National Maritime Museum, China, designed by Cox Rayner Architects, has won the ‘World’s Best Future Projects Competition Entry’ award at the prestigious World Architecture Festival (WAF) Awards 2013.
This is the second WAF Award won by Cox Rayner Architects for the National Maritime Museum, following their triumph in the World’s Best Future Projects Culture category.
The judging of the WAF Awards is taking place during the largest global celebration of architecture - the World Architecture Festival, which is being held at the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore this week.
This project, which won the international competition to design China’s new National Maritime Museum to be located in the port city of Tianjin close to Beijing, is designed to comprise five hall structures radiating out to the port harbour and converging in a central ‘Preface Hall’. The goal was to bring all visitors up a rampart to an elevated level and access from there either of two split levels which occupy each hall. This strategy enabled the collections and operational centre of the museum to be located immediately under the Preface Hall with direct lower level access into each hall, fulfilling the brief of creating a ‘complete’ museum in the first stage of development, and allowing for minimal disruption to the first in the following stages.
The building was selected by a jury of some of the world's most dynamic architectural and urban designers. It overcame competition from a shortlist of six entries.
The jury commended the project, saying, “This was the most developed scheme in this category, and it addressed its relation with the water very successfully. The use of local boatbuilding skills to create the structure, the accessibility to the exhibits and the integration of the working fishing village into the plan was delightful.”
This is the 6th year the World Architecture Festival Awards have been presented, and by the end of the festival 32 WAF Awards will have been announced across the three main sections of Completed Buildings, Landscape and Future Projects.
Projects entered this year, against a challenging economic climate, reflect the festival’s theme of ‘Value and Values’ demonstrating the core factors that inform the relationship between perceptions of financial value and the values that architects typically hold regarding their work. The awards programme will culminate with the announcement of the coveted World Building of the Year Award, which will be selected by the festival’s super-jury. It will be chaired by Ken Tadashi Oshima of The University of Washington. The highly esteemed international judging panel also includes Ken Yeang - Llewelyn Davies Yeang; Patrick Bellew - Atelier Ten; Jeanne Gang - Studio Gang Architects and Dietmar Eberle - Baumschlager Eberle.
Paul Finch, WAF Programme Director, said: ‘This year’s festival is already proving to be the largest, most well-attended and most exciting event to date. The strength of the entries in this year’s awards has even surpassed the very high standards set in previous years, ensuring that each category is extremely competitive. Today’s category winners will now compete for the festival’s ultimate prize, The World Building of the Year award, and our super-jury will certainly face some tough decisions given the calibre of today’s winning projects.”
Previous winners of the World Building of the Year Award include Luigi Bocconi University, Milan, designed by Irish practice Grafton Architects (2008); Mapungubwe Interpretation Centre in South Africa, designed by Peter Rich Architects of Johannesburg (2009); MAXXI (National Museum of the 21st Century Arts) in Rome, designed by Zaha Hadid Architects (2010); Media TIC, designed by Cloud 9 Architects (2011); Gardens By The Bay, designed by Wilkinson Eyre, Grant Associates, Atelier One and Atelier Ten (2012).
