Living Steel today announces the winners of its International Competition for Sustainable Housing at the UN-Habitat World Urban Forum III in Vancouver...
“Housing a developing global population that is growing at the rate of a small city every day poses a unique set of challenges,” explains Carl Perry, Chairman of the Living Steel Steering Group. ”Flexible, sustainable and cost effective housing solutions must be found. The Living Steel competition challenges architects around the world to think about how steel can offer a solution to the global housing and environmental challenges. It is an innovative material that facilitates speed of construction and design flexibility, to provide durable and comfortable living space.”

The competition called for designs that could be built in two locations: Warsaw in Poland and Kolkata in India. Architectenbureau cepezed from the Netherlands has won the competition for a design to be built in Poland. The competition for India has been won by UK architects Piercy Conner Architects. Each firm will be awarded a prize of €50,000 and a contract to develop their designs for construction.

The winners were selected by an independent jury chaired by internationally-renowned architect Glenn Murcutt and approved by the International Union of Architects (UIA). Jury members included Charles Correa, James Berry, Andrew Ogorzalek, Jaime Lerner (UIA) and Nicholas de Monchaux (UIA).

Glen Murcutt, speaking on behalf of the Jury, said: “We are impressed by the ambition and scope of the Living Steel programme. This architectural competition will provide an excellent contribution to the crucial global debate on sustainability and quality of residential environments. Many proposals, and the winning entries in particular, displayed the potential for steel construction to provide light weight, open, flexible and refined spaces responding to contemporary urban living. We’re delighted to be part of such a pioneering approach.”

The Jury selected winners from a short-list of ten architecture firms for the Polish competition and eight for India. Each company making it on to the short-list received an honorarium of €10,000. They were asked to design buildings that advanced the concept of sustainable housing in each location, demonstrating the value and performance of steel in improving economic, environmental and social performance.

Commenting on the winning entries, Glenn Murcutt said: “We were very impressed with the entry from Architectenbureau cepezed for Poland. It incorporated simple floor plans, robustness and flexibility of design and the use of double loaded corridors. The flexibility of the layout will enable full advantage to be made of ventilation and daylight. The scale of the proposed design and, in particular, how the configuration of the building can respond to its context also impressed the Jury.

“The Jury was struck by the simplicity and lightness of the scheme proposed by Piercy Conner for India. Specifically we were attracted to the strong concept of ventilation across every space. The inclusion of the roof terrace and the potential for the plan to provide open and closed zones within apartments was also striking. The Jury felt this idea was sufficiently robust and flexible to allow consideration for other proportions of the floor plate too.”

Carl Perry concluded: “I am delighted that the Jury has unanimously selected these two winners for our competition. The successful designs use steel in a truly innovative way and clearly demonstrate the spirit of Living Steel in promoting sustainable housing. We are looking forward to working with Architectenbureau cepezed and Piercy Conner Architects over the coming months to develop their designs for construction with local supply chain partners.”

Further information about the Living Steel competition, a full press pack and interviews with the winning architects can be viewed at www.livingsteel.org