Beyond Isolation: Senior Housing Buildner Sustainability Award winners - Architectural Association School of Architecture

We’d like to take the opportunity to introduce you to the Sustainability Award winners of our Beyond Isolation: Senior Housing competition – Koh Noguchi, Jintatsu Asada and Tung Hua Chen from United Kingdom!

Koh Noguchi, Jintatsu Asada and Tung Hua Chen

Please tell us about your company (when it was founded, where it is based, how many employees, etc) Alternatively, if you do not have a company, please give us some insights on your own professional/academia background.

We are students from the Architectural Association (UK). However, we are all originally from the other side of the globe (Japan & Taiwan). We got together to enter this competition due to the ageing demographic of our respective home nations.

Brief information about the projects that you/your company have been involved with. For instance, what scale have you focused on/preferred, any significant projects where the company/ individuals have been Involved?

The two of us (Tony & Koh) are from the diploma course with professional experience, whilst Jintatsu is from the undergraduate course. So, we vary in the volume and scale of the project that we have been involved with. That being said, we all have a collective interest in both the relationship of the whole and the individual. Therefore, this competition of exploring the project as a whole and the relationship between individuals was compelling.

What does architecture mean to you and what is the role of an architect in your society?

We feel that architecture has a tremendous role and responsibility to the society. A singular structure can create a sort of activation that can be either positive and/or negative. Due to the enormous energy and resources required to create a typical architecture, anyone engaged in the field should be highly considerate of both the context and the planet.

Why do you participate in architecture competitions?

Architecture competitions provide us with a way to experiment with our ideas that are not limited as in the professional field, and not as directed as in school. Essentially, it is a platform for creative freedom within the set rules given by the brief.

What advice would you give to individuals who struggle to decide whether it would be beneficial for them to participate in architecture competitions?

We would advise everyone to at least give it a try once, especially if you are still in school or entering the field. Inevitably, with architectural competitions, you will have other more important commitments. Competitions have helped us become better at time management (crucial in the field!!!) and be able to produce more in a given set of time due to the hard deadline that is set.