Buildings with a winning edge

PAUL LUKEZ Architecture’s design for Shaoxing Planning Bureau’s Paojiang Lake in China was recently announced as the winner in the Big Urban Projects category of this year’s MIPIM Architectural Review Future Project Awards, which focus uniquely on un-built or incomplete design projects. 

Now in its 12th year, MIPIM – the international property fair in Cannes organised in partnership with the monthly international magazine Architectural Review, will present the awards in Cannes on Wednesday to winners in all 12 categories. 

The master plan, which covers a 400-hectare site in the Paojiang Lake District north of Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province, China, layers the site’s existing landscape with a wide array of amenities and uses, connected by an extensive pedestrian network and multi-modal transit infrastructure. The design uses five elements prominent in Chinese philosophy (metal, fire, wood, earth and water) to organise the areas thematically. Each area’s programmes, uses, amenities, materials, forms and icon will be associated with its corresponding element. The five icons not only represent one of the respective five elements, but also serve as visual landmarks to be seen from multiple locations and visual corridors around the lake. 

The high rise residential building One Wood Wharf in London containing 452 apartments arranged over 56 storeys has won the Tall Building prize. 

Designed by Herzog and de Meuron, the building’s overall circular form design includes an aggregation of three apartment types, with a clearly identifiable bottom, middle and top. The form is a deliberate distinction from its nearby orthogonal neighbours and an area currently dominated by commercial space. The tower has also been designed to avoid single aspect north facing units, while the facade of the building is optimised to achieve exemplary sustainability targets, with the external envelope of the building designed to reduce energy consumption.

Located on the banks of the Jawhar river at the heart of Fez, Morocco, Mossessian & Partners’ rehabilitation strategy for the Unesco world heritage site of Place Lalla Yeddouna won the Cultural Regeneration category. Currently on site and due for completion in 2015, Place Lalla Yeddouna foregrounds local culture, tradition and heritage while bringing a contemporary character that is expected to define a new cultural hub within the Medina.

Learning from vernacular architecture, the courtyard model, coupled with local materials to improve thermal mass, offers protection from Morocco’s hot climate. Its facades, optimised to maximise passive cooling, are clad using the local ancestral tiling technique but its pattern brings a modern flavour to the settings. Each courtyard’s own prominent colour gives identity and a sense of place to each individual block and acts as a navigational cue.

Last year, Sanjay Puri Architect was awarded the Leisure category prize for the D hotel in Lucknow and this year the company took home the Residential award for Mumbai’s Sky Courts apartment tower. The project is intended to create distinctive housing with large, open plan spaces and open rooms in a location with high-density, high-rise residential and commercial buildings.

Organic in character, the high rise structure has been designed to contrast with the repetitive nature of nearby building designs. The project forms a rectilinear block that rises to create a four-level parking podium and garden before transforming into a monolithic vertical mass with deep punctuations. Meanwhile, the building’s garden is elevated higher than a nearby flyover and arterial road, and the rooftop features landscaped and community spaces. The design concept of the apartments is intended to echo a traditional Indian courtyard, with each featuring a series of courts and connecting rooms which are all cross ventilated, benefiting from the natural ventilation of the prevalent southwest breeze for energy efficiency. 

 

 

OTHER WINNERS

>>Mixed Use: Vanke Jiugong in Beijing, China by SPARK for Vanke Group 

>>Offices: Flick Gocke Schaumburg campus in Dusseldorf, Germany by Eller + Eller Architekten 

>>Old & New: Project to transform Social Houses into Sociable Homes in S.Polo, Brescia, Italy by Luca Peralta Studio 

>>Regeneration & Master planning: Eiland Veur Lent in Nijmegen, Netherlands by UK based Baca Architects 

>>Retail and Leisure: Sultangazi Market Hall and Car Park in Istanbul, Turkey by Suyabatmaz Demirel Architects 

>>Sport and Stadiums: Alfriston Pool in Beaconsfield, United Kingdom by Duggan Morris Architects

>>Sustainability: Next Generation Container Port by Osamu Morishita Architect and Associates.