MVRDV and Francisco Pardo win the 2018 ARCHMARATHON Awards

This October has seen plenty of architecture events in the city of Milan, with the announcement at the Triennale of the winners of the Gold Medal for Italian Architecture and the presentation of the products selected for the 2018 ADI Design Index at Leonardo da Vinci Museum of Science and Technology. At around the same time, beautiful Palazzo Mezzanotte hosted the fifth ARCHMARATHON Awards, an international architecture contest held by Publicomm with the participation of 55 architecture and interior design projects in 16 categories. The projects were presented by the 55 architectural practices that entered them, from 23 different countries on 4 continents, alternating on the stage in a true architectural marathon.
At the end of the event an international panel of judges led by Luca Molinari with Gary Chang, Lesley Lokko, Rozana Montiel, Massimiliano Cecconi, Cherubino Gambardella and Evgeniya Murinets announced the winners in each of the 16 categories in the contest and two overall winners in the Architecture and Interior Design macro-categories.

In a voyage around the world and through the pages of Floornature we invite you to find out more about the winners of the 2018 ARCHMARATHON Awards.
We begin with the Overall Winner in the Architecture macro-category: the MVRDV’s Seoullo 7017 Skygarden project for conversion of an urban freeway in Seoul into a public space. The judges praised this project bringing greenery into the cityscape for the architects’ ability to redesign a modern infrastructure and transform something that had been obsolete into an important resource for the future.

The Overall Winner in the Interior Design macro-category is the Milan 44 project by Francisco Pardo Arquitecto + Amezcua. The architects converted a former auto parts store in a rapidly changing part of Mexico City into a multi-purpose building that “ physically forms an extension of the city itself,” as the judges noted, emphasising that the project is open to a changing world and draws on the resources of local communities.

In the course of the evening a special prize established in partnership with Marmomacc, the Stone Award, was also presented. The prize went to Kaan Architecten for the Supreme Court of the Netherlands.

The winners in the 16 categories of the 2018 ARCHMARATHON Awards are:
ART & CULTURE Pool Leber Architekten for the Kult – Kulturhistorisches Zentrum Westmünsterland project
EDUCATIONAL BUILDINGS Noero Architects for St. Cyprian’s School
HEALTHCARE & HOSPITALS El Equipo Mazzanti for the Santa Fe de Bogotà Foundation.
LANDSCAPE & INFRASTRUCTURE Jaja Architects with the P-Hus + Konditaget Lüders project
MIXED USE & RESIDENTIAL BUILINGS Piuarch’s Gucci Hub project, involving conversion of an abandoned aeronautics factory into a modern hub of high fashion, with a positive impact on its urban surroundings.
PRIVATE HOUSING José Luis Muñoz Architecture for La casa de los vientos.
RELIGIOUS BUILDING Maroun Lahoud Architecte for the Saint-Elie Church project.
RETROFITTING Vector Architects for the Alila Yangshuo project, in which the judges particularly appreciated how the architects dealt with the relationship between old and new buildings and between the site and its natural surroundings.
The prize in the SPORTS category was awarded jointly to Kosmos Architects for the Nike Box Msk project and Lot-Ek for Qiyun Mountain Camp.
WORKSPACES Mimarlar ve Han Tümertekin for the Angelos Organic Olive Oil Mill.
BARS & RESTAURANTS Peter Pichler Architecture for the Oberholz Mountain Hut.
COMMERCIAL RETAIL Park Associati for the Tenoha Milano project.
HOTEL & LEISURE HOSPITALITY Aurora Arquitectos + Furo for their Hostel in Parede.
HOTEL & LEISURE LUXURY Lissoni Architettura for The Middle House Shanghai.
PRIVATE HOUSING Vudafieri-Saverino Partners for the Hunan Lu Villa project.
WORKSPACES DEGW - A brand of Lombardini 22 for the Microsoft House project.

(Agnese Bifulco)

Images courtesy of ARCHMARATHON Awards www.archmarathon.com

---

GALLERY