Catalogo arcvision prize 2013 by arcVision

ARCVISION PRIZE – WOMEN AND ARCHITECTURE Cover arcVision prize KA DEF 200513.indd 1

21/05/13 13:42

“Vision, culture, passion are the fundamental values to drive sustainable industrial development and enhance the formation and growth of key figures in the building community. Women have been important players in contemporary architecture for many years, creating projects particularly sensitive to the needs of the individual. The Italcementi Group wants to support this positive ‘excellence’ through initiatives highlighting the figure of female designers who bring authentic new qualities in theoretical and practical design to the economic, social and cultural context of architecture. A ‘positive discrimination’ toward women in the architectural profession. This is the idea behind the arcVision Prize and I would like to thank the Jury, the Scientific Director, the Organizing Committee and all the people involved in the arcVision project for their proactive work and dedication to this challenging new adventure.” Carlo Pesenti Chief Executive Officer Italcementi Group

“In 1997 the Italcementi Group launched an ambitious cultural program centered around arcVision, the six-monthly magazine dedicated to create closer ties between corporate culture and architectural culture. Over the years, the program has produced books, international exhibitions and conferences dealing with architectural materials, structures, technologies and systems. The Italcementi Group’s aim is to flank its industrial operations with a commitment to research and education, promoting the building construction culture as an essential tool to reach levels of operating excellence and sustainabe life style. The arcVision Prize is our latest and most significant effort and I hope it may inspire and encourage an innovative architectural culture all over the world.” Sergio Crippa Editor arcVision Italcementi Group

Editorial arcVision Prize – Women and Architecture: not an antinomy Never has the focus of architecture on aesthetic quality been so strong as in the last ten years, taking due account of the part played by today’s new technologies, materials and inventions in making a project an original form of expression. And yet, if architecture intends to maintain its rightful ethical dimension by reaffirming itself as a form of artistic expression, it should also examine the issues of social and environmental sustainability through a new aesthetic, design buildings with close attention to the context, to emergencies, to the specific features of communities and their residents, whose needs should be considered at least on a par with those of the project awarder. As part of these developments, architecture is also assuming a new “gender” role, reviewing its dominant sexism and attributing growing importance to the work of female designers. Long confined to secondary roles, or regarded as “melodious” accompaniments to the work of more famous male architects, women today are proving to be ever better equipped with the indispensable qualities required for unconventional works of architecture: for example, that resistance that alone can withstand the often exhausting rhythms and schedules of constructed architecture. This quality is as appropriate as it is indispensable for women to affirm their independence: or, simply, their identity in a panorama where antiquated conventions have allowed men to hold sway in creating the domestic, urban and territorial landscape. The signs of a possible “gender resurgence” are unmistakable: dozens, hundreds and thousands of female designers are increasingly beginning to create a new role in architecture, backed by the removal of the inequalities between the sexes. In this fascinating march of progress, the arcVision Prize – Women and Architecture – established by the Italcementi Group steps into a gaping void in the global panorama of information and communication: the absence of a widespread and significant acknowledgment of the work of female designers, of their difficult and continuous struggle against the reservations, prejudices and objective difficulties of a profession and a construction industry that are ever more sophisticated, but unbelievably backward with regard to gender equality. The intention of the Prize, however, is not to pursue a distinction between male and female in architecture. It is to acknowledge realistically that, as in the rest of society, a profession in which one gender prevails over the other is no longer conceivable. An unexpected creative energy was already unleashed during the first edition of the arcVision Prize, the extraordinary coincidence of a Jury of women united by their common great professionalism, but also by a powerful humanity and convinced solidarity with the candidates for the Prize. The difficult selection process was accompanied throughout by rigor and goodwill, working criteria and methods were discussed and agreed by the jury members – based on the guidelines of the Prize organizers – in order to choose the designer who best expressed the identity and values of a new role for the architect, actively engaged in the field in rebuilding the profession’s social and cultural physiognomy. At the same time, a lively and fascinating debate developed on the significance and goals of the Prize, which has become an important cultural project in its own right: precisely because it is the first to tackle the sensitive question of a possible positive difference in approach to the issues and problems of building construction. This is certainly the direction taken with the choice of Carla Juaçaba, a Brazilian designer who has made her name with a series of works including the Humanidade Pavilion for the UN Rio Mas 20 Conference. In addition to embodying “the qualities needed for a courageous architect to work in the profession with creativity, to find non-conventional solutions, with great sensitivity to the context” (as the Jury says in the Prize citation), Carla Juaçaba manages to evade the influence of historic modernism, which has dominated Brazilian architecture for decades, and develop forms of intervention and construction that more closely reflect the situation in Brazil today, the country’s social and cultural rebirth. The construction of the Rio Mas 20 Pavilion itself is highly symbolic, given that the Conference was intended as a high-profile opportunity to take stock of the action undertaken at global level to save the Earth from an environmental disaster. There is no better sustainability – say the designer and her architecture – than the sustainability of low-cost buildings, which can be dismantled quickly and continually recycled, like the ready-made units employed for the pavilion. The talent shown by Carla Juaçaba, her young age, the rich voice she has developed in difficult and in many ways underprivileged conditions, her determination to continue along the road of project invention reflect perfectly the objectives of the arcVision Prize and also augur well for its future, to become an important investigative tool and positive influence on the condition of women in contemporary architecture. Stefano Casciani Scientific Director arcVision Prize

arcVision Prize 2013 edition Carla Juaçaba 1st Winner of the arcVision Prize – Women and Architecture Honorable Mentions for Izaskun Chinchilla, Anupama Kundoo, Siiri Vallner Brazilian Architect Carla Juaçaba has been named as the winner of the first arcVision Prize – Women and Architecture, the international award instituted by the Italcementi Group.

The winner was chosen by a Jury composed of Shaikha Al Maskari (Board Member of the Arab International Women’s Forum), Vera Baboun (Mayor of the city of Bethelem), Odile Decq (Founder with Benoît Cornette of the ODBC firm), Victoire de Margerie (Chairperson of Rondol Technology), Yvonne Farrell (Founder with Shelley McNamara of Grafton Architects), Samia Nkrumah (President of the Kwame Nkrumah Pan African Center), Kazuyo Sejima (Founder with Ryue Nishizawa of SANAA studio), Benedetta Tagliabue (Founder with Enric Miralles of EMBT firm), Martha Thorne (Executive Director of the Pritzker Prize). The Jury also awarded three Honorable Mentions to Izaskun Chinchilla from Spain for her non conventional approach to design, Anupama Kundoo from India for her skill in researching materials, and Siiri Vallner from Estonia for her sensitive interpretation of spaces. The Prize winner was announced on March 7, 2013 in Bergamo at i.lab, the Italcementi Group research and innovation center recently completed from a project by Richard Meier and one of the first buildings in Europe with LEED Platinum certification, the top international recognition for sustainable construction. The arcVision Prize is intended as a contribution to the development of a sustainability culture sensitive to women and to women’s specific approach to architecture, with special attention to people, the town and the environment. Contemporary architecture has fostered the development of an increasingly important role for female designers. The emergence of new female architects is one of the most interesting social and cultural trends in project design in the construction sector The candidates for the 2013 arcVision Prize were required to: • have designed at least one significant building (either built or under construction) in the sector of social infrastructures (education, health, culture, information, services in general) entailing essentially innovative solutions and values from the functional and technical point of view, with particular attention to sustainability topics; • have possibly gained research experience – in the field or in a teaching/academic sphere – in the development of innovative solutions in building systems. The 2013 short-list of finalists consisted of 19 designers from 15 countries: Brazil, Egypt, Estonia, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Poland, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, USA. The selection was made from a group of female professionals indicated by a pool of Advisors. The Advisors were identified among critics, institutions, already well-known project designers, sector-specific media and executives from the Italcementi Group’s international management. Advisors’ indications were assessed by an internal technical-cultural Commission to define the final nominations and submit them to the judgment of an international Jury. The Jury, whose members were all architects and women deeply involved in international culture, politics and the economy, had the fascinating task of identifying the nominations that best represent the ideals and practices of a new architecture at the service of sustainable development and widespread welfare. The Prize consisted in a two-week research workshop at i.lab, the Italcementi Group Research and Innovation Center in Bergamo, and an amount of € 50,000, part of which may be devolved to social projects, at the discretion of the winner.

arcVision Prize – Women and Architecture

The Winner CARLA JUAÇABA

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Carla Juacaba, 37 year old Brazilian architect, trained at Santa Ursula University in Rio de Janeiro (1999) is the first winner of the arcVision Prize – Women and Architecture by unanimous decision of the jury.

“I am extremely pleased, I wasn’t expecting it,” said Carla Juaçaba, “I didn’t know which approach the Jury would choose and what they would have given importance to. I think it is really special to have thought of a Prize only for women. I was never ‘invited’ to all the work I’ve done so far. I have always had to struggle to prove that I was capable. I’m not saying this just because I am a woman, but I think that for us it is a little more complicated. So it is really great to have such a Prize to highlight this effort, because all work requires hard work. I am really very excited”. Carla Juacaba embodies those qualities necessary in an architect of courage in approaching her profession, creativity in seeking unconventional solutions and enormous sensitivity to the context in which her works will reside. The Jury praised the functionality and appropriateness in her proposals to make sure that fully serve their purpose, and do so contributing to the beauty and quality of life of those who will use and inhabit her buildings. The Jury felt she embodies a “complete” architect, embracing all aspects of each commission: context, environment, nature, parameters, materials… After reviewing projects of completely different types, the Jury highlighted the ability of Carla Juaçaba to successfully manage projects of diverse scales. A temporary structure, conceived with artist Bia Lessa, the Pavilion Humanidade 2012 for Rio +20 housed private events and a public exhibition on sustainability that received 220,000 visitors in two weeks. The Jury made special note of the elegant simplicity and functionality of the pavilion. By selecting normal scaffolding elements to construct the pavilion, the architect has creatively demonstrated her full attention to sustainability, by re-using existing materials available locally to create the structure and the walkways extending 170 meter in length of the pavilion, which will then be completely recyclable and re-usable again after dismantling. The building formed a wonderful dialogue with the surrounding setting, enhancing the site while the spectacular nature and setting also enhanced the pavilion. The Varanda House, constructed on a site where all trees were to be preserved, is a wonderful example of a minimal house that is an inviting home, with simple spaces and the delicate and inventive play of natural light and beautiful Brazilian landscape.

arcVision Prize – Women and Architecture

Honorable Mention IZASKUN CHINCHILLA MADRID, SPAIN The jury really admires the courage of Izaskun Chinchilla who tries to open unconventional paths through researches and architectural education while being deeply concerned by a particular combination between social engagement, aesthetics and techniques to reinvent a new vision for ecological environment in her projects.The realization of every project is transgressing architecture and art installation for embracing the social in public spaces.The jury wants to enhance her dynamism in breaking the limits and her strength to express it through drawings which have been influential on a new generation of young architects.

ANUPAMA KUNDOO TAMIL NADU, INDIA The Jury selected Indian architect Anupama Kundoo for a special mention for her capacity to focus to material research with a view of reducing the environmental impact of building technology. We appreciated her project for Volontariat Homes and for Urban Eco-Community and praised her experiments in using many unconventional materials in ways appropriate to the context, as well as efforts at recycling. Finally, the Jury liked her dedication when approaching the problem of affordability of construction and sustainability in all aspects.

SIIRI VALLNER TALLINN, ESTONIA Siiri Vallner is one of the young fresh contestants who has caught the Jury’s attention. Dividing her work between two architectural practices, including the all women practice, KAVAKAVA, Siiri Vallner has completed structures for schools, sports and cultural activities which have become recognizable landmarks in Estonia’s new architectural scene. The jury felt that her Downtown Gym embodied sensitive interpretation of the site as well as contributing to the immediate surroundings. Both the ground works and the elevation relating to the existing building draws the outdoor space into the interior of the gymnasium space. The gymnasium is sensitively wrapped in an inventive and crafted brick wall. The Jury believes Vallner deserves special mention as this multi-purpose work successfully brings out clarity, simplicity, flexibility and courage while it harmonizes with its natural surroundings and the neighborhood. It is both flexible and courageous in blending the old and the new: Vallner’s work exhibits many of the qualities we want to encourage in the built environment.

THE JURY

Shaikha Al Maskari

Samia Nkrumah

Board Member of the Arab International Women’s Forum

President of the Kwame Nkrumah Pan African Center

Vera Baboun Mayor of the city of Bethelem

Odile Decq Founder with Benoît Cornette of the ODBC firm

Victoire de Margerie Chairperson of Rondol Technology

Yvonne Farrell Founder with Shelley McNamara of Grafton Architects

Kazuyo Sejima Founder with Ryue Nishizawa of SANAA studio

Benedetta Tagliabue Founder with Enric Miralles of EMBT firm

Martha Thorne Executive Director of the Pritzker Prize, Associate Dean IE School of Architecture

Shaikha Al Maskari

Yvonne Farrell

Dr. Shaikha Al Maskari is a Board Member of Arab International Women’s Forum (AIWF), a unique network linking Arab women with their international counterparts, which serves as the voice of Arab women and has received international recognition as a powerful advocate of women in business and for its growing role to promote and advance legislative rights for the participation of Arab women. She was awarded The Best Woman Entrepreneur of 2012 by MENA Am/Cham and the prestigious Falcon Award for promoting UAE-US Trade relations by Am/Cham Abu Dhabi. Dr. Shaikha Al Maskari is the Chairperson of Al Maskari Holding, AMH, of Tricon Group and of Johnson Controls & Global Communications, JCGC. Shaikha set up her family charity, United Mercy Foundation (presently operated under AMH) which sponsors orphans, provides food, medical and emergency relief in the Middle East, Africa and Asia. In 2006 she co-founded the Diyar Bakir Micro-credit project in Turkey, which has since launched over 39,000 entrepreneurs. In 2010, Shaikha formed “Global Social Empowerment Alliance, GSEA”, to drive transformation of family/social mind sets to raise children on C4 (Confidence, Conscience, Compassion and Collaboration) for human sustainability through good global citizenship (with cross-ethnic, cross-cultural and interfaith harmonious co-existence).

The founder, together with Shelley McNamara, of Grafton Architects, which began operations in Dublin in 1977, Yvonne Farrell achieved international fame with the design and construction of the spectacular new location of the Bocconi University in Milan, completed in 2008. Farrell and McNamara began as house designers, experimenting with a sophisticated take on European modernism, but gradually moved toward high-profile public buildings (the Solstice Art Center, 2006; the Office of Public Works, Dublin 2008), which have become important meeting places for local residents. They have received many awards for their work (Building of the Year 2008, for the new Bocconi location), as well as the Leone d’Argento at the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2012. Yvonne Farrell also teaches, at the Accademia di Architettura in Mendrisio and the Harvard Graduate School of Design. At Grafton Architects, she is currently working on the project for the new UTEC university campus in Lima, Peru.

Vera Baboun

Elected in October 2012 as the first female mayor of the city of Bethlem, becoming a symbol of the process to shake up a society where men are still used to make the laws and do the deals. As a Mayor, her commitment is also to improve services and promote the tourism potential of the town where the Bible says Christ was born. Prior to her election, she was headmistress of the Roman Catholic High School in Beit Sahour and was an English literature lecturer at Bethlem University, where she was also the Dean of student affairs. She is the chairperson of the Board of Directors for Guidance and Training Centre for Family and Children and she is highly active in advocating gender awareness where she lectures, and gives training on gender issues for a considerable number of social NGOs. “Though women should always be the primary defenders of their rights,” Baboun says, “change will only be realized when men join in too.”

Odile Decq

A leading exponent of the avant-garde architecture community, Decq founded the ODBC firm with Benoît Cornette, with whom she worked until his premature death in 1998. In 1990 they designed the Banque Populaire de l’Ouest in Rennes, a building that won a number of awards and made Decq and Cornette internationally famous. Their work was crowned with the Leone d’Oro at the Venice Architecture Biennale in 1996. On Cornette’s death, Odile Decq remained alone at the helm of ODBC. She has consolidated her international profile with the success of the project for the MACRO contemporary art museum in Rome, opened in May 2010. Decq has received many important awards and is actively involved in teaching (Ecole Spéciale d’Architecture in Paris, which she headed until 2012). She is a visiting professor at a number of international universities, including Columbia University in New York.

Victoire de Margerie

An internationally acknowledged expert in Corporate Governance, Victoire de Margerie graduated from the Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales de Paris, completed a doctorate in Sciences de Gestion at the Université de Paris 2 and built up extensive professional experience in the field, beginning her managerial career at an early age in industrial production. At 29 she was already head of a German company with 60 employees: subsequently she held management posts in international companies including Arkema, Carnaud Metalbox and Pechiney. From 2003 to 2011 she lectured in Strategic Management at the Grenoble Business School, and is a visiting professor at the Nyenrode School of Management in the Netherlands. Since 2008 she has been chairperson and key shareholder of Rondol Technology in the UK. Today she is also a member of the Board of Directors of Arkema (France), Eurazeo (France), Norsk Hydro (Norway) and Morgan Crucible (UK). She was a director of Ciments Français from 2006 to 2012.

Samia Yaba Christina Nkrumah

Samia Nkrumah (born June 23, 1960), President of the Kwame Nkrumah Panafrican Center, is a Ghanaian politician and Chairwoman of the Convention People’s Party, the first female to chair a major political party in Ghana. She is the daughter of Ghana’s first president, Kwame Nkrumah, and his Egyptian wife Fathia Rizk. In an article entitled “The new Mandela is a woman”, the prestigious Huffington Post analyzes her impact on Ghanaian and African politics. She is one of the founders of Africa Must Unite, which aims to promote Kwame Nkrumah’s vision and political culture. She is married to Michele Melega, an Italian-Danish man. Samia and Michele have a son, Kwame Thomas Melega.

Kazuyo Sejima

Winner of the Pritzker Prize in 2010 and director of the Venice Architecture Biennale the same year, Kazuyo Sejima has achieved global fame in a career that began in the mid-1980s. After working with Toyo Ito (the “master” she named during the Pritzker Prize presentation ceremony), she opened a studio in Tokyo in 1987, working on public buildings with a highly innovative approach that combines traditional modernist materials with sophisticated variations on surfaces (Pachinko Parlor, Ibaraki 1993/96; Choju Police Station, 1994), which brought her to the attention of international critics. In 1995 she joined Ryue Nishizawa (Kanagawa, 1996) to found the SANAA studio, engaged for projects that have since become icons of contemporary architecture, like the New Museum of New York (2007) and the Rolex Learning Center at Lausanne Polytechnic (2010). In 2012 SANAA won the international tender for the New Campus for the Bocconi University in Milan, which will be its first project in Italy.

Benedetta Tagliabue Benedetta Tagliabue has worked in Barcelona for many years, and represents a new generation of internationally trained Italian architects who continue their careers outside Italy. After graduating in architecture in Venice in 1989 and working in New York, in 1991 she joined Enric Miralles (1955-2000), with whom she founded the EMBT firm in 1993. With Miralles, who had already made a name for his innovative approach and irreverent attitude to tradition, she worked on a number of projects of great interest, including the Santa Caterina market rehabilitation (Barcelona, 1996/2004) and the new Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh (2000/2005). Despite the controversy over the latter building, Tagliabue successfully completed its construction alone, after Miralles’ premature death. Since then she has won many prestigious awards (RIBA Stirling Prize, 2005) and been engaged for top projects including the Spanish Pavilion at Expo 2010 in Shanghai and the Hafencity public space project in Hamburg, a 150,000 m2 area due for completion in 2015.

Martha Thorne

Better known as Executive Director of the Pritzker Prize (the prestigious annual international architecture prize), Martha Thorne is also active in education and communication. After graduating in Town Planning from Pennsylvania University and economic studies from the London School of Economics, she worked as Associate Curator at the Architecture Department of the Chicago Art Institute from 1996 to 2005: in 2005 she was named executive director of the Pritzker Prize. With the IE School of Architecture in Madrid/Segovia, where she has been Associate Dean since 2009, in addition to her activities in communication and external relations, Thorne coordinates a large network of architecture schools and universities, organizing congresses and conferences on the profession and on the training of architects (International Architectural Education Summit, 2011).

NOMINEES

Giulia ANDI – Germany

p. 9

Izaskun CHINCHILLA – Spain

p. 16

Rachaporn CHOOCHUEY – Thailand

p. 23

Winka DUBBELDAM – USA

p. 29

Frida ESCOBEDO – Mexico

p. 37

Nanda ESKES – Brazil

p. 43

Shahira FAHMY – Egypt

p. 51

Luisa FONTANA – Italy

p. 56

Belinda HUANG – Singapore

p. 63

Carla JUAÇABA – Brazil

p. 69

Anupama KUNDOO – India p. 75 Lis MIJNSSEN, Gabi FAEH, Paola MARANTA – Switzerland p. 82 Marta MNICH – Poland p. 88 Yuko NAGAYAMA – Japan p. 95 Natalia PASZKOWSKA – Poland p. 102

Gunilla SVENSSON – Sweden

p. 108

Elisabetta TERRAGNI – Italy

p. 115

Siiri VALLNER – Estonia

p. 119

Mona ZAKARIA – Egypt

p. 126

GIULIA ANDI

LIN ARCHITECTS BERLIN, GERMANY

BIOGRAPHY Giulia Andi’s work as an architect is driven by the idea of vibration: the uneven but inevitable buzz of human life; the way collaboration resonates and human interaction echoes when given the right space; and, above all, the infinite power of the void. Has devoted the body of her work to designing simple, thoughtful, brutal and graceful spaces that encourage specific collaborations. Andi’s work is especially focused on the use of MONOSPACES and the idea of minimum size, a concept that began to fascinate her while travelling in Japan in 2003 and 2004. References from the worlds of music, medicine, dance and food, as well as a deep sense of history have all significantly influenced Andi’s design. Andi also oversees the firm’s communications arm and is spearheading the creation of LIN’s new research unit, the LIN-Atelier or LINA, a research project based on art, communication design and networking, inside and outside LIN. It is also based on the use of LIN archives to study the process behind key projects and initiate dialogue through public exhibitions, the first at MAXXI in Rome, “The Bunker”. Giulia Andi founded LIN with Finn GEIPEL in 2001.

SELECTED IMPLEMENTED PROJECTS 2001-2003 Permanent exhibition space PAVILLON de L’ARSENAL 2004 DENSITÉ +- 0, temporary exhibition space, Paris KLEYER HOUSE, Oldenburg, Germany 2004 2005 Micro Office, private house, Paris 2003-2007 Transformation of submarine base, St. Nazaire 2006 House Office Macro, private house, Berlin 2009 Cité du Design, St. Etienne 2004 2008 2009 Grand Paris 2012 New LIN Office

For many years the Italian Giulia Andi has worked in Germany – where she runs the LIN firm with Finn Geipel – and France, where two of her most important completed projects are located. The first – The Bunker – is a spectacular conversion of a German submarine base in Saint Nazaire on the Atlantic coast, into an arts and entertainment center. The second is the Cité du Design in Saint Etienne, a new building bringing together the work done in the city since the end of the 1990s to promote a design culture. The Bunker’s theatrical and scenographic dimension is a natural evolution from the spectacular nature of the original building. The Cité du Design expresses more clearly an innovative approach to design through technical and structural inventions, to create an artificial space that communicates with light and the external environment. In writing about her work, Giulia Andi often emphasizes the fact that she is a mother: the creativity of her children provides her with a constant source of innovative ideas.

GIULIA ANDI

ALVEOLE 14 Saint Nazaire, France

“The submarine base of St NAZAIRE, constructed by the German Navy during World War II, is directly located at the harbor of the old town. It has an enormous scale (295 m x 130 m x 18 m) with concrete walls up to 9 meters thick. This raw and impressive structure is transformed with minimal interference. Two of the 14 former submarine cells are transformed into cultural elements: LIFE and VIP. The project consists of 4 elements: the LIFE, a space for emerging art forms; the VIP, hosting contemporary music events, recording studios, and an archive; the STREET, the main conduit traversing the entire Bunker, connecting the various programs and creating interaction between each of the cells; and the roof and RADOM, a geodesic dome.”

ALVEOLE 14 – Masterplan

ALVEOLE 14

GIULIA ANDI

ALVEOLE 14 – Aerial view of the existing constructions

ALVEOLE 14 – Dome on the roof

ALVEOLE 14

ALVEOLE 14 – View of the internal spaces

ALVEOLE 14 – The opening

GIULIA ANDI

CITÈ DU DESIGN Saint-Étienne, France “The Cité du Design in Saint-Étienne is a new and unique institution for research, education, communication and media, and design related services. It addresses diverse groups, combining urban and social activities with industrial and artistic expertise. A single slender body, the Platine, is integrated into the site of the Manufacture d’armes, a former arms factory. This MONOSPACE will act as a switchboard that links communication facilities to the many programs housed in various buildings throughout the site. The observation tower is the pioneering element that signifies the starting point of this transformation.”

CITÈ DU DESIGN – Aerial view

CITÈ DU DESIGN

CITÈ DU DESIGN – The integration into the historical site

CITÈ DU DESIGN – Exhibition space

GIULIA ANDI

CITÈ DU DESIGN

GIULIA ANDI

CITÈ DU DESIGN – La Platine

CITÈ DU DESIGN – The Technical Workshops Building

iZASKUN CHiNCHillA MADRID, SPAIn

BIOGRAPHY Graduated in Architecture in 2001 at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (Spain). Has been running her own studio in Madrid since 2001. Has extensive experience in education. Senior Teaching Fellow and Researcher at the Bartlett School of Architecture (UCL London, UK). Has also taught at the Ecole Special (Paris, France) and at HEAD University (Geneva, Switzerland). Was Studio Professor at the University of Alicante (Escuela de Arquitectura Universidad de Alicante) from 2002 to 2007 and is currently teaching at Madrid University (Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Spain) and Instituto de Empresa (Madrid, Spain). Her design activity is accompanied by a research project called “Social and Aesthetic Repercussions of technical topics and solutions which take ecology into account” that has taken her as visiting scholar to Columbia University in New York (2002), Ecole de Mines de Paris (2003) and Princeton University in New Jersey (2004) and also to the Institut d´Arquitectura Avancada A de Catalunya (Barcelona), in a Postgraduate Master (2003-2007). Currently supervising construction of her project for a Mediatheque in Garcimuñoz Medieval Castle in Cuenca, Spain (a public cultural building including refurbishment of the existing infrastructures for social purposes), the refurbishment of a Vernacular house in Toledo, Spain, as well as other smaller projects. Also involved in the design of digital interactive exhibitions with a social purpose, such as encouraging reading among young children (Fairytale Park Museography in Málaga) or appreciating the effort after sport (Centro de Arte Canal). Chinchilla was still very young (she graduated in 2001) when she came to building construction, from an essentially theoretical education and from teaching work (Bartlett School, london; ecole Speciale, Paris): her first completed project is the conversion of a medieval castle built on the remains of an Arab building into a public music and hybrid library. Given the nature of the isolated location, use of the castle will be diversified during the year, with a greater role for the outdoor areas in the summer: the structures created by this public project echo, in a highly modern register, the vertical impact of the surrounding medieval buildings, in an attempt to give a contemporary identity to a long-abandoned historic site. In a project for a private site, the Casa Carmena, Chinchilla’s expressive idiom is essentially developed through the surfaces and through decorative elements based on abstract patterns (inspired by the brushwork on an impressionist painting by Manet).

IZASKUN CHINCHILLA

GARCIMUÑOZ14 Cuenca, Spain “Garcimuñoz Castle is a small site with very restricted resources. The central government has paid for the main refurbishment and the small city council will have to maintain the building. The location, just off the Nathional III highway, ensures high volume of public in the sunny holiday periods. “Small resources” and “changing flux of public” have become critical aspects in the realization of the project. That is why the closed off area is minimized and this reduces energy consumption. Most of the project space is used with benign weather, when more people come to visit. In winter, only 200-250 square meters will be used. Most of the site will have “disappeared” in terms of economic and energetic expenses. Architecture will just be kind of ghost waiting for the sun to come up. In summer period, all of the outside space will open up to 2000 square meters of visiting area. For this purpose all kind of bioclimatic techniques have been used.”

GARCIMUÑOZ14 – Longitudinal section

GARCIMUÑOZ14

IZASKUN CHINCHILLA

GARCIMUÑOZ14 – The main courtyard showing the platform that separates the Arab ruins from the medieval Castle

GARCIMUÑOZ14 – Solar chimneys allowing the lower exhibition area and the Arab ruins to be mild while serving as showcases in the upper level

GARCIMUÑOZ14

IZASKUN CHINCHILLA

GARCIMUÑOZ14 – Platform covering the west tower relating the Castle with other villages and incorporating botanical samples

GARCIMUÑOZ14 – Lower exhibition area heated by greenhouse effect caused by the doubled layer metal and glass cover

GARCIMUÑOZ14

IZASKUN CHINCHILLA

GARCIMUÑOZ14 – Vertical structure hosting communications, videotheque and music library as well as supporting the outdoor cinema screen

IZASKUN CHINCHILLA

ANCESTRAL HOUSE Toledo, Spain “Historically, ancestral homes are the properties that have fostered the coexistence and represented the families that owned them. Regardless of their location, their grandeur, their time and their site all of them have borne the signs – names, heraldry or aesthetic tastes – of their tenants. The house was a reflection of the family character and, in certain way, it took a representative role. This house in Carmena, a small town 40 kilometers away from Toledo, is not an exception. The refurbishment project takes as point of departure the challenge of transforming an existing architecture, but also essentially that of critically recovering the ‘good customs’ of the past blending them with the contemporary ways of life.”

ANCESTRAL HOUSE – Courtyard showing the graphic motives built up with tiles allowing to have a ‘garden’ that does not require water

ANCESTRAL HOUSE

IZASKUN CHINCHILLA

ANCESTRAL HOUSE – Main hall with Arab mood lamps

ANCESTRAL HOUSE – Kitchen built up with materials coming from demolition

rACHAPorN CHooCHUEY ALL(ZONE) BAnGKOK, THAIlAnD

BIOGRAPHY Born in Bangkok, Thailand (1970) Architect/Design Director, ALL(ZONE) Assistant Professor, Department of Architecture, Faculty of Architecture, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok EdUCAtio UCA UCAtio N 1993 1998 2002

B.Arch. (Hons.) Chulalongkorn University M.S. in Advance Architectural Design, Columbia University Ph.D., University of TTokyo

SCHolArSHiPS & AWArdS 1996-2002 Thai Government Scholarship for Graduate and Ph.D. studies 2000 Borromini Prize for young architects 2001 Europan 6, Honourable Mention 2011 New TTaipei City Museum of Art International Competition, Merit Award ProFESSioNAl EXPEriENCE 1993-1996 Architect, Architects 49, Co.Ltd., Bangkok 2002 to date Assistant Professor Department of Architecture, Faculty of Architecture, Chulalongkorn, University Visiting lecturer at several University architecture schools (Japan), Tokyo Denki University (Japan), Tunghai University (Taiwan), Bergen Architecture School (Norway), Accademia delle Belle Arti (Milan) 2008 to date Co-founder and Director ALL(ZONE), a design firm based in Bangkok WorKSHoPS/rESEArCH/tEACHiNG 1999 to date Has been exploring aspects of the temporary and indeterminate nature of architecture in contemporary Southeast Asia conditions through workshops, research and teaching. On-going research is Delicious Bangkok (2012-2013) and Contemporary Temples in Thailand (2012-2013)

With the characteristic pragmatism of the younger generations of designers, as an architect Choochuey takes an extremely simple working approach to her projects: an open-air market, derelict houses/shops typical of Bangkokâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s urbanization in the 20th century. In studying their reconstruction and re-use or re-inventing these typologies, she draws her inspiration from the local vernacular tradition, taking it to an even greater level of essentiality and integrating it with instruments to ensure energy independence (solar panels). naturally helped by the particular climatic conditions, Choochueyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s architecture is made from transparency, light and air, above all n from the interpersonal interactions it creates: hopefully, this interesting approach will be developed in architectural projects of greater importance, even though Choochuey devotes a great deal of her time to teaching in Thailand and abroad.

RACHAPORN CHOOCHUEY

COMMUNITY CENTER Phi Phi Island, Thailand

“Phi Phi International Community Resource center aims to support a local Sea-Gypsy community alienated by the high-end tourism industry in the north tip of Phi Phi Island. The project is a collaborative efforts of a local NGO group with several academic institutions to propose an alternative solution to the uneven development. The building acts as extended grounds to the topography creating an ‘open’ space. In the scarce area of any natural resources, the building is designed to integrate solar cell panels and water tanks as its main architectural elements. The simple usage of modern vernacular materials and prefabricated system is applied to cope with the remote area. The still-ongoing construction process is also a collaboration of volunteers from all over the world.”

COMMUNITY CENTER – Rendering of the building

COMMUNITY CENTER

RACHAPORN CHOOCHUEY

COMMUNITY CENTER – Details of the building under construction

RACHAPORN CHOOCHUEY

SZL MARKET Bangkok, Thailand

“Open-air market is the most common and simplest form of street business in Thailand. With the expansion of Bangkok suburb following the relocation of Bangkok airport 6 years ago, the market transforms a temporary market into a proper open-air market serving the new suburb middleclass. The building accommodates several local-global commercial activities from street venders, food & goods stalls, food courts to a franchise minimart – a mixture of the city’s economy. The roof structure borrows and twists the local tent typology, which is the conventional temporary structure. Although the building is concretely established in its form, it allows the fluctuation of events, encourages the plasticity of space which is, perhaps, its genius loci.”

SZL MARKET – Nocturnal view

SZL MARKET

RACHAPORN CHOOCHUEY

SZL MARKET – Vending spaces

SZL MARKET – External view

RACHAPORN CHOOCHUEY

ACT NATURALLY Bangkok, Thailand

“The installation is at Jim Thompson Farm for Art on Farm Project. As architects, our aim for the installation is to define a temporary ‘place’ for dining in natural environment. Traditional hanging paper-cut decoration, Mahot, usually used in a local festival is the starting typology of form for the structure because of its simplicity, playful and locality. The geometry and materiality of the paper cut is studied and developed further in searching for a form that would act the most naturally in the natural setting. With the light and transparent personality of the fabric, the structures move accordingly with the winds and play with the light, as if they were growing out from the nature.”

ACT NATURALLY – Detail of the traditional Mahot hanging paper-cut decoration

WINKA DUBBELDAM ARCHI-TECTONICS NEW YORK, USA

EDUCATION 1991 -1992 Columbia University, New York, 2nd Masters in Advanced Architectural Design [MArch2] 1983 -1990 Academy of Architecture • Rotterdam • Professional Masters degree in Architecture [MArch1] ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS 2003-2014 Director of Post-Professional Program (M.Arch II) Post-Professional Design Studio 2009 - 2014 Professor of Practice, University of Pennsylvania, 3rd Year Masters Design Studio PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE 1994 to date Archi-Tectonics, NY//NL [New York & Netherlands], President [WBE certified] 1992 - 1994 Eisenman Architects, New York: Project leader PROFESSIONAL WORK: ARCHI-TECTONICS 2012-13 Masterplan for Georgetown, NYC, renovation of landmark area and insertion of new Hotel “Staten”, NYC, 185 rooms, floating pool and restaurant, design phase Santa Fe Digital Media, L.L.C., The 100,000 sf Headquarter building in Santa Fe, New Mexico Urban Design for Downtown Bogota, Colombia, Team Leader, “bottom-up” design with direct interaction of the population PROBONO: Jalk Chair Design and Fabrication, for Pink Jalk Project to aid Breast Cancer Research Foundation 2011 NAI [Netherlands Arch. Institute], Rotterdam, Netherlands, Redesign. Completed Vestry Building, a 9 story residential building, Tribeca, NY. Under Construction Water Mill Residence, Southampton, NY, A 10,000 sq.ft. residence, Redesign. Completed 2009 PROBONO: MCF Academy-Liberia, a design for a 43,352 sq.ft. sustainable village providing education, rooms and board to 200 Orphans, Under Construction Netherlands Board of Tourism & Conventions NYC office, A 1600 sq.ft. office space. Completed. 2006 Q Tower, a 45,000 sq.ft. multi-purpose tower, with MIT Media Lab, Philadelphia, design phase Anguila, Hotel and 15 beach condominiums, 2500 sq.ft. each, design

A professional architect and university lecturer, Winka Dubbeldam bases her design and formal research on a strong technological and scientific element, combined with attention to the changes taking place in society and in cities. Born in the Netherlands, she works around the world from a firm in New York (Archi-Tectonics) to develop “customized” solutions for the client and for users. In her firm, an essential role is played by the team, which comprises traditional technical skills (engineers, developers) and extends when necessary to researchers from the MIT Media Lab, for example, for the smart Q-Tower project in Philadelphia, which uses geothermal energy and automatic climate control systems. For the MCF Academy in Monrovia (Liberia), attention to sustainability is combined with use of local materials and simplified construction solutions, to create a protected yet open environment to house and educate 200 orphans: Dubbeldam donated the project to the Macdella Cooper Foundation, which is handling the construction of the MCF Academy.

WINKA DUBBELDAM

MCF ACADEMY Monrovia, Liberia

“Archi-Tectonics, NY, has pro-bono designed the MCF Academy to support the great efforts of Macdella Cooper of the Macdella Cooper Foundation to house, feed and educate 200 orphans. Rather than designing the whole complex as one large building, the proposal was to conceive the MCF Academy as a sustainable village with courtyards with specific functions, such as: outdoor class rooms, playgrounds, and small gardens to educate the children in growing vegetables and plants. This way construction can be done in phases.”

MCF ACADEMY – Rendering of the complex

MCF ACADEMY

WINKA DUBBELDAM

MCF ACADEMY – Detail of a building

MCF ACADEMY – Detail of the wooden double façade wall

MCF ACADEMY

MCF ACADEMY – Detail of the dining hall

WINKA DUBBELDAM

GW 497 / MIXED USE BUILDING West Soho, New York “Located on the edge of Soho, NYC, a former six-story warehouse was renovated, with a new ‘smart loft’ building of 11 stories wrapping up and over it. The integration of the existing building with the new 11 story steel & glass structure will create a mediation between past and present. At the ground floor the curtain wall folds out to form an overhead canopy for the entry area to the lobby, retail and art gallery, accessible from the street by a concrete ramp and stair. This fosters a more reactive streetscape, which eases the transition of the former industrial area into an integrated residential neighborhood.”

GW 497 – The curtain wall folds out to form an overhead canopy

GW 497

GW 497 – View of the façade

GW 497 – The double glass wall

WINKA DUBBELDAM

SCARFITECTURE GUATEMALA Guatemala, Central America “The project consists of asking eight international, well-known architects to create an image, texture, or painting (e.g., a drawing, collage, water color, etc.) on a 2m x 4cm paper. Their designs or images will then be rendered into woven textiles by artisans of Ecolibri (www.ecolibri.org) at Lake Atitlan, Guatemala using a back-strap loom and sustainable materials such as naturally dyed threads and reclaimed/recycled materials like unraveled old sweaters. They will either be sold as wall hangings or shawls/scarves.”

SCARFITECTURE GUATEMALA – The inspiration came from fish scales and their geometrical pattern

SCARFITECTURE GUATEMALA – Original pattern used

SCARFITECTURE GUATEMALA

SCARFITECTURE GUATEMALA – The final fabric

WINKA DUBBELDAM

FRIDA ESCOBEDO

MEXICO CITY, MEXICO

EDUCATION Frida Escobedo (1979, Mexico City) holds a Bachelor degree in Architecture and Urbanism from the Universidad Iberoamericana, Mexico City, and a Masters degree in Art, Design and the Public Domain from the Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD). In 2003 founded the architecture studio Perro Rojo with Alejandro Alarcón. In 2006 founded her own practice. From 2007 to 2010 taught design studio at the Universidad Iberoamericana. Invited as final review juror at the GSD, Boston Architectural College and TEC de Monterrey campus Queretaro. In 2009 was selected for the Young Architects Forum organized by the Architectural League in New York. In 2004 received the Scholarship for Young Creators in Mexico and in 2008 was selected by Herzog and De Meuron to participate as one of the 100 young designers of a villa for the Ordos 100 project in Inner Mongolia, China. This year her work was selected to be presented at the Mexican Pavillion for the Venice Biennale and at the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts in San Francisco. Recently nominated for the Rolex Mentor-Protégé initiative, where she became one of the three finalists. Frida Escobedo´s work has generally – but almost coincidentally – addressed the residual and the forgotten: from decadent suburbs being subdivided, to rundown tourist spots, from unused rooftops to basements.

With a degree in architecture from Mexico City, Frida Escobedo draws her cultural references from the American and international scene, in which she moves at great ease despite her very young age. The strongest reference to Mexico’s extremely difficult social and economic situation is the “unfinished” or, better, the “never begun” condition of the city and the country, as a result of which Escobedo has intervened on very popular issues, such as 20th century Mexican populist art: for the David Alfaro Siqueiros Museum (together with Diego Rivera, the best-known mural painter of post-revolutionary Mexico), she has adapted an industrial space used by the artist as a studio in the 1960s and 1970s, surrounding it with simple semitransparent masonry structures created from uncovered cement elements. For a temporary installation in the Eco Museum, also in Mexico City, she created an external structure, a sort of playground for adults or children, again creating a serial composition of modular elements in poor materials.

FRIDA ESCOBEDO

LA TALLERA Cuernavaca, Mexico

“At first glance, the recently inaugurated La Tallera Siqueiros Museum, designed by Mexico Citybased architect Frida Escobedo in Cuernavaca, Mexico, seems like a tribute to the country’s past. The raw, pyramid-patterned concrete-block screen facade that masks its interior could be read as a salute to the distinct language of government-funded Mexican modernism – an architectural style that is deeply rooted in the country’s collective imaginary. In other words what the new Tallera Siqueiros really represents is a transitional period in the production of contemporary Mexican culture; a new working strategy that is representative of a new generation of practitioners who disguise themselves in an attempt to radically break out of a legacy that no longer represents them.

LA TALLERA – The two existing gigantic Siqueiros murals reconfigured and positioned to face outwards towards a neighboring public square

LA TALLERA

FRIDA ESCOBEDO

LA TALLERA – The perimetral wall, making the private patio public and extending the square’s dimensions

LA TALLERA – The exposed concrete “veil”

LA TALLERA

LA TALLERA – Detail of the concrete wall

LA TALLERA – The wall/building connection

FRIDA ESCOBEDO

EL ECO PAVILION Mexico City

“This proposal for a pavilion in the El Eco Museum, aims to expand the programmatic possibilities of the courtyard by generating a flexible medium or platform made up of one single element: cinder block. The courtyard, covered in a uniform pattern, could work like a blank page where different arrangements (or uses) could be made. This design allows different sceneries to take place in a four-month period in which the pavilion will remain in the courtyard. These are some of the configurations that could be arranged according to the calendar of activities of the Museum: CAMPO (field); PARQUE (park); HUERTO (orchard); FORO (stage); LABERINTO (labyrinth); BAR.”

EL ECO PAVILION – Detail of the cinder blocks

EL ECO PAVILION

EL ECO PAVILION – Detail of the courtyard

FRIDA ESCOBEDO

NANDA ESKES

NEARQUITETURA RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL

EDUCATION Born in 1974 in Santa Rosa de La Pampa, Argentina with Brazilian and Dutch nationality. Founder and director of the firm “nanda eskes arquitetura” Partner of the firm “atelier” EDUCATION 2000 Diploma of Architecture and Urban Design Paris University - Belleville Paris, France, PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE IN ARCHITECTURE 2010-2011 Ecological House - Santa Teresa 2010-2011 Homeless World Cup - International Competition for a Community Center in Santa Cruz, winning project along with Thorsten Nolte. First stage of construction completed. 2011 Cultural Center - Morro de Santo António, Lapa, RJ 2010-2011 Santa Teresa Hotel Annex Project - under development June 2010 Gloria Harbor Competition together with Julien de Smedt. 2010-2011 Sucupira’s House Dec 2009 Honourable Mention in European competition, Denmark. 2009-2010 Malu Barreto’s Apartment, Leblon 2006 Atelier Tunga: Renovation of 450 sq.m. for working atelier, Joá Road, Barra da Tijuca, RJ Mama Ruisa Hotel: Renovation and Interiors Santa Teresa, RJ 2004-2005 Agence Christian de Portzamparc: Project Coordinator. Rio de Janeiro and Paris. 1998/2005 Founded nanda eskes arquitetura, Rio de Janeiro, RJ 2004:

In a country like Brazil, where new architectural forms struggle to become established under the weight of a strong modernist tradition, Nanda Eskes’ work is in harmony with Brazil’s new political development model, which intends to ensure that the historically disadvantaged sections of the population are no longer “left behind” with respect to richer, better educated groups. An example of this radical approach is the Legacy Center for the Homeless World Cup – an annual soccer world championship for the homeless, held in 2010 in Rio de Janeiro. The metal and wood panel center was built with a very low budget: constructed in just three months, it will house the Bola Pra Frente Institute, created by Brazil’s soccer champion Jorginho to help children and youngsters living in hazardous social conditions. Similarly, the Morro de Alba Cultural Center is intended to stimulate direct engagement of the general public with street and district art.

NANDA ESKEs

HOMELESS WORLDCUP LEGACY CENTER Santa Cruz, Rio de Janeiro “The Homeless World Cup is an annual event, in which teams composed by homeless people from all over the world meet for a Football World Cup. In 2010 the tournament took place in Rio de Janeiro. For the first time, the organizing committee decided to build a Legacy Center, whose objective is to create continuity of the work with sport as a mean for social change. An international design competition for the Legacy Center has been organized by Architecture for Humanity. The present project is the winning design, divided in two construction phases, the first a public community facility, the second to host the Institute Bola Pra Frente. The entire building was a low budget construction based on metalic structure and wooden panels to form most of the walls. The construction took three months to be completed.”

HOMELESS WORLDCUP LEGACY CENTER – External view

HOMELESS WORLDCUP LEGACY CENTER

NANDA ESKES

HOMELESS WORLDCUP LEGACY CENTER – From top to bottom, ground floor , first floor and section of the courtyard

HOMELESS WORLDCUP LEGACY CENTER – Corner of the building from the backyard

NANDA ESKES

ATELIER TUNGA Barra da Tijuca, Rio de Janeiro

“An abandoned metallic structure, on a site in Barra da Tijuca, gave the idea of a workshop and storage place for the Brazilian artist Tunga. The main challenge here was to imagine a façade that may provide light, ventilation, protection against the sun, and security. The proposal was to compose a double façade made of a system of doors with sliding panels. The first panel, made on canvas, protects the building from rain and sun; the second, on metallic trellis, provides safety. The movement of the sliding doors during the day crates a dynamics of light, which continually transforms the space.”

ATELIER TUNGA – Details of the staircase and the covering

ATELIER TUNGA

NANDA ESKES

ATELIER TUNGA – Detail of the interior with the earth wall

NANDA ESKES

CULTURAL CENTER Morro St António, Rio de Janeiro

“The Lapa has always been an area of street art. The intent is to aggregate multiple forms that unite art, thought and culture in one location. The project aims to form a point of culture that present different forms of street art, contemplating gardens, galleries, an art center and a pub. The Morro Santo António aims to provide the occupation groups of street art and movement of people, appreciative of urban art, to engage, develop and evolve this art, and create awareness of street art as a form of free expression accessible to all citizens so they can interact with the urban space, caring and embellishing it with his personality and his art.”

CULTURAL CENTER – Site map

CULTURAL CENTER

NANDA ESKES

CULTURAL CENTER – Rendering of the complex

CULTURAL CENTER – Rendering of the walkways

CULTURAL CENTER

CULTURAL CENTER – Rendering of the central plaza

NANDA ESKES

SHAHirA FAHMY

SHAHIRA FAHMY ARCHITECTS GIzA, GIz zA, eGYPT EdUCAtio UCA N UCAtio Shahira Fahmy is a Cairo based architect and founder of Shahira Fahmy Architects, a design studio that has emerged as one of the most innovative design-focused practices in the middle-east, with projects ranging from urban architecture to interiors and product design. Shahira graduated from the architecture school at Cairo University in 1997, completed her master’s master’ degree in 2004 and went on to collaborate in a number of her key projects with names like Dar El-Handasah, Legorretta and Legorreta, Pierre Yves Rochon, Abdelhalim Ibrahim and Sasaki. Today, the practice is known for its broad work spectrum, versatility and attention to detail. It has won numerous awards and competitions for its work since 2005, including the design of the winning proposal for expansion of the Delfina Foundation London, in collaboration with Studio Octopi in 2012, Andermatt Swiss Alps Planning and Architecture Competition in 2011 in Switzerland and The Green Good Design award in 2010 from the Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design to name just a few. ProFESSioNAll WorKS 2012 Home Exhibition at the London Architecture Festival. Mosaic Rooms - A.M. Qattan Foundation. Museum Of Architecture - British Council, London. 2011 A-house diplomats village, north coast, Egypt 2011 Andermatt Swiss Alps: planning & architecture competition finalist. Tourist resort. Orascom hotels & developments Egypt 2011 Delfina Foundation in collaboration with studio octopi. Winner of the delfina headquarters expansion competition. London. Under construction 2010 Designopolis Sheikh Zayed City City, Egypt. Commercial, Retail. Bonyan Developments. Completed 2010 Hk house. Allegria, Sheikh Zayed, Egypt. Private residence 2009 TTamarai. Nile city towers, Egypt. Bar and lounge, Ethos Properties 2009 Shahira Fahmy architects studio. Designopolis, Sheikh Zayed, Egypt. Commercial retail 2008 Block 36 -Westown. Sheikh Zayed City, Egypt. Residential. Sodic Egypt + Solidere Lebanon 2008 The Hill, Allegria. Residential. Sodic Egypt + Solidere Lebanon. Under construction

The Shaira Fahmy Architects firm is led by an architect who, though still young, is already highly successful in a wide range of activities, from residential districts to shopping malls and industry parks. Shaira Fahmy represents a school of thought that takes the forms of avant-garde western culture in toto and introduces them into the Middle eeastern landscape and suburban fabric: examples include the “Allegria” Compound or the Designopolis shopping mall along the Cairo/Alexandria motorway. Her buildings’ forms and structures (mainly using reinforced concrete) adopt a highly eclectic idiom, ranging from clear references to early deconstructivism to a cutting-edge “International Style” in private homes. Highly active at international conferences and presentations, Shaira Fahmy participates in many architecture and design exhibit exhibitions.

SHAHIRA FAHMY

DESIGNOPOLIS PLAZA Cairo-Alexandria Desert Road “Designopolis Commercial & Retail Park is a major landmark on the Cairo-Alexandria desert road. Its location and surroundings, such as the informal agricultural land on the outskirts of Cairo that contrasts with the informal settlements and buildings have inspired the concept of the grid system and the need to enforce such areas, which was shown by the horizontal grids that reflect the buildings. To enforce the grid concept, the axis of the entrances were placed perpendicularly to the grid, leading to the main nodes. The feeling of the different types of agricultural land was shown through the different colors, patterns: curves and linear, and heights not only in the architectural manner but also in the urban landscape planning such as the plants and trees. Mainly national plants were used making it more environmental friendly, consuming less water, and humid tolerant.”

DESIGNOPOLIS PLAZA – General view

DESIGNOPOLIS PLAZA

SHAHIRA FAHMY

DESIGNOPOLIS PLAZA – The external pedestrian walkway enforcing the grid concept

SHAHIRA FAHMY

E2 INDUSTRIAL PARK Industrial zone, Cairo

“Engineering Square the first automotive industrial park under the Egyptian–EU association agreement, offers sophisticated management facility and a unique infrastructure formula, provided to local and foreign investors and companies to open their own plants and factories with support system of the infrastructure of the park. This is the building to host and service the factories from administrative work, the operation of the park, and to allow the enterprises to use the communal facilities as a platform for them. From conference rooms, business center, workshops studios, educational services and classes, government office to facilitate the permits approval and procedure, to postal services, multipurpose room for events, logistic center and offices for rent, training center.”

E2 INDUSTRIAL PARK – External view

DESIGNOPOLIS PLAZA

SHAHIRA FAHMY

E2 INDUSTRIAL PARK – The courtyard

lUiSA FoNtANA t tANA FONTANA ATELIER SCHIO, ITAlY

EdUCAtio UCA N UCAtio Born in Zurich (Switzerland), Luisa Fontana obtained a high-school diploma in sciences and arts and graduated from the IUAV University of Venice where she lectured for about ten years as she established her architecture practice. In the 1990s she set up her practice in Schio, operating in both the public and private fields, from industrial and interior design to urban areas, housing, schools, hospitals, business, cultural, religious and military buildings. Sensitive to issues of accessibility, Luisa Fontana is a member of the C.E.R.P.A. (Centro Europeo di Ricerca e Promozione dell’Accessibilità) and a partner of Tecnothon, the research body of Telethon. Her projects are engineered by international engineering firms with whom she collaborates on pilot projects in ergonomic, sustainability and energy saving issues. Has been involved in social products for the Fondazione Exodus Onlus. Has worked as an assistant and visiting professor at the IUAV of Venice, at the Faculty of Architecture - University of Manitoba (Canada) and at the École d’Architecture de Paysage - Université de Montréal (Canada). Has research agreements in place with universities in the field of technical physics of buildings for the development of advanced bioclimatic solutions based on thermodynamic and fluid dynamic modelling. Students from many Italian and international universities have written degree theses and taken architecture and engineering examinations concerning her projects. Fontana has exhibited her work around the world, for example, in Spain at the III Biennal Europea de Paisatge in Barcelona (2003); in China at the Nanjing Museum in “Tradition and Modernity. The Italian experience in architectonic and urban re-qualification” (2006); in Brazil, at the Italian Pavilion at the V Architecture Biennale “Contemporary Ecologies” in Brasilia (2006); in Japan at the Sendai Mediatheque and Acros Fukuoka with “High Touch – Italian Design for Everyone” (2007); in Italy at the Rome Aquarium, a one-woman exhibition “LuisaFONTANAtelier. Global architecture” (2010) and in Schio (VI) “The sustainability construction site directed by LuisaFONTANAtelier” at the Conte Wool Mill (2011).

An original figure in the Italian landscape, luisa Fontana adopts a highly personal approach to design, detached from current models, even at formal level. Her references range from the organic architecture of Wright’s last works to “pop” research on minimalist dwellings, but in general she adopts an independent language that seeks to overcome traditionalist resistance in an Italy heavily influenced by the constraint constraints of its history and monuments. Although she works in a “minor” city (Vicenza), a hallmark of her projects is their success in introducing the values of research into a region not always open to innovation. While she works on a smaller scale, her projects – the Urban Center of Thiene is exemplary – aim to convey forcefully the presence of a contemporary element and the possibility of harmonious coexistence with the historic city. Fontana also has an interesting career as a robotics designer with euroimpianti, a company based in the Veneto region.

LUISA FONTANA

CHILDREN CENTER Padova, Italy “The new Children’s Center, commissioned by Padua’s Industrial and River Port Consortium in response to demand from local workers, will be open all year round, for children aged from 3 months to 6 years. The facility has been conceived as an organism, consisting of cocoon-shaped classrooms linked by a common services area. The result is a stimulating ergonomic area tailored to children, with a strong emphasis on nature. The sunroom extensions in the cocoon-shaped classrooms and large internal garden overlooked by the attractive multifunctional room create a visual continuum with the large tree park in which the building is set.”

CHILDREN CENTER – Aerial view

CHILDREN CENTER

LUISA FONTANA

CHILDREN CENTER – Detail of a “cocoon” classroom

CHILDREN CENTER – Left, children’s bathrooms. Right, the classrooms with view on the park

CHILDREN CENTER

LUISA FONTANA

CHILDREN CENTER – A mosaic decorated wall

LUISA FONTANA

URBAN CENTER Thiene, Italy

“Built in steel, copper and glass, the new space in the old city center communicates through difference with the historic building, emphasizing its status as a contemporary structure. It was the introduction of this modern idiom that made the approval procedure so long and complex. In addition to creating a harmonious blend of history and modernity, the building is an example of intelligent design and energy efficiency, where the multiple strategies it employs are integrated into a single coherent energy concept. The bioclimatic building has been conceived, developed and designed to reduce energy consumption and limit CO2 emissions, according to the European and national directives based on the Kyoto Treaty undersigned by Italy.”

URBAN CENTER – The insertion of the new complex in the historical context

URBAN CENTER

LUISA FONTANA

URBAN CENTER – The visually strong connection between the old and new buildings

URBAN CENTER – Detail of the intrados of the wooden roof

URBAN CENTER

URBAN CENTER – Detail of the internal spaces

LUISA FONTANA

BELINDA HUANG ARC10 STUDIO SINGAPORE

BIOGRAPHY Belinda Huang studied Architecture at the National University of Singapore and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Architectural Studies in 1989 and in 1992 completed her Diploma in Architecture in Bartlett, UK. In her Board of Architects Professional Practice Examination in 1996, Belinda received a merit award as top scorer. With over 12 years of experience Belinda has been involved in a wide variety of regional and international projects ranging from small luxury homes, high density housing and resorts to large scale townships, hotels, commercial complexes and skyscrapers. In 1999, Belinda co-founded Arc Studio, a Singapore based firm, which has enjoyed rapid growth in the past 5 years. Arc Studio now employs around 30 architects, designers, architectural technicians and administrative staff. Belinda is deeply interested in education and promoting creative thinking among the young. In 2007 she collaborated with URA to facilitate the Young Urbanism Programme. She is now germinating ideas for promoting architecture in primary and pre-school education. Since 2012 Belinda is also collaborating with the Down Syndrome Association of Singapore in the organization and support of multiple activities related to the association. Arc Studio is currently completing the renovation of the new premises of the Down Syndrome Association. PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT 2010 SMC for St Anthony’s Canossian School 2009 Present Member of the Design and Media Academic Advisory Committee for ITE 2003 Elected member of the Royal Institute of British Architects 1997 Registered with Board of Architects, Singapore 1992 RIBA (Part II)

Belinda Huang is the principal of the Arc Studio in Singapore, together with architect Khoo Peng Beng. The firm is making a name for itself in the highly dynamic architecture community of South East Asia, where Huang has completed many buildings, experimenting with a contemporary idiom not without spectacular elements, especially in housing. Her design research also extends to components, for example in the Pinnacle@Duxton project of seven 50-story towers for a total of 1,848 apartments: residents were offered a choice of facades (windows, planters, balconies) so they could “customize” their apartments and give the complex a more varied and lighter appearance. Belinda Huang is particularly active in social and humanitarian initiatives; one of her current projects is the extension of the Don Bosco Technical School in Phnom Penh (Cambodia).

BELINDA HUANG

PINNACLE@DUXTON Singapore

“Soaring at 50-storeys, Pinnacle@Duxton redefines high-rise high-density living and challenges the conventions of public housing as an architectural typology. The project addresses pragmatic, financial, social issues, and responds sensitively to a myriad of planning constraints. It boldly demonstrates a sustainable and livable urban high-rise high-density living and initiates an innovative typology of public communal spaces that are metaphorically reclaimed from the air. On the 26th and 50th storey, continuous Sky Gardens weave through the seven tower blocks, forming a simple yet powerful sculptural skyline. These thematic gardens are an extension of the living environment for residents and provide diverse spaces for community interaction whilst overlooking the city. As a public housing project, it addresses concerns for security, maintainability and cost effectiveness, and displays sensitivity to the relationship between high-rise high-density living and the human scale. The Pinnacle@Duxton demonstrates how design provides solutions to complex issues in an elegant manner.”

PINNACLE@DUXTON – Aerial view of the complex overlooking the city

PINNACLE@DUXTON

BELINDA HUANG

PINNACLE@DUXTON – The continuous Sky Gardens terrace

PINNACLE@DUXTON – Detail of the façade

PINNACLE@DUXTON

BELINDA HUANG

PINNACLE@DUXTON – General views of the seven tower blocks

PINNACLE@DUXTON – A new architectural surface efficiently organizes vehicular and pedestrian circulation

BELINDA HUANG

ATMOSPHERE Kolkata, India

“Atmosphere is a high-rise residential development to be built in Kolkata, India. Located on the Eastern Metropolitan Bypass, bordered by wetlands, the eighty units are of a new housing typology for the city. Atmosphere’s duplex and simplex units are equivalent in size to large bungalows traditionally lived in, and likewise can accommodate multigenerational families. Spanning between the towers, one hundred meters up in the sky is a glistening porous amorphous form named Deya. Meaning “to give” in Bengali, Deya houses club facilities for the residents of Atmosphere. As an integral part of Hindu life, each unit is compliant to the ancient science of Vaastu. Traditionally, arranging and ordering the home according to this system promotes harmonious living within the universe. For a high-rise development, this complex system of rules extends beyond the simply the units, and encompasses the whole physical form.”

ATMOSPHERE – General view of the building considered as a point of reference for the people of Kolkata

ATMOSPHERE

ATMOSPHERE – Aerial view of the roof gardens

BELINDA HUANG

CARLA JUAÇABA

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL

BIOGRAPHY Born in 1976, since 2000 Carla Juaçaba has been developing her independent architecture and research practice in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Her office is currently engaged in both public and private projects, focusing on housing and cultural programs. Since her undergraduate student days she has worked with the architect Gisela Magalhães of Niemeyer’s generation, mostly in the area of exhibitions related to Brazilian native arts and historical museums. During her first year after college (2000) she worked with another architect, Mario Fraga, on the “Atelier House” project. Subsequently, a series of projects such as the “Rio Bonito house” (2005), the “Varanda House”(2007), the “Minimum House” (2008), the “Santa Teresa House” in its final stage (2012) and a couple of exhibition designs were conceived. Current works include the ephemeral “Humanidade 2012” pavilion conceived with senior scenographer and theatre director, Bia Lessa, for Rio Mas 20, the recent international meeting held in Rio de Janeiro, as well as tow houses on the outskirts of Rio. Carla Juaçaba is continually involved in academic and teaching activities, as well as research, lectures, biennales, exhibitions and was recently a member of the Jury at the BIAU Bienal Ibero Americana in Madrid (2012). She is currently teaching at FAU-PUC RJ Pontifícia Universidade Católica. Her work is focused on the intrinsic issue of discipline: the poetics of tectonics and its expressive potential. EDUCATION 1999 Bachelor Degree in Architecture and Urbanism, Santa Ursula University in Rio de Janeiro. 2004 Post graduate course on structures, Catholic University in Rio de Janeiro. COMPETITIONS 2012 National Competition for Olympic Golf, Rio de Janeiro 2010 National Competition for the new Environment Museum, Rio de Janeiro 2008 UIA International Competition, Turin 2003 Nam June Park Museum competition, Korea 2000 1st prize CSN na Construção Civil Graduation Project Competition

Carla Juacaba skips the weighty influence of historic modernism to develop methods and construction approaches closer to the temporary and ephemeral nature of real conditions in Brazil. Her most exciting project in this research area, the Humanidade 2012 pavilion for Rio Mas 20 (the UN conference on sustainable development), was designed and built together with an artist, Bia Lessa, who also developed the design concept. The symbolic value of the pavilion, an impermanent structure, is heightened by the fact that Rio Mas 20 was an important opportunity for a global assessment of what is being done or not being done to save the Earth from environmental disaster. The best sustainability – Juacaba and Lessa seem to say – is achieved with low-cost, easily dismantled and continually recyclable constructions like the scaffolding tubes that form the 170 m long, 20 m high pavilion.

CARLA JUAÇABA

PAVILION HUMANIDADE Rio de Janeiro

“The ephemeral pavilion Humanidade 2012 for Rio Mas 20, built for the recent international meeting held in Rio de Janeiro, housed private events and also an exhibition open for the public that received 220,000 people in two weeks. The exhibition about sustainability was conceived by the senior scenographer Bia Lessa and the architecture by Carla Juaçaba. The structure is composed of 5 structural walls measuring 170m in length and 20 meters high, with 5,40 meters in between them, creating a suspended walkway over Rio’s landscape. One of the main goals in architecture concerning sustainability is to build with what you have in hand. The materials we used are sustainable, meaning that everything is 100% reusable.”

PAVILION HUMANIDADE – General view

PAVILION HUMANIDADE

CARLA JUAÇABA

PAVILION HUMANIDADE – View of the complex from the sea

PAVILION HUMANIDADE – Detail of the suspended walkways

PAVILION HUMANIDADE

PAVILION HUMANIDADE – Nocturnal view of the pavilion

CARLA JUAÇABA

VARANDA HOUSE Rio de Janeiro

“A house made for the granddaughter of architect Sergio Bernardes and a Colombian artist was a challenge. The house divides the field into two in length, the skylight (24 m x 60 m) is a feature that accentuates that division. This implementation has been the beginning of the project. The primary objective was to preserve all trees. The structure of steel was built in 15 days. The advantage of steel is that we can give the proportions we want to the material, what changes is the thickness of the sheet. The cover is of zinc-aluminum tiles, sandwich, which have been placed in one day.”

VARANDA HOUSE – The glasshouse immersed in nature

VARANDA HOUSE

VARANDA HOUSE – The transparent structure of steel and glass

VARANDA HOUSE – Natural light flowing from the roof

CARLA JUAÇABA

ANUPAMA KUNDOO TAMIL NADU, INDIA

BIOGRAPHY Born in Pune, India, in 1967, married with two children. Practicing architect since 1990, with over a hundred projects implemented. The practice has a strong focus on material research and sustainable architecture, supported by extensive research and experimentation, from the development of building technologies to building prototypes that are environmentally sound and socio-economically beneficial. The projects range from planning and urban design to architecture and detailed design of building systems. EDUCATION 2005 - 2008 PhD Studies (Dr.-Ing.) Technische Universität, Berlin. Building with Fire. Baked Insitu Mud Houses of India. Evolution and Analysis of Ray Meeker Experiments 1996 - 1997 Vastu Shilpa Research Fellowship, Ahmedabad. Urban Eco-Community: Design and Analysis for Sustainability 1984 - 1989 Sir J. J. College of Architecture, University of Mumbai. SELECTED TEACHING EXPERIENCE 2012 Onwards University of Queensland, Brisbane 2011 Parsons, the New School of Design, New York LIST OF WORKS 2010 Auditorium and Library, Dacca 2009 Keystone Tribal Crafts Center, Kotagiri 2009 Keystone Honey Processing Unit, Kotagiri 2008 Volontariat Orphanage, Pondicherry 2006 Auroville Town Hall, Auroville 2005 - 2006 MITRA Youth Hostel, Auroville 2005 - 2007 Sports Facilities, New Creation, Auroville 2005 - 2007 Mereville Trust, Incense Factory, Auroville

Based on the use of “poor” materials and methods and close attention to the social function of architecture, Anupama Kundoo’s work is a convincing alternative to the new forms of International Style, which give many of today’s buildings a standardized look, even in the emerging countries. Her research focuses on design methods suited to the construction of sustainable buildings with very basic materials, like the sun-dried mud bricks of the Volontariat Homes for Homeless Children in Pondicherry (India), or the terracotta cones and glass bottles juxtaposed to form arches as supports for the roof of the Wall House. The reconstruction of her house made from bricks and recycled materials at the Venice 2012 Architecture Biennale brought her international fame: taken out of its original context it created a highly theatrical effect, yet it could give the impression of being a one-off art installation rather than a design project.

ANUPAMA KUNDOO

VOLONTARIAT HOMES Pondicherry, India

“This project was built using a rare technology pioneered by Ray Meeker of Golden Bridge Pottery, which consists of baking a mud house in situ, after constructing it. A fired house or a fire-stabilised mud house is in principle, a mud house built with mud bricks and mud mortar that is cooked after building as a whole to achieve the strength of brick. A social project with cost as a major aspect that informed design, the project uses many unconventional materials as well as absorbs urban waste. Bicycles wheel frames were used as formwork for windows and later as window grills. Glass bottles were used as structural units for masonry in the toilet and wet areas. Glass chai cups were used to finish the openings at the top of the dome. This highly experimental project is an example of radical thinking that is being explored to approach the problem of affordability of housing for all, and more over integrally sustainable in all its aspects”

VOLONTARIAT HOMES – A mud house at night ”baked” by a fire burning inside

VOLONTARIAT HOMES

ANUPAMA KUNDOO

VOLONTARIAT HOMES – The construction site

ANUPAMA KUNDOO

URBAN ECO-COMMUNITY Auroville, India

“The housing project demonstrates an example for low density development that is urban in character. Streets are created on upper levels that are connected through external stairways to achieve connectivity and community. A feature that is found usually in ground levels of preautomobile times is taken into the structure and these lively ‘streets’ characterize the sense of the community. These ‘streets’ are set back from the building façade to allow privacy to the housing units but also to enable hot air exhaust by increasing the air-stack effect by creating voids along the windows of the lower levels.”

URBAN ECO-COMMUNITY – The courtyard

URBAN ECO-COMMUNITY

ANUPAMA KUNDOO

URBAN ECO-COMMUNITY – View of the suspended “streets” connected through external stairways to achieve connectivity and community

ANUPAMA KUNDOO

WALL HOUSE ONE TO ONE Venice Biennale, Italy

“Full scale architecture was constructed within the Corderie of the Arsenale in response to the theme ‘Common Ground’ demonstrating a range of innovative technologies that utilize geometry and structural efficiency to shape architecture in a way that it reduces resource consumption drastically while improving socio-economic conditions locally. The project was constructed by 30 architecture and engineering students from Brisbane and Venice including 60% female students and 40% male students with the support of 6 Indian craftsmen. This project is also a research into fired clay and its potential in architecture in the way it extends its application in walls, floors as well as roof construction.”

WALL HOUSE ONE TO ONE – Contemporary brick work reviving the ancient Indian achakal brick

WALL HOUSE ONE TO ONE

ANUPAMA KUNDOO

WALL HOUSE ONE TO ONE – View of the catenary vaults made of interlocking terracotta cones

WALL HOUSE ONE TO ONE – On the foreground a cement-stabilized rammed earth wall with a roof system of terracotta hollow unit

LIS MIJNSSEN - PAOLA MARANTA - GABI FAEH

ZURICH, SWITZERLAND

LIS MIJNSSEN - Designer, Investor, Entrepreneur Born in New York (1956), Lis Mijnssen lives and works in Zürich and Zumikon. Internship with Franco Annoni, sculptor, Lucerne. Studies at Kunstgewerbeschule (School of Applied Arts and Crafts); free sculptural internship at Kunstgewerbeschule St. Gallen. PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES From 1996 to present day, representing the Mijnssen-Gyr family on Board of Trustees of Kulturstiftung Landis & Gyr, Zug, a foundation for cultural promotion awarding studio grants to artists, writers, musicians and researchers (locations in London, Berlin, Zug, Sofia, Bucharest). Since 2013 designated Chair of the Board and Main Shareholder of Hammam Basar AG (in formation), involved in product and sales mix development. In co-operation with interior architect Gabi Faeh, interior and product design (for the Hammam Basar). Investor and principal of the Hammam Basar; acquiring party of open space in the northern half of Patumbahpark; developer of the Patumbah Project. In 1997, project initiator and founder of the Ein Hammam für Zürich project group: funding and implementation of the Hammam Basar and overall Patumbahpark concept. PAOLA MARANTA - Architect, Dip. ETH BSA - SIA MBA IMD

Born in Chur (1959), Switzerland, Paola Maranta lives and works in Basel. Management Consultant, McKinsey & Co., Zürich, 1991–1994. Master in Business Administration, IMD Lausanne, 1990. Graduated from ETH Zürich, 1986. Studies in architecture at EPF Lausanne and ETH Zürich. PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES In 1994 Paola Maranta and Quintus Miller founded their joint architectural studio in Basel. The team has received orders and multiple awards, most recently for the conversion and extension of the historic Alpine refuge, Altes Hospiz St. Gotthard Pass (2010), preceded by Mineralbad, Samedan (a new spa, 2009), restoration and extension of Villa Garbald, Castasegna (2004), Schwarzpark residential complex, Basel (2004) and a school complex, Volta Schulhaus, Basel (2000). Miller & Maranta and their team of 45 people are currently pursuing contemporary residential projects in Basel and Zürich, refurbishment and renovation of historic urban structures, hotels and gastronomy projects in Zürich and Basel, a Grand Hotel in Switzerland’s Engadine valley and an office complex with delicatessen in Berlin. Paola Maranta is a member of the Ortsbildkommission (aesthetic town planning committee) of Riehen, near Basel. GABI FAEH - interior architect, dip. ing. , professional journalist Born in Glarus (1956), Switzerland, Gabi Faeh lives and works in Zürich. Federal Graduate, Draftswoman in Structural Engineering. Federal Graduate, Design: Gestalterische Berufsmittelschule, Kunstgewerbeschule, Zürich. Graduate, Stuttgart State Academy of Art and Design. Graduate, International Association of Colour Consultants IACC, Salzburg PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES Interior architecture, structural consultant for a single-family home in Erlenbach (Lake Zürich) and an apartment building in Berne. Work in progress. In co-operation with Lis Mijnssen, interior architecture, product design and structural design consultant for hammam and apartment projects, Patumbahpark, Zürich, Mühlebachstrasse section (Miller & Maranta, Basel, architects). Work in progress. Conversion project (kitchen, bathrooms, entrance area) for a single-family Haus Merz building. 1958–1959, Môtier (Atelier 5, Bern, architects). Work in progress. On Executive Board of imaai design concepts Zürich, 2008–2010; responsible for general planning, purchasing, sales mix and exhibition design. On Executive Board of Zingg-Lamprecht AG, furnishings, 2003–2008; responsible for general planning, purchasing, sales mix, exhibition design and corporate visual communication. Editor in chief, Archithema publishers, Zürich: publications on furniture, lighting and kitchen design. Project at expo.02 (Swiss National Exhibition, 2002) for Geberit Schweiz AG, on public sanitary facilities as “family theme parks”.

This grouping is an interesting example of integration among different competences for the organic development of a sustainable building. The businesswoman and patron of the arts Lis Mijnssen has created a design group to develop a mixed complex including houses, a wellness center (Hammam) and a park, named Patumbah Park. The group consists largely of women: Paola Maranta is the author of the architectural project (at the Miller and Maranta firm), Gabi Faeh is responsible for interior design and furnishings. All the construction processes and finishes, as well as the actual materials, are closely controlled from an environmental viewpoint, in line with the sustainable architecture principles promoted by Lis Mijnssen: some of the furniture has been made with timber from the trees that had to be removed from the site. The homes are intended mainly for families with children, the park in the complex is open to the public and is an integral part of a wider project for the redevelopment of an historic area of central Zurich (Villa Patumbah).

MIJNSSEN - MARANTA - FAEH

PATUMBAH PROJECT Zurich

“Two new, elongated, asymmetrical buildings inspired by the historic buildings and the romanticism of both the park and Villa Patumbah, and located on the periphery, seem to emerge from the park. The building along Mühlebachstrasse serves a variety of purposes. The southern end of the sculptural monolith contains the hammam, which rises across several floors adjacent to business units, while its northern end contains a complex of ten apartments. The project relies upon a holistic approach to the concept and its execution: the siting of the buildings took into consideration geomantic power points, water veins and geological faults. The harmonious architecture embodies the principles of Feng Shui and Vastu.”

PATUMBAH PROJECT – Aerial view of the complex

PATUMBAH PROJECT

MIJNSSEN - MARANTA - FAEH

PATUMBAH PROJECT – From top to bottom, plans of second floor, first floor and ground floor

PATUMBAH PROJECT – The Mashrabiyah façade element is integrated in the balustrades of the apartments

PATUMBAH PROJECT

MIJNSSEN - MARANTA - FAEH

PATUMBAH PROJECT – View of the Mashrabiyah façade from the park and in detail

PATUMBAH PROJECT – The interiors of a penthouse engaging a poetic dialogue with the exterior

MIJNSSEN - MARANTA - FAEH

PATUMBAH HAMMAM Zurich “The Orient has been the inspiration for the Hammam, a domed cube with Mashrabiyah doors and walls that screen the interior, protecting it from any indiscreet outside glimpses. The hammam is arranged in keeping with traditional cleansing rituals – a sequence of rooms whose temperature increases from tepid to warm to hot – also including a resting room and a massage section. Poetic inspiration led to sober, unpretentious solutions. The loam rendering conserves its natural hue; the walls in the wet zones are rendered in Terra di Pietra to emulate Moroccan Tadelakt. The interior color scheme and lighting bring a warm, discreet glow to the human skin.”

PATUMBAH HAMMAM – Detail of a Mashrabiyah door

PATUMBAH HAMMAM – The interior wit the Moroccan vault

PATUMBAH HAMMAM

MIJNSSEN - MARANTA - FAEH

PATUMBAH HAMMAM – The steam bathroom with light flooding from the vault

MARTA MNICH

VROA ARCHITECTS WROCLAW, POLAND BIOGRAPHY Born in 1979, architect. EDUCATION 2003 graduated from Wrocław Faculty of Architecture, Wroclaw University of Technology PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES 2003-2008 architect in Mackow Project Studio Wroclaw 2006 established VROA Architects with Lukasz Wojciechowski 2007 Professional architect licence 2008 ARB UK member 2009 Young Architect Title during Regional Architecture Review BAZA / 1st prize for concept projects in Lower Silesia PRIZES AND WORKS 2012 Wroclaw Contemporary Museum nominated for Mies van der Rohe Award 2013 2011 1st prize SUPERVISION for concept projects in Lower Silesia 2011 1st prize for Convention Center in Beautiful Wroclaw implementation competition 2011 1st prize in old and new World of Architecture category 2011 1st prize DOFA Friendly Public Space for Wroclaw Contemporary Museum 2011 Special mention in SARP implementation of the year competition for renovation of Wroclaw Contemporary Museum 2009 Young Architect Title during BAZA Regional Architecture Review 2007 1st prize in competition for restaurant pavilion extension net to Centennial Hall, Wroclaw 2006 3rd prize for FERIO Retail Center in Beautiful Wroclaw implementation competition (in Mackow PS) 2006 Runner up in international competition for Europan 8 housing estate, Milton Keynes UK

One of the youngest architects nominated for the award (she was born in 1979), Marta Mnich has successfully taken on the restoration of the unique modern heritage surviving from Poland’s difficult history. In the city of Wroclaw (Breslau/Breslavia), which was German until 1945, in the Congress Center created in the Expo 1913 Pavilion (overlooked by the famous Jahrhunderthalle, a huge building with concentric domes designed by Hans Poelzig), Mnich offers a sensitive and elegant reinterpretation of traditional modernist materials – glass and steel: the imposing personality of the complex is relieved by the public spaces, from the conference halls to the restaurant. Similarly, in the conversion into a contemporary art museum of a Nazi air-raid shelter, the only structure left standing in an area completely destroyed by bombing, reinforced concrete acquires transparency and luminosity with its great glass-walled openings. Both projects (developed jointly with Agnieszka Chrzanowska) restore a sense of poetry and freshness to two vestiges of the city’s and the Polish nation’s difficult past.

MNICH - CHRZANOWSKA

CONVENTION CENTER Wroclaw, Poland

“The whole complex – together with monumental Centennial Hall – was built in 1913 as a part of Fairgrounds in Wroclaw. The restaurant was burnt at the end of WWII, and only the structure survived. The building was remodeled for the Exhibition of Retaken Grounds – a communist propaganda fair, when it became the office and magazine facility. The new program was added in 2009 to create the biggest convention center in the region of Lower Silesia. The new volumes extending symmetrically to the East and West are the half of the size allowed in the competition brief. It was to preserve the unique views towards the Hall and neighboring Four Cupolas Pavilion by Hans Poelzig. The interior is open to the surroundings – the whole northern wall is glassed for breathtaking perspective to the pond.”

CONVENTION CENTER – View from the Pergola

CONVENTION CENTER

MNICH - CHRZANOWSKA

CONVENTION CENTER – Cross sections and floor plan of the complex

CONVENTION CENTER – Overall view

CONVENTION CENTER

CONVENTION CENTER – Detail of the glass façade

MNICH - CHRZANOWSKA

CONVENTION CENTER – Passage to the Centenial Hall

MNICH - CHRZANOWSKA

WROCLAW MUSEUM Wroclaw, Poland

“The converted building is the Nazi air raid shelter built in 1942. The reinforced concrete cylinder as one of few buildings survived the artillery attacks of 1945. For decades it was closed for public. The new museum program replaced cheap second-hand shops that had been existing there since 1990s. The claustrophobic interior has undergone critical renovation. The main goal of the project was to open interior by removing as many partition walls as possible and providing necessary functional divisions with mesh or glass. Thus new perspectives were open penetrating the depth of the building. The plaster finishing was removed, revealing the texture of reinforced concrete walls. New budget materials were exposed with their natural textures. Electricity and other installations were not covered providing flexible usage and service. The traces of saws and cuts used during construction were also exposed with their unique factures. The most important exterior element is glassed cafeteria following the shape of cylinder. The pavilion with surrounding terrace is accessible to public as a non-ticketed area.”

WROCLAW MUSEUM – General view

WROCLAW MUSEUM

MNICH - CHRZANOWSKA

WROCLAW MUSEUM – Detail of the internal walls which were cleaned out from plaster and the bare concrete was exposed

WROCLAW MUSEUM – Detail of the internal passageways

WROCLAW MUSEUM – Detail of an internal staircase

WROCLAW MUSEUM

MNICH - CHRZANOWSKA

WROCLAW MUSEUM – The concrete façade and a view of the internal staircases with the new glass openings

YUKO NAGAYAMA

YUKO NAGAYAMA & ASSOCIATES TOKYO, JAPAN BIOGRAPHY 1975 1998 1998-2002 2002 2006 2007 2008 2010 2011 WORKS 2012 2012 2011 2011 2011 2010 2010 2009 2009 2009 2008 2007 2007 2004

Born in Tokyo Graduated from SHOWA WOMEN’ S UNIVERSITY, Worked for Jun Aoki & Associates Established Yuko Nagayama & Associates Tokyo University of Science - Lecturer (Part-time) Kyoto Seika University - Lecturer (Part-time) Showa Women’ s University - Lecturer (Part-time) Ocyanomizu University - Lecturer (Part-time) Nagoya Institute of Technology - Lecturer (Part-time)

HOTARUNA /SHIP, Interior design KIYARYOKAN Hotel, Renovation Design KAYABA COFFEE Annex Office, Renovation design SiSII Show Room & Office, Interior design ANTEPRIMA Roma Brand Shop, Interior design ANTEPRIMA Beijing Brand Shop, Interior design ANTEPRIMA Shanghai Brand Shop, Interior design ANTEPRIMA Singapore Brand Shop, Interior design KAYABA COFFEE Cafe, Renovation design Yiang Ylang Brand Shop, Interior design URBANPREM MINAMIAOY AMA Architecture design for building Azumaya Tea Ceremony House, Architecture design for tea room Wontana Japanese restaurant, Fayade design LOUIS VUITTON Kyoto Daimaru Brand Shop, store façade design

A particularly striking feature of this young Japanese designer is her ability both to take on the more formalist image of contemporary architecture and to re-read the national tradition: in both cases with a combination of asceticism and construction simplicity. With regard to buildings for collective use, Nagayama chooses the most cost-effective and efficient material – reinforced concrete – the sole construction material used for the Urbanprem in Aoyama, whose hyperbolic form makes it a recognizable urban landmark in the typical confusion of Tokyo. The designer creates a magic box to communicate with nature and, consistently with Japanese tradition, with spirituality in the house for the Tea Ceremony in Chiba: light, space and landscape enter this small yet expressive building, assuming the same importance as the materials – chiefly wood – from which the house is built.

YUKO NAGAYAMA

URBANPREM Tokyo “This tenant building is in the residential neighborhood facing the narrow street from one block away from Aoyama Ave, by contrast to a number of tall buildings along the way. Situated in this gap between these two scales, we aim to stand the one in a way that doesn’t belong to both of these scales. The shape of the building is fairly bent skywards, like a stomach being stuck out forward, which does not allow people to tell how many stories it has in looking up the building from the street. The design of two slit patterned windows that opens on each level also makes unclear the scale. Sunlight reflected on the curved outer wall like gradation, while inside of the room it streams in through the windows. Based on the concept of abstraction, we design a new way of the encounter between architecture and people.”

URBANPREM – Detail of the exposed concrete façade protruding on the street

URBANPREM

YUKO NAGAYAMA

URBANPREM – The façade at daytime and nighttime

URBANPREM – Details of the façade shaped like a swollen belly

URBANPREM

URBANPREM – The façade viewed from the interior

YUKO NAGAYAMA

AZUMAYA Chiba, Japan

“This is a small wooden tea ceremony house that is situated on an offshore cliff facing Pacific Ocean. The steep cliff gives us the constraint to build it in a certain orientation, so that we visited the place to determine the arrangement, making clear the possible volume and parcel of lands and scenery at a given angle. From the top of the cliff, you see huge ocean and spectacular quay at the seashore. Moreover, there is almost no artificial object here in the natural park. What is outstanding is the stark contrast in scale between overwhelmingly great nature and small 4.5 mats. From these geographical characteristics, we aim to juxtapose the beautiful scenery in far place with this small tea ceremony like a Japanese landscape art.”

AZUMAYA – The tea ceremony house with the exposed wooden walls

AZUMAYA

YUKO NAGAYAMA

AZUMAYA – The stark contrast in scale between the small tea ceremony house and great nature

AZUMAYA – Plan and section of the tea ceremony house

100

AZUMAYA

YUKO NAGAYAMA

AZUMAYA – The interior of the tea house with the square opening overlooking the sea

AZUMAYA – Detail of the interiors and the cantilevered roof

101

NATALIA PASZKOWSKA

WWAA WARSAW, POLAND

BIOGRAPHY Born in Katowice, 1981. EDUCATION 2000 - 2005 Warsaw University of Technology 2008 Received Master in Architecture Degree from Warsaw University of Technology; Master Thesis and Diploma project: ‘Project Start’; social housing project concerning buildings constructed with pre-cast concrete panel technology (former workers’ hostels from 1973). PROFESSIONAL CAREER 2007 together with Marcin Mostafa founded WWAA architectural office, won first prize in competition for Polish Pavilion Expo 2010 Shanghai. 2008 first prize in competition for ‘SDK’ Cultural Center in Warsaw (together with 137 kilo) 2010 erection of Polish Pavilion in Shanghai, interior for ‘Televisor’ office, exhibitions in Warsaw such as “Chopin’s visiting card”, ‘Wreath‘, Kordegarda. 2011 first prize in competitions for Lotto kiosk and Permanent Exhibition in the Polish History Museum; erection of Prague Quadriennal 2011, event design and Polish Pavilion at ITU fair in Geneva. 2012 erection of ‘SDK’ Cultural Center and ‘Rebel One’ residential building (both in Warsaw), private gallery interior (Zurich), National Opera interiors (Warsaw). TEACHING 2008 - 2010 2010

Tutor during OSSA seminars (National Association of Architectural Students); ASK teacher (in 2011 her students won Warsaw ‘Przetwory’ design festival)

As Dorota Koziara, the advisor who nominated Natalia Paszkowska, writes, the distinguishing element of the work of this designer (at 32 the youngest nominee) is “her extensive and committed activity (…) in projects for the promotion, education and social and cultural valorization of space and the recovery of the territory, her involvement in difficult locations, respecting the memory of the sites and their evolution, maintaining a close link between past and present”. In this way Paszkowska moves successfully from a combination of decoration and spectacular impact for the Polish Pavilion at the Shanghai Expo, to the more methodical and “philologically imaginative” work on the SDK Cultural Center in Warsaw. In both cases, the reference to tradition (the patterns of the external surfaces in Shanghai, the sloping roofs of the buildings in Warsaw) is never folkloristic, but always interesting as a tool of architectonic invention.

102

NATALIA PASZKOWSKA

POLISH PAVILION Shanghai

“The nature of the exposition has to denote, by its aesthetic distinctiveness, the country of origin and constitute, by the strength of its stylistic connotations an evocative, recognizable and memorable cultural ideogram. In the design, the cultural idiom is primarily conveyed through the motif of folk-art paper cut-out. The outer layer of the elevation, with its characteristic design, is made of impregnated CNC-cut plywood mounted on steel construction modules with steel substructure. Both the exterior, entranceway surface and the interior of the pavilion will be covered with impregnated wooden paneling. The choice of materials and the character of construction were to a large extent dictated by the idea of possible future reclaiming and recycling of the pavilion structure or its parts, e.g. by reconstructing it in one of the Polish cities after the closing of EXPO.”

POLISH PAVILION – Rendering of the pavilion with the gigantic folk pattern façade

103

POLISH PAVILION

POLISH PAVILION – The pavilion seen from the entrance plaza

POLISH PAVILION – The pavilion at nighttime

104

NATALIA PASZKOWSKA

POLISH PAVILION

NATALIA PASZKOWSKA

POLISH PAVILION – Detail of the cut-out patterns seen from the inside

105

NATALIA PASZKOWSKA

CULTURAL CENTRE SDK Warsaw, Poland

“The final form of the Cultural Centre design was determined by two elements: the first, the situation and an urban context of the object, the second, its function defined by the programme. The existing, original cultural centre was also a source of inspiration, together with the adjacent ecological, educational farm and a survived country house. By adapting a traditional form of a farmstead, the design is not only deeply set in the tradition and culture of the place, it also shows respect for the borders of urban and functional zones and in a way employs a sort of convention of children’s iconography. Children visiting the Cultural Centre spend the majority of their time in typical, urban interiors, in the streets, shopping galleries, etc. Here, they have an opportunity of a direct contact with nature, they can spend some time with animals taking care of them or working in the educational garden, growing vegetables and fruit.”

CULTURAL CENTRE SDK – A view of the model with traditional and new architectural elements

106

CULTURAL CENTRE SDK

NATALIA PASZKOWSKA

CULTURAL CENTRE SDK – Detail of the building site

CULTURAL CENTRE SDK – The design tries to interconnect the traditional elements of urban layout with simple, natural finishing materials

107

GUNILLA SVENSSON

gunilla svensson arkitektkontor LUND, SWEDEN BIOGRAPHY 1983 Diploma in Architecture, Lunds Tekniska Högskola 1976 Cambridge University Proficiency Exam in English ARCHITECTURAL PRACTICE 1987 Gunilla Svensson Arkitektkontor (Own practice) 1982 - 1985 Archaeological work as architect, Roman Forum, Rome, Italy 1982 - 1987 Research work, medieval houses in Lazio, Italy 2006 Architect in charge of Landskrona Castle TEACHING 1998 - 2009 Guest Professor, architectural school, Lund University, 1998-2009. 2013 Teacher responsible for 32 Diploma works in architecture. SELECTION OF PROJECTS Hallqvist residential houses, Lund. 1994 1996 Hjarups school, Staffanstorp. 2001 Ingvar Kamprad Designcentrum, Lund University. 2008 Malmö West Harbour residential house. 2012 Masonry museum pavilion, Sibbhult.

A brilliant representative of Nordic pragmatism, Gunilla Svensson intervenes decisively in the central themes of welfare architecture: education and the right to housing, fundamental values in Swedish society, form the basis of her research into architectural materials, typologies and functions. Although the “tectonic” inspiration of Modernism is her starting point, Svensson achieves freer, more expressive solutions, as in her most imposing project: the IKDC DesignCentrum of Lund University, sponsored by the founder of Ikea, Ingvar Kamprad, with a donation of 30 million euro. The predominant material in the facades and structures is wood – a symbol of both Scandinavia’s design culture and the importance of sustainability in the studies at the Center. In the Stanly residences in Malmö, she uses stainless steel for panels on the façade, thereby helping to minimize power consumption to heat and cool the building. Her interest in the social problem of housing is developed in other projects, for example in the low-cost housing and the residential center for young people with autism in Lund.

108

GUNILLA SVENSSON

IKDC DESIGNCENTRUM Lund, Sweden

“IKDC is the most recent of the buildings in the campus of the Faculty of Technology in Lund. It closes the campus on the north side and gives the surrounding park a frame. It is situated along the pathway for pedestrians and cyclists which makes it a very intense point for the whole area. The whole building is designed to help disabled people to move around, visit and work in this place. The ambition was to integrate this design naturally in the architecture. The architecture is meant to support an antiauthoritarian atmosphere that will invite people to meet and discuss and to be critical and creative. It is transparent and easy to read.”

IKDC DESIGNCENTRUM – The façade design emphasizes the use of wood

109

IKDC DESIGNCENTRUM

GUNILLA SVENSSON

IKDC DESIGNCENTRUM – Overall view of the main entrance plaza

IKDC DESIGNCENTRUM – Main entrance and the inner courtyard with the wooden canopy (right)

110

GUNILLA SVENSSON

STANLY ZERO ENERGY HOUSE Malmö, Sweden

“The commission was given by the Stanly enterprise that originally was manufacturing goods for industrial use in stainless steel. The owner had developed a method to make structures in steel for pre-fabrication for house building. We proposed to cover the house with sheets of stainless steel that Stanly could prefabricate by themselves. The façade walls were thick consisting of two layers of insulation with an open raft in between, for water, drainage and electricity. Stanly enterprise decided to fill up the in between raft with insulation. The result was a building with no need of heating, a zero energy building. The next challenge was to make all the rest of the construction appropriate for this new situation. Among the most important things was the construction and design of the windows. The zero-energy idea is working without any problems. An additional quality obtained by the thick walls is the acoustics. The house is quiet and warm.”

STANLY ZERO ENERGY HOUSE – The façade covered with sheets of stainless steel

111

STANLY ZERO ENERGY HOUSE

GUNILLA SVENSSON

STANLY ZERO ENERGY HOUSE – Detail of the outside cladding and partial view from the road

112

GUNILLA SVENSSON

KV SKÖTAREN HOUSES Lund, Sweden

“The commission was a low cost dwelling project. The flats should be small 3-room apartments with balconies facing southwards. The site has a topography that slops down towards the south. That enabled us to make two full floors and one in sous-terrain. All apartments have entrance door directly from the outside, an on the top floor every dwelling has its own staircase. This would make the entrance more private, but the balcony made it possible with only one elevator for all the flats. The lowest floor in the sous-terrain position contains small one-room flats used by the town counsel for disabled young people. The facades were made in colored concrete-based sheets, the gables in prefabricated concrete. Doors and windows were made in wood.”

KV SKÖTAREN HOUSES – General view of the dwelling houses from the street

113

KV SKÖTAREN HOUSES

GUNILLA SVENSSON

KV SKÖTAREN HOUSES – All apartments have entrance door directly from the outside and their own staircase to the top floor

KV SKÖTAREN HOUSES – The façades are made in colored concrete-based sheets, the gables in prefabricated concrete

114

ELISABETTA TERRAGNI COMO, ITALY

BIOGRAPHY Elisabetta Terragni has been principal of her studio in Como (Italy) since 2001. After serving as an assistant at the Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zürich from 1997 to 1999, moved to Montreal (Canada) for two years and later taught museography at the Milan Polytechnic. Was Distinguished Visiting Professor at the New York Institute of Technology in 2005-2006 and is currently Associate Professor at the City University of New York. Has taught at universities in Germany, Italy and Switzerland. PROFESSIONAL PROFILE Apprenticeship with the delicate restoration of one of the masterpieces of Italian Rationalism, the Sant’Elia Nursery School by Giuseppe Terragni, undertaking a full restoration of the reinforced concrete structure built in the late 1930s. In the pursuit of solutions to current problems, based on the transformation of abandoned sites and neglected locations, interaction with clients to develop original, sustainable and cost-effective solutions for a wide range of projects. SELECTION OF PROJECTS 2011 Competition Home for All 2011 Panorama of the Cold War - Gjiri I Panormes/Porto Palermo museum project, Albania 2010 Landscape - townscape - travelscape 2010 Catch the sun pavilion 2010 Palladio’s drawings at the Morgan Library, New York. Concept for an exhibition 2009 Trento Tunnels ”The abc of the Trentino” 2009 Center for Norwegian Creativity 2008 Danguiyan project, China 2007 A school in Altavilla Vicentina 2007 Casa Pagani Museum

Although Elisabetta Terragni lives mainly in the USA, most of the small number of buildings she has designed are in Italy. Known for her modernization of the Sant’Elia Nursery in Como, the masterpiece of another member of the family, Giuseppe Terragni, which she has restored to its educational purpose in philological accordance with the original project, Elisabetta Terragni has worked on other interesting educational buildings. Of these, the most interesting are the nursery and primary schools in Altavilla Vicentina. The modernist principles of integrating the interior and the exterior, the simplicity of the materials and structures are resolved in an intelligent manner, but brought up to date with the introduction of light-hearted elements like the large polychrome classroom and intriguing metal net sculptures of imaginary animals, created by architect and designer Aldo Cibic.

115

ELISABETTA TERRAGNI

SCHOOL COMPLEX Altavilla Vicentina, Italy

“The project, which won the contract put out to tender in 2002, is located on a site free on all sides, with a hill behind it and a car park separating the building from the provincial road to Vicenza. It comprises a nursery school for 120 children, a primary school for 150 children, with a canteen, gym and 150-seat auditorium. Since the classrooms extend on to the patios, and have large windows and sliding panels, each one can be organized to suit the preferences of the class and the season, time of day and weather. We have tried to remove weight from the spaces and bring in light and tranquility, we have tried to establish a dialogue with the gardens and create interiors with fresh rhythms and playful colors. We want the future adults to remember an ideal place where children had a refuge and a stage.”

SCHOOL COMPLEX – General view of the complex from the lawn

116

SCHOOL COMPLEX

ELISABETTA TERRAGNI

SCHOOL COMPLEX – The floor plan of the complex, the gym and auditorium plans

SCHOOL COMPLEX – An interior court with toy-animal shapes

SCHOOL COMPLEX – View of the internal spaces

117

SCHOOL COMPLEX

ELISABETTA TERRAGNI

SCHOOL COMPLEX – The configuration of interior spaces form a sort of rhythmic colored pattern

SCHOOL COMPLEX – The 150-seat multicolored auditorium

118

SIIRI VALLNER

KAVAKAVA TALLINN, ESTONIA

BIOGRAPHY Siiri Vallner (born in 1972) set up her own practice after studying architecture and urban planning in Estonia, Denmark and the US. Has carried out a broad range of works, mostly public buildings. Has recently been working on various social projects – short-term accommodation for the temporarily homeless in Tallinn, foster homes in Kuressaare and public sauna in Tallinn. Has won many awards including the first Estonian Young Architect Award in 2009. Studio instructor at Estonian Academy of Arts, dept. of architecture. Besides other projects, has been co-editor of the landscape architecture issue of the Estonian architectural review Maja in 2006 (together with Katrin Koov). EDUCATION 2010-11 Conservation and restoration of architecture, Estonian Academy of Arts 1998-99 WAAC, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, USA 1996 Danish International Study Program (DIS) 1993-98 Estonian Academy of Arts, architecture and urban planning PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE 2010 Studio tutor at Estonian Academy of Arts Architecture dept. 2003 Kavakava architecture office (partners Katrin Koov, Kaire Nõmm, Heidi Urb) 2001 Arhitektid architecture office manager (partner Indrek Peil) MAIN PROJECTS 2010-12 Short-term accommodation for the temporarily homeless, Tallinn (with I.Peil) Reconstruction of “Kultuurikatel” culture center former power-house, Tallinn (with I.Peil) 2008-14 2006-11 Tartu Health Care College (with I.Peil) 2005-12 Narva College of the University of Tartu (with I.Peil, K.Koov) 2003-05 Gym for Pärnu downtown schools (with K.Koov, K.Nõmm, H.Urb) 2001-03 Occupations Museum (with I.Peil)

A real surprise in the little known cultural landscape of Estonia, Siiri Vallner works at a highly sophisticated level in relation to the historical context, although her aim is to design buildings that are clearly contemporary. In just a few years she has managed to complete a series of infrastructures (for education, sport and culture) which are genuine landmarks in Estonia’s new architectural scene. Of these, the public sports hall in Pärnu is the best known and most interesting: the building has been designed as a fluid masonry box in a “fabric” of bricks in relief, closed on one side and left open on the other with a large glass wall looking outwards and, symbolically, toward the community and the two historic buildings that form the complex’s original identity. A building explicitly linked to the memory of a dramatic past is the Museum of the Occupations (the Soviet and the Nazi occupations) in the capital, Tallinn. In addition to the ethical motivations of her work, Vallner provides a special sensitivity to the gender issue in the architectural profession: one of the two architectural practices with which she works, Kavakava, is staffed entirely by women.

119

SIIRI VALLNER

DOWNTOWN GYM Pärnu, Estonia

“The Gym is located in a park (former bastion belt) which surrounds the historical town center. It is an addition to the existing school house – old brick building from 19th century. The newcomer faces the old building, and between them a cosy courtyard is formed. Gym is designed for children of three surrounding schools (one of the schools is for disabled kids). It is also publicly used at evenings and for competitions. A simple sculptural volume creates different dialogues with the old building. At daytime gym’s north facing glass facade is mirroring the old building, at nighttime it works as a big projector-lamp. Red brick is a characteristic material for Pärnu likewise the closest neighbor building. For the gym wall we looked for a new way of using the traditional material. A special angular pattern was used for brick walls to animate the surface. 365 small windows inside the brick wall bring light in during the day and out to park at night. In summertime when the trees around are green, the building disappears into the park, in winter-season it communicates more with the surrounding cityscape.”

DOWNTOWN GYM – The simple sculptural volume of the Downtown Gym dialoguing with the old brick building

120

DOWNTOWN GYM

SIIRI VALLNER

DOWNTOWN GYM – Sections and floor plans of the Gym and the existing building

DOWNTOWN GYM – The Gym glass façade at night works as a lighting device for the historic building

121

DOWNTOWN GYM

DOWNTOWN GYM – The building surrounded by the greenery

122

SIIRI VALLNER

MUSEUM OF THE OCCUPATIONS Tallin, Estonia

“The Museum is located in a green bastion belt encircling the Old Town of Tallinn. The site – an empty corner since World War Two – was contradictory. We did not want the building to represent its content, but something bright and light to balance its sad subject. We decided in favor of a non-representational building and avoided from any ideological load. Instead of imposing direct symbolic meanings we were concerned with qualities and phenomena as brightness, lightness and fragility. Design does not say how you have to feel or think, it’s up to every visitor. The visible form of the building is simple – one space on a continuous surface where different functions meets and transform: entrance, temporary exhibitions, permanent display, seminar room, café and memorial. Because there are not dividing walls it was achieved by the changing height of the room. Without physical barriers the space still contains invisible thresholds, transitions, different emotional charges.”

MUSEUM OF THE OCCUPATIONS – View of the glass volume

123

MUSEUM OF THE OCCUPATIONS

MUSEUM OF THE OCCUPATIONS – Floor plan of the exhibition room building and general section

MUSEUM OF THE OCCUPATIONS – The small patio-memorial partly opening to the street

124

SIIRI VALLNER

MUSEUM OF THE OCCUPATIONS

SIIRI VALLNER

MUSEUM OF THE OCCUPATIONS – Details of the glass walls seen from the conference room

125

MONA ZAKARIA GEORGY

Restoration & Renovation CAIRO, EGYPT

BIOGRAPHY Born in Cairo (1949), married. EDUCATION 1981 University of Aix-en-Provence, France, 1981 (D.3.G) Ph.d in Islamic architectural history. 1978 University of Aix-en-Provence, France, M.A in Architecture, Architecture Major. 1976 Royal Danish Academy for Arts. Internship for the restoration of Bait el Suhaimi in Medieval Cairo. 1974 Fine Arts, Helwan University. Bachelor of Fine Arts, Architecture Major. PROJECTS / CONSTRUCTIONS 2010 - 2011 Al Akab village in Asswan. Planning & urban design for village flood victims. 2009 Dameitta City. Restoration of The tomb of Ali Meshara. Rehabilitation of the Houses & the site around Amr Ebn El Ass mosque. Occasional Events building. 2008 Sakna Pasha House. An 18th century house which the new owners are seeking to convert into a Hotel. 2005 Water Museum – Aswan. The work includes architectural design of the museum and detailed design of exhibit display methods and materials. 2003 Qanater Children’s Museum. Restoration of the existing building, dating back to the early 19th century, and reuse of the building to host a centre for the scientific imagination of children, influenced by the ancient Egyptian water inventions and the Nile. 2006 - 2007 Bab El Azab recreational project. 2004 - 2005 Upgrading of Abd El Maguid El Labban Street – Old Cairo. Joint project between the Cairo Governorate and Meirie de Paris to redevelop the street and preserve the old urban layout. 2002 - 2003 Technological Villages for Traditional Handicrafts. 1998 - 2005 Old Cairo Development Project. As part of Egypt’s millennium celebrations, the oldest and poorest part of Cairo was subjected to a development project.

Mona Zakaria is an interesting exception among the designers nominated for the arcVision Prize: her work consists mainly of projects for the restoration of historic buildings, where nothing is added if it is not structural maintenance, fully in keeping with the context and traditional image of popular architecture. Her main purpose is to restore life to Egypt’s original urban and suburban fabric which, for historic, environmental and economic reasons, is constantly in danger of decay. A very important element is the involvement of local residents, for example in the Masr Al-Qadima area in Cairo. Zakaria herself says there was a mood of general indifference among the local inhabitants when she began; but once they saw the result of the first restoration, an important dialogue began, giving new life to the district. The impact of this patient work is not as spectacular on the aesthetic and formal level as in terms of improved living conditions for adults and children: schools and educational centers are the design themes in which Zakaria is particularly interested.

126

MONA ZAKARIA

CHILDREN MUSEUM Al Qanater, Egypt

“This work is a restoration of the existing building dating from the early 19th century, and the reuse of the building to host a centre for the scientific imagination for children, influenced by the old Egyptian water inventions and the Nile. The work also includes the muses-graphic works, design of new exhibits and re-design of the landscaping area around the museum (with a total surface area of 8 Feddans) to host the first children interactive open air museum in Egypt.”

CHILDREN MUSEUM – The park with interactive open spaces and installations

127

CHILDREN MUSEUM

MONA ZAKARIA

CHILDREN MUSEUM – Detail of a monumental fountain: in the background, a historical building

CHILDREN MUSEUM – The interiors of the historical building with water games

128

MONA ZAKARIA

FUSTAT MARKET Cairo, Egypt

“The primary purpose of the Fustat Market is to create a sympathetic space where artists, craftsmen and designers can meet and exchange skills and ideas to develop the quality of their work and the marketing of their production. Located near the most prominent Christian sites in Cairo the market is ideally situated for tourism. The workshops are chosen very carefully to avoid another “Khan El-Khalili“(the tourist market of Cairo); these include metalwork, candle making, glassblowing, leatherwork, etc. The objective was to create a place that would trigger historical awareness of the Fustat architecture by simply attracting the real inhabitants of this area and changing it into a lighthouse that combines the artists working on the genuine Egyptian heritage and the craftsmen that produce the handicrafts. Additionally the market would be a place for intellectual celebrations and a melting point outside the mosque and the church, a place for all.”

FUSTAT MARKET – The entrance to the market from the external gardens

129

FUSTAT MARKET

MONA ZAKARIA

FUSTAT MARKET – The covered passages around the market

FUSTAT MARKET – View of the interiors carefully designed around an optimum combination of natural and artificial light

130

MONA ZAKARIA

AL-A’KAB SCHOOL AND SERVICE AREA Al-A’Kab

“Designing school is something that puts me in a state of absolute joy. It seems that I loved my school that bestowed so much upon me. That’s the joy of the place. Al-A’qab is a school for compulsory education and key part of children’s life. But it has not received them so far. The school serves preliminary grads, including kindergarten, primary and preparatory stages. It also hosts a large library, a multi-purpose hall, and three yards for different ages besides a section for the administration. We followed the same building style in the area to assert the importance of the place’s heritage and to give the children a feeling of distinction and belonging. As part of the project of Al-A’kab, a service area was needed. The overall design & landscape took into consideration the climate solution for the heat of the south. The design is inspired by the Nubian Architecture, these services buildings consist of Police Station, Bakery Oven, Medical Center, Social Support Building, Community Building.”

AL-A’KAB SCHOOL – General floor plan

131

AL-A’KAB SCHOOL

AL-A’KAB SCHOOL – The courtyard opened to the sky and landscape

AL-A’KAB SCHOOL – Porticos and courtyards with typical Arab architectural motives

132

MONA ZAKARIA

AL-A’KAB SERVICE AREA

MONA ZAKARIA

AL-A’KAB SERVICE AREA POLICE STATION – Colors and finishes recall archetypes of traditional Egypt

AL-A’KAB SERVICE AREA BAKERY – The original architecture renovated in dialogue with earth

133

Acknowledgments

We wish to thank: Stefano Casciani, arcVision Prize scientific director Sergio Crippa, arcVision magazine editor Ofelia Palma, arcVision Prize coordinator Serafino Ruperto, arcVision Prize press office Anna Maria Capurso, Italcementi Group events coordinator Lorenzo Colombo, Italcementi communication manager Italy Stefania Danzi, Italcementi Group international relations manager Francesco Galimberti, Italcementi Group communication manager Luca Leoni, Seci 1981 public relations Editorial project arcVision magazine Graphics and layout Marilena Magnoni {publishing graphics} Printing Presservice 80 Srl

Italcementi - Via Camozzi, 124 - 24121 Bergamo, Italia Finito di stampare nel mese di Maggio 2013

ARCVISION PRIZE – WOMEN AND ARCHITECTURE Cover arcVision prize KA DEF 200513.indd 1

21/05/13 13:42