The sixth edition of the ArchiZinc Trophy concluded in June with 14 awards for projects from around the world. Devised and sponsored by VMZinc, the contest received 116 entries from 20 countries. There are four categories of awards: Individual Housing, Collective Housing, Commercial Building, Public Building - and three special awards: the Special Jury Award, the Sustainable Building Award, and the Internet Award voted by Internet readers.
An international jury selects the winners on the basis of design quality, integration into site, the innovative use of materials, functional excellence, and attention to environmental issues.
The Special Jury Award went to a Spanish project by Exit Architects and Eduardo Delgado Orusco: the conversion of a former provincial prison in Palencia, Spain, into a Civic and Cultural Centre. Decommissioned in 1997, this listed heritage site is redolent with dramatic memories of the Francoist period. The renovation programme involved knocking down the perimeter walls but keeping the façades of the building. A new zinc roof pierced by a series of large skylights was added along with glazed volumes connecting the existing structures. Despite the prevalence of matt-coloured brick, the overall effect is one of transparency, with natural daylight streaming into the building by day, and a lantern effect created at night. Zinc is the element that holds together old and new, a contemporary architectural feature that offsets the original architecture to great effect.
The Individual Housing award went to a house in the suburbs of Ghent, Belgium. Designed by DDM Architectuur, the new building was developed out of the building that formerly occupied the site - a large detached family home. The new construction, three duplex apartments, rests on the original foundations. Although the former configuration was completely remodelled, building materials were salvaged and re-used. The entire construction was then completely...
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