The judging panel has announced the shortlist for the Emirates Glass LEAF Awards 2008 in the most hotly contested competition to date.

The awards, also sponsored by Design Build Network, are now in their fifth year and celebrate architectural excellence in the fields of innovation, structural design and sustainable development across both commercial and residential sectors.

Judges were particularly impressed with the diversity of the entries from around the globe. They praised the clarity of design, variety of materials used and the richness of the projects as they judged each building on its balance of form and function.

The judging panel included some of the most highly respected members of the industry. Ben Morris, architect and managing director of Vector Foiltec; Irving Brauer, principal of Brauer Associates; Albert Williamson-Taylor, Contractor, AKT Engineers and Steve Andrews, Project Design Executive, Canary Wharf Group came together on 4 September to decide the shortlist.

They praised the ‘exquisite design’ of some of the entries, loved the simplicity of the designs as well as the use of natural light.

“It is not about sophistication and plugging as much money you can into a project, it is about simple design, looking good, making sure a building fulfills its function and ensuring its sustainability,” one judge commented.

Another argued for the importance of making sure the building feels like a resolved piece of work and fulfilled the age-old balance between form and function.

They were particularly impressed with the elegance of the entries in the Commercial Building of the Year Award which combined both excellence of design with clear function.

Two of the categories proved particularly hard to judge, with the panel divided between exceptional entries in each case.

However, the judges were unanimous in their opinion that good architecture should be promoted. They also argued that talent of young designers should be nurtured at a very early age.

Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen will host the evening ceremony held on October 23 at The Dorchester, London, where the eventual winners will be announced.

The short list is as follows:

Mixed-Use Building of the Year

* Performers’ House, Silkeborg, Denmark – Schmidt Hammer-Lassen Architects (image below)

* Media Library, Delft, The Netherlands – Dok Architecten
* Elmpark Development, Dublin, Republic of Ireland – Bucholz McEvoy Architect

Residential Building of the Year – Multiple Level

* Newton Suites, Singapore – WOHA
* BLUE Residential Tower, New York, USA – Bernard Tschumi (image below))

* eScape: Eden Village, Sittingbourne, Kent, UK – PCKO Architects

Residential Building of the Year – Single Story

* 784 House, Cheshire, UK – Stephenson Bell
* Studio-House Acorán II, Acorán Housing Estate, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Tenerife – gpy arquitectos
* Industrial Designer House, Seijo Setagaya-Ku Tokyo, Japan – Koji Tsutsui Architects (image below)

* Black House, Valle de Bravo, Mexico – bgp arquitectura

Commercial Building of the Year – Public Building

* Uppsala Concert and Congress Hall, Uppsala, Sweden – Henning Larsen Architects
* Suntory Museum of Art, Tokyo, Japan – Kengo Kuma & Associates (image below)

* Ondo Civic Centre, Kure City, Japan – Kengo Kuma & Associates
* Beijing South Station, China – Terry Farrell & Partners

Commercial Building of the Year – Private Building

* Sodic Sales Centre, Cairo, Egypt – Eklego Design Ltd
* 28 Dorset Square, Regent’s Park, London, UK – John McAslan & Partners (image below)

* Cocoon, Zurich, Switzerland – Camenzind Evolution Ltd

International Interior Design Award

* NYU Department of Philosophy, New York, USA – Steven Holl Architects (image below)

* Ross Street Residence, Melbourne, Australia – Hassell
* GSC Offices, New York, USA – Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
* Light House Cinema Dublin, Republic of Ireland – DTA Architects

Young Architect

* Arreletes Day-Care Centre, Els Alamús, Lleida, Spain – Xavier Vilalta Studio
* Contador-Weller House, Casablanca, Chile – Riesco & Rivera Arquitectos Asociado
* La Estancia Chapel, Cuernavaca, Mexico – Bunker Arquitectura (image below)

Best Sustainable Development

* United States Census Bureau Headquarters, Suitland, Maryland, USA – Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
* New General Building of the Council of Europe, Strasbourg, France – Art and Build Architect (image below)

* Limoges Concert Hall, Limoges, France – Bernard Tschumi
* Cley Marshes Visitor Centre, Norfolk, UK – LSI Architects LLP
* 16 Noel Street, Morgan Lovell HQ, London, UK – Morgan Lovell

New Innovation of the Year

* MAS – Modernisation of Acute Services, Central Nottinghamshire, UK – Swanke Hayden Connell Architects
* Covent Garden, Brussels, Belgium – Art and Build Architect
* Longshan Church, Beijing, China – WSP Architectural Design Consulting
* The Lighthouse, Sports and Events Arena, Belfort, France – Archi5 (image below)

Best Structural Design of the Year

* Manchester Civil Justice Centre, Manchester, UK – Mott Macdonald
* Beijing International Airport Terminal, China – Foster + Partners
* Smithsonian Institution Courtyard, Washington DC, USA – Foster + Partners (image below)

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LAN Architecture Win NEUE HAMBURGER TERRASSEN Housing Project

Posted: Thursday, October 02, 2008

The design contest NEUE HAMBURGER TERRASSEN has been promoted by the IBA HAMBURG (Internationale Bauausstellung) an International exhibition that will take place in 2013 with the purpose to rehabilitate the industrial district situated on the south of the river Elbe in a residential area and to integrate it to the city of Hamburg. 20 European architecture studios have participated in the sketch phase of the urban master plan.

Paris based LAN Architecture have won the first prize and will realize the first phase of the project until 2010. The first prize is shared with BASE Landscape Architecture, also from Paris. This phase includes the construction of the North section of the master plan with the realization of 80 housing units on a surface of 7000 sq. m and for a cost of 10,000,000 Euros.

In the NEUE HAMBURGER TERRASSEN project, LAN Architecture makes reference to the typology of the social and workers residences (Terraces Houses) to restore a contemporary version. The studio developed a plan integrating different typologies from individual houses to collective residences.

The project consists of a five story corner building on the north side creating a connection with the existing fabrics and of a series of U-shaped housing blocks, opening to the external green spaces and with an enclosed common green space. Each block contains multistory single-family houses both oriented to common spaces and to the street. The design limits car circulation with accesses to common parking along blocks sides to entirely devote the street to pedestrians. The street becomes an extended space to “live”. Particular attention was paid to neighborhood relations and to create collective “sociability” spaces.

Buildings façades are very homogeneous, classic and regular creating a unitary image for the whole district.

All images by LAN Architecture.

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2008 Young Architect of the Year Awards Longlist Unveiled

Posted: Thursday, October 02, 2008

There are 28 architects on the long list for Building Design’s 2008 Young Architect of the Year Award, sponsored by Autodesk.

Supported by BD magazine and part of the Architect of the Year Awards, the Young Architect category aims to celebrate and highlight young practices and up-and-coming talent in architecture from around the world. The award, which has been running for ten years, draws entries from dynamic practices who are successfully challenging architectural design traditions in new and exciting ways. The winning practice will receive a prize of £5,000.

The long listed entries will also be taking part in an exclusive architectural exhibition throughout October at New London Architecture at The Building Centre. The winner will then be announced at the Architect of the Year Awards ceremony, to be held at the London Hilton on 30th October 2008, in the presence of over 1,000 architects and construction professionals.

Autodesk AEC director Northern Europe, Pete Baxter says: “Autodesk is fully committed to supporting the next generation of architects who will ultimately be responsible for the future of our built environment. By providing them with industry-leading design solutions, we hope to encourage vision and innovation in building design. We are excited to play a part in the Young Architect of the Year Awards and looking forward to seeing the inspiring ideas and work currently being undertaken by young practices in the UK.”

The long listed practices are (in alphabetical order):

• Adam Richards Architects
• Amenity Space
• AOC
• Architects in Residence
• Architecture 53 Seven
• Barnaby Gunning Architects
• Carl Turner Architects
• Claridge Architects
• DOS Architects
• Duggan Morris Architects
• Exploration
• Feix & Merlin Architects
• Friend & Company Architects
• Hackett Hall McKnight
• Harry Dobbs Design
• Inglis Badrashi Loddo
• Khoury Architects
• Kraus Schoenberg
• McChesney Architects
• Michael Trentham Architects
• Mitchell Taylor Workshop
• Mobile Studio
• Nekton Design
• Platform 5 Architects
• Roewu
• Serie Architects
• Sybarite
• William Tozer Architecture & Design.

A shortlist of five will be revealed at an exhibition of the work of all 28 firms at the NLA on October 16. Judges are Glenn Howells, Deyan Sudjic, Will Alsop, David Partridge, Liza Fior, Amanda Baillieu and Ellis Woodman. The overall winner will be announced at the Architect of the Year Awards on October 30 at the London Hilton on Park Lane.

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Schindler Award Jury Names Top Ten Projects

Posted: Thursday, October 02, 2008

After a week of intense deliberations, the international jury judging the Schindler Award for Architecture 2007/08 “Access for All” has nominated ten projects. These will be presented at the Award ceremony in Lucerne on November 14, 2008. One winner and four runners-up will be awarded cash prizes at the ceremony and three schools’ prizes will also be announced. The jury also made special mention of four additional projects because of their insights into the issue of accessibility.

The competition task was to revitalize a derelict area of the Austrian capital, Vienna. Amid its impressive city planning, Vienna has its share of derelict areas. At the intersection of the western belt (Westgürtel) and the Vienna River Valley (Wiental), two major city thoroughfares, two metro lines and the channeled Vienna River enclose a large, neglected area, divorced from the hustle and bustle of city life. An impressive steel-trussed metro bridge by Otto Wagner towers above this waste land and mesh of urban infrastructure. With imaginative repositioning and some adjustments to the traffic infrastructure participants should be able to bring the existing potential of the site to life.

Site and urban context within Vienna

The competition aims at improvements that will transform this neglected site into an attractive place of public activity and give a positive impulse to the revival of the adjoining residential and business areas. Participants were required to incorporate four elements into their projects: a public common, residential buildings, a community center and a riverside park with outdoor sport facilities. The aim is to create space that meets three criteria: Quality of life, Sustainability, and Economic viability / Environmental Economics.

Primary roads (grey), metro lines (brown and violet) and sub centers (violet circles)

The ten top projects (see list below) were chosen from a total of 125 submitted by student teams from schools of architecture in Europe. That compares with 88 projects submitted for the previous Schindler Award in 2005/06.

Linke Wienzeile looking south to Margaretengürtel (right hand corner: Brücke über die Wien Zeile)

Prizes are also to be awarded to three of the ten schools represented by the nominated project teams. The schools’ prizes recognize architectural institutions that participated in the Award by pre-judging projects from their school and integrating the topic of accessibility into their curricula. The schools in question will be named at the award ceremony in November, and awarded research grants.

The nominated projects teams and their tutors, as well as the teams singled out for special mention, are invited to the Award Ceremony. Invitations will follow in due course.

All students and professors who participated in the Schindler Award 2007/2008 are also most welcome to attend the Award Ceremony. Please send an e-mail to , if you would like to participate.

Gaudenzdorfer Gürtel, Burger King, gas station and tour bus parking as seen from Brücke über die Zeile (looking east)

The finalists are:

• “Vienna Carpet”, Martina Sotkovska, Jakub Krcmar; CTU – Faculty of Architecture (Czech Republic)
• “Border Line”, Anne-Emmanuelle Métivier, Anne-Laure Touchais, Virginie Février; Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture de Bretagne (France)
• “Urban Punctuation”, Gilles Meyer, Julien Rochet, Régis Berthet; Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Strasbourg (France)
• “All Together”, Lydia Lehmann; Tampere University of Technology (Finland)
• “New Urban Landscape – STADT ZWISCHEN RAUM”, Daniel Kühn; Universität Kassel (Germany)
• “Triangle”, Nils Krieger, Thorsten Stelter; FH Koblenz (Germany)
• “Access of All”, Ata Kurt; Middle East Technical University (Turkey)
• “Sin a banane²”, David Scheibner, Richard Huber; Graz University of Technology (Austria)
• “Vienna Versatile”, Philipp Luy; Bauhaus Universität Weimar (Germany)
• “Rough Sketch”, Krisztian Csemy; Academy of Fine Arts and Design, Bratislava (Slovakia)

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Renzo Piano Receives Danish Sonning Prize

Posted: Wednesday, October 01, 2008

The Italian architect Renzo Piano has been awarded the 2008 Sonning Prize (DKK 1 million) on 1 October at the University of Copenhagen.

As an architect, Renzo Piano has left his intriguing marks around the world. His architecture can be seen as “an unerring, remarkable and quite extraordinary synthesis of the fine and rare blend of art, architecture and engineering” as the recommendation of Renzo Piano reads. This is evident in his work that includes many prominent landmarks in Europe’s big cities such as the revolutionary Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, the master plan for Potsdamer Platz in Berlin, the Paul Klee Museum in Bern, the music auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome and in one of his most recent works, the Shard skyscraper in London.”

Renzo Piano

The recommendation of Renzo Piano further states: “While his work embraces the idiom, the materials and the latest technological competence of this era, he is clearly a European with deep roots in classical Italian tradition, architectural history and philosophy. His intellectual curiosity and problem solving techniques can be recognized in elegantly expressed structures and constructions. But his belief in the social aspects of architecture and humanitarian ideals makes him to the same extent intensely engaged in planning housing areas as well as scenery and sustainability.”

The 70 year old Renzo Piano was born in Genoa (Genova), Italy, where he still lives and has his drawing office; the Renzo Piano Building Workshop. The company’s website takes the visitor on a photographical journey to some of Renzo Piano’s exceptional works e.g. the New York Times building in New York.


Some of Renzo Piano Building Workshop’s most iconic buildings:

Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, 1971-1977 (jointly designed with Richard Rogers)

Jean-Marie Tjibaou Cultural Center, Noumea, 1991-1998

Potsdamer Platz, Berlin, 1992-2000

High Museum Expansion, Atlanta, 1999-2005

The New York Times Building, New York, 2000-2007

Broad Contemporary Art Museum (LACMA Expansion - Phase 1), Los Angeles, 2003-2008

California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, 2000-2008


About the Sonning Prize
The Sonning Prize is the largest cultural award in Denmark. It was founded by author and editor C.J. Sonning (1879-1937).

The Prize amount is DKK 1 million and supports the promotion of European culture. Following the wish of C.J. Sonning, a committee under the University of Copenhagen elects the prize recipient, who must be a person “found to have done commendable work for the benefit of European culture”.

Previous recipients of the Prize Recipients of the Prize include Mary Robinson, former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights; Sir Laurence Olivier, actor; Niels Bohr, physicist; Ingmar Bergman, film and theatre director and Simon de Beauvoir, author. The statesman Sir Winston Churchill received an extraordinary prize in 1950.

The Prize is normally awarded every other year at the University of Copenhagen.

All images by Renzo Piano Building Workshop.

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Pennine Lancashire Squared Design Competition Reveals Shortlist

Posted: Wednesday, October 01, 2008

Firms short-listed for international design competition in Pennine Lancashire

Practices from across the world have passed the first stage in creating outstanding public spaces in six town centres in Lancashire.

The Pennine Lancashire Squared competition invited teams to submit Expressions of Interest to create world-class public space in Burnley, Accrington, Blackburn, Bacup, Clitheroe and Nelson.

Six shortlists have now been selected, each consisting of five teams, to come up with concept designs.

Pennine Lancashire in England’s Northwest

The competition, run by the Landscape Institute, was commissioned by Elevate, a regeneration agency working with partners from the public and private sectors to improve the housing market in Pennine Lancashire.

The competition is the brainchild of Yvette Livesey and her late partner, music mogul Anthony H Wilson. They proposed the competition through their work with Elevate as a means of attracting talent to the area, raising its profile and creating outstanding public spaces in each town.

A total of 26 landscape architecture and architecture teams were whittled down from 78 Expressions of Interest after a judging day last week.

Successful international entries include Balmori Associates Inc, based in New York, Dutch firm OKRA Landscape Architects and Mitchell + Associates, who are located in Ireland.

Four practices – Gillespies, Birds Portchmouth Russum, Landscape Projects and Taylor Young Limited - have made the shortlist for two different squares.

Stephen Hodder MBE, Chair of the judging panel, said today: “The 78 pre-qualification submissions were of a consistently high standard and comprised a number of inventive and memorable approaches to the design of the public realm in Pennine Lancashire.

“This made for much animated debate amongst the judging panel. I believe the shortlist for each square includes an intriguing mix of visionary teams of differing qualities, and offers exciting possibilities for the second stage of the competition.”

Chief Executive of Elevate Max Steinberg, said: “For Pennine Lancashire to be the focus of the biggest international competition of its kind is a fitting tribute not just to the place and the people who live here, but also to all the partners who are working hard to make this competition a success.

“Particular credit must go to Livesey Wilson Associates who dared to dream of Pennine Lancashire four years ago, and to the local authorities who are helping to make that dream a reality.

“We should also recognise the Herculean efforts of the competition judging panel members who scaled a veritable mountain of entries to select the very best for our shortlist.”

Detailed site briefs will now be provided so shortlisted teams can develop concept designs. They will also be invited to attend an on-site briefing day to give them an opportunity to meet key stakeholders and they will be required to participate in a creative programme of community engagement.

The shortlisting was based on criteria including an understanding of the role that good design could play in improving Pennine Lancashire Squares, as well as range of appropriate expertise and clarity of proposal.

The Landscape Institute, the chartered body for landscape architects, is running the competition, with the support of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA).

The competition has received funding from the Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA) and is being implemented by the Boroughs of Blackburn with Darwen, Burnley, Hyndburn, Pendle, Ribble Valley and Rossendale, with support from Lancashire County Council. CABE Space is providing ongoing support for the development of Pennine Lancashire Squared.

For more details, visit http://www.penninelancashire.com/landscape.

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Five Distinguished Educators Honored With First ADC Grandmasters Awards

Posted: Monday, September 29, 2008

NEW YORK, September 2008 – Five renowned educators who have had immeasurable impact on generations of creatives will be honored as ADC Grandmasters by the Art Directors Club. 

Utilizing the theme “from one came many,” ADC Grandmasters honors current and retired US-based educators who taught for a minimum of 10 years, and whose students (past and present) are currently involved in the industry.

The first-annual ADC Grandmasters honors are:

• Sheila de Bretteville, Yale University
• Mark Fenske, VCU Brandcenter
• Carin Goldberg, School of Visual Arts
• Jeffrey Metzner, School of Visual Arts
• Ray Nichols, University of Delaware

The first-annual ADC Grandmasters awards reception will be held on Monday, October 6, 2008, 6:30-8:30 pm, at the ADC Gallery, 106 West 29th Street, New York.  An ADC Grandmasters exhibition, featuring work by both the honorees and a sampling of their students from over the years and an instructor-student family tree, will run at the gallery October 7-10. See Bustler Events for more info.

ADC Grandmasters is the brainchild of Bill Oberlander, executive vice president, executive creative director, McCann Worldgroup and an ADC past-president (1999-2001).  He chaired a nominating committee comprised of Rick Boyko, managing director, VCU Brandcenter; Janet Froelich, creative director, The New York Times; Ann Lemon, professor, University of Delaware; Gael Towey, chief creative officer, Martha Stewart Living; Richard Wilde, chairman, Advertising/Graphic Design Departments, School of Visual Arts and Ami Brophy, CEO, ADC. 

“Bill Oberlander’s concept of ADC Grandmasters is strongly aligned with part of the ADC’s mission to elevate the role of educators in the visual communications field,” said Brophy.  “Under his committee leadership, ADC has developed a way to both honor those who have mentored others to greatness, and give students the opportunity to see where their education can take them.”

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