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After an exciting week of nominations, ArchDaily’s readers have evaluated over 3,000 projects and selected 5 finalists in each category of the Building of the Year Award.

Similar to last year, over 18,000 architects and enthusiasts participated in the nomination process, expressing what architecture means to them by highlighting the buildings that have inspired them the most.

This year’s finalists represent a diverse group of projects, coming from all corners of the globe and from firms of different sizes and trajectories. Yet they all capture architecture’s capacity to improve people’s lives.

Remember that the firm behind the overall most voted project will receive an HP T520 Designjet T520 ePrinter, and the second and third most voted practices will receive an HP T120 Designjet ePrinter.

The winners of the two iPads from the nomination stage are: Linda Hinderdael (iPad Mini) and Sylvia Robert (iPad Air). We’re also going to give away two more iPads to our readers during the final voting stage so be sure to vote!

HOUSES
House for Trees / Vo Trong Nghia Architects 
Balint House / Fran Silvestre Arquitectos 
Redux House / Studiomk27 – Marcio Kogan + Samanta Cafardo 
The House of the Infinite / Alberto Campo Baeza
Sambade House /  spaceworkers

HOUSING
Parkrand / MVRDV 
One Central Park / Ateliers Jean Nouvel
The Iceberg / CEBRA+JDS+SeARCH+Louis Paillard Architects
Vitacon Itaim / Building Studio MK27 – Marcio Kogan + Carolina Castroviejo
DM2 Housing / OODA

HOSPITALITY
Son La Restaurant / Vo Trong Nghia Architects  
Nine Bridges Country Club / Shigeru Ban Architects 
White Wolf Hotel / AND-RÉ
Casa no Tempo / Aires Mateus+João and Andreia Rodrigues
Ozadi Hotel / Pedro Campos Costa

EDUCATIONAL ARCHITECTURE
Farming Kindergarten / Vo Trong Nghia Architects 
Alianza Francesa Jean Mermoz School / Guillermo Hevia García +Nicolás Urzúa Soler
School in Chuquibambilla / AMA+Bosch Arquitectos 
Forfatterhuset Kindergarten / COBE 
Innovation Center UC – Anacleto Angelini / Alejandro Aravena | ELEMENTAL

OFFICES
Puig Tower / Rafael Moneo+Antonio Puig, Josep Riu Architects+Lucho Marcial  
Tamedia Office Building / Shigeru Ban Architects
The Building on the Water / Álvaro Siza+Carlos Castanheira
The Leadenhall Building / Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners
Pathé Foundation / Renzo Piano Building Workshop

INTERIOR ARCHITECTURE
Wieden+Kennedy NY / WORKac
Lowe Campbell Ewald Headquarters / Neumann/Smith Architecture
Shun Shoku Lounge by Guranavi / Kengo Kuma & Associates
Square Headquarters / Bohlin Cywinski Jackson
SISII / Yuko Nagayama & Associates

REFURBISHMENT
Green Renovation / Vo Trong Nghia Architects
JA House/  Filipe Pina+Maria Ines Costa 
The Number 6 / Building 
Conversion of Clarenhof Chapel / a2o architecten  
Restoration and adaptation of a 16th century Chapel in Brihuega / Adam Bresnick

CULTURAL ARCHITECTURE
Philharmonic Hall Szczecin / Estudio Barozzi Veiga
Fogo Natural Park Venue / OTO 
Library of Muyinga / BC Architects 
Centro De Artes Nadir Afonso / Louise Braverman 
Dalarna Media Library / ADEPT

PUBLIC ARCHITECTURE
Pulkovo International Airport / Grimshaw Architects+Ramboll+Pascall+Watson
Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport – Terminal 2 / Skidmore, Owings & Merrill  
Twin Stations / sporaarchitects
Acoustic Shells / Flanagan Lawrence 
WMS Boathouse at Clark Park / Studio Gang Architects

SPORTS ARCHITECTURE
Arena do Morro / Herzog & de Meuron
Brasilia National Stadium / gmp architekten
Swimming Pool Extension in Bagneux / Dominique Coulon & associés 
StreetDome / CEBRA +Glifberg + Lykke
Singapore SportsHub / DP Architects

RELIGIOUS ARCHITECTURE
100 Walls Church / CAZA 
Community Church Knarvik / Reiulf Ramstad Arkitekter
Sancaklar Mosque / Emre Arolat Architects
Nanjing Wanjing Garden Chapel / AZL Architects
Shonan Christ Church / Takeshi Hosaka

INDUSTRIAL ARCHITECTURE
HAWE Factory Kaufbeuren / Barkow Leibinger  
Carozzi Production and Research Food Center / GH+A | Guillermo Hevia 
Bombay Sapphire Distillery / Heatherwick Studio 
Bell-lloc Winery / RCR Arquitectes
Lune de Sang-Shed 1 / CHROFI

HEALTHCARE ARCHITECTURE
Livsrum – Cancer Counseling Center / EFFEKT
Hicks Orthodontics / BarberMcMurry architects 
Peter Rosegger Nursing Home / Dietger Wissounig Architekten 
Villa el Libertador Príncipe de Asturias Municipal Hospital / Santiago Viale+Ian Dutari+Alejandro Paz 
Angdong Hospital Project / Rural Urban Framework

COMMERCIAL ARCHITECTURE
SunnyHills at Minami-Aoyama / Kengo Kuma & Associates 
Cultura Bookstore / Studio MK27 – Marcio Kogan+Diana Radomysler+Luciana Antunes+Marcio Tanaka+Mariana Ruzante
Liverpool Insurgentes Department Store / Rojkind Arquitectos  
Markthal Rotterdam / MVRDV  
Abu Dhabi Central Market / Foster + Partners

You can vote for your favorite projects starting today and until February 4th, 2015 (read the complete rules).

Make your voice heard – vote for your favorite projects for the 2015 Building of the Year Awards!

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Spanish-Kuwaiti firm AGi architects has been awarded second prize in a competition to design a new courthouse in Qatar’s capital, Doha. The restricted competition, organized by the Government of Qatar, challenged 30 participants, of which four were shortlisted to compete in the final round.

AGi’s proposal was based off of two grids – the immediate site’s and the larger city – resulting in a “floating,” canopy-like structure that metaphorical “protects” its inhabitants. View the complete proposal, after the break.

From the architects: Institutional buildings need to embody the ideals and value system of any given society, with order being one of the core principles of any group. No society can prosper and thrive without it. Order is structure, it is the law, it is justice; without it, there is chaos. It is therefore extremely important that the Qatar Courthouse be aspirational and reflects these basic principles.

The building is designed on two basic grids that are site driven, one linking it to its immediate context and the second to the larger context of Doha. These grids create stunning structural and spatial possibilities that make the building stand out visually so that people can see their ideals reflected in built form -structure, order, transparency, ambition -all of which are the ideals of Qatar’s growing society.

One of the fundamental questions for a civic structure is how is it approached and how is it perceived? The project brief contained a dense program that would occupy only 40% of the site, which would yield a type of vertical structure. This verticality however in the context of modern day Doha does not read as institutional. We sought to expand the ground plane across the entirety of the site, creating a public plaza and in doing so altering the proportion of the building.

Floating above the plaza is the main structure carrying the central courtrooms, signifying that the law is above everyone. These subtle gestures ensure that the plaza act as a threshold between society at large and the justice system, making the Qatar Court House an open and welcoming building, rather than an ominous, insular one. At this scale, the floating structure acts as a literal and figurative canopy: it offers protection from the elements and a place where one can seek refuge from the greater population. The geometry of the floating structure ensures that there is ample light that fills the plaza, making the building feel lighter. At night, this very interplay between the volumes themselves makes the building visually striking.

Competition: Qatar Courthouse
Award: Second Prize
Architects: AGI Architects
Location: Doha, Qatar
Design Team: Joaquín Pérez-Goicoechea, Nasser B. Abulhasan
Architectural Team: Justo Ruiz, Daniel Muñoz, Álvaro Granero, Ana Palencia, Cristina Ruiz, Nicolás Martín, Aisha Alsager, Hessa Albader
Client: Government of Qatar
Area: 44000.0 sqm
Year: 2014
Photographs: Poliedro Estudio, AGi architects

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Architects: Plazma Architecture Studio
Location: Gedimino prospektas 9, Vilnius 01110, Lithuania
Architect In Charge: Rytis Mikulionis, Paulius Paskačimas, Evelina Talandzevičienė (Wallpaper graphic design: Daiva Čiuplytė
Area: 500.0 sqm
Year: 2014
Photographs: Leonas Garbačauskas

From the architect. A multi-brand footwear store Shoe Gallery is located in a modern retail centre, which has inhabited a historic building in the central part of Vilnius, Lithuania.

The store is divided into two zones that are based on the L-shaped premises: the main display space which is positioned in front of the entrance and the additional display areas straight off the corner. The space in the first-plan of the store hosts the main footwear exposition. The new collections are placed on the display units that are designed to function as podiums. This zone can be perceived as an actual shoe gallery, just like the title of the store suggests. The space is highlighted by using custom-made luminaries that the interior architects designed for this project in particular.

The rest of the space, positioned in the far-away corner offers display space for the standard footwear exposition. One of the main goals of the interior architects was to make the store work well in terms of function both for the retailers and the customers. For this reason a custom modular exposition system was created: original wall-fixed and free-standing modular systems were designed using standard retail furniture fittings.

Also, footwear brand logos that are suspended from a profile that follows the entire perimeter of the store provides a subtle division between the product brands. In addition, the construction elements of the building are integrated into retail equipment, which offers even more display space as well as precious wall surface for placing the mirrors. These units are decorated in black ceramic tiles.

Project architects wanted to challenge the common perception of a standard footwear store as a merely functional and neutral retail space. This concept stands out in the details. Concrete, metal, wall panelling, glass, ceramic tiles, wallpaper – the wide spectrum of materials used in the project helps create a sense of dynamics.

The concept was taken further by designing custom wallpapers. The pattern of the wallpapers is also used for decorating the glazed partitions. The geometry-inspired, mid-century colour-themed wallpapers and fitting zones as well as the yellow-metal modular display system makes a visit to a standard footwear store feel like a funky fashion experience.

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Imagine forgoing time-intensive 3D modeling programs to instead create 3D printable models by playfully stacking censored LEGO bricks. This reality isn’t far from fruition, as the London-based studio Gravity has released plans for an augmented reality app that uses location-mapping and gyroscopic sensors to generate digital (and scalable) models of your creation in realtime. The program, “Lego X” uses an algorithm to intuitively smooth out edges and join corners, allowing for easy modifying and seamless 3D printing.

See the program in action, after the break. 

Click here to view the embedded video.

As you can see in the demonstration video below, Gravity is currently testing their idea on Duplos. However, it is hoped that the app’s next version will allow models to be built with standard LEGO-sized bricks. This could potentially revolutionize the way we build (and print) our building models.

There has been no indication that Gravity is in anyway associated with LEGO.

News via 3D Printing Industry, Dezeen

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Architects: MOB architects
Location: Avlaki, Porto Rafti 190 03, Greece
Area: 280.0 sqm
Photographs: N. Daniilidis

Civil Engineer: P. Malandrakis
Electrical And Mechanical Engineering: EMG & associates

From the architect. In an elongated plot of 382,17m² and of a width of 12m, in Porto Rafti (Attica, Greece), the brief called for a vacation house of approximately 280m², including two potentially independent residences, common-use outdoor spaces and a garage. The duplex is arranged over two floors and an underground garage, with a northeast orientation, in order to be protected from the sun andon the first floor to take full advantage of the sea view to the north. The south side is nearly compact.

The basic design concept was to create large outdoor spaces facing the garden on all levels, since the house will be used mostly during summer time. The outdoor spaces were joined with the access paths to create two main ‘verandahs’:  a partly covered one on the ground floor, and an open-air one on the first floor. A section of the ground floor verandah is enclosed, being surrounded on three sides by either the building volumes or a two storey-high wall. The fourth side is linked to the garden, which is in turn enclosed by tall vegetation, forming a protected enclosed outdoor space, a place for daily activities and gathering. On the contrary, the first floor verandah opens to the sea view, to the sun and wind. Each residence comprises two rooms, a kitchen-living room and a bedroom with bathroom. The two residences are approached through the verandahs and the open air staircase.

Two volumes form the duplex, one comprising the kitchens-living rooms, and the other comprising the bedrooms and staircase. They are connected via an enclosed corridor on the first floor, while on the ground floor the two volumes do not have an indoor connection. The ‘atriums’ formed between building masses form a network with the other outdoor spaces and the garden.

The choice of materials was based on a preference for minimum maintenance requirements: building volumes of exposed concrete, wood flooring, while elements such as the main staircase and the first-floor verandahs are galvanized steel constructions.

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China’s Pearl River Delta has surpassed Tokyo in both size and population, making it the largest urban area in the world, according to the World Bank. The colossal megapolis – a conglomerate of several cities, including Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Foshan and Dongguan – is a central component to China’s manufacturing and trade industries.

It is now home to 42 million – more people than the countries of Canada, Argentina or Australia. And, considering nearly two-thirds of the East Asia region’s population (64%) is still “non-urban,” the area is expected to grow exponentially.

Warning of the potential consequences of unplanned growth, the report made a case for affordable housing and efficient public transport as a way to avoid the increase of inequality, stating: “While this transformation is going on, there is still an opportunity to set the course of urbanization on a more sustainable and equitable path… Within a few decades, this window of opportunity will close, and future generations will be left to deal with the consequences of how we urbanize today.”

Pearl River Delta is one of eight megacities in the region of more than 10 million people: the Pearl River Delta, Shanghai and Beijing in China; Tokyo and Osaka in Japan; and Jakarta, Seoul and Manila. Several hundred million will be relocating to cities within the region over the next 20 years.

Read the complete report, here.

News via The World Bank, The Guardian, Urbanland

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Architects: BBATS Consulting&Projects SLP (Silvia Barbera Correia, Jorge Batesteza Penna, Cristóbal Tirado Luchsinger), Murtinho+Raby Arquitectos (Pedro Murtinho Larraín, Santiago Raby Pinto)
Location: Maipú, Maipu, Santiago Metropolitan Region, Chile
Partner In Charge: Cristóbal Tirado
Project Manager: Silvia Barbera, Jorge Batesteza
Project Management: Silvia Barbera, Cristóbal Tirado, Santiago Raby
Area: 70.301 sqm
Year: 2013
Photographs: Nico Saieh, Pablo Casals

Collaborators: (Chile) Felipe Torreblanca, Juan Carlos Barros, Sebastián Cruz, Ignacia Balart, Andrés Briceño, Cristina Núñez, Luis Pinto / (España) Jean Craiu, Simona Iaquinto, Dani Linares, Luisa Santos / (Concurso) Juan García
Structural Design: CRL Ingeniería
Landscape Design: RyR Arquitectos
Lighting Design: DLLD
Sanitary Engineering: PVT Ingenierìa
Electrical Engineering: ICG Ingenierìa
Hvac Engineering: GyZ Ingenierìa
Client: Gobierno de Chile – Concesiones MOP

From the architect. The El Carmen de Maipu Hospital has 70.301 m², 375 beds, 11 operating rooms and 6 delivery rooms, 125 medical consultations, 523 parking spots and 347 seismic isolators, to house 1,500 staff, in the most populous municipality in the country.

The hospital it’s located in a plot of 250m by 250m (aprox 50,500 m2) with a considerable green prescence and with enough space to decide the position of the building in the site. However the difficulty it’s given by the important difference in the ground level, – 10m difference between the south entrance and the north access- , with a slope that make’s a diagonal against the avenue of the project main facade.

This implied to develop the project in two different levels: a half buried plinth that builds de difference of the existing slope minimizing the earthworks, with the subsequent extension and recovery of the upper level (north access) that builds a green free access roof and articulates the lower level (plinth) and the upper level that’s built as two parallel dislocated aerial hospitalization bars that rest above the natural ground and the green roof. The ubication of the hospitalization areas responds to a better orientation (north-west) and a better environment linked with the green roof and the park areas on the site.

The programmatic distribution is divided into three groups: (1) two underground floors of parking and clinical support services grouped with the two levels on the plinth that house the heart of the hospital: emergency rooms, radiology, operating rooms and critically ill patients; (2) a technical gallery on the green roof / park level and (3) two upper floors for hospitalization units.

Looking for the best performance, the project is developed in a perfectly horizontal clinical organization, and has a fairly small urban scale in relation to the 70,000 m² built. This is seen in that – despite having 7 floor – this is not reflected in any of its facades.

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