Shortlisted n°5 – 111 East Grand

This is the first multi-story office building in North America to employ dowel laminated timber (DLT), a mass timber system relying on a friction-fit bond between softwood dimensional lumber and hardwood dowels. The 65,000-sf building occupies a high-visibility 265’ x 65’ urban site. Retail spaces activate the street level with three floors of office space […]

Shortlisted n°4 – Sensations building

The Séquences Bois team choose this project for the challenge it exemplifies. Indeed, it reaches 38 meters high with 11 storeys totally built in timber, on a concrete basis. Devoid of concrete cores for the circulations, the difficulty was to withstand the sismic horizontal forces, 3 to 5 times stronger that the wind forces. Made […]

Shortlisted n°3 – Vasaplan

The robustly spatial, well-articulated structure defines and clarifies a complex situation. The transport hub has been reimagined as a worthy entrance to the city of Umeå. Placing the structure in the middle has divided the broad thoroughfare into two well-proportioned street spaces with clear flows and simple navigation. The structure of the building embraces the […]

Shortlisted n°2 – Lighthouse Joensuu

Penttilänranta shore in Joensuu has a new landmark: the tallest wooden apartment building in Finland, rising to almost 50 metres at 14 storeys. The increased need for student housing in the Joensuu area has been met through efficient land use and high-rise construction. The city’s zoning plan specified that the plot in question needed to […]

Shortlisted n°1 – The Swatch Headquarters

In 2011 Shigeru Ban, winner of the Pritzker Prize, won the Swatch Group’s architectural competition for the new Swatch headquarters, the new Omega Manufacture and the “Cité du Temps” in Biel/Bienne. Opened in 2019, the headquarters promise to become an effective advertising landmark with an exceptional radiance. The sensational design breaks with the conventions of […]

Nominee 1: Community Building – POLYVALENT HALL, Le Vaud (CH)

LOCALARCHITECTURE, Lausanne (CH) Le Vaud’s new community hall is a multipurpose public infrastructure designed to serve and bring together the entire village community. Hosting sports activities, shows, and community events, it supplements existing school facilities while opening up new possibilities for the village and its surrounding communities. The hall’s entrance is sited on the road […]

Nominee 2: SUURSTOFFI BUILDING, RISCH-ROTKREUZ (CH)

Burkard Meyer Architects, Baden (CH) In the village of Rotkreuz in the Canton of Zug, construction is currently under way on a carbon-neutral development that includes residential units, offices, retail outlets as well as number of leisure facilities. The Zug Estates Group is investing around 450 million Swiss Francs in this project, which located on […]

Nominee 3: TUUPALA ELEMENTARY AND PRESCHOOL, KUHMO (FI)

Alt architects, Oulu (FI) The new school building is located in the middle of a block with a road running along its north side, on the site of a demolished secondary school. A large and sunny playground fills the south side. The size of the building serves as a convenient tie-in between the robust 1950s school campus […]

Nominee 4: Kindergarten LA RUCHE, PERTHES-EN-GATINAIS (FR)

Tracks Architects, Paris (FR) Located in a leafy, pedestrian site in the village of Perthes en Gâtinais, in the regional natural park of the french Gâtinais, the school is organised longitudinally on the edge of an existing promenade. This layout allowed the conservation of a large open green space for the playgrounds. The general massing, […]

Nominee 5: MIDDLE SCHOOL, LAMBALLE (FR)

Dietrich I Untertrifaller architects, Vienna (AUT); Colas, Durand Architects, Lamballe (FR) Built in a rural site in the municipality of Lamballe, in Brittany, this building is the product of a collaboration between the Austrian architects Dietrich | Untertrifaller and the local French firm Colas Durand. Comprising a long rectangular wooden volume oversailing a curved glass and concrete base, the […]