The Anglo-American competition has finally been awarded to Kate Otten Architects and Mashabane Rose Associates, deserved prizes for two of Jo'burg's finest outfits. Runners up were design workshop sa with Urban Solutions and Jakupa Architects and Urban Designers in collaboration with Tsai Design Studio. SAOTA was nominated as a finalist.
The winning entries can be seen below or on the competition website.
Taken as a whole the architectural language and the scope of interventions in the winning schemes seems a little on the conservative side. We are used to seeing ground-breaking ideas, futuristic language and unbuildable forms explored in architectural competitions if not carried through to the built result. It may be that a new age of austerity is prompting a rather more cautious outlook on our built future but it should be noted that the energy and creativity invested in competition entries is a major engine in driving the profession towards more ambitious, innovative and above all inspirational solutions to the problems of our urban fabric. Towards reinvention, in fact. For a rather more exciting concept see Peerutin Architects' entry.
1st Prize - Kate Otten Architects andMashabane Rose Associates with "Urban palimpest, old, new, green"
2nd Prize design workshop sa with Urban Solutions with "Reinvention of an invalauble urban asset"
3rd Prize (as previously advised) went to Jakupa Architects and Urban Designers in collaboration with Tsai Design Studio for "Social Landscape"
And also a finalist SAOTA
