The "Zumtobel Group Prize - Innovation for Sustainability and Humanity in a Built Environment" was awarded for the fifth time in the past year (the first laureates were awarded in 2007). She celebrates projects that take into account the demands of today and tomorrow to improve living conditions and energy standards in cities. The idea behind the award is that significant, innovative solutions in architecture and urban planning can significantly reduce global energy consumption and increase the quality of life for humanity. The purpose of the award is also to encourage research into new, socially beneficial perspectives in the built environment and the implementation of their results.
The Zumtobel Group Award is eligible for completed or conceptual works with outstanding innovative content, design, technology and construction. The fifth edition of the award covered four categories: for the first time, Young Professionals were added to the three usual ones, “Buildings”, “Urban Development Projects” and “Applied Innovations”. The first laureate was the Beijing workshop Atelier TeamMinus for their visitor center at the sacred Gyanak-mani embankment in the Tibetan city of Yushu. In addition to the actual function of an observation deck (more precisely, eleven sites) and an information center, there is a post office, a clinic, toilets and a small archive necessary for local residents. The center was built of stone and wood immediately after the devastating 2010 earthquake, while providing work for the Yushu victims of this disaster; fragments of structures destroyed by the elements were used in construction. According to the award jury, the example of this building shows that innovation does not exclude context.
The best building was recognized as the Star Apartments residential complex in the center of Los Angeles, designed by Michael Maltsan's bureau. Like The Six,
recently published by Archi.ru, this is a project by developer Skid Row, which provides housing primarily to the homeless. The 102 Star Apartments are located on the four upper floors, assembled from prefabricated modular pieces into a series of spectacular consoles. The main building was a concrete one-story store, built on another level: on the new second floor there is a common kitchen, an art workshop, a library, a gym, a jogging and walking track, and spaces for social support services. There is a state clinic at street level. Numerous terraces, courtyards, openness to light and air, and a communal vegetable garden make this complex a successful example of social and environmental sustainability and bottom-up planning.
In the Applied Innovation section, the winner was the Warka Water device, a project of Arturo Vittori. It serves to collect rain, fog and dew and turn them into drinking water (design capacity - 100 liters per day): we recall that today for a quarter of the world's population, safe, clean water is practically inaccessible. The principle of operation of Warka Water is completely based on the phenomena of condensation, evaporation and gravity and does not require any additional energy. The structure, weighing 80 kg, is able to withstand strong winds, and various parts of the surfaces and the structure of the structure are inspired by such examples of flora and fauna as lotus leaves, spider webs, wings
the beetle Stenocara gracilipes from the Namib Desert (it has already become a source for more than one invention for collecting water from the atmosphere, as it does it "for personal use" with the help of wings), etc.
The new Central Station in the Dutch city of Arnhem according to the UNStudio project was awarded as the best urban planning solution. This node of the public transport system organically includes offices, shops, a new station hall, platform ceilings, an underpass, a car tunnel, a bicycle parking and parking, while blurring the line between the city and its interior. The jury especially noted the “astonishing persistence” of the architects, who brought their ideas to fruition through all the obstacles, starting with the masterplan they created in 1996.
