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AR Awards for Emerging Prizewinner December 2007

Architecture

ECOSISTEMA URBANO Ecoboulevard Madrid, Spain

ARQUITECTOS

An urban intervention as delightful as it is functional.

The increased interest in the way in which attitudes to nature can inform the architecture of the city is
particularly evident in this unusually powerful combination of architecture, urbanism and landscape,
which redefines not merely the way you think about this particular suburban extension, but about the
nature of streets as a whole, particularly in extreme climates. The architect has installed ‘air trees’ along
a new road which represents the anonymity of edge-of-town extensions while offering a constructive
proposition about their future.
The idea is simple: residents can make choices about how they would like to ‘grow’ some aspect of
environmental control or modification within the created light structures, that are ‘easily dismantled and
energetically self-sufficient’. The notion is that these temporary mini-forests operate until such time as
these areas are no longer reliant on air conditioning, at which point they can be disassembled, and left

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as ‘clearings’ in the urban forest (or jungle). Combining the idea of the tree, the container in which it
might sit, solar power and the flow of air through a given structure creates a form of environmental
nursery which nurtures growth, and provides a well-tempered environment which acts as a critique of
the ‘bad planning’ which made such a proposition necessary in the first place.
The judges found the proposal interesting from several perspectives. First, the structure’s extraordinary
nature and its appearance in a nondescript suburban setting. Second, the idea that a temporary
structure could make a long-term proposition about the way a city streetscape might adapt in the
context of ever-hotter urban environments. And not least the confidence and verve with which the
project was not only conceived, but put into effect. The idea of creating public spaces that are 8 to 10
degC cooler than the surrounding ambient temperature is being developed in various extreme climates
round the world, exploiting techniques more familiar to the world of agriculture than urban architecture.
At a time when the assumptions of ‘high technology’ have come under increasing scrutiny in the wake of
concerns about climate change, energy efficiency and intelligent use of materials, this project suggests
that the understanding of technology at a fundamental level is crucial to developments which may
bypass the cruder assumptions of the world of air conditioning. Happily, the design outcome here is
evidence that this line of investigation can also be visually impressive. PAUL FINCH

Architect
Ecosistema Urbano Arquitectos, Madrid
Project team
Belinda Tato, Jose Luis Vallejo,
Diego Garcia Setien
Photographs
Emilio P. Doiztua
Email
info@ecosistemaurbano.com

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AR Awards for Emerging Prizewinner December 2007

Architecture

TAKETO SHIMOHIGOSHI/AAE Vegetation installation for Tokyo, Japan

showroom

Mid-air nature is as unexpected as it is effective.

The general condition of central Tokyo is one of extraordinary urban density, with buildings of all
descriptions jammed against each other in a vibrant but sometimes claustrophobic way. Ingenious
architecture, particularly domestic, fights for both area and volume, producing even tighter site conditions.
While street activity reflects density of occupation, with shops and shoppers animating the urban scene,
look up and you see a blank world of contiguous under-used space. The judges admired this winning design
because it addressed both these conditions; by emphasising a cut between buildings with the introduction
of vegetation beams (in this case covered in moss), the architect has neatly reversed the stereotype of that
conventional Tokyo condition.
Two white walls have been inserted to frame a large terrace which protrudes into the air, in marked
contrast to the usual provision of balconies to denote a residential building type rather than for practical
use. Above the terrace sit the mossy elements which the architect describes as giving a new sense of
perception to the urban fabric. ‘Vegetation handling in mid-air, where nature is not in its natural place, stirs

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up imagination and sensuality. This vegetation becomes a buffer where ground is connected to the sky.’
P.F.

Architect
Taketo Shimohigoshi / AAE, Tokyo
Email
studio@aae.jp

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AR Awards for Emerging Prizewinner December 2007

Architecture

FAR: FROHN & ROJAS House Santiago, Chile

This singular design in Santiago is a sophisticated reinterpretation of the domestic exterior.

What happens if the plan, generally regarded as the key to good house design, is not the generator?
Suppose you take various wall conditions and investigate what happens if their functions (inside and out)
become the driver for the plan? The architect sees the walls of this low-budget domestic project as a series
of delaminated layers (concrete cave, stacked shelving, milky shell and soft skin) into which the different
spaces of the house slide.
Each of the wall ‘layers’ has specific climatic, atmospheric, structural, material and functional
characteristics, and each contributes to the distinctive character of the completed building. The outer layer
of the house is an energy screen generally found in greenhouse construction, which provides the cut-
diamond appearance of the building while moderating heating and lighting conditions. The fabric was sewn
by a local craftsperson (more accustomed to making blow-up castles for children). The dense P fabric
incorporates woven aluminium strips, which reflect 70 per cent of UV rays, and with a light transfer rate of
25 per cent.
Structural shelving elements were prefabricated, partly because on-site construction might not have
produced a structure able to withstand earthquakes which are not uncommon in the area; the shelving
‘ribbons’ comprise glulam, plywood and formwork panels. Polycarbonate panels (the ‘milky shell’), like the

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shelving, could all be erected by local labour, mostly by hand, though installation of the first floor required
a crane. The judges admired the integrity of thinking behind the individual design decisions; these resulted
in a completed building which, far from being an arbitrary or fashionable example of folding, had exploited
successfully the possibilities provided by site, materials and programme. The layering strategy, with the
highly serviced elements (kitchen and bathroom) at the core, made the most of the increasing potential
ambiguity between inside and outside space as the plan radiated outwards. P. F.

Architect
FAR: Frohn & Rojas, Chile
Project team
Marc Frohn, Mario Rojas Toledo, Amy Thoner, Isabella Zapata, Pablo Guzman
Photographs
Cristobal Palma
Email
frohn@f-a-r.net

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AR Awards for Emerging Highly commended December 2007

Architecture

TAKAHARU + YUI TEZUKA Kindergarten Tachikawa, Tokyo, Japan

ARCHITECTS

Tezuka Architects’ Fuji Kindergarten leads the way.

Takaharu + Yui Tezuka are no strangers to the AR or the Awards for Emerging Architecture; their stunning
Museum of Natural Science received a commendation in 2004. They are also no strangers to children,
combining their busy professional lives (teaching and practising) with their shared role as parents.
Observing their own children at play led to the concept for this building as an elevated circular play space
(AR August 2007).
‘Children love to run in circles’, states Takaharu when describing the genesis of this building. This idea
meshed well with the client’s simple brief, having visited Roof House (AR October 2001), he wanted a roof
house for 500 children. The building’s distinctive form also supports the kindergarten’s mode of operation,
the Montessori education method, by providing a flexible, robust and secure framework within which to
encourage key notions of independence and freedom.
Despite being the largest single kindergarten in Japan, the scale is not overwhelming, and the relatively
low roof compresses a series of intimate dual aspect classrooms. With full-height sliding screens on both
sides, the five principal spaces open onto the central play area and a number of smaller residual gardens at
the site’s perimeter. With Japan’s climate allowing screens to be open eight months of the year, spaces
merge with each other and with the gardens, satisfying a key aspect of the Montessori methodology;
satisfaction, contentment and joy are encouraged when children are able to fully participate in daily
activities, individually and collectively, in a place where they can understand, engage with and control their
own environment.

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Playful touches include the outdoor taps that allow children to clean up and wash down, set on a free
draining area of timber logs; glazed rooflights, that give peep-hole views from between roof and
classroom; and the slide that provides the most direct route down from the roof. R. G.

Architect
Takaharu + Yui Tezuka Architects, Tokyo and Masahiro Ikeda Co
Project team
Takaharu Tezuka, Yui Tezuka, Masahiro Ikeda, Asako Konparu, Kousuke Suzuki
Photographs
Katsuhisa Kida
Email
tez@sepia.ocn.ne.jp

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AR Awards for Emerging Highly commended December 2007

Architecture

STUDIO TAMASSOCIATI Meditation pavilion Khartoum, Sudan

A place of prayer and meditation for all faiths.

This pavilion for meditation and prayer forms part of a centre for cardiac surgery in Khartoum. The centre
is run by an Italian humanitarian organisation and the pavilion is also designed by an Italian architect,
Venice-based Studio Tamassociati.
Its population polarised on both ethnic and religious lines, Sudan continues to suffer grievously from the
excoriating effects of civil war, notably in the Darfur region which has been subject to a particularly brutal
form of ethnic cleansing. This backdrop of instability and intolerance presented the young architects with
the challenge of how to create an enclave that could be spiritually neutral, yet still evoke a sense of the
numinous.
The exterior is dominated by a large reflecting pool, a powerful symbol of physical sustenance in sub-
Saharan Africa, which also separates the microcosm of the pavilion from the macrocosm of the hospital and
wider world. The pavilion is a simple composition of two impassive white cubes connected by a roof of
loosely woven bamboo that gently diffuses the harshness of the sun’s glare.
This capacity to temper extremes is at the heart of the project. Though the pavilion acknowledges the pre-
eminence of Islam (some 70 per cent of Sudanese are Muslims), overtly religious symbols are removed, so
that, for instance, the ablution area is simply a water spray that forms part of the pool. At the pavilion’s
heart are two trees, a reminder of the transcendental power of nature. The Zen-like quality of the
enclosure appealed to the jury, who admired how the architects had addressed the issues of building in
such a challenging context. C. S.

Architect

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Studio Tamassociati, Venice

Project team
Raul Pantaleo, Simone Sfriso
Photographs
Marcello Bonfanti and Raul Pantaleo
Email
info@tamassociati.org

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AR Awards for Emerging Architecture Highly commended December 2007

THOMAS HEATHERWICK Restaurant Littlehampton, England

Though the judges thought that Thomas Heatherwick, the elfin guru of the architecturally unexpected, might already
be said to have ‘emerged’, they could not resist this inventive and sensuous little temple to the joys of English
seaside gastronomy (AR August 2007). Energetically abetted by his client Jane Wood, Heatherwick has created a
startling monocoque structure on the promenade at Littlehampton, a sleepy West Sussex town. Cradled within the
muscular, rust-coated carapace is a restaurant with sea views where up to 45 patrons can savour delicacies such as
potted shrimp and locally caught fish with lashings of ice cream for afters.
True to form, Heatherwick has brought his perpetually questing vision to bear upon what, in terms of scale and
budget, is actually a very modest project. There were constraints – an awkward long, thin site, the corrosive effects
of sea air and limited resources – but these have been used as jumping off points for highly imaginative formal and
technical responses. The monocoque shell is both structure and skin, with a steel outer layer cut at a shallow angle
into a series of chunky vertical slices. Mild steel was preferred for the external carapace over the more familiar Cor-
ten, because Heatherwick thinks that it will weather better. Once a patina of rust has taken hold, an oil-based coating
applied at decreasing intervals will seal and protect the surface. Beyond the obvious comparisons with upturned
boats, driftwood and giant insect pods, Heatherwick sees his creation as both posh and demotic, a place ‘where you
can eat a Mr Whippy or drink Dom Perignon’. Tickled by his sense of invention, the jury happily raised a glass to that.
C. S.

Architect
Thomas Heatherwick, London
Structural engineer
Adams Kara Taylor

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Photographs
Andy Stagg/VIEW

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AR Awards for Emerging Highly commended December 2007

Architecture

CHRIS BOSSE / PTW ARCHITECTS National Aquatics Centre Beijing, China

This high commendation recognises the contribution made by Chris Bosse who worked as lead concept
architect in a creative collaboration led by PTW Architects working with Arup’s Sydney office and CSCEC
Shenzhen Design Institute (now named CCDI). While never the work of one architect alone, such
recognition is welcome, highlighting the input of relatively young architects working within larger more
established offices.
The soon-to-be completed Water Cube in Beijing sits next to Herzog and de Meuron’s distinctive bird’s nest
stadium forming the centrepiece of the city’s Olympic Park. Won in competition in July 2003, the aquatic
centre is unlike most traditional arena buildings in so far as the space structure and skin were conceived as
a single element.
Conceptually the square box and interior space are carved out of a cluster of foam bubbles. Reminiscent of
Grimshaw’s Eden Project, a steel superstructure is infilled with inflated translucent ETFE cushions.
Unlike Eden, the geometry is apparently random, and instead of a single skin, here there are two skins
adding to the complexity and richness of the optical effect.
Construction began on 24 December 2003, with the concrete and steel structures taking over two and a
half years to complete. Picking up pace in the run up to 2008, installation of the ETFE cushions began in
August 2006, with the completion of the outer skin taking just five months. The project is due for
completion at the end of 2007, with the test event scheduled to take place in February 2008. R. G.

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Architect
Chris Bosse, PTW Architects, Sydney
with Arup and CSCEC
Project team
John Bilmon, Mark Butler, Chris Bosse
Email
mail@chrisbosse.com

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AR Awards for Emerging Highly commended December 2007

Architecture

FAM ARQUITECTOS Memorial Madrid, Spain

On 11 March 2004 a series of bombs exploded within minutes of each other on four commuter trains in
Madrid. Calculated to explode during the morning rush hour, when the trains were packed with office
workers, students and schoolchildren, the resulting blasts killed 191 and injured 1755. To date it is the
most deadly attack on a European city by Islamist extremists.
Physically commemorating such dreadful events can often be fraught with difficulties, but the city now has
a dignified public memorial which provides a place of calmness and serenity outside Atocha Station, where
the commuter trains were due to terminate. Designed by local practice FAM Arquitectos, it takes the
elementally simple form of an 11m high cylinder made of 15 000 shimmering glass blocks. Powerfully
emblematic of the rejection of violence, the ethereally transparent glass tube penetrates down into a
subterranean chamber, literally and symbolically bringing light into a dark place. The inside of the cylinder
is lined with an ETFE membrane printed with messages of condolence and solidarity in many languages
which were originally left by the public at the scene of the bombings. Below is a womblike blue chamber
furnished only with a simple black steel bench for quiet contemplation. The names of the dead are
inscribed on a frosted glass panel at the chamber’s entrance.
Often it is the simplest memorials that are the most effective (for instance, Maya Lin’s black granite
monument to the Vietnam War and Lutyens’ Cenotaph) and this has a similarly inspiring clarity of purpose
and execution, which struck a chord with the jury. C. S.

Architect
FAM Arquitectura y Urbanismo, Madrid
Project team

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Mauro Gil-Fournier Esquerra, Raquel Bus García, Esaú Acosta Pérez, Pedro Colón de Carvajal Salís, Miguel
Jaenicke Fontao
Photographs
Courtesy of the architect
Email
correo@estudiofam.com

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AR Awards for Emerging Highly commended December 2007

Architecture

SOU FUJIMOTO ARCHITECTS House Chiba, Japan

Readers of the AR will be familiar with this house, designed by Emerging Architecture Awards veteran Sou
Fujimoto (AR August 2007). Surprisingly, the jury were less familiar with the project, and a number
considered it a strong contender for a prize. Featured in 2005, and a winner in 2006, Sou Fujimoto’s work
is gaining maturity, and it is arguable that the 37 year old has transcended the status of an emerging
talent. Consistent with other projects, this house extends his interest in neo-primitivism, searching out new
geometric order, composition and sequence, through manipulation of basic building blocks.
This private coastal house near Tateyama, forty minutes from central Tokyo by train, was built in response
to the client’s wish to make the most of the stunning panorama. Influenced by the rocky outcrop on which
it sits, when approached the building forms a strong monolithic barrier, with rough cast concrete walls.
Once entered, the extensive use of glass becomes apparent, as visitors move through the essentially
linear, but buckled interior. Long views and intermediate vistas offer more specific points of focus, as the
architect was keen to avoid the potential monotony of a singular panoramic view.
With each crook and crank, the 3m wide section shifts on site to create greater depth and incident in plan,
successfully exceeding the client’s initial aspirations for a simple Miesian box. With a limited palette of
materials, detail adds further richness and subtlety. Internal concrete surfaces have a finer grain, cast
against narrow slatted formwork, and frameless 15mm single glazed walls and double leaf doors set flush
with internal and external concrete surfaces to maintain the illusion of mass.
As a fitting climax to the route across stone and white painted timber, the procession terminates on tatami
providing the ultimate motif, smell and texture of a truly Japanese interior. R. G.

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Architect
Sou Fujimoto Architects, Tokyo
Project team
Sou Fujimoto, Yumiko Nogiri
Structural engineer
Jun Sato Structural Engineer
Photographs
Edmund Sumner/VIEW

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AR Awards for Emerging Commended December 2007

Architecture

TURENSCAPE University campus Shenyang, China

China’s rapid urbanisation is inevitably encroaching upon arable terrain, raising serious issues of food production and
sustainable land use. With a population of 1.3 billion, but with only 18 per cent of land capable of sustaining
cultivation, China is in danger of squandering one of its most valuable and limited resources. This landscape design
project for a university campus in Shenyang City, north-east China, aims to raise awareness of land and farming
techniques among college students leaving rural areas to become city dwellers. The incorporation of rice, native
plants and crops is not simply an aesthetic conceit; it keeps the landscape productive and acts as an environment for
learning.
The 80 hectare campus houses the architecture department of Shenyang University. The rising popularity of
architecture as a university subject forced a move from the department’s original city centre location to a roomier
suburban site, formerly a rice field. In northern China’s cooler climate, rice can be cultivated over a longer growing
season and the quality of the crop is widely regarded as superior.
Designed by Turenscape working with the graduate school of landscape architecture at Beijing University, the gridded
campus landscape is a totally functional rice paddy, complete with its own irrigation system. Other native crops, such
as buckwheat, can also be grown in rotation and native plants line the pathways.
The working aspect of the landscape draws students and the faculty into a dialogue about sustainable development
and food production. Rice produced in the paddies is harvested, packaged and distributed as ‘Golden Rice’, serving as
a keepsake for visitors and a source of identity for the campus. But perhaps most importantly, the project suggests a

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new form of hybrid landscape that could sustain traditional food production, while supporting new uses, such as the
education of China’s architects. C. S.

Landscape architect
Turenscape and Beijing University Graduate School of Landscape Architecture
Project architects
Kongjian Yu, Lin Shihong, Long Xiang
Email
kj@turenscape.com

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AR Awards for Emerging Commended December 2007

Architecture

TNA House Karuizawa, Japan

Ring House by young duo TNA (Makoto Takei and Chie Nabeshima) is a unique commission for an
emerging Japanese architect. Built for a speculative developer on an expansive suburban site, rather than
for a private client on a tight urban plot, it took the architects in a completely new direction, while allowing
them to extend their principal preoccupation of how context informs the composition of a wall.
Their urban projects (they already have at least four distinguished houses under their belt) tend to exploit
specifics of orientation, perhaps most flamboyantly expressed in Mosaic House (AR August 2007) that
mimicked phototropism to exploit high-level daylight. Here, one hour from central Tokyo by bullet train,
the relative expanse of the 1400sqm wooded site set them new challenges: how to design a house in the
round.

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With a plot ratio of less than 3 per cent, compared with 50-60 per cent of urban sites, the first key decision
was where to place the dwelling. While initially daunted by the challenge, very soon clues began to
emerge. As a left-over plot bound by two roads, minimum distance enforcements limited the possibilities,
as did the site ecology with drainage and the position of trees as contributing factors. Eventually a residual
zone was identified, and at the highest point within this area a plot was established set tangentially to the
steep contours.
Arranging accommodation over three levels allowed the architects to exploit the occupant’s relationship
with the trees, which in turn led them to divide the envelope into a series of rings, alternating bands of
solid and void. This not only served to slice up the view into two or three ribbon-like compositions per
floor, but from the outside serves to shift the viewer’s perception of scale, disguising floor levels to help
create a single unified composition.
Clad in vertical panels of burnt cedar, the height of successive bands shifts from level to level, neatly
integrating internal utilities – kitchen counters, fireplace and sunken bath – culminating in two narrow
bands that form an open parapet for the level four roof terrace. All of the levels are connected by a single
corner stair, and the house is entered at first floor level across a bridge.
Within this contextual framework, the architect applied mature rigour to the spatial and tectonic order of
the house, basing the 5.4m square floor plans on the 900 x 1800mm module of the tatami mat and
enveloping this grid with two clearly articulated perimeter zones for structure and cladding. In reality,
structure and cladding came to site united, prefabricated in composite T-section units with the 120mm
square columns and horizontal spandrels craned into place with precision and efficiency.
Clearly the AR jury was impressed by this delightful house, and by the architect’s impressive ability to
maintain clarity from concept through to completion. R. G.

Architect
TNA Architects, Tokyo
Structural engineer
Akira Suzuki/ASA
Photographs
2,3 Edmund Sumner/VIEW
Email
mail@tna-arch.com

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AR Awards for Emerging Commended December 2007

Architecture

DATAR House Suginami, Tokyo, Japan

Regulations govern Japanese detached houses – oblique lines, plot ratios, boundary isolation.Datar adopted
the archetypal primitive hut-like house. Unlike the image of a child’s naive drawing, however, they chose to
exaggerate the building’s ghostly silhouette, presenting a mute character. By contrast, internal spaces
express an eccentric character in response to client requirements. Scaleless from the outside,
accommodation is on three levels, with intricate ramps and steps.
With the front door set into a re-entrant porch, space at entrance level is divided by a central kitchen that
shifts the axis. With main stair to the left leading to first floor nursery, walking round the kitchen leads up
four steps to living space that extends into a slim lightwell, and up into a double-height void bound by the
angled walls of the first-floor bathroom. The master bedroom occupies the basement, opening onto the

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narrow courtyard. R. G.

Architect
Datar, Tokyo
Photographs
Takeshi Yamagishi
Email
otagiri@datar.jp

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AR Awards for Emerging Architecture Commended December 2007

DAVID JAMESON ARCHITECT House renovation Eastern Market, Washington DC, USA

In Europe, we wouldn’t naturally turn to the US for inspiration when considering how to add small additions to optimise the quality of existing
domestic properties. With residential settlements rarely reaching the sort of densities of say London or Paris, the stereotypical image of the
American home is of isolated detached single-storey chalets, set in the middle of generous plots with large front and rear gardens. As such the
location of this property stumped the jury. With no clues in their award entry, with no written descriptions or context information, where was
this property? The proportions of the brick apertures didn’t look anything like a typical Georgian or Edwardian townhouse found in the UK.
The conjecture was inconclusive. Despite this, however, the drawings and photographs demonstrated a level of sophistication and subtlety that
deserved recognition.
Evoking the image of an illuminated Japanese lantern, the glass and steel volume is anchored onto an existing two-storey brick terrace. More
of a new bay window than a full extension, the new enclosure replaces the masonry corner seen on neighbouring properties with a lighter self-
supporting steel frame that cantilevers out of the masonry by approximately 250mm. The steel frame not only frames acid etched panels, but
also modulates both elevations inside and out, creating useful shelves for the luminous interiors. The contrast between light and heavy is well
balanced, and on occasion the translucent glass panels are substituted with clear units that selectively frame views of the sky and trees to the
rear. R. G.

Architect

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David Jameson Architect, Inc

Project team
David Jameson, Christopher Cabacar
Photographs
Anice Hoachlander
Email
contact@davidjamesonarchitect.com

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AR Awards for Emerging Commended December 2007

Architecture

UNSANGDONG ARCHITECTS Gallery Seoul, Korea

Originally founded in the late ’70s, Gallery Yeh has established itself as one of Korea’s leading private
galleries of contemporary art. Each year it holds eight or nine exhibitions of fine art, sculpture, printmaking
and installations, focusing on both Korean and international artists. The gallery needed larger premises to
conduct its expanding operations and the young practice of Unsangdong was commissioned to design a
striking new building in downtown Seoul.
Still in their early 30s, Unsangdong principals Jang Yoon Gyoo and Hoon Shin Chang studied in Korea and
served apprenticeships with Korean firms, yet both are acutely aware of and responsive to the growing
globalisation of architecture. Their new gallery is an assured piece of urban sculpture that clearly reflects

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wider international influences and brings a sense of verve to Seoul’s tatty cityscape.
The skin of the seven-storey tower is treated almost like a piece of fabric, draped and folded over the tall
volume. Five broad vertical bands of concrete are warped and cut to reveal shards of glazing that admit
light indirectly into the gallery spaces within. The space between the tough outer skin of concrete and the
more delicate inner glazing is cleverly exploited to form a series of balconies and terraces. Interiors are
treated as simple, neutral backdrops for the changing displays of art. The jury was impressed by the
strength of the design concept and its confident execution. Sharply synthesising a range of influences,
Gallery Yeh makes a powerful statement in a dislocated urban milieu. C.S.

Architect
Unsangdong Architects Cooperation, Seoul
Photographs
Kim Yong Kwan
Email
usdspace1@hanmail.net

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AR Awards for Emerging Commended December 2007

Architecture

RYUICHI SASAKI, JUNPEI KIZ, Company complex Iga City, Mie Prefecture, Japan
TETSUO KOBORI / PHIFRAME

Built for the Ueno Gas Company, this 550sqm complex is in Iga City, in Mie Prefecture, Japan. With spaces
that cross over each other, functions interlock giving users the flexibility to decide where to be and go in
the facility. The complex serves four basic functions as showroom, cookery school, terrace, and café.
Associated uses include a gallery, and an event space, as temporary division allows space to expand or
contract as required.
From the north side, the plan is arranged in a series leading from the café, terrace, cooking school, to the
showroom. The structure gives a repetitive order to the building and to the spaces, as a series of six
asymmetric timber frames overlap.
The exterior image of the building is defined by the full expression of the frames, and internally interesting
overlaps create curious interstitial clerestories. Arranged in an L-shaped plan, the framework also defines
external space. From the north, the second frame defines a courtyard, while to the west in left-over space,
the complex faces a regular run of cherry blossom that extends the order of the grid to the landscape. R.
G.

Architect
Ryuichi Sasaki, Junpei Kiz, Tetsuo Kobori / Phiframe, Tokyo
Project team

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Ryuichi Sasaki, Junpei Kiz, Tetsuo Kobori, Mikio Sasaki, Kazuya Nishimura
Structural engineer
Takushi Nakata
Photographs
Ryota Atarashi
Email
info@phiframe.com

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AR Awards for Emerging Architecture Commended December 2007

JÜRGEN MAYER H. Exhibition centre Nordborg, Denmark

In an awards programme that, by its nature, tends to be dominated by small-scale work, this project for a science park in Denmark was that
comparatively rare thing, a biggish building executed with confidence and brio. But despite its undoubted chutzpah, it divided the judges. Some
felt that its crazy, cookie-cutter profile epitomised the worst aspects of gratuitous form making. Others were impressed by its bravura ingenuity
and pointed out that it was not merely a decorated shed, as the apparently ‘wilful’ plasticity could be read inside as well as out.
Mayer was premiated in AR Awards 2002 for his Stylepark installation at the Berlin UIA Congress (AR December 2002), where visitors reclined
on and engaged with a sensuously sculptural internal topography. This project draws on that experience and extends Mayer’s exploration of the
relationship between the human body, technology and nature as a jumping off point for new forms and spaces.
Set in the agricultural landscape of Nordborg, the Danfoss Universe has proved very popular with the public, no doubt in part due to Mayer’s
showpiece building. Sheltering within its hectic contours (which have become emblematic of the Danfoss enterprise) are an exhibition space,
auditorium, café and offices. Perhaps it makes more sense to see it as a kind of provocative modern folly, a latter-day temple or fantastic
grotto, set just so in the landscape. It certainly had the effect of provoking the jury. C. S.

Architect
Jürgen Mayer H., Berlin
Project team

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Jürgen Mayer H., Marcus Blum, Thorsten Blatter, Andre Santer, Alessandra Raponi
Email
contact@jmayerh.de

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AR Awards for Emerging Commended December 2007

Architecture

SHATOTTO Apartment block Dhaka, Bangladesh

One of the most densely populated cities in the world, Dhaka is characterised by an urban mayhem fermented
by unregulated development, unreliable infrastructure and lack of green space. This project for an apartment
block attempts to create a civilised and sustainable model for high-density living. Architect Rafiq Azam was a
student of Glenn Murcutt and Murcutt’s philosophy of sitting lightly on the ground finds expression in an
architecture of simple, unadorned materials (burnt brick, terrazzo tiles and mango wood). It also draws on
traditional Bangladeshi precedents, such as the khilkee, louvred shutters that act as permeable, folding walls
to demarcate space.
Apartments are carefully oriented to take advantage of sun, views and, most crucially in a humid climate,
cooling breezes. The duplex on the fifth and sixth floors is the most privileged, with double-height spaces and
a luxuriant roof garden. The jury was impressed with how the building responded to the problems of site,
programme and climate, and acknowledged its potential to act as an example for similar developments in a
city with so few good role models. C. S.

Architect
Shatotto, Dhaka
Project team
Rafiq Azam, Roushon-ul-Islam

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Email
shatotto@gmail.com
shatotto@bdcom.net

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AR Awards for Emerging Architecture Commended December 2007

KAMAYACHI + HARIGAI House Yokohama, Japan

While tackling the issue of Japan’s strict planning regulations in a slightly less radical manner than Ghost House by Datar, G House is
nonetheless inventive. As such the Jury could not divide them and gave both entries a commendation. While Ghost House unified elements into
a single seamless form, this house articulates three typical components of the suburban house: flat plot, private garden and pitched roof.
Adding a pedestal and inclined slope to the mix, both the garden and the hut are given a degree of formal autonomy.
Entering from the pavement though the boundary defining pedestal, the lower ground level is sheltered and intimate, with kitchen and dining
areas addressing the inclined garden. Above this, accessed via a more formal ramped entrance from a bunker-like parking lot, is a single living
room. The top floor provides three bedrooms and shared bathroom and lavatory.
Internally, circulation extends the house’s curiosity as vertical circulation is not achieved with a single stair. Instead, to optimise the layouts of
the upper and lower levels, the route shifts across the plan from single flight to spiral stairs within the single volume intermediate level. This
principal living space also has its own garden space, set on top of the pedestal and accessed through its flanking wall. R. G.

Architect
Seiji Kamayachi + Masafumi Harigai
Email
ka-@ki-ka.jp

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AR Awards for Emerging Honourable mention December 2007

Architecture

./STUDIO 3 – INSTITUTE FOR School Johannesburg, South Africa

EXPERIMENTAL ARCHITECTURE

Though the social inequities and physical deprivation that characterised the South African educational
system during the apartheid era are gradually being addressed, immense challenges still lie ahead. Of the
country’s 32 000 schools, half have no electricity, a third no water or access to telecommunications, and 80
per cent lack a library. Three quarters of buildings are in a substandard condition.
Olifantsvlei pre-school forms part of the Moses Maren Mission, a complex of primary and secondary schools
and children’s home on the edge of Johannesburg. Some 860 pupils of all ages are drawn from the
surrounding townships, some coming from over 45km away. The pre-school project was developed under
the auspices of two NGOs, a common practice nowadays, as the South African government needs
assistance in tackling the colossal task of upgrading and extending its school building stock.
Here, under the direction of Professor Volker Giencke, 32 students from Innsbruck University’s Institute for
Experimental Architecture designed and built the pre-school, through a process of participation and
engagement with the local community. Teaching staff were anxious to steer the new building away from
the rigid and authoritarian hierarchical structures that characterised the previous regime and Giencke’s
team of student architects has willingly obliged with a fluid and colourful collage of forms calculated to
energise and inspire the very young pupils. Capable of accommodating 80 children of pre-school age, the
school consists of two classrooms, a kitchen, lavatories and outdoor play area. United and sheltered by a
strongly articulated roof structure, the various volumes are kinked, cranked and shuffled underneath to
create different sorts of spaces, from the formal to the intimate. The overarching roof also defines shaded
enclaves for outdoor lessons. Materials are, of necessity, economical – plywood, crinkly tin, an exposed

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steel frame – but their application has a thoughtful vigour, further enlivened by dashes of hot pink, yellow,
cyan and green.
Though playful, it is far from childish, echoing Giencke’s long-held philosophy of the need to create
architecture that is organic, humane and participatory. The jury applauded the robustness of both the
process and end result which dignifies and enriches the fundamental act of learning in a society still deeply
divided. C. S.

Architect
./studio 3 – Institute for Experimental Architecture, Innsbruck
Project architects
Astrid Dahmen, Walter Prenner
Email
astrid.dahmen@uibk.ac.at

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AR Awards for Emerging Honourable mention December 2007

Architecture

ANAGRAM ARCHITECTS Office New Delhi, India

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The delightful brick screen forms the flanking wall of the recently completed offices for the South Asian
Human Rights Documentation Centre (a Delhi-based NGO). Situated on a prominent corner site, its
westerly orientation means that it is exposed to intense solar radiation. With lavatories and the principal
staircase positioned at the end of the plot to maximise floor area, a buffer zone is created to moderate

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acoustic and thermal pressure.

Drawing inspiration from traditional ornately carved facades, the porosity of the screen maintains privacy
for the occupants while playfully engaging with the street corner. Rotating successive courses in the brick
piers, the upper levels repeat a sequential pattern. The construction of the screen wall was the result of a
five-week process of learning and unlearning masonry techniques on site, employing predominantly
unskilled labour. The architects credit the builder’s interest and enthusiasm for learning new techniques. R.
G.

Architect
Anagram Architects, New Delhi
Project team
Vaibhav Dimri, Madhav Raman
Photographs
Asim Waqif
Email
anagram.mail@gmail.com

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AR Awards for Emerging Architecture Honourable mention December 2007

OBR ARCHITETTI ASSOCIATI Museum of Pitagora Crotone, Italy

This project is not yet complete, and as such did not qualify for consideration as an award contender. The jury, however, felt it deserved an
honourable mention due to the strength and conviction of its form. Situated on an elevated site, overlooking the southern Italian city of
Crotone, the building extends out of the hillside with a strong concrete cantilevered projection. Built to house a new museum to the famous
Greek philosopher Pythagoras, who founded his school here in circa 530 BC, the building’s distinctive figure is described by its architects as a
contemporary belvedere, as the extensive roof garden that sits above the projection is intended to be a public place that will blur boundaries
between exhibition spaces, piazza and garden.
Circulation works with the fall of the land and plays a major part in organising the exhibition that takes the form of a spiralling route that will
lead visitors through foyer exhibition spaces. With tapering ramps, the interiors extend the use of exposed concrete to create a series of
atmospheric halls. The building itself is accessible from above and below, either by climbing a path from the old town, or descending from the
mount. By contrast to the expanse of the roof garden, the cantilever shelters a terrace, providing a morae intimate place of shade at the lowest
point of the site. The museum is scheduled to open this month. R. G.

Architects
OBR Open Building Research, Genoa

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AR Awards for Emerging Honourable mention December 2007

Architecture

PHOOEY ARCHITECTS Children's activity centre Melbourne, Australia

Despite the fabulously whimsical name, Melbourne-based Phooey Architects (Peter Ho and his wife Emma
Young) are deadly serious about issues of social responsibility and environmental awareness. Recycling is
their particular forte – in a previous project for a hair salon, customers’ hair trimmings were collected,
laminated and transformed into a huge and decidedly surreal chandelier.
Here they turn to abandoned shipping containers to create an activity centre for children. Though
containers have now become a familiar staple of reappropriation for all sorts of things, Phooey put them to
energetic use, stacking them, slicing them and cutting them to create a thoroughly durable and dignified
assemblage that rejoices in the colourful bricolage of its origins.
A variety of types of indoor and outdoor spaces are created from the simple expedient of stacking and
staggering a couple of containers. There’s a multi-functional room (for study, painting, dancing and
lounging about) lined with chequered carpet tiles. Above, a series of lounges, decks and balconies provide
shade in summer while winter comfort is achieved through orientation and insulation. Around the tree-lined
site are an assortment of sandpits and play areas.
All materials were scavenged, salvaged or recycled. Container walls were simply cut up to form awnings
and balustrades and their surfaces left unpainted, so the original superscale graphics are still visible, albeit
now gloriously cannibalised. All this is achieved on a predictably meagre budget, but shows what you can
do with a bit of persistence and imagination. Phooey should go far. C. S.

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Architect
Phooey Architects, Melbourne
Project team
Peter Ho, Alan Ting, James Baradine
Photographs
Peter Bennetts
Email
peterho@phooey.com.au

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AR Awards for Emerging Honourable mention December 2007

Architecture

VO TRONG NGHIA Wind and water café Binh Duong, Vietnam

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While appearing archaic and unsophisticated, this apparently primitive lashed-together structure
incorporates an evaporative cooling technique and principles of aerodynamics. As part of a passive
ventilation strategy, the whole building effectively becomes an air-conditioning system in its own right, and

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is expressed as three component parts: roof, room and a 150mm deep pool. The generous roof not only
provides essential shade from the Vietnamese sun, but is also shaped to harness the wind. With this, as
the wind passes over the ponds, the roofs draw cool air across the space.
In consideration of the structural limitations of bamboo, limited amounts of steel were used to make
principal members and their connections more efficient. These include concealed cruciform masts clad in
bamboo and suspension cables that are more fully expressed. Otherwise the whole roof construction is
locally sourced organic material, with rattan ties and a water coconut roof covering. Other delightful
touches include the column-mounted light pipes that comprise short lengths of bamboo filled with torch-
like light-fittings. R. G.

Architect
Vo Trong Nghia, Ho Chi Minh City
Project team
Vo Trong Nghia, Nguyen Hoa Hiep,
Ohara Hisanori
Email
vtnghia@hotmail.com

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AR Awards for Emerging Honourable mention December 2007

Architecture

MAGMA ARCHITECTURE Exhibition installation Berlin, Germany

British readers who grew up in the ’70s might have fond folk memories of Bird’s Angel Delight, a blancmange-like
dessert that came in lurid shades of citrus and pink. With its swirling contours of gloopy, E-number orange,
Magma Architecture’s temporary installation to house an exhibition of the practice’s work looks as though Angel
Delight has been pumped into a room in the Berlinische Galerie, Berlin’s museum of contemporary art,
photography and architecture.
In reality it consists of an immensely flexible tensile fabric (a mix of polyamide and elastan) stretched between
the walls, floor and ceiling to form a thrillingly amorphous spatial environment.
The use of stretched fabric recalls the work of Anish Kapoor (AR September 1999), and it forms an atmospheric
counterpoint with the orthogonal formality of the gallery. Openings cut at intervals into the fabric enable visitors
to pop up into the curvaceous orange space (kick stools are provided for smaller patrons). Inside, Magma’s
collection of models, drawings and photographs are delicately suspended from tensile wires. Through the
manipulation of geometries and coruscating colour, the temporary gallery is transformed into a surreal, dynamic
environment. The jury were tickled both by the technically inventive concept and its delightful execution. The
future is orange. C. S.

Architect
Magma Architecture, Berlin
Project team
Hendrik Bohle, Dominik Jörg, Lena Kleinheine, Martin Ostermann, Ben Reynolds

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Email
lk@magmaarchitecture.com

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