Living Steel Announces Finalists

Living Steel Announces Finalists for 3rd International Architecture Competition for Sustainable Housing. 12 Teams Compete for Extreme Housing in Russia.

Living Steel today divulged the 12 finalist architect teams who will submit concepts for sustainable steel housing in Cherepovets, Russia. Selected from 246 completed submissions from architects in 52 countries expressing interest to compete, the finalist teams are:

* Ben Addy and Tim Murray Moxon Architects, Ltd United Kingdom
* Rossana Atena and Fabio Cibinel ATENASTUDIO and modostudio Italy
* Hugh Broughton and Philip Wells Hugh Broughton Architects United Kingdom
* Chris Clarke and Joel Kelder Bligh Voller Nield Australia
* Lourenço Gimenes and Rodrigo Silva FGMF Arquitetos Brazil
* Sandeep Jagadeesh and Vimal Jain ARCHITECTURE PARADIGM India
* Daniel Jenkins and David Turrent ECDA United Kingdom
* Grigory Kuzhelev and Galina Budnikova LCA Russia
* Lua Nitsche and Pedro Nitsche Nitsche Arquitetos Brazil
* Pekka Pakkanen and Risto Huttunen H-L-P Architects Finland
* Peter Stutchbury and Richard Smith Peter Stutchbury Architecture Australia
* Kathy Velikov and Paul Raff RVTR Canada

The winning team will share a Jury Prize of €50,000 and the opportunity to see their design realised in Cherepovets.

The 3rd International Architecture Competition originally was to include ten teams; however the Selection Committee unanimously decided to increase the number of finalist teams.

“These finalist architects represent a wealth of creative minds in sustainable design that expressed interest in this competition,” said Scott Chubbs, Living Steel Programme Director. “Given the quality of the submissions and the experiences each team has to offer, it was decided to expand the competition by two teams.”

According to the Competition Brief, the finalists are charged with developing three to five housing styles of approximately 120 m2 each based on a single construction technology. The extreme challenge in this competition is to design the homes to be highly energy efficient and to minimise climate change emissions through the life cycle of the buildings, within a USD120,000 (approximately €76,000) construction budget (not including land and kitchen outfitting). The Brief suggests energy consumption of 100 kWh/a per m2 — this in Cherepovets, Russia, where temperatures swing from summer highs of +34o C to winter lows of -49 o C. The building site will eventually be the location of a community of up to 500 homes developed by Living Steel member steel company SeverStal for its employees.

The twelve short-listed teams were given the project brief and one month to put together their ideas for efficient, sustainable housing that fits the location specifications. These teams will travel to Helsinki, Finland, where they will present their concepts to the competition’s Jury on 26-27 June 2008.

The Jury members represent some of the world’s finest architects, known for their passion for great design and their application of sustainable practices in their work.  Glenn Murcutt returns to the 3rd International Architecture Competition jury, and is joined by:

* Kimmo Lintula, K2S Architects Ltd., Finland,
* Mark Middleton, Grimshaw Architects, UK
* Patricia Patkau, Patkau Architects, Canada
* Sergey Skuratov, Sergey Skuratov Architects, Russia
* Alexei Venediktov, SeverStal, Russia  

In addition to the design competition, a two-day Charrette will follow on 28-29 June in Helsinki where the teams will be joined together in groups and tasked with master planning of the community development. The groups will present their plans to each other and then vote on which group offered the best solution. The winning group will share the €20,000 Architects’ Prize.

Each of the twelve competition teams will be awarded a €3,000 honorarium.

The competition event in Helsinki will conclude with an awards dinner on 29 June 2008 and the announcement of the winners of the Jury Prize and Architects’ Prize. 

“We thank the many teams that entered our competition,” Chubbs said, “It is exciting and encouraging to Living Steel that so many have a desire to take up the challenge for low climate change emissions buildings that conceptualise the home people want and deserve.”

See the Competition Brief and other relevant information at www.livingsteel.org/extremehousing

Read the 3rd Competitions Finalists Biographies here.