Finally, at the end of a Friday afternoon full of lectures and discussion in de townhouse of Glasgow the winners of the Hunter Douglas Awards (Archiprix International 2005) were announced.
The jury, Ian Gilzean, Hitoshi Abe (Atelier Hitoshi Abe, Tokai), Bridget Baines (GROSS. MAX. Edinburgh), Zvi Efrat (Efrat-Kowalsky, Tel Aviv) and Gilles Saucier (Saucier + Perrotte, Montreal) selected six project which received a prize.
A Prospective Vision of the Mouth of Tammerkoski – Paula Julin (Tampere University of Technology, Finland). The location of the proposal is the shores of lake Näsijärvi (Tampere). A new centre is projected were culture, media, science and dwelling is part of the program. The jury was impressed by the presentation of the project: 'This project finds new ways of representing architecture; people are placed in front of the architecture thus re-emphasising why we build [ ] It's strength is the focus on people's lives as the site plan itself is quite brutal.'
Continuum Body and Urban Memory – Kiyoaki Taked (Kanagawa Tokai University, Japan). The urban tissue of Ginza city with its main street, back street and alleys is transformed into a building. From the jury report: 'The project succeeds in taking a traditional street pattern and handles it in a new way, creating a beautiful model'.
Microurbanism for Macrodensity – Marcella Campa, Stefano Avesani (University IUAV of Venice, Italy). The project investigates methods to reduce the density of the hutongs in Beijing without damaging the historical urban tissue. From the jury report: This project is a good example of what Archiprix is about [ ] This project encapsulates the connection between research, presentation and real issues.'
M SPA – Martin Cobas, Federico Gastambide (Montevideo Universidad de la republica del Uruguay. The subtitle of this project is 'What if we use all the forces of media to conceive a book, an object as a result of research, an architectural object within a book? In seven books the building is being constructed and described. From the jury report: 'The project communicates clearly its strategy and the processes involved: the themes are an excuse for experimentation. [ ] The project invents a new and personal language [ ] It shows just how rich and pleasurable architectural work can be.'
Osaka Urban Station – Jens Mehlan and Jörg Hugo (University of Applied Arts, Wenen)
Startingpoint was to make a prototype for a station with fits into the urban tissue, is flexible an has a clear logic so you don't have to use signs. From the jury report: 'This is the only winning project that deals with the presentation as part of the project, it shows what has changed in recent years in therms of what technology allows us to do with build structures'.
Silo-Wet: A laboratory for the urban body – Emilie Bedard (McGill Universitity, Montreal). Proposel for new use and function of a complex of silos. From the jury report: 'It touches on issues that all post-industrial cities need to be asking: should these structures be integrated and normalised, fetished or destroyed? This project provides answers to some questions'.