The Baumit Life Challenge is a competition that recognizes the best facades in Europe made with Baumit materials … An international jury of 13 architects in 6 nominations nominated 36 finalists from 26 countries. The winners are scheduled to be awarded on 22 April 2021 in Valencia.
In total, the jury evaluated more than 385 works from all over Europe. The short list contains the six best facades in each of the six categories: detached house, apartment building, public building, thermal refurbishment, historical restoration and stunning texture.
Among the finalists, Austria leads with 5 nominations, followed by Germany, Poland and Slovakia with 4 nominations each, then Italy and Slovenia with 3 projects. The final also reached 2 projects from Hungary, Lithuania and Romania and one project from Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Greece, Serbia and Spain. All 36 nominees - Chief Architect, Developer and Construction Company - will be invited to the award ceremony.
“In 2014, we created the Baumit Life Challenge to showcase unlimited creativity in the design of facades using color and texture. The huge international interest in the competition from architects and developers demanded that the competition be repeated over and over again,” this is how Robert Schmid, Managing Director the director of Baumit Beteiligungen GmbH, explained his decision to organize the Baumit Life Challenge as a biennial - including a grand prize-giving ceremony in the country that won the previous competition.
Winners in six nominations will receive € 3300 each. The absolute leader will be able to expect to receive a prize of € 6,600. The prize fund was not chosen by chance, but based on the fact that 66% of any facade can be made using
Baumit products.
Below are some of the Baumit Life Challenge nominee projects. You can learn more about them and other nominees on the award website.
Nomination "Individual residential house"
House in Konopiska, Poland
Architects: FW Anta Studio Architektoniczne Daniel Cieslik
Nomination "Multi-apartment residential building"
Residential complex Green City Living in Graz, Austria
Architects: E. P. F. Bau GmbH Estrich Putze Fassadenbau / Leist Karl GmbH / Pail & Pratter GmbH
Nomination "Public building"
Kindergarten Neue Mitte in Mengerskirchen, Germany
Architects: Planungsbüro Dipl.-Ing. Thomas Schlicht / Architekten- und Ingenieurkontor Wagner
Nomination "Thermal Rehabilitation"
Salzburg Wohnbau headquarters in Salzburg, Austria
Architects: kofler architects
Nomination "Historical restoration"
Stanel Castle in Slovenia
Project: Protection of Cultural Heritage of Slovenia
Nomination "Amazing Texture"
Müller winery in Klöch, Austria
Architects: Tantscher Jenull
In addition to the professional selection of the jury, anyone could vote for their favorite European façade at lifechallenge.baumit - this is how the winner of the public vote was chosen, which ended in April. The best in the nominations, according to the voting participants, were the representatives of Poland (individual residential building), Italy (apartment building), Austria (public buildings) and Serbia (thermal rehabilitation). Next comes Russia (historical restoration) and finally Spain (amazing texture). Top 10 projects based on the results of public voting are presented here.
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Baumit International was founded in 1988. It is a pioneer in the field of ETICS throughout Europe with 45 million m2 per year and is the third largest producer of dry mortar. Baumit International has offices and subsidiaries in 25 European countries. Owns 38 plants for dry building mixtures and 12 plants for liquid building materials. In 2019, the group's turnover was 1.1 billion euros.
