Living Steel Sustainable Housing Winners Announced

By Russell Fortmeyer

The International Iron and Steel Institute’s second-annual Living Steel competition awarded prizes in September to three firms who proposed innovative steel building schemes for sustainable housing projects. The designs had to be submitted for one of three locations—Brazil, China, and the United Kingdom—which may partly explain the winners: Andrade Morettin Architects in Brazil, David Knafo Tagit Kilmor Architects and Town Planners in Israel, and Cartwright Pickard Architects in the U.K. The three won from a pool of more than a thousand entrants from 88 countries.

Unlike many other architecture award competitions, however, these proposals will be built. Morettin’s proposal will be built in a new development in the city of Recife, Brazil. David Knafo Tagit Kilmor’s proposal will be constructed in Han Yang, Wuhan City, China, while Cartright Pickard’s will be built in the Thames Gateway area. Groundbreaking for all three buildings, which are part of local developer-backed projects, will occur in early 2008.

The winners were selected by a jury chaired by architect Andrew Ogorzalek and organized by the International Union of Architects (UIA). Other jury members included Glenn Murcutt, James Berry, Cui Kai, Jaime Lerner, Roberto Loeb, and Nicholas de Monchaux. Among the jury comments:

“For the Brazil entry by Andrade Morettin Architects, the jury was impressed and encouraged by the simplicity and elegance of the scheme and its appropriateness to the culture and place,” said Ogorzalek.  “It showed a good use of the proposed steel structure to create a flexible, open lightweight character.”
 
“The winning design for China by David Knafo Tagit Klimor was appreciated by the jury for introducing valuable greenhouse space as an integral part of the highrise, high density development, adapting traditional models of communal space to a high-rise topology. The Jury felt the scheme could provide an exemplar building demonstration as to how traditional sustainable communities could be created within a high density urban environment. And the scheme is taking full advantage of the rational steel frame structure, providing an open plan for flexible use of the space,” said Ogorzalek.
 
“The jury appreciated UK winning firm Cartwright Pickard Architects’ concentrated effort to design a comprehensive family of suitable dwellings using offsite modular construction,” commented Ogorzalek. “The jury looks forward to a collaborative development process among the architect, developer and steel fabricators, with this design being the vehicle to both meet the needs of the U.K.  market and advance the proposed modular strategy.”

For more information:

www.livingsteel.org
www.uia-architectes.org/

share: more »