KME Announces Winners of TECU® ARCHITECTURE AWARD 2022
KME Announces Winners of TECU® ARCHITECTURE AWARD 2022
KME Germany has announced the 2022 TECU® ARCHITECTURE AWARD winners for the sixth time. The competition intends to enable, accompany and promote modern and forward-looking approaches to architecture based on copper as a material, in collaboration with architects.
In addition to three architecture prizes, two project prizes for students were also awarded. Furthermore, three Special Mentions were awarded.
Architecture Prizes
1st Prize (1/2)
The Rebirth of the Convent Saint-François, Sainte-Lucie de Tallano, Corsica (F)
Architects: Amelia Tavella Architectes, Aix en Provence (F)
Installers: Soluzinc (F) Metal forming; Fusella (F) Installation
Material: TECU® Classic_punch
Photos: Thibaut Dini
Amelia Tavella was commissioned to renovate and extend the Saint-François monastery in Sainte-Lucie de Tallano in Corsica. The task was to rebuild without turning away from the remaining structure. The approach was to appreciate the surrounding spectacle of the Alta Rocca landscape in the Corsican mountains as much as the nature that had grown into the ruin. The architect decided to renovate the ruins and replace the crumbling part with a copper work that would become the territory’s home.
Thus, based on the original dimensions, the former existing building was given back a lost dimension, held by a reversible copper frame, which will now develop its own history in the overall context of the monastery complex. At the same time, the perforated copper skin underlines the religious character of the site by capturing and diffusing the light like an old church window, but also partially reflecting it to return it to the sky in the context of a visually impressive natural spectacle.
1st Prize (2/2)
Practice Pavilions for Music Students, University of the Arts Berlin (D)
Architects: TRU Architekten Part mbB, Berlin
Installer: HSP Fassaden GmbH, Berlin
Material: TECU® Gold
Photos: Werner Huthmacher
There was an urgent need for additional practice rooms for the students of the Berlin Academy of Music (UdK). These were finally realised in the form of two golden pavilions that now complement the historic school building on Bundesallee in Berlin. Fourteen practice rooms, including two rooms equipped with concert pianos, offer students the opportunity to work intensively with their instruments. A specially developed soundproofing concept ensures trouble-free use of the individual rooms even at peak times. Reverberation can be individually regulated via heavy curtains. Natural light, built-in cupboards and mirrors complement the high usability and comfort of the small room units. These were built in solid wood construction, prefabricated as modules and erected on a reinforced concrete slab, separated from each other in terms of sound insulation. The roof of each module juts out towards the centre of the building, forming the corridor designed as a coloured passageway. Uniform light wood surfaces create a pleasant atmosphere inside the practice rooms. On the outside, the modules are clad in solid wood panels that serve as a weather skin and as a mounting base for the beautiful copper corrugated metal façade that swings around the building. The geometries of corrugation and perforation were individually developed to achieve lightness and elegance, with the very special golden surface creating a lively dialogue between the old and new buildings. Last but not least, the perforated façade also functions as a privacy screen against unobstructed views from outside, without disturbing one’s own view.
3rd Prize
Carlsberg Headquarters, Copenhagen (DK)
Architects: C.F. Møller Architects, Aarhus (DK)
Installer: upb, Riga (LV)
Material: TECU® Classic_bond
Photos: Adam Mørk
The office of C.F. Møller Architects has realised the new headquarters for the Carlsberg Group. The challenge was to adapt a large, modern office building to a historical, urban and landscape site with precision and sensitivity, while at the same time giving the building the aesthetic quality that distinguishes Carlsberg as a company. Thus, the façade, half clad in recycled copper, also creates a clear reference to the old brewery facilities and the copper roof details of the listed buildings in the mature surroundings. The new building sculpture was to tie in with their embodiment of self-confidence and love for the iconic architectural attitude and quality.
The building blends into the green and historic surroundings – with special attention to the central garden of the company’s founder Carl Jacobsen – and takes special account of the scale of the terrain by tapering in height and allowing the façade to follow the topography of the site with recesses of glass and copper. At the same time, the green roof creates a gentle transition from the building to the landscape.
The façade is conceived as a single, repeating structure with a certain depth that emphasises the divided planes and changing angles and varies the appearance of the building, depending on how it is viewed from the façade or from the street. The terraces, the kinks, the simple structure and the depth of the façade ensure that with few materials – glass and copper – a strong and eventful impression is created.
Special Mentions
Garden Curtain Wall, Singapore (SIN)
Architects: Formwerkz Architects, Singapur (SIN): Alan Tay, Foo Yuet Yee, Joel Tay
Installer: Aallianz Pte, Singapore (SIN)
Material: TECU® Gold_mesh
Photos: Fabian Ong
In addition to the two-dimensionality, the architects concentrated intensively on the depth of the building envelope. A gold-coloured copper expanded metal screen shields the 6-storey glass block and the interspersed garden strips on its periphery. These shrouded gardens mediate between outside and inside, between the city and the interior office spaces. The thin copper veil that is the building envelope facing the street is occasionally pierced by openings that frame the activities in the staggered, differently configured workspaces.
The cantilevered gondolas are extensions of otherwise column-free, open spaces within the glass volume. The roofs of these attached gondolas, which can be used for different purposes within the work processes, become garden terraces for the floor above.
Weihersteig in Klingenweiher Landscape Park, Wassertrüdingen (D)
Architects: Planorama Landschaftsarchitektur Maik Böhmer, Berlin (D)
Installer: Metallart Taubert, Greiz (D)
Material: TECU® Gold
Photos: Hanns Joosten, Nikolai Benner
In preparation for the Bavarian State Garden Show 2019, the office Planorama Landschaftsarchitektur has designed and created the Klingenweiher Landscape Park. The park is characterised above all by a series of small, sustainably created ponds and a wild, rural character. It is accessed via an artificial, custom-made footbridge – the Weihersteig – whose gold-coloured copper reinforcement now accompanies it and creates an exciting contrast to the surrounding nature. The footpath meanders over bridges and footbridges over a length of approx. 1 km and leads through the existing wetland biotope with ponds, lush wildflower meadows, picturesque tree groves and orchards. With its expressive design language and its copper edging with the impressive golden surface, the Weihersteig is the essential and connecting design element that stages and opens up the natural space in a unique way.
VIZIUM Science and Innovation Centre, Ventspils (LV)
Architects: Audrius Ambrasas Architects, Vilnius (LT)
Installer: Uppe, Brankas (LV)
Material: TECU® Classic__coated_bond
Photos: Norbert Tukaj
The Science and Innovation Centre in Ventspils, completely wrapped in copper, was designed as a unity of architecture and landscape, as an open and inviting landmark. The silhouettes of the building and the hill merge here. New public spaces such as the Science Hill rising from the plain, an open roof terrace and a viewpoint are available to all visitors. The eastern part of the site is characterised by the hill, which offers space for picnics and open-air events and provides a view of the river. The hill leads to the roof terrace with access to the public facilities (café, conference hall and main lobby) on the first floor. Further development of the building and the city continues along the roof slope towards the observation deck, which offers an impressive panoramic view. The building itself is also divided into two parts for functional reasons – the science centre forms the lower part of the volume, while the innovation centre occupies the 6 floors of the upper part.
Project Prize for Students
1st Prize (1/2)
Until everything moves (Design for a residential building), Wuppertal (D)
Layout: Regina Gebauer, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Faculty for Architecture
Material: TECU® Patina_punch
Photos: Regina Gebauer
The project addresses the densification of European city centres in terms of sustainability. The design describes the densification towards the inside by adding a roof to a two-storey existing building in Wuppertal. The result is a proposed solution for how architecturally sophisticated architecture can present aesthetics as the fourth pillar of sustainability. In addition to the idea of generating living space through the addition of more storeys, the densification towards the inside above all makes it possible to save resources. Thus, only recycled materials are used – such as patinated copper panels, storage windows, certified and aesthetic glass panels made from old bottles or surfaces made from used yoghurt pots – and joined together in a single sort using detachable innovative joining techniques to ensure a circular economy. The flexible structures of the interior spaces are continued in the surrounding façade, which encloses a private balcony for each minimal unit of use that can be closed or opened via foldable sunshades made of perforated copper. In this way, the façade is actively moved and changed by the users. The roof and façade design are determined by a grid into which different panels are inserted as required: Patinated copper panels for closed façade and roof surfaces, perforated copper sheets for filtered light and panels that can be opened flexibly for unfiltered light incidence.
1st Prize (2/2)
Augarten, Graz (A)
Layout: Florian Berger, TU Graz, Institute for Building Theory (A)
Material: TECU® Patina
Photos: Florian Berger
Public space in transition is the central theme of Florian Berger’s work. At the northern end of the Augarten in Graz, on a relatively quiet, almost meditative urban meadow in the middle of a hectic “big city”, a chiriguito is to be created – a place where people meet, experience the surroundings, enjoy good food and above all: meet people.
The design is determined by the importance of synergy and interaction between the given place, the atmosphere and the building. The reduced, clearly formulated building is intended to put people at the centre. The architecture of the chiringuito therefore only allows for a certain degree of abstraction, which is measured by its usefulness. The structure, sustainably embedded in the meadow, is based on considerations based on analysed pedestrian flows. The building appears in a red/pink colour scheme, harmoniously complemented by the patina green copper surface of the roof cladding. Thus it is prominently embedded in the public green space and accentuated by memorability. Views in, out and through define the area – this makes accessibility subliminal and the formulated space tangible for all
