NEB Prizes 2022: All Applications

“Hanzas perons” is the former railway warehouse in Riga, repurposed as a multi-functional cultural event space. The existing structure is seemingly left untouched through the careful restoration of its historic patina and its envelopment in a glass structure, further complemented by contemporary details. It is a major development in Riga’s architectural and cultural cityscape and has already hosted numerous diverse happenings, starting the regeneration process of the whole “New Hanza” district.

Biosphera is a project conceived by Aktivhaus and focused on the construction of houses capable of bringing real well-being to the inhabitants. It has become a permanent itinerant training centre after meetings with 6,000 high school students and about 60,000 people met to date with 120 events in 40 different cities. The main objective is raise awareness of more sustainable and green lifestyles in the younger age groups thanks to biophilic design and sense design.

How do you transform a traditional lecture series on sustainability into an interactive, inclusive and impactful learning experience during lockdown? In 2020, the University of Bonn partnered with One Resilient Earth to co-design a pioneering virtual learning format, which would integrate multimedia artworks celebrating our connection to nature, open inclusive dialogues with activists and an Indigenous knowledge holder, and expand participants' imagination, creativity and sense of connectedness.

The project, due to the economic reality it has faced, has become a sequence of small provisional interventions which, little by little, end up forming the final project. The existing building, which was part of an old factory from 1920, contained some fascinating interior brick textures, probably more interesting than its exterior facades, which historically had had other volumes attached.

The project was born from the definition of the quality of the interior space, without any concession to its image. Use a simple section composed of two lines of consultation rooms that frame a higher waiting room that receives light from above. A section of three naves, similar to that of a church, where the gaze is directed towards the sky. The waiting room as the main element of the building, like a void surrounded by medical consultations, like a square surrounded by buildings.

The Riverside Park of the Ria del Nervion, in Barakaldo, is a piece of enormous urban and landscape value that will contribute to the regeneration of the estuary and its banks, making them attractive and interesting for citizen activities and will allow the recovery for the leisure and recreation for the public in large areas that had been occupied for a long time by industrial activity, in this case, that carried out by AHV steel company. This project affects an area of 8.5 hectares.

Imagine one possible future: It is plant-based, socially fair and ecologically sound — in rethinking given standards in design, material use, energy usage — a bioclimatic design for the built environment.

How can we think it all together?

We answer in designing an entire ecosystem. In taking up the natural performance of our breathing world as our instructive co-designer. A biophilic systems-design-approach that introduces breathing into buildings and biophilia into all scopes of the design.

Memmo philosophy is a space that has gone above and beyond the 1,000-year-old traditions of the art of glass-making to create pure harmony where glass becomes fabric. Creations that have their roots in the ancient artisan craft of Venice, while at the same time representing an innovation that has gone above and beyond, in the discovery of new techniques that unite the rigidity of glass with the softness and warmth of fabric. 

AdESA is a new system for the energy, seismic and architectural deep renovation of the built environment that allows to operate from outside, without relocating the inhabitants, by applying a second engineered skin to buildings. The system is conceived to be compliant with Life Cycle Thinking and circularity principles to increase sustainability along building life, and it is completely customizable and adaptable to integrate in the project the needs of users/communities in a co-design process.

Creativity is the answer! It is a much-needed skill required by society and industry yet not taught in our schools. The B!G Idea is a multi-award-winning, free, creative-focused programme for 15-16 year-olds bridging the gap between industry and education, unlike any other programme in the world.