On December 5, the Building with Nature · Architecture China Award ceremony and academic conference organized by Architecture China (an academic journal founded by its Editor-in-Chief Professor LI Xiangning, Dean of Tongji’s College of Architecture and Urban Planning (CAUP)), were held at the Power Station of Art (PSA) in Shanghai. Winners of the following awards were announced at the ceremony: Practical Achievement, Technology Exploration, Youth Exploration, and Jury Special Project.

One of the founders of the Building with Nature · Architecture China Award, a Pritzker Architecture Prize winner, the Award Evaluation Committee Chairman, and an alumnus of Tongji WANG Shu shared his idea of creating the Award. In his eyes, the conflict faced by contemporary architecture lies between man and nature. The concept of building with nature is therefore proposed as a criterion for selection of design works for the Award which advocates the use of natural materials and methods that respects and conforms with nature and the legacy of architecture. Architecture is to grow naturally, in harmony not only with the local landscape, but with history.

WANG Shu delivering a speech

Of the 176 global submissions received, the jury selected 138 as being qualified in line with the concept of building with nature. National and international judges, including WANG Shu, ZHANG Yonghe, CUI Kai, GE Ming, LI Xiangning, Iwan Baan, Benedetta Tagliabue, and Philip Ursprung evaluated and selected one winner for the Practical Achievement Award, one for the Technology Exploration Award, three for the Youth Exploration Award, and several winners for the Jury Special Project Award.

Award winners

Together, WANG Shu and Academician CUI Kai announced the highest recipient for the Practical Achievement Award, which went to LIU Jiakun, Founder of Jiakun Architects. The jury's presentation speech to LIU reads, "Focusing on social reality, local culture and low-tech strategies, LIU's practice represents a specific direction in contemporary Chinese architecture and seeks to infuse architectural works with the power of nature and humanity." Major design works by LIU in recent years include: West Village; Shuijingfang Museum; Suzhou Imperial Kiln Ruins Park & Museum of Imperial Kiln Brick; and West Village No. 1.

Tongji’s CAUP Professor ZHANG Yonghe presented the Technology Exploration Award to the Founder of LUO Studio LUO Yujie. As the Evaluation Committee put it, "LUO Yujie is committed to creating durable, friendly, high-quality spaces through creative thinking, the spirit of craftsmanship, and the principle of caring for nature. With steel and wood assembly structures as his main explorative direction, LUO combines the rationality of different structural prototypes with the qualities of contemporary culture to create spatial structures with a sense of power and vitality." Representative design works of LUO Studio include: Pergola in Luotuowan Village; the Longfu Life Experience Center; the Party and Public Service Center of Yuanheguan Village; and the Natural Book House in Zheshui Village.

The Youth Exploration Awards went to Co-Founder and Host Architect of Untitled Architecture and Tongji alumnus WANG Hao, Atelier XUK (founded by LIU Kenan and ZHANG Xu; both alumni of Tongji), and Sounding Architecture (founded by LIU Chang, GAO Qin, and KONG Dezhong). Some of the works were dedicated to the revival of the traditional construction culture, aiming to create a spatial experience full of tension and the difference between modern architectural forms and traditional craftsmanship. Some were designed in combination of modern architectural traditions and the local characteristics of contemporary China, establishing a place of daily life and shared memories by selecting and combining different types of construction under specific contexts. And others were in search of poetic expression in everyday materials, so as to restore the body as the primary medium of perception with subtle spatial arrangement.

The Jury Special Project Awards were presented to: BingDing Wood Kiln Factory by AZL Architects; Taizhou Contemporary Art Museum of Atelier Deshaus, designed under the leadership of Tongji CAUP Visiting Professor LIU Yichun; In Bamboo by Archi-Union Architects, designed under the leadership of Tongji CAUP Associate Dean Philip F. Yuan; the Gymnasium of New Campus of Tianjin University by Atelier Li Xinggang, Rong Yuan by Yinyuan Studio, Soft Matter by NATURALBUILD, designed under the leadership of Tongji Alumnus SHUI Yanfei, Tai Kwuin in Hongkong by Herzog & De Meuron; and the M2 Tourist Port at Bai Lianjing by Original Design Studio, designed under the leadership of Tongji CAUP Professor ZHANG Ming.

The winners introduced their design works at the conference. Focusing on local context, site environment, architectural reality, low-tech strategies, popular, individual, and collective memory, and public life, all of LIU’s practices coincide with the core value of the concept of Building with Nature, LIU Jiakun introduced. LUO Yujie introduced four design projects from the four aspects of growing, reversible, successive, and wild architectures. The winner of the Youth Exploration Award, WANG Hao, explained the overall relationship between man and architecture and that between architecture and nature in Southern China through the scroll painting and set forth the construction philosophy of ancient villages in Southern China, demonstrating the employment of contemporary construction methods to carry forward the tradition of ancient construction, with the aim to develop an elegant and romantic architectural practice and reshape the poetic life under natural structures.

The Young Exploration Award recipients, LIU Kenan and ZHANG Xu, interpreted how architecture responds to existing landscapes and the relationship between architecture and urbanization through their recent design practices such as Multifunction Hall and Waterfall Pavilion in Qinglongshan Park, and Lost Villa Hotel in Jijiadun. The winner of the Young Explorers Award, LIU Chang, used the Stockholm Forest Cemetery as an example to explain how the nature was perfectly integrated with spirit. The design work of Sounding Architecture, Qianfenxi Village Art Education Center, which consists of eight small houses and a large one, serves as a good answer to how different sites are used in term of various contexts and an interpretation of the mutual stimulation between construction logic and experience, and the relationship between sites and nature.

All the winners are reported to have been selected from the 22 nominees. LIU Yichun and ZHANG Lei were nominated for the Practical Achievement Award, LI Xinggang and Philip F. Yuan for the Technology Exploration Award, and Office Off Course (founded by HUANG Zhe, HUANG Li, and ZHANG Yao), WANG Baozhen, and NATURALBUILD (founded by SHUI Yanfei and SU Yiqi) for the Youth Exploration Award. The prize money for each award was sponsored by Shanghai Fengyuzhu Culture and Technology Co., Ltd, which was founded by Tongji Alumnus LI Hui.

According to the organizer, it is the first award ceremony ever to be held under the title of the Building with Nature · Architecture China Award.,. The picture album featuring the Building with Nature · Architecture China Award and the fifth issue of Architecture China were released at the ceremony. Finally, LI Xianging said that continued efforts will make the Building with Nature · Architecture China Award better, and the best architectural design works and ideas in contemporary China will be brought to the world through publication of Architecture China and international touring exhibitions.

 Written by  CHENG Guozheng

YAO Weiwei

Source: https://news.tongji.edu.cn/info/1002/75999.htm