by Brianna Crandall — February 1, 2017 — Against a backdrop of a record number of entries from façades practices and partnerships located around the world, the winners of the 2016 Façades competition organized by the Society of Façade Engineering (a joint initiative of CIBSE, IStructE and RIBA) were recently announced at the annual “Glass Supper.”
Winners of the 2016 Façades competition were announced by the Society of Façade Engineering (joint initiative of CIBSE, IStructE and RIBA) among a record number of entries.
The winner of the Façade of the Year in the Refurbishment category went to Arup for 10 New Burlington Street, London. Winner of the Outstanding Façade Innovation went to TU Delft and ABT Consulting Engineers for the Crystal Houses, Amsterdam.
Special commendations went to BuroHappold Engineering in the Façade of the Year New Build category for their work on Columbia University, Vagelos Education Centre, New York; to Octatube for the Glass Entrance Building of the Van Gogh Museum (Façade of the Year, New Build), Amsterdam; and to Volker Gienke & Company for Great Amber, Liepaja, Latvia (Façade of the Year, New Build).
The judges said the standards overall were extraordinary, but the two outright winners were “quite exceptional,” and proof that winners of this competition do not have to be large scale.
Summarizing the importance of the competition, judge Chris Macey commented:
The discipline of façade engineering embraces disciplines and technology such as material sciences, structural engineering, materials, manufacturing technology, mathematics, corrosion science, CFD analysis, logistics and many others.
The SFE competition provides the only real opportunity for those with this extraordinary skill-set and who create great examples of façades excellence, to gain proper recognition by their peers and in the wider architectural community. With this year’s competition I believe that once again we have achieved just that.
