@architizer

Happy Friday! Kick back and relax with a stunning architectural light display by @nickthomm, whose vibrant 'Digital Sky' installation illuminates the interior of @ktx_archilab's Cloud of Luster Chapel in Himeji, Japan. 🎨 . . . . .

Submissions: architizerfirmawards.com Early Entry Deadline: October 9th, 2020 . There is just 1 day remaining to complete your application for the inaugural A+Firm Awards before the Early Entry Deadline. See your projects in print courtesy of @phaidonsnaps and gain global recognition for your work in industry publications around the world, thanks to @v2com_newswire! . This prestigious program aims to identify the world's best architecture firms, engineering firms, rendering studios, architectural photography studios and real estate developers in 2020. Each firm is asked to submit 3 to 6 projects demonstrating excellence in their field, with award categories ranging from firm size and region, typology expertise, and a range of AEC specializations. . For complete information on the program and to learn how your firm can get involved visit firmawards.architizer.com or email us at firmawards@architizer.com . Best of luck to every submitting firm this year! ✨💎 . Pictured: The TWIST Gallery by BIG @big_builds, 2015 A+Awards Firm of the Year. . . . . .

2020 A+Award Winner's Gallery: The Line by @regrouparchitecture, Popular Choice Winner in the Pop-Ups & Temporary Category. . In medieval times, both the rich and poor alike viewed performances as a means of entertainment. Today, the theater is seen largely as an upper to middle class means of entertainment. This is a changing phenomenon with lowering ticket prices and more casual theater settings around the world. From the Greek amphitheater, the Roman theater, and the medical theater, to New York’s Broadway and Milan’s fashion week, The Line offers a new take on the archaic event setting, and the rural performance. . The Line rethinks what the role of the rural can be and acts as an armature for a new type of ‘rural performance’. The form is made into one continuous line from start to end and is synthesized into its most basic parts: the performance and the procession. . The result of the design produced a certain ‘generic’ quality about it that opens it up to multiple possibilities - when you are not sure how it could be used or utilized. At the same time, there is almost a responsibility and an intrigue to allow it to become even more than what you imagined it to be, it takes on a life of its own. Given that so many works today are consumed with trying to create a spectacle, we looked at it more as a contradiction - a 'generic' spectacle. . Because The Line floats on pier footings, it has an ultra low footprint on the land it sits on; and when the projects life runs its course, it will return the landscape with little impact. . Congratulations to REgroup on your A+Award! See every winner in the gallery at awards.architizer.com ✅ . . . . .

We're so excited to have received the prototype for the first ever A+Firm Awards Trophy! It's a stunning, shimmering glass version of our iconic A+Awards Trophy, crafted by the makers of the Oscars Statuette. Pretty beautiful, right? 💎 . This bespoke, custom-engraved trophy will be a perfect reflection of our winners’ outstanding design ethos. Winners in all 32 categories will receive a trophy, as well as seeing their projects in print in a new compendium by @phaidonsnaps, and global publicity through @v2com_newswire. . Whether you run or represent an architecture firm, landscape architecture firm, interior design studio, rendering studio, engineering firm or real estate development firm, there is an A+Firm Award category for you. Send in your portfolio and take your place among the World's Best Firms! . Find out more and enter the program at firmawards.architizer.com ✅ . . . . .

2020 A+Award Winner's Gallery: National Museum of Qatar Gift Shops by @koichitakadaarchitects, Jury Winner in the Retail Category. . The Dahl Al Misfir (Cave of Light), located in the heart of Qatar, is a beautiful underground sanctuary formed largely from fibrous gypsum crystals that give off a faint, moon-like, phosphorescent glow. Inspired by Dahl Al Misfir, the National Museum of Qatar Gift Shops echoes Koichi Takada’s vision of bringing nature back into architecture, establishing relationships that connect people and nature through design. . Using 3D modeling software, the shops are a three-dimensional puzzle, comprising 40,000 individual wooden pieces. Each piece, CNC-cut in Italy is entirely unique, fitting only with its exact complementary piece. The site assembly was an engineering and assembly challenges that was skilfully executed on-site by Italian master carpenter, Claudio Devoto and his team of artisans. The 40,000 pieces were individually en-coded with a visual number and guideline, assembled by hand, piece by piece without visual fixings. . One of the biggest challenges was dealing with the complexity and monumental scale of the museum design, a 53,000 square-meter agglomeration of interlocking. There were no straight lines; all curved creating very complex spaces internally. Working within these parameters, the shop interiors reproduce the geometries and chromatism of the desert-inspired architecture on a human scale. . The National Museum of Qatar was also the first national museum in the world to receive both a LEED Gold and a 4-STAR (Global Sustainability Assessment System) sustainability rating. The shop interiors were constructed from European Oak, a conscious decision because of its renewable green credentials that aligned with the sustainable goals of the museum. . Congratulations to Koichi Takada Architects on your A+Award! See every winner in the gallery at awards.architizer.com ✅ . . . . .       

Submissions: architizerfirmawards.com Next deadline: October 9th, 2020 . There are now just 3 days to go until the Early Entry Deadline for the A+Firm Awards! See your projects in print and celebrate your talented team by entering the only AEC awards program of its kind dedicated to rewarding the world's best architecture, design and engineering firms across every continent 🌍✨ . Head to firmawards.architizer.com to find out everything you need to know about the program ✅ . Pictured: Iván Marín and his team celebrate their 2019 A+Award win at the Cultural Center at Centro Educativo de Morelia, Mexico; image courtesy of the architects . . . . .

Submit your portfolio: firmawards.architizer.com Early Entry Deadline: October 9, 2020 . Take your place among the world's best firms! The inaugural A+Firm Awards is the only AEC awards program designed explicitly to reward studios of all sizes, geographies, and specializations. There are a plethora of reasons to enter this year, including: . +GET PUBLISHED: Architizer is partnering with global publisher Phaidon @phaidonsnaps to produce a stunning new compendium on the innovative firms behind the world’s finest buildings. Every winning firm will be included in this presitigious new book! . +AN ICONIC TROPHY: Designed by the team behind the famous Oscars Statuette, the A+Firm Awards is a stunning accolade that is sure to impress clients for years to come. . +UNPARALELLED EXPOSURE: We’ve partnered with international newswire @v2com_newswire to provide Winners of the A+Firm Awards with global exposure. v2com distributes architecture industry news to some 6,350 publications and influencers in 96 countries! . For more information and to begin your entry, head to firmawards.architizer.com ✅ . Pictured: Tianjin Binhai Library by MVRDV, Architizer's Firm of the Year in 2018. Photo © Ossip . . . . .

Well done to Hannah Christy @h_c_portfolio and Craig Findlay @craig.e.findlay from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln @unlincoln, who are the Student Grand Prize Winners of the 2020 ! The pair win $2,500 as well as a pro package of digital drawing tools. Their drawing, entitled “Concrete Atla(nti)s”, offers a glimpse of recycling activities taking place within the aging walls of a repurposed missile silo. They describe their drawing as follows… . “Representing our capacity to maintain archaic infrastructure in an overwhelming environment overflowing with waste, occupied by a population complacent to unrest, this drawing is as complex as the topics it alludes to. It is set in one of the 72 decommissioned Atlas-F missile silos scattered across the United States. This drawing critiques the haphazard mismanagement of reusable commodities of varying scales ranging from abandoned infrastructure to recyclable materials. . Through the convention of a section, this drawing shows the activities in the depth of the repurposed missile silo. Figures sourced from The Age of Enlightenment depict radicals productively recycling materials into a built environment erecting towards the sky. Facilitated by the cold war era framework, the occupants build upon their neighbor’s successes allowing an innate desire for vertical growth to materialize.” . Congratulations to Hannah and Craig! Stay tuned for more coverage of Winners and Commended Entries from this year's amazing competition, and be sure to pre-register for our next competition, the , which launches at the end of October ✅ . . . . . @hannahchristy1

Well done to Bless Yee @bless_yee_artwork, an Associate at @handelarchitects, who is our Non-Student Grand Prize Winner of the 2020 ! Her drawing, entitled “Together Alone”, is a detailed sectional drawing encapsulating 2020 within a hive-like network of subterranean chambers. Bless describes her drawing as follows… . “Today, social distancing has manifested a new definition of ‘together’. The physical proximity of people and buildings have been reduced to the ‘virtual’. ‘Together’ we isolate, ‘together’ we work, and ‘together’ we zoom into the lens of our homes and struggles amidst a pandemic, the intrinsic fight for human rights, and survival of the everyday. . This drawing cuts a section through hexagonal pods that encapsulate our inhabited spaces. The hexagonal shape represents our self-proclaimed strength and efficiency around our designs, the same efficiency that circulated the virus with rapid speed. The hexagonal framework is deforming under the pressure of an evolving reconciliation for how we cope with the virus in our daily lives. Our pods are juxtaposed against one another revealing that we are closer ‘together’ than we think, and that we must act ‘together’ for the future.“ . Congratulations Bless! Stay tuned for more coverage of Winners and Commended Entries from this year's amazing competition, and be sure to pre-register for our next competition, the , which launches at the end of October ✅ . . . . .

2020 A+Award Winner's Gallery: Temporary Site of Shengli Market — Creation of Spatial Order by @luostudio, Jury Winner in the Commercial-Pop-Ups & Temporary Category. . The project is the temporary site of an old market, located in Puyang City, China. The original market was situated at an old urban area. After having served for the citizens for several decades, it became dirty and messy, and was subject to intense traffic. For the sake of urban renewal, the market and the old quarter where it was located urgently needed to be transformed or reconstructed. However, the whole process of demolishing, transformation and reconstruction takes time, but a market that meets people's basic living needs is indispensible. Therefore, it was imperative to build a temporary market to substitute the old one in a period of time. . The client requested a rapid construction process and low cost, while as designers we attached great importance to sustainability, hoping the architecture can be used for other purposes or recycled and reused after it completes its role as a temporary market. Taking those into consideration, we tried to figure out a solution to create a low-cost, multifunctional and sustainable architecture on the square plane in a short term. . All the extensions were built with cheap and easily accessible materials including ordinary timber, lightweight steel panels, cement slabs, steel angles and polycarbonate sheets, which were easy for installation and construction. Natural and warm-colored timber can be widely seen within the entire space, which was applied to the open shelves, cornices of the enclosed shops and umbrella-shaped structural columns, thereby resulting in a clear visual identity of the space and creating a sense of order in it. . Congratulations to LUO Studio on your A+Award! See every winner in the gallery at awards.architizer.com ✅ . Photos by Jin Weiqi . . . . .

Submit your portfolio: firmawards.architizer.com Early entry deadline: October 9, 2020 . NEW JUROR ANNOUNCEMENT: Architizer is delighted to welcome renowned architect Toshiko Mori @toshiko.mori to the jury for the inaugural A+Firm Awards! . Toshiko Mori, FAIA is the founding principal of Toshiko Mori Architect PLLC, and the Robert P. Hubbard Professor in the Practice of Architecture at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, where she served as chair of the Department of Architecture from 2002 to 2008. She was inducted to the Academy of Arts and Letters in 2020 and has been a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences since 2016. . Mori’s recent awards and honors include the Tau Sigma Delta National Honor Society Gold Medal in 2016; Architectural Record’s Women in Design Leader Award in 2019; and the AIA / ASCA Topaz Medallion for Excellence in Architectural Education in 2019. . Other confirmed jurors include David Rockwell of @rockwellgroup, Debbie Millman @debbiemillman of Design Matters, Roy Kim of @roykimdesign, @virgilabloh of @off____white and @louisvuitton, Yoko Choy @missyoko of @wallpaperchina / @wallpapermag, Hans Ulrich Obrist of @serpentineuk, Kathryn Firth of @fpdesign_gmbh, Kate Wagner of @mcmansionhell and many more! . Stay tuned for more juror announcements coming soon, and begin preparing your firm's entry for the inaugural A+Firm Awards at firmawards.architizer.com . Photograph by Ralph Gibson . . . . .

2020 A+Award Winner's Gallery: Expensify Office by @zgfarchitects with materials by @purefreeform, Jury Winner in the Office Interiors (<25,000 sq ft.) Category. . Set in Portland’s downtown National Landmark First National Bank building, built in 1916, Expensify’s new offices reflect the company’s signature “choose-your-own-adventure” work setting. Since Expensify does not own the building, the design accounts for both the grandeur of the existing interiors and the realities of the lease term. . The main goal was to balance the space needs of the clients and the historical importance of the building by referencing the historic details and proportions. The brass was the bridging detail for this connection between contemporary and historical and made a significant impact via two brass-clad, glass-enclosed work spaces which dominate the central void. There is additional scope in the “Gatsby” style break rooms where the same metal is used for backsplashes, unifying the public and private spaces. . Congratulations to ZGF Architects on your A+Award! See every winner in the gallery at awards.architizer.com ✅ . . . . .