A round up of the year’s award winners in the architecture world.
As 2018 draws to a close, we look back at this year’s prominent architects and projects that have snagged a prestigious architecture award in the past 12 months.
Prix de l’Equerre d’Argent:
Architect: Richter Architectes
Project: Care Center
Location: Queuleu, Metz
L’Equerre d’Argent is a French architecture award, presented annually by AMC and Le Moniteur to an exceptional project completed in France each year. This year’s winner is a psychiatric care center for adults and children, designed by Richter Architectes.
The structure is a brutalist concrete shell that grows around spurts of nature and wraps around the programmatic spaces, creating intimate and controlled connection with its surroundings.
The interior of the building is divided into 2 wings, one for adults and one for children, separated by a central block for service and circulation. Each wing contains a programmatic band of consultation rooms, group activity areas and staff rooms. These spatial sequences are punctured with views to the interior gardens of different dimensions and characteristics, creating a feeling of openness and a marker for orientation.
These spaces are enveloped in a concrete shell, rising and falling on different levels depending on the required level of intimacy and connection with the urban setting.
The Pritzker Architecture Prize:
Architect: Balkrishna Doshi
The Pritzker Prize honours a living architect each year for their vision and commitment to making significant contributions to humanity through architecture.
This year’s winner is Balkrishna Doshi, a nationally and internationally recognised architect and educationist, whose works demonstrate his strong connections with his Indian heritage. Having worked with famous masters such as Le Corbusier, Louis Kahn and Anant Raje, Doshi’s architecture combines the Indian culture and environment with cost-effective, humane and sustainable solutions that strive to evoke an emotional response from its users.
Among his many projects, the most notable are Sangath (Doshi’s own studio), Amdavad ni Gufa (a cave-like art gallery, where the art is applied directly on the concrete walls) and the Indian Institute of Management (a campus that plays with scale, light and nature).
European Prize for Architecture:
Architect: Sergei Tchoban
This year’s Laureate of the European Prize for Architecture, awarded by the European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies, is the Russian-German architect Sergei Tchoban.
Tchoban is known for iconic contemporary structures that deal with forms, techniques, materials, textures, and context in a unique and memorable way.
“His is a most rare, thought-provoking, and profound approach to architecture, extensions of his life, his philosophy, and his intellect, that fuse the power of imagination into the final end product – the building.” – Christian Narkiewicz-Laine, President of the Chicago Athenaeum
RIBA International Prize:
Architect: Rosenbaum + Aleph Zero
Project: Children Village
Location: Formoso do Araguaia, Brazil
The RIBA International Prize is awarded every 2 years by The Royal Institute of British Architects to a building that is exceptionally notable for its design, innovation, architectural ambition and positive social impact.
This year’s award has been given to Children Village, a school complex in Brazil, by architects Aleph Zero and Rosenbaum. Designed together with the students it was intended for, the project consists of learning rooms, separate dormitories, and common spaces that encourage interaction, individuality and build self-esteem.
The light structure makes use of local construction techniques that further celebrate the bond between the building and its context.
RIBA Stirling Prize:
Architect: Foster + Partners
Project: Bloomberg
Location: London, UK
Every year, one outstanding building is awarded the RIBA Stirling Prize as the UK’s best new building. This year, RIBA has chosen Bloomberg’s new headquarters by Foster and Partners for the title.
Thought to be the second largest stone building in London after St. Paul’s Cathedral, the building boasts the title of world’s most sustainable office.
The project consists of 2 blocks connected by bridges over a pedestrian pathway. On one side, the blocks create a small square, aiming to create a natural meeting and dwelling place for the passers-by. When considering the structure’s immense size and heavy materials, the result is a surprisingly inviting, complex and accessible architecture.
Young Talent Architecture Award:
Organized by the Mies van der Rohe Foundation, the YTAA aims to being newly emerging talented, young architects to the spotlight. Here are the winning young architects of the year to watch out for:
Hendrik Brinkmann – Neue Bau|Akademie Berlin (a club for the former and future architecture)
Julio Gotor Valcárcel – Perdido (Lost) – P.R.U.S. of Madrid (Plan of Recovery of Underground Spaces of Madrid)
Loed Stolte – The bank of England (A dialectical project)
Matthew Gregorowski – Deplorable Framework
