The AIA Continental Europe Design Awards (AIACE DA) recognizes the outstanding work of architects and related professionals and celebrates the achievements that embody the values of the AIA Framework of Design Excellence.
The AIA Continental Europe Chapter is pleased to announce the 2024 AIACE Design Awards winners for each category:
Design for Change Winner:
Ilot Fertile, Paris, France, TVK - www.tvk.fr
Design for Discovery Winner:
Wonder Building, Bagnolet, France, Coldefy Architects coldefy.fr,
Design for Social Impact
Winner: Treetop Walkway in Hamaren Activity Park, Fyresdal, Norway, EFFEKT Architects, WWW.EFFEKT.DK
Design for Social Impact
Jury Honourable Mention: SON Cascina San Carlo, Milan Italy, B22 Architects - www.b22.it
Student Award
Winner: Gypsum to Gypsum, Justin Fan and Xueyuan Wang, Rice University School of Architecture Paris
Honourable Mention: Pont des Sports, Nicole Yip and Yufei Wang, Rice University School of Architecture Paris
Jury Special Mention: Moon Station HOAX 0.3, Nina Avdalyan and Ivane Gventsadze, University of Georgia - School of Arts and Humanities
Design for Change:
Projects that demonstrated merits in adaptable and resilient design, optimized use of energy and resources with reduced negative environmental impact.
Winner: Ilot Fertile, Paris, France, TVK - www.tvk.fr
Located in the Éole-Évangile Triangle of Paris’ 19th arrondissement, the Îlot Fertile project aims to become a model for constituting a popular, attractive and sustainable piece of the city.
The project is organized around a vast public space designed as a large garden based on this inherited infrastructural topography. The central alley connects to the high point of rue d'Aubervilliers, allowing continuity with the large esplanade of the Rosa Parks RER station. This public ground floor houses a large sports facility and catering areas. It is completed by a second stratum designed as a garden level rising to the level of the RER tracks to the south in order to provide distant views but also to the north at the level of rue d'Aubervilliers. The project is therefore based on this garden level to accommodate the common areas of the different programs. Four buildings with identifiable shapes rest on this base. They respectively accommodate housing, offices, the hotel, the youth hostel and residences for students and young professionals.
The ambition shared by the architects, the developer and the city of Paris is to make the Ilot Fertile a “Zero Carbon” district during operation. The first objective is to restore its place to biodiversity thanks to this large central garden, which ensures ecological continuity with the green network of the small belt. Cooperation between architects, developers and companies has enabled the use of locally available stone on a large scale, demonstrating its capacity as a model for future projects. The construction method is certainly very old, but its implementation on a large scale is a real challenge. While the question of continuing to build new construction arises today, the Fertile Island offers a sober response taking advantage of the transforming territory of the North of Paris.
Photo credits: Julien Hourcade
Design for Discovery
Projects demonstrated merits in innovative design, fabrication solutions, and processes with lessons learned to advance architecture design paradigms.
Winner: Wonder Building, Bagnolet, France, Coldefy Architects coldefy.fr,
The Wonder Building is a transformative project situated at the entrance of Paris in Bagnolet, and stands as an emblem of a new form of workplace. Reimagining the conventional norms of office architecture, this innovative structure breathes life into an obsolete industrial site, offering an exceptional quality of work life through a powerful architectural gesture.
As a link between two territories, the project signifies the rejuvenation of a contemporary and active district. The extensive glazed façade not only serves as an urban signal for Porte de Bagnolet but also shields occupants from boulevard nuisances. Additionally, strategically placed egress stairs along the facade free up valuable interior space as well as offer a unique vantage point for views over the city of Paris.
Environmental sustainability is at the core of the project’s design, employing standardization and prefabrication processes for facades and timber structures. This approach ensures a cleaner and faster construction site, reducing assembly time for each typical floor of 3,000m² in a record time of 14 days. The 4,450 m3 wooden structure conserves natural resources and saves 2,500 tons of CO2 compared to an all-concrete construction, reducing the building's carbon footprint by 60% over its life cycle.
The wood structure, made of ribbed CLT flooring and wooden posts, allowed the project to achieve carbon efficiency. Solid CLT wood enables easy discharge of the energy stored by the building's structure, thus combating discomfort in summer. The prefabrication of the block facades improved the building's thermal performance, ensuring better air tightness.
Programmatic innovation is embodied by the creation of vertical circulation spaces envisioned as meeting areas. The stairs create a walkway from the ground floor to the building's double-height mezzanine space. These front-facing stairs encourage soft mobility and support the achievement of Breeam and Well certifications aimed at improving user comfort.
Photo credits : Stéphane Aboudaram
Design for Social Impact
Projects demonstrated merits in promoting equitable communities and social integration, and positively impacted the current and future occupants as well as the larger community.
Winner: Treetop Walkway in Hamaren Activity Park, Fyresdal, Norway, EFFEKT Architects
The Treetop Walkway in Hamaren Activity Park offers all nature lovers, regardless of age, disability or physical limitation, a new perspective on the mountainous pine forest of Fyresdal at 15 meters in the air. The canopy walkway in the Telemark region, known for its islands and fjords, is the first of its kind in Norway. The treetop walk reconnects all user groups with nature through a design that enhances the experience of the visitors – taking them on a slow and poetic walk through the forest canopy, culminating in a rush of excitement as they take in a scenic view of lake against sky at 60 meters above lake water level.
The structure uses only small and straight pre-fabbed elements, that can easily be handled with small machinery and by hand on site, to protect nature during the building process. When joined together the segments form an organic shape that bends around the trees and along the mountain. The building system made it possible to build the recreational walkway on location, using local timber and local craftsmanship techniques, nodding to the logging era in Fyresdal. Despite the challenges posed by the pandemic, the project was successfully realized through close collaboration with the community stakeholders, remote coordination and 3D modelling.
Photo credits :Rasmus Hjortshøj
Design for Social Impact
Jury Honourable Mention: SON Cascina San Carlo, Milan Italy, B22 Architects - www.b22.it
The SON center for mental fragility is a cluster of existing and new buildings aimed at hosting families with elder parents, sons and daughters affected by mental disabilities. Sheltered accommodation for young fragile people is provided, together with social activities carried out both in shared spaces — meeting spaces on the ground floor and common garden — and in a public pavilion open to the neighborhood.
Two new buildings house pairs of apartments for parents and children with fragility cognitive impairments: in large skylights oriented toward the park, located on the second floor of the lodgings, there are rooms for caregivers. In contrast, the existing building and a new pavilion house two associations promoting collective social activities, an apartment for autonomy, and a hall, equipped with a kitchen workshop, also open for civic and public activities.
Photo credits: Simone Marcolin
Student Award
First Prize (500€): Gypsum to Gypsum
Author: Justin Fan and Xueyuan Wang
Rice University School of Architecture Paris
Instructor : Nicholas Gilliland and John Casbarian
Sited in Paris’ Parc forestier de la Poudrerie, a forested historic gunpowder manufacturing complex, this adaptive reuse project considers the original function of the site as an industrial center to propose a gypsum recycling factory. It addresses the issues of connection to the metropolis and sustainability by taking on the construction waste from The Grand Paris Express, an infrastructural and re-urbanizing project in the area of the site. The proposed new function for the adapted site also includes facilities for the community to participate in ceramics-making using recycled gypsum from discarded plasterboard. Unlike the destructive purpose of the site’s original product, ceramics are made to protect and preserve. The volatile nature of gunpowder is represented in the design of the historic buildings and landscaping, as certain walls were especially heavy concrete or masonry. Packed mounds of earth were laid throughout. Such conditions of the existing architecture and topography presented unique design opportunities for our adaptive reuse to integrate structurally and spatially. The resulting gypsum recycling factory and ceramics arts workshop directly involve the existing patterns of building. Additional programs include ceramic artist-in-residence lodges, a library and gallery, each sited with particular concern for minimal site impact and sensible adaptation of existing building fragments.
Honorable Mention: Pont des Sports
Author: Nicole Yip and Yufei Wang
Rice University School of Architecture Paris
Instructors : Frederico Pedrini (XDGA) and John J. Casbarian (Rice University)
Pont des Sports is a sports complex project situated towards the Seine while bridging over the Boulevard Saint-Germain. The building is divided into two parts: the served (sports) and serving (facilities) spaces, using a gap to create a distinguished boundary. The gap acts as an atrium for the ground level and holds the circulation to connect the served and service spaces. The building is meant to serve the public, engaging with users of different age levels and activity types. Sports facilities include a hardfloor court for activities such as basketball, judo, and badminton, a multipurpose space, a fitness centre, a climbing gym, and an Olympic diving and lap pool. A below-grade auditorium connects users at the riverbank level to the building creating a new route from the street to the river. At the roof, a playground for children will become a new space for open air activities within the city.
Two different structural strategies exist within the building to further identify the served and serving spaces: A load-bearing concrete wall structure creates a rigid volume to hold the service spaces; A steel structure is used in the sports complex to accommodate the large spans and open spaces.
Jury Special Mention: Moon Station HOAX 0.3
Author: Nina Avdalyan, Ivane Gventsadze
University of Georgia - School of Arts and Humanities
Instructor: Marika Kurtishvili
Within the depths of a lunar pit, a spinning lunar base of remarkable engineering stands, a testament to humanity’s quest for habitation beyond Earth. Encased in an aluminum finish, its imposing 60-meter diameter structure harmoniously merges retro-futuristic aesthetics with cutting-edge technology. With the help of the integrated flywheels, the base spins around a central axis to create artificial gravity. In this case, the force that creates the artificial gravity is directed outwards from the axis of rotation, which is known as the centrifugal force.
In this spinning lunar base, humanity’s enduring spirit dances with scientific progress, enveloped in the marriage of architectural ingenuity and technical mastery. It stands as a testament to our capacity to create havens amidst the unknown, where the boundaries between Earth and the moon blur, and where the eternal human desire for exploration, comfort, and well-being finds fulfillment.
Special thanks to our jury members:
Francine Houben, Founding Partner of Mecanoo Architects NL
Sophia Gruzdys, AIA, Professor USC and Principal of SGLA Int’l Architecture
Giancarlo Alhadeff, FAIA RIBA, Founding Principal at Alhadeff Architects Milan and Partner at Heat Architecture, London
