Lord Foster gets the day off
Foster absolved from his Jury duty at World Architecture Festival
There was always a predictability about Lord Foster's role as heading up the super-jury at the World Festival of Architecture Awards, given that six of his projects were in the running for the top spot. But only one was to knock him out of the jury and into the winners circle, Smithsonian Institution in the USA.
The winners of the nine categories presenting today are as follows:
New and Old Robert & Arlene Kogod Courtyard, Smithsonian Institution by Foster + Partners
Office Duoc Corporate Building by Sabbagh Arquitectos
Pleasure Sheep Stable by 70F
Production BMW Welt by Coop Himmelb(l)au
Religion and Contemplation Dornbusch Church by Meixner Schlüter Wendt Architekten
Sport Sports Hall Bale by 3LHD Architects
Shopping K:fem by Wingårdh Arkitektkontor AB
Private House Final Wooden House by Sou Fujimoto Architects
Transport Nordpark Cable Railway by Zaha Hadid Architects
Let the showdown commence...
At the close of the second day of competition nine categories have been scrutinized to within an inch of their lives and a wide array have been shown, at varying levels of success.
One of the forerunners in the Production category, Leonardo Glass Cube, suffered at the hands of Dennis Sharp who contested the contrast between the box like exterior and the complex curves on the inside. Zaha Hadid, though not present herself, took centre stage in the Transport room with both Nordpark Cable Railway and Zaragoza Bridge Pavilion, two out of the 14 projects on trial.
Also under the microscope today were the O2 Arena in the UK and Beijing's Watercube as well as several projects by Foster + Partners. Given that Lord Foster is the Chairman of the jury, if any of his projects go through into the final battle for World Building of the Year tomorrow, he may be forced to step down or bow out of those particular presentations. Either way, Foster says, he won't be judging his own work. The same will be true for any works by the other super-jury members Richard Burdett, Cecil Balmond, Suha Ozkan, Robert Stern and Charles Jencks.
Today has seen the rise of the World Architecture Festival with greater participation, heightened expectations, a multitude of big projects by big architects and a panel of well established jurors. Tomorrow's finale is set to be an even bigger affair, let the showdown commence…
Barcelona's heating up
Day two of the World Architecture Festival begins and competition is getting tense
As the second day of the World Architecture Festival begins spirits are high and attendance is up. Following a successful first day of proceedings the buzz of discussion hangs in the air of the corridors as attendance in the presentation rooms spills at the sides. Having witnessed the preceding presentations architects now know what they have to deliver - a strong presentation of world class architecture, this is, after all, a world wide competition. They will also have to have nerves of steel facing a strong panel of judges today which includes Massimiliano Fuksas, Ken Yeang, Michel Rojkind and Will Alsop.
Also beavering away in the background are students from six architecture schools around the world frantically making models in the Festival Hall. They are here to work at the redesign of a redundant industrial complex in the Barcelona suburb of Sant Andreu. WAN will be speaking with them later and finding out how they are managing to face up to the challenge.
Today's nine building categories on trial are New & Old, Office, Pleasure, Production, Religion & Contemplation, Shopping, Private House,Transport and Sport. Check in throughout the day to catch WAN's predictions and all the latest on the world's first ever World Building of the Year Award.
Architectural fodder
The pressure is on and architects themselves are proving to be the judges' fodder
No event runs without a hiccup so unsurprisingly, neither has the World Architecture Festival. But with tight time allocations and such a high level of competition the heat is on and it will take a lot of organisation to ensure that things run smoothly.
722 projects have been whittled down to 224, half of which are being presented today, each with a fifteen minute slot. Bearing the brunt of an erroneous claim that one of the projects had dropped out was the Housing room. Judges were left stood outside the hall, unaware that the entrants were waiting to present their design for Ilot Saint Jean inside. Despite two of the judges being made aware five minutes after the presentation was due to start, they were forced to await the return of judge Peter Kudryavtsev of Building ARX who was no-where to be found.
Following the delay it was clear that Agence d'architecture Leibar & Seigneurin were floundering and suffered a shortened presentation followed by the same rigorous grilling as other presentations. Rising to the challenge, however, were BIG who presented Mountain Dwellings. Bjarke Ingels, project architect, advised that he himself owns one of the apartments and reminisced about an artwork mosaic wall at the scheme, which features the face of the client, and how they had managed to turn "arse kissing into an art form".
With many a sweaty brow emerging from their presentations it is clear that in a competition like this, personality can go a long way. Stay online for a podcast with Bjarke Ingels coming soon...
Niki May Young
News Editor
Let the games begin
Olympics of architecture commences with first presentations
Slowly but steadily visitors have begun to drip through the doors of the Centro de Convenciones Internationales de Barcelona (CCIB) and are pooling in the presentation rooms which will showcase eight of the 16 categories on trial today.
Civic, Culture, Health, Holiday, Learning, Nature and Energy Waste and recycling projects will each have their 15 minutes in the spotlight today. While the Housing and Learning categories proved popular during the first presentations it is the Culture room that presented the highest attendance figures, perhaps to do with subject matter, or perhaps to do with the rather dry mannered panel of judges overseeing proceedings. UK architect Peter Cook, German architect Christopher Ingenhoven and John Walsh, Editor of Architecture NZ presented a fine display of grilling setting the standard for an Olympian effort, showing that this competition will be anything but easy.
The outcome of the contest is far in the distance at this point with few predictions being made about the eventual winner of World Building of the Year 2008, but following a full day of 109 presentations, there is sure to be some front runners - stay online to find out...
What can you expect from the first ever World Architecture Festival?
Only one day remains before 224 architecture firms from around the world prepare to compete for one the most prestigious awards ever. Showcasing all of the 722 projects submitted, the World Architecture Festival is the first event of its kind dedicated to architecture and architects from across the globe. Paul Finch, Editor of Architectural Review and Director of the awards, said that they wanted to "create an event where architecture was first in the chain".
Participants at the event are aiming for one thing - to be the sole possessor of the World Building of the Year Award 2008. Despite the most diverse range of buildings competing there will be only one winner and there is no telling whether it will be a national stadium or a public toilet, anything goes.
Projects will face tough scrutiny with an extensive judging panel consisting of 58 of the most prestigious names in the business. Although disappointingly both Zaha Hadid and Richard Meier will now be unable to add their expertise to the panel, heading the jury is Lord Norman Foster who will be joined by further high-caliber architects including Charles Jencks and Robert A. M. Stern.
WAN will be providing full coverage of the event with everything from editorial to photography, blogs to video with a dedicated WAN film crew in attendance for the big announcement. Throughout the three-day extravaganza WAN will host a special Spotlight area which will contain all the important information from the event, updated as it happens.
World Building of the Year Super - Jury will be led by Lord Norman Foster
The World Architecture Festival has revealed the names of the leading architectural experts who will sit on the super-jury at the inaugural event to be held in Barcelona from Wednesday to Friday. Recognising "the best of the best" in design excellence, the super-jury will decide the world's finest building (whether new, restored, rehabilitated or converted) completed between 1st January 2007 and 20th June 2008. The 17 WAF Awards category winners will be in the running for the World Building of the Year.
The super-jury of international architectural experts will be chaired by Lord Norman Foster, with other members including: Cecil Balmond, Deputy Chairman of Ove Arup & Partners, Richard Burdett, Centennial Professor in Architecture and Urbanism at the London School of Economics, Robert Stern, Dean of Yale School of Architecture and Suha Ozkan of the XXI Architecture Centre, Ankara.
In order to ensure absolute impartiality, Lord Foster has confirmed that should one of the six buildings by Foster + Partners, the practice which he founded in 1967, win in its category and therefore be eligible for the World Building of the Year, he will step down from the super-jury.
A public toilet in Texas, two Christian churches in China and a writer's retreat built of local wood in Costa Rica are among the shortlisted projects competing with cutting edge airports, museums and Olympic stadia.
Buildings by such internationally renowned practices as Zaha Hadid Architects, Skidmore Owings Merrill, Kohn Pederson Fox, Nikken Sekkei, Denton Corker Marshall and Foster + Partners as well as smaller practices are represented among the shortlisted projects submitted in 17 different categories.
All shortlisted architects will present their work live to juries and audiences at the World Architecture Festival, over three days, from 22 - 24 October 2008 at the Centre Convencions Internacional Barcelona (CCIB). And all entries - over 700 in total - will be exhibited at the Festival i n a huge gallery modelled on the Barcelona grid. WAN will also feature many of these projects on our s pecial Spotlight site which will go live on Wednesday when the action begins.
Paul Finch, Editor of The Architectural Review and Programme Director of the World Architecture Festival, commented: "The inaugural World Architecture Festival has captured the interest and enthusiasm of the architectural community worldwide, with buildings of exceptional quality and diversity submitted by practices from over 60 countries. The jury will judge each building on its merits, irrespective of scale, location or prestige, and this presents a very real opportunity for less well known practices."