After another successful selection process, with over 150,000 votes cast during the last 3 weeks, the collective intelligence of our community has helped us to highlight and recognize the best recent architecture projects. The 75 finalists, which is already a winners list, are a testament to the innovative and diverse ways in which architecture responds to the challenges of our built environment.
The scale of this award is a reflection of how important architecture is today, as the deepening complexity of our world places increasing pressure and demands upon our built environment. To deal with issues such as the climate crisis, energy scarcity, population density, social inequality, housing shortages, fast-moving urbanization, diminished local identity, and a lack of diversity, architecture needs to open itself. We are happy to see how the question posed by this award has gained global attraction. Voices from outside of the architectural profession stated: “This is what we consider good architecture”, due to its impact and symbolism, as seen on Globo or El País. Architectural recognition goes beyond its usual professional borders, and is able to motivate, rejoice and excite an ever growing number of people who understand the importance of our built environment and its impact on quality of life.
The winners are a concrete example of what society recognizes as good architecture, but also of what it demands from it. We take the responsibility to continue building on the spirit of the award, strengthening the expert’s choice and the contribution that our community makes based on their preferences and selections throughout the year, together with the voice of a wider community.
The ArchDaily Building of the Year Awards is brought to you thanks to Dornbracht, renowned for leading designs for architecture, which can be found internationally in bathrooms and kitchens.
THE WINNERS
Best Applied Products
Convento do Beato Event Center / RISCO (Portugal)
The design for the new ceiling resulted from a long process of technical and formal research, made necessary by the desire to ensure that it was structurally light, technically efficient and architecturally coherent with the cloister elevations. The solution adopted consists of a system of orthogonally arranged trusses that form a set of "honeycombs" that are lit from above by skylights.
Commercial Architecture
Shanghai Suhe MixC World / Kokaistudios (China)
The project’s starting point was rethinking commercial spaces to better integrate with their surroundings. The resulting ‘urban valley’ presents a brand-new public space in the city and sets a new benchmark for Shanghai.
Cultural Architecture
Brazilian Pavilion Expo Dubai 2020 / MMBB Arquitetos + Ben-Avid + JPG.ARQ (UAE)
The pavilion features the waters of Brazil - its rivers and mangroves, the birthplace of the fertility of life, a natural inheritance that underlies all discourse about sustainability on the planet.
Educational Architecture
Jadgal Elementary School / Daaz Office (Iran)
The project opted for a participation method of construction that would promote sustainable development and produce social, economic, and cultural infrastructures. As a result, we designed a school with the idea of becoming the village and its dependent communities' development center. In this way, the school was a place of education for children and a point of gathering and learning for everybody in the village.
Healthcare Architecture
University Hospital in Tangier / Hajji & Elouali + Architecturestudio (Morocco)
The University Hospital Center in Tangier seamlessly integrates a high-quality multibuilding hospital structure reminiscent of the vernacular architecture of Moroccan villages into the hilly landscape.
Hospitality Architecture
House & Restaurant / junya ishigami + associates (Japan)
“It cannot be artificially smooth but rather something with the roughness of nature. Authentic cuisines require such a place.” He also told me that “it has to look as if it has been there and will continue to be there for the longest time.” His idea was to create a brand-new long-established restaurant.
Houses
House in Pomar do Cafezal / Coletivo LEVANTE (Brazil)
The design of the house represents a constructive model that uses common materials in the slums, with an adequate implementation and attention to lighting and ventilation, resulting in a space with great environmental quality.
Housing
Terrace House / Austin Maynard Architects (Australia)
Terrace House is the result of past Austin Maynard Architect’s clients, staff and allies putting their own money at risk to create community-focused homes that are equitable, ethical, cost-effective, robust and resilient in the face of the growing climate crisis. Terrace House takes a revolutionary approach to housing and delivers well designed, quality homes that are environmentally, socially and financially sustainable.
Industrial Architecture
Headquarters Carmo Coffees / Gustavo Penna Arquiteto e Associados (Brazil)
Located in a strategic area, the place demands a remarkable shape. Hence this inward-looking shape, open at the top like a skylight, an entrance for sunlight during the day and, at night, the expression of inner light.
Interior Architecture
Atelier Gardens Studio 1 / MVRDV (Germany)
MVRDV’s design achieves this through a “low tech transformation” with one stand-out feature: an intricate overhead curtain rail that – unlike in most film studios where curtain rails are hidden – becomes a focal point of the space.
Offices
CapitaSpring / BIG + Carlo Ratti Associati (Singapore)
At multiple elevations, the vertical elements comprising the building’s exterior are pulled apart to allow glimpses into the green oases blooming from the base, core, and rooftop “sky garden.” The tower reinforces Singapore’s reputation as a garden city, housing over 80,000 plants
Public & Landscape Architecture
One Green Mile / MVRDV (India)
Turning an overbearing element of concrete infrastructure into a public space for the entire local community, the design adds much-needed amenities and greenery, improves mobility, and creates a strong visual identity for the area. On a broader scale, the design offers a repeatable approach to sustainable urban development that asserts a new benchmark for underused public spaces in the intense Indian metropolis.
Religious Architecture
The Chamber Church / Büro Ziyu Zhuang (China)
Looking backwards we find the archetypes of architectural associations in history. The design echoes the memories associated with them, but interprets them in a timeless modernity creating a sense of the future. The architecture integrates this duality in plan and section.
Small Scale & Installations
Glass House / Max Núñez (Chile)
Through various mechanical systems, it generates an artificial environment conditioned to recreate a fragment of tropical forest at a different latitude. Its inhabitants are a variety of plants, ferns, palm trees, orchids, mosses, small trees, and some insects that have found their new habitat in this controlled atmosphere.
Sports Architecture
Quzhou Sports Park / MAD Architects (China)
Despite its impressive 30,000-seat capacity, Quzhou Stadium was designed to appear as a continuation of the surrounding landscape rather than an object standing out against it. Unlike the typically fortress-like stadiums built in urban areas around the world, MAD Architects was determined to build a stadium that would embed much of the technology that went into its production so that it can instead be open to the surrounding public space from nearly every angle.
Once again, thank you for being a part of the Building of the Year Award. Your participation and support have been invaluable to its success. We truly appreciate your commitment to celebrating the best architecture in the world.
