good city is adaptive,” the authors argue, and, strictly speaking, you can put anything in it, like the famous Winnie the Pooh pot; it is obvious that any change in function will require some reconstruction, but it will not be necessary to demolish the frame: the space inside is unsupported due to the ribbed roof structure, so redevelopment should not be a problem. A courtyard with trees is suitable for both the brutal function of garbage recycling and, possibly in the future, for a residential building. ***
Gold / 2
Mix-city: integrating a concrete plant into an urban environment
BC architects & studies / client Inter-concrete / private order / start June 2018 / Belgium, Brussels
This project is not about the creation of a new industrial function, but about the integration of the existing concrete mixing plant into the renovated city. The factory is located much closer to the historic center of Brussels than the Tetra architecten garbage hub - the existing building stands at the beginning of the expansion of the canal - the Vergot Basin. Around - the tallest residential tower of the city Up-Site, the Tour and Taxis trade and exhibition center and the large park of the same name, as well as the buildings of the Belgian government. Keeping a concrete plant in such a neighborhood is a rather bold step, and the authors explain it both by the need for low-skilled jobs in the city and by economic reasons: concrete will reach construction sites faster, as well as concrete from recycling sites will get to the plant faster. - the working cycle will be shorter than if you move the plant outside the city. The author's motto: "There is an industry in a good city."
Made of recycled concrete, and its trucks are brought to the plant at 20 m3 per day, BC architects propose to build a wall along the canal (it remains to be seen whether the panels will be produced from recycled concrete on site or at another plant). On the wall will lie a gigantic extended console, which is planned to house both the offices of the factory administration and the city's public spaces. The first tier of the space under the console will become a public space open to citizens. The console, like the wall, will protect the city from the noise and dust of the plant; the factory tower itself will become a monumental accent, giving a piquant originality to a dynamically developing area. Thus, the project consolidates the site of the plant with public functions, includes the plant in the city and even aestheticizes it with a white cantilever beam. The jury appreciated the boldness of the "literal combination of seemingly incompatible things" in the project.
Bronze
"Rights to airspace"
Residential modules above parking spaces in London
ZEDfactory / private investment / start august 2017
The project serves as a response to the housing crisis in London, where housing is known to be very expensive. Modular panel houses called ZEDpods - on legs above city parking lots - are disastrously small inside, but they can provide inexpensive housing for young people and city workers, for example, firefighters, nannies, police, who do not have to travel to work from the outskirts for a long time, which will also reduce the load on the transport infrastructure. The houses above the parking lots do not occupy any area and are not included in any development program, “instead of buying a plot, they lease the rights to the airspace,” comments on the economical decision of the competition jury. It is proposed to build houses with the help of electric lifts, on a patented grillage, so that the pressure of the house on the site, according to the authors, will be no more than the weight of one machine.
The houses are equipped with many energy efficient technologies: additional thermal, hydro and vapor insulation, triple glazing. Solar cells that store energy in lithium batteries; the houses are entirely designed for renewable energy, for both lighting and heating. The frame of the houses is hot-dip galvanized and filled with laminated timber panels with external thermal insulation. Facades are durable and fireproof. The houses are designed for 20 years of trouble-free operation. The authors estimate that up to 200,000 of these houses could be placed above the city's parking lots in London.
However, while praising the project for its social and eco-responsibility, as well as for its contribution to the development of affordable housing, some of the jury members doubted that the aesthetic properties of the project were deliberately formulated in the project, and not simply a consequence of saving materials.
Honorable Mention
First independent theater in Bucharest
Architect Office Codrin Tritescu / Asociatia Culturala Grivita 53 / Bucharest
The building of the first independent theater in Bucharest, which appeared after 1946, will host a troupe that has been operating since 1999 without its own stage. The project is funded by sponsors.
The stage itself, dressing rooms and rehearsal rooms will be located underground, on the -1 floor, which will save energy for heating them. The facades of the existing building are included in the new building; they will be built on one floor, delicately fitting the renovated building into the context of the oldest district of Bucharest, which was called the local Montmartre before World War II.
Eco-concept of museumification of archaeological sites
AGi architects / Spain, Pontevedra
The authors propose to rethink the ruins of several Gallo-Roman cities in Pontevedra into landscape parks, putting at the forefront not so much archaeological artifacts as the integrity of their perception by visitors. The authors, in particular, propose to plant greenery of archaeological sites with plants characteristic of the Roman period.
The project was selected by the local administration as a result of an open competition. Its goals are to articulate scientific research in ancient Galicia, to stop the outflow of population, to stimulate off-season tourism.
Center for Archaeological Research in the Roman City of Augusta-Raurica
Karamuk Kuo Architects / Switzerland
The archaeological center is engaged in researching the largest Roman settlement in Switzerland, but, alas, until recently it suffered from a lack of funding. The new building combines: exhibition spaces, scientists' offices, restoration laboratories and storage of exhibits, previously distributed in separate buildings. The light steel structure above the Roman ruins is designed for growth and transformation - it was the adaptability of the structural framework that impressed the jury most of all.
Sports and leisure center
NP2F architectes / Bordeaux
A radical minimalist building that brings together many sports under one roof and promises to become not only a sports center, but also a catalyst for the social life of the area. Facade panels cover only the restaurant and shops, the rest of the simple concrete structure is covered only with a metal mesh, which provides protection from rain, wind and sun, while at the same time opening up opportunities for natural ventilation and reducing the need for forced cooling and heating.
New generation
first place Converting a factory into a residential area
Malgorzata Mader / Lodz University of Technology / Poland
An abandoned industrial building from the 1960s is being converted into a residential area, with 35 detached houses being built with a new timber frame into an old factory metal frame. Houses, whose structural basis is similar to half-timbered timber and consists of wooden beams and insulation between them, are located within the contour of old concrete walls. The space inside the factory becomes "intermediate": it is protected from the wind and partly from the cold (which saves energy for heating), but is open to the sun - therefore, gardens and vegetable gardens can be planted in the yards. Large skylights in the ceilings of the houses provide an abundance of natural light. The project was developed jointly with future residents, all houses are individual and designed for future changes.
second place
Reconstruction of the ruins of the monastery into a rehabilitation center
Jakub Grabowski / Poland
The building will combine a hospice, an anesthesia clinic and a drug addiction rehabilitation center; all of them will be located in the ruins of an abandoned monastery. The architects proposed to reinforce the stone walls with a glued timber structure; the interior will also be wooden. Passive energy is provided through the use of geothermal wells, heat pumps and solar panels.
third place
Liquid era / digital city concept
Anna Andronova / Kazan / Kazan State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering
The jury appreciated the visionary approach inherent in the work, as well as the attempt to comprehend the likely prospects for the symbiosis of architecture with nature. “The project description begins with a provocative question,” the jury notes, “why are architects so confident that in the future sustainability will be bound by brick structures?” In the future, Anna replies, "sustainability" will be supported by the self-regulation of architecture in symbiosis with nature. All this will be possible thanks to "digital multi-materials, nanocomposites, natural vegetation and holographic lasers", - again I quote the summary of the jury experts. Although the project may need some careful revision, the experts continue, the jury highly appreciated its approach to architectural design as a research platform for studying areas that have not yet been recognized, as well as a potentially new approach to building materials, a combination of natural and artificial elements. digitally produced elements.
As seen from
interview, Anna's project is based on KSASU's thesis, defended this year. The work is a methodology for studying the possible impact of digital technologies on the architecture of the future, that is, from my point of view, it is a large-scale futuristic fantasy, which, of course, significantly falls out of the trend of realizability declared by LafargeHolcim Awards. Meanwhile, the degree of separation from reality, and at the same time, the saturation with the facts of the development of innovative technologies, in the project is so great that it is easy to agree with the opinion of the jury: this project adorns a number of awarded projects as a kind of pearl related to a very long-term perspective.
It is easy to see that the work easily fits into a number of visionary projects of "paper architecture" of both the avant-garde and the futuristic fantasies of the 1960s - 1970s, which, perhaps, is a significant part of her charm. Various parts of the project have already received recognition in several international competitions.
Anna Andronova's comment:
“The era of the“Digital Renaissance”proclaimed in the work explores how, with the help of digital technologies, it is possible to revive the lost harmony between nature and culture, to restore the feelings of community and mutual assistance in the city. With the help of models of the spatial organization of the city (landscapes of a park, square, market, school, residential cells, plantations, etc.), space is reinvented, and in the typological matrix of the structural elements of the city (point, line, surface, volume), the functional programming of the city is introduced temporal aspect, forming a hybrid urban landscape. In conclusion, the conceptual theses are tested by the method of reconstruction of three local sections in the city of Kazan."
*** fourth place
Fire tank and forest shelter
Frédéric Bouvier / France
The water tank is designed to collect rainwater and extinguish fires in the Collobrier region. There is a hikers' shelter above the cistern; the design is conducive to quiet contemplation, in addition, the author dedicated it to the memory of the volunteers who fought in the Algerian War on the side of France and then forced to leave their country. They worked as firefighters in France. The jury appreciated the elegance with which the architect managed to fit a whole range of diverse ideas into a laconic artifact.
*** Regional awards in all five parts of the world have awarded a total of about 200 projects. All of them will now claim three main - international - prizes. The meeting of the main jury, chaired by Alejandro Aravena, will take place in the spring of 2018.
