Skidmore Owings and Merrill’s ‘Breathing Tower’, a landmark 75 story building in Wujiang, China, has been awarded both the coveted Overall Winner prize and the Tall Buildings category accolade, in the eleventh annual MIPIM Architectural Review Future Project Awards competition.
The Greenland Group Suzhou Center is designed to address poor air quality in Wujiang, incorporating a 30-story tall operable window in the tower’s atrium, which invites cool air flow during summer months from the seasonal prevailing winds, and floods the interior spaces with natural light.
The 'lung' of the building is designed to facilitate mixed mode ventilation in the lobbies and public spaces, providing a fresh air supply source. The building is also expected to achieve 60 percent savings in energy consumption compared to a conventional high rise.
The tower has been designed for a prominent location along Taihu lake in the Jiangsu Province of China. The mixed-use Tower includes office, residential, retail and hotel uses.
The project was selected as the Overall Winner by an independent panel of expert judges, who noted that the project demonstrates “a confident control of form and the mix of uses within. It demonstrates skillful integration within a stimulating and efficient strategy”.
In addition, ‘Sanskriti’ a drawing board project in Jaipur, India by Sanjay Puri for the Arg Group received the Commended Award in the Tall Buildings category.
The MIPIM Architectural Review Future Project Awards uniquely celebrate un-built or incomplete design projects, and are intended to showcase fine architecture and creativity, and the response to the client development brief. The awards are well established as the main platform for celebrating exemplar architecture at the annual MIPIM property market in Cannes.
This year, architectural projects from around the world competed in a total of eleven open categories, with five additional awards decided on from among all the entries, including a Sustainability award and four Judges Special Recognition awards.
This year’s judging panel included Peter Stewart: Architect and planning consultant, Principal, Peter Stewart Consultancy; Dr Sutherland Lyall: Author and critic, former Buildings Editor of the Architects’ Journal; and Roger Zogolovitch: Architect and client, chairman of Solidspace. Paul Finch: Editorial Director, The Architectural Review & The Architects’ Journal, and Chair and Director of Design Council CABE, officiated over the judging panel.
Paul Finch, director of the awards, said, “It’s been another impressive competition in 2013, and there have been some truly stand out projects submitted from every corner of the globe. As with the previous year, we have seen huge success from architects and projects in the Middle East and Turkey, which is not only an interesting trend but also shows where some of the finest and most creative design projects are currently coming from. For Turkey in particular, this really is their year. MIPIM itself has bestowed the Country of the Year accolade on them, and their success in our awards will I’m sure form a significant part of those celebrations”.
The awards will be presented during a gala ceremony and dinner held at JW Marriott, Cannes on 13th March. The awards ceremony is firmly established as the central architecture event of the week in Cannes, and is MIPIM’s largest sit-down dinner. The Future Projects Awards dinner is chaired by Paul Finch, editorial director of the Architectural Review. Reservations are available from or call +44 (0)3303 2668.
All award entries will be featured on the Architectural Review area of the London Pavilion, and published in a special edition of the Architectural Review available during MIPIM.
The MIPIM Architectural Review Future Project Awards are organized in participation with EMAP Inform, and are supported by AET Flexible Space, Bespoke, Emirates Glass, HKR Architects and Vast Group, with FTI Consulting the communications partner.
Source: FTI Consulting
