Winner
An overview of projects, products and exclusive articles about winner
Project • By Swap office • Offices
Arak C.E.O. Headquarter
The main challenge here was to design a space for engineers and architects to interact during the paper works and presence in the building. The vertical void defines the entrance, also forms the specific characteristics of the volume and its coherence with the city, which activates the back yard and southern part of the site. The vertical void is the negative space in the building. It organizes the interior spaces around it and creates a visual connection between all the levels. The waiting hall is one of the considerable parts of the building due to its majority of clients. Therefore its located by the entrance on the ground floor. The amphitheater, gallery, and event space are on the below Ground Floor. More
Project • By Swap office • Cultural Centres
port of cultures
Port of Cultures is a building that refuses to die, so we didn’t kill it. The competition asked for a new cultural center in Mariupol on the exact footprint of a 120-year-old building that has already burned twice. Its history is almost unbelievable: house, school for girls, military barracks, house again, labor exchange, then ash courtesy of the Nazis, then ash again in 2014. It has no official heritage value, but everyone remembers it. Memory sometimes ignores policy.
The city wants culture now: programs, activity, people. The question became how to add a new layer without erasing all the others. Preservation and demolition both felt too simple. So we cut out the interior and kept the façade, but not as nostalgia. It becomes... More
Project • By ELEMENT VISUALIZATIONS • Urban Green Spaces
Central Square in Warsaw
Central Square – known now as Parade Square - is a Warsaw main landmark for tourists and citizens. Mostly because of its central location on the map of the city and direct relation with Palace of Culture and Science – the highest and most iconic building in Poland.Everyday loads of people are passing through the Parade Square on their way to work, train station or just to handle their daily duties. Despite being located in a communicational and administrative heart of the City, the space is excluded from everyday metropolitan life. As meeting point or destination for spending time, its role seems to be marginal.The reason of the lack of interest is “the great nothingness”. There is no specified development plan for the Square so people feel... More
Project • By B² Architecture • Nurseries
Instant house kindergarten
In a strictly orthogonal urban context, in the street of Via Ugo Betti in Milan, we decided to create an oasis for children, that will break down the rigorosity with the help of organic and playful shapes. The design of the building and its surroundings will create a bridge between the neighborhood and the children by orienting itself to the main directions of the site, by respecting its weather context and by embracing the nature that is already on there.
The Small Explorers Kindergarten resulted from a careful analysis of the site´s existing landscape and context, in order to emphasize and preserve as many of the present qualities as possible. The building covers 679 square meters and is able to accommodate around 90 children.
The k... More