Introduction

COMPETITION ORGANISERS
Kurgi 
Observation Tower
Official partner
Kurgi 
Observation Tower

Kurgi Farm is located in Latvia’s North Vidzeme Biosphere Reserve, a large nature conservation area at the Estonian border that accounts for nearly 6% of Latvia’s total land area.

The farm is owned and operated by a couple that breeds Latvian Ardennes, a local species of horse that is perilously close to extinction. Kurgi Farm is one of few remaining breeding programs for the Latvian Ardennes, and home to one of the last four living studs. The Latvian Ardennes is treasured by the local community as an integral part of its cultural heritage.

As part of Kurgi’s pursuit to raise awareness and participation in the protection of the Latvian Ardennes, it seeks to attract visitors to the farm. The Kurgi Observation Tower competition called for participants to submit proposals for a viewing tower, for visitors and guests to experience and gain appreciation for the horses as well as the beautiful, rugged Baltic landscape. The proposed observation tower is to be an iconic landmark set atop a hill on the Kurgi estate, with views of the surrounding lakes, glacially formed hills, rolling plains, and forests.

The competition called for a tower limited to 35 meters in height, consisting of five storeys: four offering open views; and a top landing with an enclosed, comfortable space usable in any season, accompanied by an outdoor balcony, seating, a table, and a heat source. The structure is to be made of metal and timber, accessible to all guests, and built in a sustainable manner.

The received submissions offered an excellent mix of designs that explored the tower: functionally, as a tool for viewing; formally, as an iconic sculpture; and as a landscape element integrated with its site. Several structural concepts were put forth. The jury evaluated each submission for its responsiveness to the project brief, its quality of design, and its architectural innovation. The winners and shortlisted entries presented here boast a strong display of experimentation for fully-realizable projects.

Bee Breeders and Kurgi Farm would like to thank all designers who responded to this call for submissions.

We sincerely thank our jury panel
for their time and expertise

Alisa Korolova

Riga Tehnical University

Latvia

1st Prize Winner

Project name

Tower of Many Views

Participation in competitions, as well as in exhibitions and publications, for us has become a way to develop our practice and be in dialogue with others.

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Company
Authors
Daniel Norell
Einar Rodhe
Agnes Mührer
Country
Sweden

2nd Prize Winner +
Client Favorite

Project name

The Spiral Tower

In my opinion, it is always very important for an architect to look for solutions to new problems of different scales. Look for your own approach and carefully study the context, delicately add new objects, woven into the prevailing culture and locality.

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Author
Arseniy Rabotnov
Country
Russian Federation

3rd Prize Winner

Project name

Kaskāde

Our daily working environment requires us to provide very practical design solutions for clients. Architecture vision competitions give us the opportunity to think outside of the box and stimulate our creativity with diverse ideas and project locations that challenge our comfort zone.

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Authors
Yuteng Lin
JJ Zhao
Country
Canada

BB STUDENT AWARD

Project name

Kurgi Observation Tower

Participating in a competition is a good way to motivate ourselves, especially during the time of the pandemic, when the whole industry slows down and employment comes to a standing point – a competition is what keeps our spirits up and our minds active.

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University
Authors
Beixi Zhu
Xi Luo
Country
United States
+74 points Buildner University Rankings

BB GREEN AWARD

Project name

Atklājums

As a small practice, architecture vision competitions give us the opportunity to test new ideas and flex our creative skills on projects outside of our norm. Approaching projects such as this with freedom and experimentation allows us to develop new skills and mediums for project delivery. This has been seen to inspire the team to develop new skills and knowledge that can be adapted into live projects ongoing within the practice.

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Authors
Steven Hedley
Carl Herron
Callum Fysh
Country
United Kingdom

Honorable Mentions

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Project name

THE WOODS; OR, THE TENUOUS HAZE OF KURGI

By exploring architecture with actual construction plans in mind and outputting those ideas, we grow.

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Authors
Koki Masumi
Makoto Wada
Country
Japan
Project name

Horizontal shapes

Author
Leonardo Rossi
Country
Italy
Project name

Kurgi Tower

Authors
Aurelio Piña
Juan Rodriguez
Country
Mexico
Project name

IN-GRID

Author
Jinwoo Kim
Country
United States
Project name

Kurgi Observation Tower

Authors
Mirco Wieneke
Mirza Vranjakovic
Country
Switzerland
Project name

The Looking Tower

Authors
Frank Gibase
Grey Peterson
Country
United States

Shortlisted projects

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SCAFFOLDING

Carla Valencia
Marta Chavarria
Ivet Capellades

La Salle Universitat Ramon Llull

+22 points Buildner University Rankings!
Spain

Kurgi Tower

Aurelio Piña
Juan Rodriguez
Mexico

Kurgi Observation Tower

Luis Garcia
Victor Hertel
João Navarrete
Leonardo Dias
Brazil

Ūsiņš

Paulina Chustecka
Fábio Cabral
Norway

One Brick’s Dream

Daniil Narinskiy
Russian Federation

The Lantern

Giusy Mazzarella
Italy

Būris Putniem

Alexandra Boeva
Andrey Fomichev
Russian Federation

CONTEMPORARY WINDMILL

Bernardo Aguilar leon
Peru

The nest

Marcos Herrera
Pedro Busso

Nurek.arq

Argentina

A pretentious object

Megi Davitidze
Annamaria Chelidze
Fadri Horber
Georgia

Māra

Marshall Inglis
United Kingdom

Kurgi Observation Tower

Beixi Zhu
Xi Luo
United States

Stable Stack

Michael Heyn

University of Cincinnati

+22 points Buildner University Rankings!
United States

NATURE MOVES YOU

Kim Bos

MONK Architecten

Netherlands

Lighthouse

Ekaterina Shomesova
Pavel Nasonov
Russian Federation

Horizontal shapes

Leonardo Rossi
Italy

Captured Spire

Juulia Jääskeläinen
Ananda Jaganathan
Robin Müller
Ariqyandri Muhamad

Eindhoven University of Technology

+22 points Buildner University Rankings!
Netherlands

Tower of Many Views

Daniel Norell
Einar Rodhe
Agnes Mührer

Norell/Rodhe

Sweden

THE WOODS; OR, THE TENUOUS HAZE OF KURGI

Koki Masumi
Makoto Wada
Japan

KURGI SPIRAL TOWER

Alexander Rekhlitskiy

Kyiv national university of construction and architecture

+22 points Buildner University Rankings!
Ukraine

The Spiral Tower

Arseniy Rabotnov
Russian Federation

transience

Alexander Gorecki
Olivia Arcidiacono
Nissie Bungbrakearti
Daniel Da Cruz

Cox Architecture

Australia

A GIFT TO SAULE

Clarissa Moore

Queen's University Belfast

+22 points Buildner University Rankings!
United Kingdom

The Looking Tower

Frank Gibase
Grey Peterson
United States

Kurgi Observation Tower

Mirco Wieneke
Mirza Vranjakovic
Switzerland

Kurgi Observation Tower

Richard Sundberg
United States

Kaskāde

Yuteng Lin
JJ Zhao
Canada

Ypsilon Tower

Marcus Vesterager
Ruben Andersen
Denmark

Atklājums

Steven Hedley
Carl Herron
Callum Fysh

Hedley Design Limited

United Kingdom

Two ways

Denis Gawrilin
Russian Federation

IN-GRID

Jinwoo Kim
United States

Latvian Wood

Gianluca Iraci sareri
Italy

Promenade Tower

Cristián Valdés
Felipe Quezada
Chile

Nevoeiro

Marco Pallaoro
Richard lee Peragine
Simme Bruinsma
Italy

FROST

Bradley Bowman
Jeff Leopold
Lucas Downes
United States

koka baka

Mateusz Bartczak
Norway

UZ AUGŠU

Kamil Lipski
Wojciech Pisula
Agnieszka Słota

Silesian University of Technology

+22 points Buildner University Rankings!
Poland

Still Motion Tower

Callie Tedder-hares
Shane Mccarthy
United Kingdom

Kurgi Tower

Ábel Györgyi
Hungary

absolute form

Barbara Sandri
Andrea Smaniotto
Italy