West 8 Receives the Global Award for Sustainable Architecture™ 2014
On Tuesday the 19th of May West 8 was presented with the Global Award for Sustainable Architecture™ by LOCUS at the Cite de l’Architecture and du Patrimoine Paris.
Established in 2007 by the architect and professor Jana Revedin in partnership with international scientific institutions and the Cité de l’Architecture of Paris, the Global Award for Sustainable Architecture™ honors the collective process of design based on shared ethics, methods and experiments. It observes architecture as a process, noting if and how it addressed today’s major transitions. Award winners are “architects who are responding to questions like – managing of resources, fair access to development, the definition of progress, urban migration and the future of public habitat – in a innovative way”. 2014 is the 8th edition of the Awards, which received the patronage of UNESCO in 2011.
This year more than 200 international submissions were received from architects, critics, professors, public institution and associations via the website and the LOCUS network of experts. From these the LOCUS scientific jury* selected five winners:
- Christopher Alexander – Arundel, Great Britain
- Tatiana Bilbao – Mexico, Mexico
- Bernd Gundermann – Auckland, New Zealand
- Martin Rajnis – Prague, CSR
- West 8 – Rotterdam, NL / Brussels, Belgium / New York, USA
West 8 Co-founder and Principal, Adriaan Geuze along with Maarten van de Voorde – director of West 8 Belgium received the award on behalf of West 8, in the presence of Aurélie Filippetti, French Minister of Culture and Communication, Francesco Bandarin, UNESCO Director General of Culture and Guy Amsellem, President of the Cité de l’architecture & du patrimoine, Paris.
The Global Award for Sustainable Architecture™ seeks to establish a community based on dialogue and the exchange of knowledge and visions – a think-tank that, over time, has become a do-tank and driver of change. In line to this philosophy, a Symposium was organised for experts and public on 19th of May, which included a presentation by each of the five award winners and an official Award Ceremony. Information of the symposium can be found here.
Juries comments on West 8: ‘The Dutch Adriaan Geuze established West 8 in Rotterdam in 1987 as multi-disciplinary office and become known in Europe for his “pre-ecological” urban design and landscaping projects. Today, West 8 has become an international office- perhaps because it transposes a method based on negotiating with reality?‘ ‘The Global Award for Sustainable Architecture is, in particular, a recognition of West 8’s innovative desire to address urban and landscape development in its more global dimensions, in light of the very specific Dutch approach to caring for the landscape: “the real future in today’s debate about sustainability lies not in a political or philosophical dialogue about what we are protecting or how we are going to ‘sustain’ it but rather how to actively create new ecologies. Creating land and then painting it: in many ways, this is the soul of Dutch culture.”‘ During the ceremony, West 8 projects from the 90’s such as Borneo-Sporenburg, together with the office’s most recent projects, such as New York Governors Island, Toronto Central Waterfront and Madrid RIO, were discussed at length. A complete Jury Report can be downloaded here.
For more information on the award visit: The LOCUS Foundation.
* The scientific committee included the following:
• Cité de l’architecture & du patrimoine, Paris
• International Centre for Urbanism, Architecture and Landscape, Brussels
• Universitá IUVA Venezia, Venice
• Museum of Finnish Architecture, Helsinki
• International Architecture Biennale of Ljubljana
• LOCUS Foundation
Contacts regarding the award:
Cité de l’architecture & du patrimoine
Marie-Hélène Contal, Deputy director, Ifa
mhcontal@citechaillot.fr
Margaux minier, project manager, Ifa
Locus
revedin@locus-foundation.org
www.locus-foundation.org
www.citechaillot.fr
West 8 is an award-winning international office for urban design and landscape architecture founded in 1987. Over the last 25 years West 8 has established itself as a leading practice with an international team of 70 architects, urban designers, landscape architects and industrial engineers. West 8 developed projects all over the world in places such as Copenhagen, London, Moscow, New York, Madrid, Toronto and Amsterdam. The office gained international recognition with projects such as Schouwburgplein in Rotterdam (NL), Borneo-Sporenburg in Amsterdam (NL), Chiswick Park in London (UK) and Expo \’02 in Yverdon-les-Bains (CH). Many of the projects are the result of groundbreaking entries in important international competitions. Recently won competitions include Toronto Waterfront in Toronto (CA), Governors Island in New York (USA) and Playa de Palma in Mallorca (ES).
Amongst the numerous awards received by West 8 are the Honor Award of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA), Lifetime Achievement Award for Architecture 2011, Mondriaan Fund (formerly BKVB), the International Urban Landscape Gold Award (IULA), the Prix de Rome, the Dutch Maaskant Award, the Bijhouwer Award, the Rosa Barba First European Landscape Prize, the Green Pin and the Veronica Rudge Green Prize for Urban Design.
For more information: Public Relations, Winnie Poon or Lydia Franken, +31 (0)10 – 485 58 01, pr@west8.com, www.west8.com
