The transformation project of 530 apartments in the Grand Parc Bordeaux district, designed by Lacaton & Vassal architectes, Frédéric Druot Architecture and Christophe Hutin Architecture, is the winner of the 2019 Mies van der Rohe Award, the Foundation has just announced. Mies van der Rohe. It is the most prestigious European award dedicated to architecture.
The project involves the transformation of three social housing buildings, originally built in the early 1960s.
The great particularity of this intervention began, from the inside, in order to give a better quality of life to its inhabitants: more space, more light, better views. The transformation gives “new qualities of space and life, as a very accurate inventory of the existing qualities that must be preserved and the needs to be preserved” is born.
According to the project authors, the addition of large winter gardens and even balconies offers the opportunity in each apartment to enjoy more space and natural light, more mobility to use. The existing small windows will be replaced by large sliding glass doors leading to the conservatory.
The project also allowed for improvements in technical facilities. Immediately the electrical installation of the bathrooms, improvements in the level of elevators. The Emerging Architecture Award 2019 was awarded to the French studio BAST for the “School Refectory” project – a new refectory in extension of the existing school in Montbrun-Bocage, in the Haute-Garonne region, near the French Pyrenees.
The project includes a glazed façade that maintains transparency in relation to the surrounding landscape.
The Contemporary Architecture Prize winners were selected from a list of 383 nominated works from 238 cities in 38 countries, resulting in only five finalists: the Caritas Psychiatric Clinic in Melle, Belgium, by Vylder Vinck’s Architecten studio , the Plasencia Congress Center in Spain by Selgascano Workshop, Skanderbeg Square in Tirana, Albania, which brought together architects from three countries and the Terrassenhaus Multipurpose Building in Berlin by Muck Petzet and Brandlhuber Workshops in addition to the “Grand Parc Bordeaux” project by Frédéric Druot and Christophe Hutin studios.
Among the projects initially named were the Lisbon Cruise Terminal, by José Luís Carrilho da Graça, and the Arvo Pärt Center in Estonia, led by Alexandra Sobral.
This year’s jury was composed of Dorte Mandrup (chairman), Frank McDonald, María Langarita, Kamiel Klaasse,? Tefan Ghenciulescu, Angelika Fitz and George Arbid. worth 60 thousand euros, the prize set up by the european commission and the mies van der rohe foundation, based in barcelona, is considered one of the most prestigious awards in the area of architecture. Biennial, distinguishes architectural projects built in the two years preceding its award. The Emerging Architecture Prize for early career professionals is worth € 20,000.
The award is named after German-born architect Mies van der Rohe, the third and final director of the Bauhaus School, founded 100 years ago in Germany, which settled in the United States after the Nazi forces seized power in 1933. Portuguese architect Álvaro Siza’s project for the former Banco Borges e Irmão, in Vila do Conde, was distinguished in the first edition of the prize, in 1988.