Nikken
Sekkei's Pola Museum of Art wins 2003 DuPont Benedictus Award
At AIA Expo, San Diego on 8th May 2003 Koichi Yasuda, Ken Kannari
and Masao Nishioka of architectural firm Nikken Sekkei, Tokyo won the
2003 DuPont Benedictus Award® for their design of the Pola Museum
of Art in Hakone-Machi, Japan. This is the 11th year of the awards, which
recognise the innovative and outstanding use of laminated glass in architectural
projects worldwide.
One
of the DuPont Benedictus Awards® judges, Lewis Koerner (Italy) said
of the Pola Museum of Art: 'This project is really sensual. It's built
in the middle of a forest, a five-story structure with only half a story
above ground. The atrium showers visitors with light and brings natural
light to all the circulation areas. It permeates the space below with
light.'
Another of the judges, Santiago Calatrava, said: 'Pola demonstrates how
laminated glass can be used in architecture extensively and successfully,
combined with beautiful detailing.'
In a record year comprising 150 submissions from throughout the world,
the 2003 DuPont Benedictus Awards® jury selected 12 winning projects
covering each of the award's six category sections. More than two thirds
of the entries were from outside North America. One of the judges this
year, Santiago Calatrava, highlighted two winning projects, the Pola Art
Museum of Japan and the Lens Ceiling of the Phoenix Courthouse, Arizona
by James Carpenter Design Associates, for outstanding technical and design
merit.
'The skylight is the light spine of the museum'
The Pola Museum of Art is located in the heart of the lush, mountainside,
Hakone forest in Kanagawa - one of the most scenic areas in Japan. The
architects say that their main goal in designing the museum, which hosts
a private collection of Impressionist paintings, was to achieve 'the symbiosis
of the architecture with its surroundings - while trying not to spoil
the wonderful natural setting.' The museum was mostly built below ground
level with a cross-shaped, strongly geometrical, building plan 'floating'
within a bowl-shaped cut out in the mountainside.
Clear
laminated glass is used for the primary architectural feature of the Pola
Museum of Art: a transparent, sloped skylight. According to the architects:
'The skylight is the light spine of the museum. Using it, we were able
to create a highly transparent space despite the cold climate of the area.
'The skylight's design means that visitors entering the Museum are greeted
with magnificent views of the nearby village of Kozukayama, and can immediately
comprehend the overall layout of the building by means of a panoramic
view downwards through the glass atrium, extending to the second underground
floor.'
Use of laminated glass for the skylight also meant that the architects
could meet safety and security codes for the project, enabling the structure
to withstand the earthquakes that are common to the region while also
mitigating the potentially harmful effects of UV rays coming through the
skylight onto the artworks displayed in the exhibition rooms facing the
lobby.
Laminated glass is also incorporated for structural ribs supporting the
sloped glass skylight and for a structural beam that forms its ledge,
for the Museum's entry bridge balustrade and a bus stop outside the Museum.
The bus stop is protected by a three metre long, laminated glass cantilever
canopy that is strong enough to protect visitors from falling tree branches,
rain and snow.
In addition to the Pola Museum of Art, the 2003 Awards judges also selected
two Category Winners and recognised nine projects with Honourable Mentions
for their innovations in architectural laminated glass:
2003 DuPont Benedictus Award® Category Winners:
Industrial: Protective housing at the Petuel Tunnel, Munich by Professors
Fritz Auer and Carlo Weber of Auer + Weber + Architekten, Munich, Germany
(pictured below).
Education: Schule am Mummelsoll school for special-needs children in Berlin-Hellersdorf,
Germany (former East Berlin) by Armand Gruntuch and Almut Ernst of Gruntuch
Ernst Architekten, Berlin, Germany.
2003 DuPont Benedictus Award® Honourable Mentions
Government: 'Lens Ceiling', Special Proceedings Courtroom, Phoenix
Courthouse, Arizona, USA by Luke Lowings and James Carpenter of James
Carpenter Design Associates of New York, USA (pictured below).
Recreational: Hydra Pier, Haarelemmermeer Pavilion, Floriade Exhibition
2002, Haarlemmermeer, The Netherlands by Hani Rashid and Lise Anne Couture
of Asymptote Architecture, New York, USA in association with Octatube
Space Structures BV of Delft, The Netherlands and executive architect
Anton Bronsvoort of Arkitektenburo Bronsvoort BNA, Amerongen, The Netherlands
(pictured below).
Commercial: Norddeutsche Landesbank in Hannover, Germany by Stefan
Behnisch of Behnisch, Behnisch & Partner, Stuttgart, Germany (pictured
below).
Residential: De Blas House in Madrid, Spain by Alberto Campo Baeza
of Madrid.
Commercial: Noevir USA headquarters, Irvine, California, USA by Michael
Ferguson and John Hirsch of Space International Inc, Los Angeles, California,
USA.
Government: The Royal Library in Copenhagen, Denmark (extension
project) by Bjarne Hammer, Kim Holst Jensen, Morten Schmidt and John Lassen
of Arkitekterne maa Schmidt, Hammer & Lassen K/S, Aarhus, Denmark.
Government: The Embassies of the Nordic Countries in Berlin, Germany
by Alfred Berger and Tiina Parkkinen of Berger + Parkkinen, Vienna, Austria.
Commercial: Bang & Olufsen headquarters in Struer, Denmark
by Jan Sondergaard of KHRAS architects, Virum, Denmark.
Commercial: GSW Headquarters in Berlin by Matthias Sauerbruch and
Louisa Hutton of Sauerbruch Hutton, Berlin.
The DuPont Benedictus Award® is a worldwide competition recognising
innovative and outstanding uses of architectural laminated glass by both
professional architects and students. The competition is organised by
the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the International Union
of Architects (UIA) and sponsored DuPont. In addition, a student competition
is administered annually by the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture
(ACSA).
Lebanese student wins 2003 DuPont Benedictus Student Design Competition
The 2003 DuPont Benedictus Student Design Competition challenged students
to design a 'Bank for a Small City' on a site of the student's choosing.
Students and faculties were encouraged to address architectural issues
surrounding the use of laminated glass in a theoretical design problem
while exploring the various applications of laminated glass as a building
material.
Najwan Yassin of the Lebanese American University in Byblos, Lebanon won
first prize for his design entitled 'Minimal Music'. His faculty sponsor
was Elie Haddad. Second prize went to Virginia Martinez Jimenez, David
Ballesteros Moral and Eva del Hoyo Martin of the Escuela Tècnica
Superior de Arquitectura de Madrid, Spain for 'Cascada du Luz' (faculty
sponsor: Federico Soriano). Third prize went to Carla Aramouny, also of
the Lebanese American University in Byblos, Lebanon for 'Pause Scenarios'
(faculty sponsor: Antoine Romanos). Four honourable mentions were also
awarded to students at Universidad La Salle in Mexico City, the Lebanese
American University in Byblos, Lebanon, The University of Hong Kong and
the National University of Singapore.
Open to students worldwide, the competition received a large response:
220 design submissions from 28 different countries. A total of $13,500
in cash prizes was awarded to winning students, their faculty sponsors
and schools. The winning student design projects were exhibited at the
2003 AIA Expo in San Diego, California and at the ACSA Annual Meeting
in Miami, Florida.
Judges
The 2003 DuPont Benedictus Awards® jurors were Sylvester Damianos,
FAIA, Damianos Group, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; Lewis Koerner, AIA,
The OK Design Group SRL, Rome, Italy and Julie Vanden Berg Snow, FAIA,
Julie Snow Architects Inc., Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.
Dr. Santiago Calatrava of Santiago Calatrava SA, Zurich, Switzerland and
Valencia, Spain, commented on the winning projects and highlighted two
of them for outstanding technical and design innovation using laminated
glass: The Pola Museum of Art, Hakone-Machi, Japan (Nikken Sekki, Tokyo,
Japan) and the Lens Ceiling, Phoenix Courthouse, Arizona, USA (James Carpenter
Design Associates, New York).
About the Awards
The DuPont Benedictus Awards® awards are named for Edouard Benedictus,
a French chemist who discovered the process for laminating glass, which
is today specified by architects for its safety, security, sound and shatter
resistance and energy-saving features, as well as for its absolute clarity.
DuPont is the producer of a broad family of architectural glass laminating
products and technologies including Butacite® PVB interlayers, SentryGlas®
Plus ionoplast interlayers, SentryGlas® Secure™ technology, SentryGlas®
Expressions™ decorative interlayers and Spallshield® anti-spall
composites.
Web: http://www.dupontbenedictus.org