The Allianz Headquarters, a hybrid office tower in Zürich, Switzerland, was recently awarded the the 2014 'Chicago Athenaeum International Architecture Award'. Bestowed annually, the award 'pays tribute to new developments in design and underscores the directions and understanding of current cutting-edge processes.' The tower–which totals 72.000 m2–is the new home of German insurance company Allianz. Composed of a closed cavity system, the tower's façade is fritted with an abstracted image of marble from Mies van der Rohe's Barcelona Pavilion, which lends to it the illusion of stone materiality. The lobby and courtyard are publicly accessible, while the private upper-story interiors combine programmatic spaces more often left disparate within offices, which ensures the tower's continuous animation. Roof terraces, espresso corners, and areas for informal conversation are dispersed throughout the 5 and 20 story towers, which are intertwined by a series of 8 m wide bridges and numerous interior voids.

In November the awarded projects will be exhibited at 'The City and the World' symposium in Turkey, as part of the 'Second Istanbul Design Biennial'.

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