The 2015 winners of the Wood Design Awards have been announced at the Bay Area Wood Solutions Fair in Oakland, California. Presented by WoodWorks, an initiative of the Wood Products Council, the awards seek to “recognize extraordinary buildings that exemplify not only wood’s beauty, but the versatility and structural performance attributes that make it such an interesting material to architects and engineers.”

The Wood Design Awards celebrate excellence in nine categories at both regional and national levels. See the winning designs for 2015 after the break.

Jury’s Choice: Live Oak Bank Headquarters in Wilmington, NC / LS3P Associates Ltd + Woods Engineering 

Institutional Wood Design: Jackson Hole Airport in Jackson, WY / Gensler + Martin/Martin

Wood in Educational Buildings: Indian Mountain Student Arts & innovation Center in Lakeville, CT / Flansburgh Architects + Roome & Guarracino

Beauty of Wood: Stapleton Library in Staten Island, NY / Andrew Berman Architect + Gilsanz 

Multi-Story Wood Design: N-Habit Belltown in Seattle, WA / Bushnaq Studio Architecture + Design + DCI Engineers

Wood in Government Buildings: Mojave Rivers Ranger Station in Acton, CA / Marcy Wong Donn Logan Architects + Gregory P. Luth & Associates

Green Building with Wood: Reveley Classroom Building at the University of Idaho in Mascow, ID / Patano Studio Architecture, LLC + DCI Engineers

Commercial Wood Design – Industrial: Sauter Timber Production Facility in Rockwood, TN / Sauter Timber LLC + Grossman Bau GmbH 

Commercial Wood Design – Office: Venture Capital Office Headquarters in Menlo Park, CA / Paul Murdoch Architects + Simpson Gumpertz & Heger

Regional Excellence Winners:

Angeles National Forest Supervisor’s Office Building in Arcadia, CA / HMC Architects + Thornton Tomasetti 

Saint Edward Catholic Church in Keizer, OR / Di Loreto Architecture, LLC + WDY, Inc.

Project:ARCHITECTURE in Provo Canyon, UT / Integrated Technology in Architecture Center, University of Utah + Acute Engineering

SAC Federal Credit Union Headquarters in Papillion, NE / LEO A DALY + Ginsburg

The Georgetown University Calcagnini Contemplative Center in Bluemont, VA / Dynerman Architects pc + McMullan & Associates

University of North Carolina at Greensboro Dining Hall Renovation in Greensboro, NC / Gantt Huberman Architects + Bulla Smith Design Engineering

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Held annually since 1998, the Arquine International Architecture Competition explores important and relevant topics for society as a whole, creating a space for dialogue and promoting active participation of both national and international architects. It has become one of the best architecture ideas competitions, with over 400 teams from more than 21 countries participating last year.

This year, Arquine is asking: What could be the vocation of the [future, ex] International Airport Benito Juarez of Mexico City? Following the announcement that Mexico City’s new international airport will be constructed in Texcoco, this competition aims to generate proposals for the [future] urban zone. Comprised of a total of 746 acres, the area has the potential to become a catalyst for development and growth of the eastern part of one of the most complex and populated cities in the world.

Determining the future use of the space now occupied by the International Airport Benito Juarez in Mexico City is one of the most interesting urban development challenges worldwide. The public competition offers a way to dig into the potential use of the area and explore the possibility of creating a large green area in the eastern part of Mexico City.

Proposals should look at strategies for the area’s renovation, transformation and densification, taking into consideration that the area is a floodplain. The area’s potential as a center of operations should also be considered as well as its potential to be a space for international exhibitions in order to promote investment and the constant flow of local and foreign capital. The area also requires an intelligent densification plan with an area for housing. In addition, the project should propose solutions for optimizing connectivity with peripheral and major roads in the city, the historic center and with the new airport that will be located in the adjacent area of Texcoco.

About the Competition

The referred competition, judged by a jury, will be international, anonymous and of open character; it will be single-staged and governed by the dispositions hereby established in the following rules. Contestants are committed to accept and comply with each and every part of the governing dispositions (technical and procedural) established in these rules, from the moment they formalize their participation.

The invitation is open to architects and architecture students all over the world. Teams, collective and individual participants are welcome. The groups may incorporate professionals or students from other disciplines so long as the team leader or representative is an architect or architecture student.

No registry of confirmation from the participant’s college is necessary.

Under no circumstance are members of one team allowed to participate with a different team.
Participation is not permitted to:
• Members of the Jury or Arquine staff.
• Next to any kind of Jury members, spouses or any person maintaining a stable friendly, familiar or professional relationship with members of the Jury.

Inscription and Registration

A fee will have to be paid by each team or individual contestant in order to be officially registered.
First registration period: October 1st to December 20th, 2014; Amount: US$90.
Second registration period: December 21th, 2013 to February 17th, 2014; Amount: US$120.

No other fees will be charged, as all methods of participation and exchange of proposals material will be done online.

Anonymity

All projects will be identified by a code that the system will generate at the moment of registration. This code must be visible on the upper right corner of your project board (digital) and the file sent in will only be named with said code. All projects handed late or that do not meet the anonymity requirements will be automatically excluded from the competition.

Documentation Needed

Digital image (digital board) of the entirety of your project. This Board must contain all the necessary information to explain and understand the proposal. The image will be identified by a code that the system will generate at the moment of registration. This code must be visible on the upper right corner of your project board. It is essential that the image submitted at least contain the following:

• General plans and layouts of the project, including floor plans and sections, scaled adequately to ensure reading and comprehension of the plans.
• Diagrams, views, sketches, renderings, or any other form of visual representation that will help explain the project.
• A 250 word-long (max) descriptive text. Any text or description can only be delivered in either Spanish or English.
• The image or board must comply with the following format: rectangular in shape, 60cm high by 90cm long (i.e. horizontal display), 72 dpi, and only .JPG will be accepted. The file must be no larger than 5MB in order to facilitate uploads and downloads. Remember that the file name must be the same as the user code you will be given upon registration. No other format or delivery style will be accepted.

Exhibition

Once the competition has ended, the projects that stood out the most will be shown in a public exposition that will travel the country. This exposition will showcase the projects along with the identity of the authors. The place and date for the beginning of the exposition will be posted online 30 days after the results are published.

Prizes

The prizes will be the following:
• 1st Prize: $100,000.- MNX and a collection of Arquine Books.
• 2nd Prize: $60,000.- MNX and a collection of Arquine Books.
• 3rd Prize: $30,000.- MNX and a collection of Arquine Books.
• Honorable mentions: The Jury is allowed to give out four mentions to four ! projects that they feel deserve this recognition.

Contest Timeline

Launch of the bid announcement – Sept 1, 2014
Start of entries – Sept 12, 2014
Jury announcement – Oct 16, 2014
Start of consultation period – Oct 20, 2014
End of consultation period – Nov 20, 2014
Publicación of FAQs – Nov 24, 2014
Completing first registration stage – Dec 19, 2014
Start of 2nd. stage of entries – Dec 20, 2014
Closing date for entries – Feb 6, 2015
Deadline for sending proposals – Feb 13, 2015
Beginning of Jury deliberation – Feb 16, 2015
Jury session – March 6, 2015
Jury’s verdict – March 11, 2015
Awards and exhibition – May 12, 2015

More information is available on the official competition site here.

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Architects: MDR Architectes
Location: Montpellier, France
Architects In Charge: Sancie Matte, Arnaud Rousseau, Frédéric Devaux
Team Design: Frédéric Ganichot, Géraldine Savelli
Area: 2800.0 sqm
Year: 2014
Photographs: Mathieu Ducros

From the architect. This thirty flat housing project is located in the heart of Montpellier, in a confined plot, in the middle of protected wooden area.

The challenge of the project was to successfully integrate two dense buildings, of respectively six and four levels stories, in a preserved and heterogeneous environment: the architecture had to fit in with surrounding traditional style houses but also with modern buildings built in the seventies. These buildings are in tune within this complex context due to their architectural language, volumetry and contemporary style.

The narrowness of the plot is intended to best set up the buildings to get interesting frames while concealing them from any nuisances. Buildings face each other, have different heights and are oriented to improve views and natural lighting.

The facades shelter, behind a game of crinkles conceived to limit view of the building opposite, large and private loggias but also balconies made to provide tranquility for residents by removing co-visibilities. Attics are designed like vast petals made of textured and stained concrete in analogy of the immense pines of the site.

Thus all flats benefit from large exteriors and the top floors are seemingly nested in the trees where you can get a unique panoramic view of the city. Flats are bright and are never mono orientated. A focus on openings, orientations, solar protections and thermal performances fit with the environmental approach of the project.

The characteristic moulding on the façade is embodied in an interplay of material and contrasted colors.  Materials are nobles and perennials: concrete, thermo-lacquered steel, roof tops and gravels.

The project enjoys a specific conception of the landscape design which reinforces the original qualities of the site: bamboo, mulching, gramineaes and Mediterranean plants that offer a qualitative base to the architecture.

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In their fifth annual “Game Changers” survey, Metropolis Magazine sought to uncover the visionaries who have the potential to make waves in design and architecture. Profiling six of design’s ”foremost forward-looking talents,” the list includes Ila Bêka and Louise Lemoine, the filmmaking duo whose “Living Architectures” series takes a sideways glance at some of the world’s most celebrated buildings; Amy Mielke and Caitlin Gucker-Kanter Taylor, whose work as Water Pore Partnership topped BIG and The Living for Holcim’s North America Award; and finally Aggregate, a collaborative of architecture historians who are rethinking the way we do architecture theory. For the full list and profiles of all those featured on it, head on over to Metropolis Magazine.

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Architects: SAMI-arquitectos
Location: Pico Island, Portugal
Architects In Charge: Inês Vieira da Silva, Miguel Vieira
Area: 214.0 sqm
Year: 2013
Photographs: Paulo Catrica

Team: Bruna Silva, João do Vale Martins, Andreia Luís, Inês Martins, Rita Maria Pinto
Trainee: Daniel Mentech
Structural Engineering: Ricardo Ferro Antunes,Francisco Mendonça Santos
Water And Sanitation: Paulo Jorge Almeida Oliveira
Electrical Engineering: Hugo Mendonça
Construction Company: José Artur Cruz Leal – Unipessoal, Lda
Furniture: SAMI, Loja Nord
Awards: Nominated for the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture – Mies Van Der Rohe Award 2015, Barcelona, 2015

From the architect. A ruin was the starting point for the design of a holiday house in the island of Pico. The project came from the will to maintain a ruin and thinking of a house that would value it, a house that could be modelled to it and take advantage at the same time, offering the most diverse and complex possibilities of living than the former typology.

Since the building is approached at the level of the covering, because of the slope of the land, we designed all the covering of the project as if they were decks, allowing to be used as sitting places or for contemplation.

The house, modelled inside the walls of stone, was designed with generous openings, for light to come inside and to contemplation of the landscape. These openings are sometimes lined up, and sometimes not, with the former openings of the ruin, creating new frames and relations with the original limits of the house.

The project is a movement between a limit line, in stone, and the intervention volumes that are led by that same line, but sometimes flow independently or extend, whenever the necessity of space or of a view is needed.

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Architects: Oliver Grigić
Location: Čepin, Croatia
Area: 1393.0 sqm
Photographs: Marin Topić

Landscape Design: Monika Kamenečki, Mag.Ing.Prosp.Arch., Dionaea, Zagreb, Nataša Tiška Vrsalović, Mag.Ing.Hort., Dionaea, Zagreb
Structural Project: Sirrah Projekt, Osijek
Project Of The Mechanical Installations: .E.S.T.Projekt, Zagreb
Project Of The Electrical Installations: Inel, Đakovo
Main Contractor: Nucleus, Osijek
Chief Site Engineer: Franjo Božić, Civil Engineer

From the architect. Villa π is situated  on a plot of approx. 4 ha, located on the southern edge of the village Čepin near Osijek. Within the plot, it is positioned at the turn of the natural woods and the new landscape design. On the south side of the villa is a newly formed lake whose water quality is maintained by biological purifiers. There are two gates at the parcel, one for the owner, close daily visitors, delivery and service staff and the other one for external users of the pool and other multi-day guests.

The villa has been concieved according to the wishes and needs of the owner. His lifestyle is one of socializing and entertaining the numerous members of the immediate and extended family, business partners, associates and friends on a daily basis. For this reason, the villa has got three entrances and three levels of accessibility. The third level comprises of the southern entrance to the pool area and the guest’s wing on the first floor, which are accessible to the widest circle of the owner’s friends, business partners, associates and guests. The second level, with the western entrance, includes, beside the above mentioned, recreational and service areas. The first level of accessibility adds garage and, through northern entrance, exclusively private premises of the owner and his immediate family, consisting of wife and three children.

On the ground floor, the villa is “L” shaped, with two wings. There are three separate storey volumes on top of main ground volume, two of which are perpendicular to it, and the third is situated at the intersection of wings (with a bit of translation). Storey volumes emphasize and cover entrances and, functionally, gather similar content. Basement, which extends under the fragment of the ground floor, contains the engine room and technology of the pool. The southwestern wing of the ground floor contains service facilities, pool area, locker rooms and entrance for guests and external visitors. The southeastern wing contains the owners’ living quarters that may be, optionally, separated or integrated through large sliding doors. The southern storey volume is a guest unit with two bedrooms and a suite. The northern storey volume is recreational, with fitness, sauna and relaxation area and the eastern storey volume is the family’s sleeping tract.

The villa is integrated with a park landscape through large glass curtains that allow spatial orientation and transparency, inviting the users to constant interaction with the nature. The landscape design provides a constant variety of visual attractiveness and sensational volatility through the seasons. Materials used in the external and interior design are traditional, natural, of predominantly warm brown tones, with minimal final treatment, ensuring a feeling of warmth and connection with the nature for the owner and all other users.

In contrast to that, a “smart home” system represents highly sophisticated technology, providing maximum comfort with minimum energy consumption.  Geothermal energy from twelve wells is used for heating and cooling, including the heating of the pool water and sanitary water. All premises are being heated and cooled through the concrete structures of the ceilings and the floors, that radiate through it’s entire surface. The “Smart home” infrastructure takes care about security, maintenance, user comfort, consumption, keeping record and sustainability of the entire system, the interior space and the environment itself.

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