NEB Prizes 2021: All Applications

PPCM is a hybrid place for innovation and transmission in the suburbs of Paris, it is both an artistic factory, a laboratory for social change and urban regeneration, a platform for international exchanges and a school of “risk arts” (circus, hip -hop, urban cultures). Since the construction of its new spaces in 2015 signed by famous architect Patrick Bouchain the PPCM develops its project around an innovative model and ethics: citizen, proximity, solidarity, cosmopolitan, mixed, undisciplinary.

Velaskello: a new world is possible. Rethinking the common good through the innovative practice of recycling PLA, deriving from waste produced by additive manufacturing, inserted in a circular economy system. Superforma has taken up the reflection «think global, act local» as it combines the global dimension with local considerations and actions. Velaskello represents change through a new metaphor of rebirth for an artisanal production rooted in the territory, community and eco-sustainable.

The depopulation of rural areas has highly affected the peripheral European countries, which are less economically developed.
Using the Bulgarian village of Pomoshtitsa as a study-case, I aim to provide a theoretical and methodological model for the development of villages in the modern global context. Using architecture as a tool for social change, the project tries to indicate the strengths of rural areas and how can they benefit modern society.

Rammed earth has long been shunned in Europe. As we modernised our materials, we began to see earthen construction as undeveloped, unrefined. We associated it with poor architecture. Building standards eventually codified this attitude. But rammed earth can no longer be seen as undeveloped. PURE walls are prefabricated building elements that are 100% natural, 100% recyclable, passively control indoor climate, and offer a haptic materiality perfectly matched to contemporary architecture.

The project involves the reconfiguration of the urban spaces on either side of the 13th century Kilkenny Castle. The Parade, which rises and tapers towards the entrance to the Castle and opens out to High Street, is cleared of car parking and unified by a continuous stone floor.  The project seeks to understand these underused public spaces, unify them and restore their latent potential to be the civic meeting places for the city.  It makes urban spaces into public places.

It is no secret that we urgently need to reinvent the model of our civilisation in order to solve the ecological, political and social challenges of our time.

Our Brussels' based community has decided to act on these challenges by anchoring innovative projects in abandoned buildings.

We now aim at the next level by developing a 6Ha resilience lab in a derelict campus. Our goal is to show that it is possible to imagine a world where we respect our natural and human environment.

Ohoskin is a vegan, made in Italy luxury leather alternative. Our sustainable process uses the byproducts of oranges and cactuses and triggers a circular economy. The result is a quality skin alternative whose features make it perfect for the luxury fashion, interior design, and automotive industries.

In this way, people can keep enjoying what they love without feeling guilty.

The Alphouse Center Traunstein is a center for expertise on Alpine building culture. It consists of a pool of experts for regional traditional building techniques and materials as well as regional architecture, who share and transfer their knowledge to SMEs and citizens in the region. It was established along with other Alphouse Centers and Contact points in Salzburg, South Tyrol, Vorarlberg and Aosta Valley in the framework of the Interreg project AlpBC.

Admist a newly designed building ensemble with bright facades & modern workspaces, a visionary plaza was created that celebrates contemporary mobility. Organically curved levels, in between oases of tranquility, water features & restaurants. This hybrid of skate park, playground & urban living room is the perfect venue for a dynamic society. What was unused is now an inviting public space where you can enjoy a coffee or work outdoors while the kids play in the water, youth skates.

The Corporate Headquarters of Doctors Without Borders, completed in 2019, transforms an obsolete industrial building located in the 22@ district into a new functional and biophyllic space designed for people. The health and well-being of the users is the main project strategy, promoting actions that improve the comfort of its users, such as the incorporation of the central patio and a new exterior staircase.