27.12.2024

Winner Houses of the Year 2015

Building design

First place: Dwelling barn by Bernardo Bader Architect

For the fifth time, the Callwey publishing house organized the competition “Houses of the Year – the best detached houses”. Bernardo Bader Architekt from Dornbirn won the first prize of 10,000 euros with his “Behauste Scheune” project.

Fortunately, architecture does not change as quickly as women’s fashion or car design. Nevertheless, the annual “House of the Year” award, now in its fifth year, inevitably leads us to take stock of the regular yield: What was different? Are there any trends, focal points or developments? Do building styles, typologies or certain materials prevail? But you still have to look for the expiry date.

Nevertheless, every year the jury discovers a subjective picture of how people live in Austria, Switzerland and Germany, or at least how living is reflected in the works submitted. In some years, it was preferences for certain furniture that repeatedly appeared in the photos as if by appointment. Children were also included, who were supposed to give the tidy new surroundings unabashed proof of homely, casual family friendliness. This year, the photographers had discovered the dog. As a grateful prop, he was repeatedly allowed to lie on terraces, occupy places by the fireplace or cuddle up as a furry companion in the straightforward lines of the architecture. This is just a casual observation.

What struck us about the houses of the 225 submissions, on the other hand, was the solid quality. There were fewer avant-garde outliers, but also fewer average works whose authors had just tried a submission on a whim. The dominant feature was a midfield of successful houses that one would wish to see in many (other) places. In rural areas, gardens were often dispensed with; the intention was to deliberately place the artifact of the house in the unchanged and thriving natural surroundings. The building specifications documented a high standard, and it is now almost unnecessary to refer specifically to certain insulation or heating coefficients. If at all possible, architects try to avoid the plain version of a thermal insulation composite system. Craftsmanship can often be seen credibly in the razor-sharp photos. Tolerance joints and moldings are increasingly being replaced by seamless connections. Natural, solid materials are replacing synthetic building materials. Sure, cement screed or oak floorboards – can anyone still remember PVC flooring or carpet tiles? Clients who approach an architect with their subjective living requirements are probably less susceptible to the do-it-yourself range on offer in DIY stores. Another thing that stood out in the (naturally arbitrary) submissions was the increase in living space. The 46 square meters per person statistic will soon be revised upwards by ten square meters.

To our own prosaic data: As always, the selected 50 examples are presented in a comprehensible manner. Professional interior and exterior photos show each property from its best side, alongside the architects’ plans as well as building data and project descriptions as background information worth knowing. With a few exceptions, the floor plans and sections are reproduced on a scale of 1:200. This means that 1 centimeter in the plan corresponds to 2 meters in reality. In order to understand the integration of the building into the urban environment as well as its orientation and situation on the plot, a non-scale, standardized site plan is shown in each case. The building described is highlighted in color.

The building data, as far as can be determined uniformly, clearly summarizes the most important features: They provide information on plot size, living and usable space, number of occupants, construction method, construction costs, energy parameters and the year of construction. Unless otherwise stated, all costs are to be understood as pure construction costs including VAT in accordance with DIN 276. They do not include land, development, ancillary construction and financing costs or architects’ fees. For some projects, the construction costs are not published at the request of the client.

Facts about the competition

For the fifth time, the Callwey publishing house, in collaboration with the German Architecture Museum and with the support of the Informations-Zentrum Beton and Kaldewei, held the “Houses of the Year – the best detached houses” competition. In February 2015, the jury selected 50 projects from 225 submissions and named one winner and six commendations. Emphasis was placed on sustainability, innovative use of materials, creative handling of the structural situation and consistent execution. The book accompanying the competition presents these 50 best houses – with numerous photos, site and architectural plans and informative project descriptions penned by Wolfgang Bachmann, publicist and former editor of the architecture magazine Baumeister. And the Moscow-born German bestselling author Vladimir Kaminer contributed the introduction.

Bernardo Bader Architekt from Dornbirn in Austria won the first prize of 10,000 euros with his project “Behauste Scheune”. The jury was impressed by this
The jury was impressed by this natural, yet masterfully detailed house, which impresses with the clever use of sustainable materials, among other things. Reused wood from the former farmhouse can be found in the floorboards, the wood for the façade comes from the nearby forest and inside there is a kind of “table” made of exposed concrete, which covers the load-bearing ceiling and walls and acts as a massive storage tank to absorb the heat from the geothermal underfloor heating.

First prize

Bernardo Bader Architekt, Dornbirn (A), for the “Behauste Scheune” project

Recognitions

Pedevilla Architects, Bruneck (I), for the “unique piece” (Mühlen in Taufers)
L3P Architects, Regensberg (CH), for the “Weinstockbau” (Dielsdorf CH)
Marazzi Reinhardt, Winterthur, for “Zeugnis Geben” (Beggingen (CH)
Architekturbüro Scheder, Stelzenberg, for “Rank und Schlank” (Kaiserslautern-Hohenecken)
Innauer Matt Architekten, Bezau (A) for “Feinheiten” (Egg A)
Savioz Fabrizzi Architectes, Sion (CH), for “Fest Ummauert” (Conthey CH)

These seven works will be presented at the DAM Frankfurt from November 9 to 8

Further information can be found here

27.12.2024

Design

Marble Architectural Awards 2014

Building design

Every year, the Internazionale Marmi e Macchine Carrara presents the “Marble Architectural Award” (MAA) for special projects in natural stone. This time around: a mausoleum, a lobby and a work of art called “Parallel Lives”.

Every year, the Internazionale Marmi e Macchine Carrara presents the “Marble Architectural Awards” (MAA) at the Carraramarmotec trade fair. The focus is always on one of six different regions. In 2014, this was North America, specifically the USA, Canada and Mexico. This shows clear trends and developments within each region. The winners have now been honored at this year’s CarraraMarmotec.

The Lakewood Cemetery Garden Mausoleum in Minneapolis (USA)
Photo: Paul Crosby

In the wake of the economic crisis after 2007, there was a clear trend towards medium-sized projects in North America. There was less demand for natural stone, but where it was chosen, great emphasis was placed on quality and finish. The use of natural stone from all parts of the world again demonstrates the globalization of trade.

The lobby of the building 135 Main Street, San Francisco (USA)
Photo: Matthew Millman

The first prize in the “Exterior” category went to HGA Architects and Engineers for the Lakewood Cemetery Garden Mausoleum in Minneapolis, in which white Carrara marble and various American granites were used. The winner in the “Interior” category is the Aston Pereira and Associates studio with the lobby for the 135 Main Street building in San Francisco. They used Greek marble, Jura limestone from Germany, Italian marble and French yellow onyx. And the winner of the “Urban Design” category is Jacobo Micha Mizrahi for his “Parallel Lives” in Vera Cruz (Mexico). The monument consists of various Mexican rocks.

“Parallel Lives” in Vera Cruz, Mexico
Photo: Archetonic/Eduardo Zaletas/Quitagrapas Estudio Mexico City

The projects honored with the Marble Architectural Awards are summarized in a catalog. This catalog places special emphasis on the stone itself, its technical details and its processing. The Carraramarmotec trade fair was last held in May 2014 in Carrara, Italy.

21.11.2024

Trend analysis – The museum 3.0

Building design

to show the artist's working processes or to reveal unrecognizable layers of paint. Photo: Clair Obscur.

Art museums are breaking out of the building walls – into the digital space. Apps and online tours are now part of the permanent repertoire of art education. A survey of German consumers shows how this trend is reflected in the public. Advertorial Article Parallax Article On the website of the Amsterdam Rijksmuseum, almost every exhibit can be viewed zoomed in on in full-screen mode. […]





 
				Projection technology makes it possible, for example, to show the artist's work processes or to reveal unrecognizable layers of paint. Photo: Clair Obscur.

On the website of the Amsterdam Rijksmuseum, almost every exhibit can be viewed zoomed in on in full-screen mode. Johannes Vermeer’s Milkmaid from 1660 gazes absorbedly at the high-resolution beam of milk-white bliss. One pupil movement further on, a field with a red background vies for attention: this painting has been “liked” 10,806 times. Next to it, a scissor symbol encourages reproductive complicity: “Get creative”, “Download this work”!

Digital surfaces – apps on tablets and smartphones that wander through the halls in visitors’ hands – have also long been a familiar feature of museum spaces. In fact, this trend is closely linked to the exponential growth in visitor numbers at many art museums. The Staatsgalerie Stuttgart counted 375,694 tickets sold in 2015: an increase of 70 percent compared to the previous year, confirms Director Christiane Lange. New technologies – keyword “augmented reality” – are already on the rise. But can this trend, which focuses on the virtual, be sustained?

A survey conducted by the market research institute Promio on behalf of the media technology company fröbus among 1068 German consumers illustrates the reactions that different digital mediation methods evoke in visitors:

Proximity or distance to the object

The results of the survey show that the digital trend is currently moving back towards the object. Instead of keeping the works seemingly close but at a distance by clicking on a screen at home or integrated into the exhibition, the information conveyed by 3D visualization or projection directly on the object is gaining attention.

This impression is also confirmed by a cross-section of the current start-up scene in museum technology. Light choreography, turntables, 3D prints. The focus is on the work of art in all its facets: Details, reverse sides, as well as reconstructions of the original state are to be made accessible to visitors to the Museum 3.0 (replacing the digital-virtual 2.0). The Berlin start-up Clair Obscur, for example, has developed a new projection technology that can reveal the artist’s working process or hidden layers of paint directly on the painting. “It is important to us,” explains Lene Fischer, co-founder of Clair Obscur, “to create a closeness to the work, to tell the story of an object.”

interactive scape, who specialize in so-called multi-touch tables, choose a different way of communication. These release digital information when they are touched with a specially created haptic object. “Above all, a visit to a museum should be an experience – a tactile experience,” says Marcel Graf from interactive scape, describing their objective. This is particularly relevant in our digital age: “Our mediation concepts focus on a museum you can touch. An experience that you can’t have at home in front of a screen.”