commended the immediate relevance of the robust concepts, the systematic involvement of the local people and the replicable nature of the projects.
“Through their decision this year, the jury have underlined the fact that it takes a holistic approach to make truly sustainable improvements in the built environment,” said Zumtobel Group CEO Harald Sommerer, who was also a member of the 8-strong jury. “We are particularly pleased to see that, this year, young and dedicated architectural practices have won the award with approaches to resolving social and ecological issues, both in the industrialised world and in developing countries.”
Butaro Hospital: an innovative, cost-effective technology- and design strategy In the Built Environment category, the US-based not-for-profit architectural practice MASS Design Group won the Zumtobel Group Award for its Butaro Hospital project. In response to a commission from the Ministry of Health in Rwanda, MASS Design Group chose a multidisciplinary approach that enabled them to address core health issues – and hospital-acquired infections in particular – at the design stage. Within an integrated architectural strategy, the architects considered the layout of the buildings, the movement patterns of the patients and staff and above all the maximum use of natural ventilation. The local population were involved in the building process and given suitable training. “This project is highly relevant, because as a template and approach it can be replicated in other, similar regions where there are limited resources and a high risk of infection. The architects have succeeded in building a bridge to innovative technologies and good healthcare for a poor, rural region. What is particularly remarkable is that this sophisticated building was realised in this environment by local labour,” stated the Jury. In this category the award carries a purse of € 80,000.
Also in the Built Environment category, the jury selected four other projects as nominees: Shanghai Houtan Park (China), an urban waterfront recovery project on the banks of Huangpu River (Turenscape Architecture); Treehouses Bebelallee (Germany), an urban renovation and density project on a residential estate built in the 1950s (blauraum Architekten); Media-ICT Building (Spain), an office building featuring pioneering architecture and innovative use of technology (Enric Ruiz Geli / Cloud 9); and the Maria Grazia Cutuli primary school in Afghanistan (2A+P/A studio associato).
R-URBAN: a small-scale approach to big urban themes The award in the Research & Innovation category went to the French architectural practice atelier d’architecture autogérée (AAA) for their integrated research project R-URBAN in Colombes, a socially deprived suburb in the Greater Paris area. The project deals not only with ecological topics such as waste recycling and reducing the carbon footprint but also with social issues such as vocational training and job creation schemes. With the involvement of local residents, three pilot projects were developed, themed around recycling and eco-construction, cooperative housing and urban farming. “R-URBAN is a small but pioneering intervention in existing urban structures. In this project, the architects from AAA have developed different micro-tools with which to tackle the big social and ecological themes in an urban setting. For us, the three R-URBAN pilot projects have a pioneering character because they have proven robust, because they empower local people, and because they help revitalise a neglected urban context,” commented the Jury.
In the Research & Initiative category, the jury decided to divide up the prize money of € 60,000. A sum of € 30,000 goes to the winning entry, with € 7,500 going to help sustain progress in each of the following nominated research projects and initiatives: Camenzind East Africa: a training project for the establishment of an architectural magazine for East Africa (Tanzania; Camenzind, BHSF); a research project to support the survival of traditional building methods in Himachal Pradesh (India); Oyster-tecture (USA; SCAPE landscape architecture): an initiative using oysters to revive the harbour basin in Brooklyn; and Sunny Water Lilies (Netherlands, Ulf Hackauf /The Why Factory with Pirjo Haikola and Gonzalo Rivas): a visionary design concept for floating solar power stations.
“This year’s selection of winners and nominees sends out a strong message that will encourage young architecture practices in particular to further commit themselves to a participatory and trans-disciplinary process of socio-ecological engagement in the built environment that integrates people and nature, technology and design," said the Award’s curators, Kristin Feireiss and Hans-Jürgen Commerell from Aedes Architekturforum, Berlin.
The presentation ceremony for the 2012 Zumtobel Group Award will be held in Berlin on 16 November
www.zumtobel-group-award.com