The eighth annual international awards competition has named a total of eight category winners, with sixteen additional projects awarded a “Highly Commended” prize by the panel of judges, selected from the hundreds of entries received.  The winning projects showcase an international range of projects and practices, with schemes hailing from Austria, Denmark, Japan, Lebanon, Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and the UK.

The Awards celebrate excellence in design whether for projects on the drawing board which may never be realised, through to projects where construction may have commenced, has created the showpiece design event during the MIPIM conference and exhibition.

The judging panel was chaired by Paul Finch, Editorial Director of The Architectural Review; Roger Zogolovitch, Director AZ Urban Studios; Peter Stewart, Peter Stewart Consultancy; and Sutherland Lyall, author and critic.

Category winners include:

Offices

Winner – Güneşli Tower, located in Bağcılar, Istanbul and designed by Suyabatmaz Architects.
The design of this ambitious project was influenced by the location of the site on the edge of town, adjacent to a major road and the perception of the building.  The judges said that this was a building with “long-life quality which would be capable of long-term occupation and reuse”. The 23-floor high office block has a dichotomy of emptiness and fullness, determined by the external façade which creates internal spaces whilst enabling significant energy-saving.

Regeneration and Masterplanning

Winner – Nordhavnen, in Copenhagen, Denmark, designed by FXFOWLE Architects.
Developed in response to an International competition by the City of Copenhagen, the brief invited entrants to set new standards for urban development. Through the creation of land reclamation, the plan connects urban infrastructure, extends waterways and weaves open space into new residential neighbourhoods and commercial areas fit for urban life over the next 50 years. The judges were intrigued by the way FXFOWLE’s scheme had taken a former industrial zone and optimised its exposure to view and water which created a new, holistic vision. The coherence of the plan has with it the promise of a series of distinctive individual place.

Residential

Winner – Mina El Hosn’ housing project in Beirut designed by LAN Architecture.
Located close to the port, this 142 meter high tower will soar above the skyline whilst the building’s mirrored skin will reflect images of the surrounding city. The judges were impressed by the introduction of volumetric space in this tight, regular plan and agreed that, when completed, visitors would “want to find out more about it”.

Retail & Leisure

Winner – Nebuta-no-ie Warasse, Aomori City, Japan, designed by molo Japan kk & d/dt Arch Inc and Frank la Rivière Architects Inc for City of Aomori.
The Nebuta House is designed to exhibit Nebuta art (huge paper creatures, warriors and demons) during the annual August festival. A screen of twelve metre tall steel ribbons encloses an outdoor walkway, intended as a threshold between the mythical world inside and the contemporary city outside.  The judges felt that Nebuta House was a joyful and elegant response to the whole idea of display, with the restraint of the frozen wrap of the architecture a perfect foil to the exuberance of the Nebuta figures inside.

Tall Buildings

Winner – Al-Birr Foundation Headquarters “Garden Tower”, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, designed by Perkins+Will for Al-Birr Foundation. Designed to reinterpret the typology of an urban tower, the structure is calibrated to the extreme solar exposure and heat conditions of the microclimate of Riyadh, and employs innovation in elevation and section which includes  symbolic analogies to Saudi historical precedents—the minaret, the garden, and the mashrabiya.

Sustainability

Winner – Town Town Office Tower, Vienna, Austria, designed by COOP HIMMELB(L)AU Wolf D. Prix / W. Dreibholz & Partner ZT GmbH for Immobiliendevelopment Wiener Stadtwerke BMG & Soravia Aktiengesellschaft.
The Town Town Office Tower in Erdberg is the main element of a developing urban zone with a gross area of 120.000 m².  The ambitious, environmentally intelligent design is intended to create an energy-active system that introduces both proven and innovative low energy consumption systems, environmental control systems and newly developed energy harvesting systems.  The judges commented that the concept “posits the powering of buildings by the whole façade”, praising the scheme for indicating the possibility that energy design can stimulate creative forms.

Big Urban Projects

Winner – Amfora Amstel, designed by Zwarts & Jansma Architects.
This is a major below-ground infrastructure project in central Amsterdam.  The judges applauded an intelligent use of essential elements of the city which places them underground, leaving the urban realm for its human enjoyment.

Mixed Use

Winner – One New Change, London, UK designed by Ateliers Jean Nouvel and Sidell Gibson Architects for Land Securities.
One New Change (also the Overall Winner) comprises 35,000 sqm commercial and 25,000 sqm retail space and creates a transformational landmark close to St Paul’s Cathedral in the City of London.    The Judges applauded the new landmark for transforming the whole image of this part of the financial centre, providing a new focal point for visitors and city users alike. They also observed that One New Change provides a refreshing contrast to the surrounding retro-architecture, providing a successful combination of ancient and modern, praising both the developer and the planning authority for showing “great independence of mind” against pressure to submit a more historicist approach.