The six finalists for the 2016 RIBA International Prize were announced on October 27, when the jury announced they had awarded the RIBA International Emerging Architect Prize to architects John Lin and Joshua Bolchover of Rural Urban Framework for Angdong Hospital in Baojing County, China.
Architects John Lin and Joshua Bolchover, founders of the non-profit research and design group named Rural Urban Framework (RUF), have been awarded the RIBA International Emerging Architect prize for Angdong Hospital in Baojing County, China. The project was also selected among the 21 projects considered worthy of the title “RIBA Award for International Excellence”.
John Lin and Joshua Bolchover are professors at Hong Kong University who work on projects for reconstruction of Chinese rural villages abandoned by residents in the mass migration to the cities, convinced that the destinies of cities and countryside are inevitably bound together and that architecture can help revitalise villages.
The award-winning project is a hospital designed for a Chinese charity. The architects use the design of the hospital to promote a new attitude to health and an image of the hospital as a “friendly” place that is not shut off from its surroundings. Their starting point is the ramp, an essential link between all the floors in the building which forms a central courtyard used as a public space and outdoor waiting area on the ground floor. The materials used are recycled brick on the outside and concrete blocks made with custom-designed moulds on the inner pathway, which act as a filter, creating soft shadows in the courtyard.
(Agnese Bifulco)
Design: Rural Urban Framework (John Lin, Joshua Bolchover)
Location: Baojing County, China
Images courtesy of RIBA
www.rufwork.org
www.architecture.com
