AWARDS OF MERIT
Architecture Buildings Over 1,000SqM
Project Muttenz Water Purification Plant Location Muttenz, Switzerland Firm Oppenheim Architecture Europe, Switzerland Team Chad Oppenheim with Beat Huesler Photo Aaron Kohler
Within just a couple of years, nature is expected to claim the facade of this municipal water-purification plant near Basel, Switzerland. Sprayed in a mix of Shotcrete and local clay, the low-maintenance, adobe-like exterior will act as a coarse, porous substrate for moss and other vegetation, transforming the instant landmark into a curious verdant hillock on the boundary between a protected forest and an industrial park. The state-of-the- art water-purification equipment inside shapes the building’s expressive and crumpled form, seemingly vacuum-sealed around pipelines, filters and other apparatuses. In response to its setting, the architects’ baseline concept for the project was to combine the natural and industrial worlds by building with nature and not on top of it.
Architecture Buildings Over 1,000SqM
Project Institute for Contemporary Art Location Richmond, Virginia, U.S. Firm Steven Holl Architects, U.S. Team Steven Holl and Chris McVoy with Dominik Sigg, Dimitra Tsachrelia, Garrick Ambrose, Rychiee Espinosa, Scott Fredricks, Gary He, Martin Kropac, JongSeo Lee, Yasmin Vobis, Christina Yessios, Charles Piper, Gilbane, Robert Silman Associates, Vanasse Hangen Brustlin, Arup, Ascent Engineering Group, Michael Boucher Landscape Architecture, L’Observatoire International, Convergent Technologies Design Group, Theatre Projects Consultants and Sustainable Design Consulting
Sitting at one of Richmond’s busiest intersections, on the edge of Virginia Commonwealth University’s downtown campus, Steven Holl’s massing of oblique cuboids into a 3,800-squaremetre modern-art institute creates a new link between city and school. The shape is a metaphor for “forking time” and potential new directions in contemporary art. The faceted volumes, which incorporate exhibition galleries, a 240-seat performance space, classrooms, offices, a café and retail space, combine to make a landmark gateway to the campus. At night, white lighting is diffused through the ICA’s translucent glass, making some of the cubes’ facades glow. The intersection of these volumes at odd angles created exciting opportunities for the interior floor plan, which is more fluid than the edgy exterior.
Architecture Buildings Under 1,000SqM
Project Temple of Light Location Kootenay Bay, British Columbia, Canada Firm Patkau Architects, Canada Team John Patkau, Patricia Patkau and Luke Stern with Mike Green, John Lacy, Thomas Schroeder, Peter Suter, Eric Karsh, Mary On, Ivan Lee, Lorne Ricketts, John Paone and Ted Hall Photo Dan Séguin
In 2014, Yasodhara Ashram, a yoga retreat and study centre in Kootenay Bay, B.C., lost its temple in a fire. The blaze was devastating, but it presented an opportunity to build something better. In June 2018, the ashram community celebrated the opening of its new Temple of Light, designed by Vancouver firm Patkau Architects and situated on the footprint of the original sanctuary. The nearly 11-metre-high dome comprises eight sweeping “petals” made of engineered timber and arranged like a flower that’s about to bloom. Glass panels demarcate the spaces between the petals, which are set at irregular angles to mitigate the acoustic problems – echoes, harmonic resonances – so often associated with dome-shaped spaces. Like nature itself, the building is both structurally sophisticated and undeniably beautiful.
Architecture Buildings Under 1,000SqM
Project Eystur Town Hall Location Norðragøta, Faroe Islands Firm Henning Larsen, Faroe Islands Team Ósbjørn Jacobsen Photo Nic Lehoux
When designing the Eystur Town Hall – a civic centre in the 2,100-person municipality of Eysturkommuna, in the Faroe Islands – Ósbjørn Jacobsen, of the Danish firm Henning Larsen’s local office, had two influences in mind. First, there was the Republic of Venice, where the bridges drew large numbers of people and consequently became hubs of commerce and culture. Second, there was Faroese vernacular design, whereby buildings, typically clad in rough wood and topped with a mossy roof, seem to blend into the landscape. Jacobsen’s hall is a literal bridge – a pine-clad, sod-covered volume built around a steel core – that spans the mouth of a river in the centre of town. The prismatic design bespeaks modernist sophistication, but the work is at one with its natural surroundings. During meetings, the mayor and eight other counsellors sit around a window installed in the floor; when they look down, they sometimes see trout swimming in the water below.
Architecture Buildings Under 1,000SqM
Project Masa Location Bogotá, Colombia Firm Studio Cadena, U.S./Colombia Team Benjamin Cadena with Ivan Castro, Juan Sebastian Rubio and Jorge Alberto Cubillos
Masa café and
