Foreword

The Pape Nature Park in south-western Latvia opened in 2003 with the ambition of protecting the region’s wetlands. The nearly-11,000-hectare park includes important nesting grounds for 250 species of migrating birds within the marshes situated at the limit between the Papes Lake and the sea.

The Pape Bird Observation Tower competition is the first of a series to be organised by Bee Breeders in collaboration with the support of Pasaules Dabas Fonds, Latvia’s leading nature conservation fund. Here, participants were challenged with designing a new bird observation station, to replace an existing structure built in 1966 and destroyed by fire. The jury evaluated entries based on a number of factors, including sensitivity to the environment, potential to serve as a landmark, functionality, constructability and economy.

The observation tower will be used primarily to record annual migratory habits of an estimated 50,000 birds, as well as to allow park visitors the opportunity to observe the park’s natural resources. In this light the jury considered functionality and sustainability critical. First, the proposed structure must permit users the ability to observe birds and other migratory animals in a manner that is simultaneously protective –visitors must be concealed to some level from frightening off animals – and open to 360-degree views. Second, the observation tower must have the capacity to be built with minimal disruption to the Paper Nature Park habitat.

Participants were asked to follow strict size guidelines. The observation tower must have a maximum height of 11m and at least two observation platforms. Despite these constraints, the jury found that entries proposed a wide and exciting variety of enclosure materials and structural forms. Modularity played a key factor in the majority of submissions, as did ease of construction within the difficult marshland setting. Designs also included a number of striking raised walkway designs for connectivity from the nature trail to the observation tower.

Each of the winning entries has the capacity to become an important architectural landmark and observational tool for the park. The high quality of the six honorable mentions reflects the outstanding level of work submitted across the board. Bee Breeders would like to thank each entrant for their participation and hard work.

COMPETITION ORGANISERS
Pape Bird 
Observation 
Tower
Official partner
Pape Bird 
Observation 
Tower

1st Prize Winner

Project name

Interwoven with the landscape

Participating in competitions is a perfect opportunity to face this challenge, developing new ideas, evolving personal perspectives, acquiring new capacities and tools. To achieve this, each new project must be faced with accuracy, curiosity and the will to surprise and be surprised.

Read full interview
Authors Berta Risueño Muzás, Manuel Pareja Abascal,
Country Spain

2nd Prize Winner

Project name

Pape Bird Observation Tower

I enjoy the creative freedom that these competitions allow. While daily practice is incredibly rewarding, competitions such as this offer a chance to exercise my mind and explore design problems that I might not otherwise have the opportunity to delve into. They provide me the opportunity to research and explore a place and context that I may not otherwise have explored. I enjoy that. And I enjoy seeing other solutions to the same problem.

Read full interview
Authors Jeffrey Clancy,
Country United States

3rd Prize Winner

Project name

Līnija

We believe those open architecture vision competitions aim to reveal the liberty of conception, the freedom of questioning an architectural, social, geographical, cultural, political problem or context. It allows us to push forward through the boundaries of what the day-to-day architectural practice has to offer. It pushes beyond our practice to extend to global problems of a punctual question. In this way, it allows us to integrate the research in our professional practice and develop a scientific approach to any question. Furthermore, these competitions allow us to assert our ideas, envies and potential as young architects.

Read full interview
Authors Simon Barret, Hugo Ramos-Guerrero, Tom Mestiri, Chloé Meyer
Country France

BB STUDENT AWARD

Project name

Halat

In order to gain experience as students. Also we like to have an area where we can express our interest in parametric design techniques.

Read full interview
Authors Alicem Öztürk, Konuralp Senol,
Country Turkey
+76 points Buildner University Rankings

BB GREEN AWARD

Project name

Gnomon

Currently, all of our ongoing projects are in Canada and to be specific in the Greater Toronto area; so we are trying to explore new contexts.

Read full interview
Country Canada

Honorable Mentions

Show Honorables Mentions (6 of 6) Hide Honorables Mentions projects
Project name

Poles & Pillars

Authors Bogi Kovács, Anna Gassner, Zsolt Krausz,
Country Hungary
Project name

No more, no less

Authors Christian Schunke, Anna Bugoslavska,
Country Germany
Project name

the man's high nest

Company NYXO
Authors Mirko Daneluzzo, Michele Daneluzzo, Cristian Li Voi,
Country United Kingdom
Project name

Pape Spiral

Country Netherlands
Project name

VAV Pape Bird Observation Tower

Authors Weronika Kogut, Karolina Toporkiewicz,
Country Poland
Project name

Cyclops

Authors Ana Rita Gomes,
Country Portugal

Shortlisted projects

Show Shortlisted projects Hide Shortlisted projects

reed.

Atso Airola

Tampere University of Technology

+22 points Buildner University Rankings!
Finland

Halat

Alicem Öztürk

Konuralp Senol

Turkey

Lookout Loop

Ulf Mejergren

Sweden

Project ID 9934

Liam Van steekelenburg

Mitchell Cairns-spicer

Phil Fors

Arnel Espanol

Canada

Project ID 9924: Orni-ments

Enrico Daffonchio

Daffonchio Architects

South Africa

PHOENIX

Edita Bruzikaite

Lithuania

ELEVATE

Dan Rubenzahl

Gabriel Ramirez

Mariam El zein

Farah Elmajdoub

Canada

Strekoza

Anvar Garipov

Russian Federation

the man's high nest

Mirko Daneluzzo

Michele Daneluzzo

Cristian Li Voi

NYXO

United Kingdom

PAPERCUT

Oguzhan Zeytinoglu

Burcu Tasli

Cansu Celikkaya

Duygu Kisacik

Turkey

To Weave A Nest

Juan Carlos Naranjo

Daniel Pineda

Colombia

IN-SIGHT

Noeline Tharshan

Francesca Cuda

Amanda Nalli

Christian Iannantuono

Canada

Pape Spiral

Geoffrey James Eberle

Thomas Sebastian Krall

Netherlands

PBOT2017

Inara Jaunzeme

Jan Roth

Germany

Project ID 9494_The Cage Aux Folles Observatory

Shuxin Wu

United States

Project ID 9463

MATHIEU MORIT

LEA MARCHAL

France

Interwoven with the landscape

Berta Risueño Muzás

Manuel Pareja Abascal

Spain

Project ID 9356

Umer Qaiser

Matias Kaufman

Kirsten Ibasc

Beca

New Zealand

PAPE BIRD OBSERVATION TOWER

GEORGE R. PALADI

Belgium

PAPE BIRD AMBER OBSERVATION TOWER

Samuel Hervault

France

Gnomon

Reza Aliabadi

Arman Ghafouri - Azar

Canada

Pape Observation Tower

Alexander Gaul

Morgan Wild

United Kingdom

Pape Bird Observation Tower

Brandon Reinke

John Annis

Galbraith Carnahan Architects

United States

Pape bird watching tower

scott kim

Australia

STAIRS TO STARE

Jean-Baptiste Petit

Jordi Rosas

France

Pape Nest

Ker-Shing Ong

Joshua Comaroff

Shunann Chen

Oscar Korintus

Lekker Architects Pte Ltd

Singapore

ARTIFICE

charles o. Job

Switzerland

Cyclops

Ana Rita Gomes

Portugal

VAV Pape Bird Observation Tower

Weronika Kogut

Karolina Toporkiewicz

Poland

Black tower

Andrius Daujotas

Tautvilė Džiugytė

Lithuania

Līnija

Simon Barret

Hugo Ramos-Guerrero

Tom Mestiri

Chloé Meyer

France

No more, no less

Christian Schunke

Anna Bugoslavska

Germany

Horus

Suvi Saastamoinen

Simo Lahtinen

Finland

Poles & Pillars

Bogi Kovács

Anna Gassner

Zsolt Krausz

Hungary

ASSEMBLY

Gautam Palav

Ingrid Bengtson

United States

Walk the line

Joana Branco

Enya Aspen

Saulius Bulavas

Einar Fuglesteg

Norway

Project ID 8515

Jiaming 'jamie' Sun

Chen Ding

Ye Su

Illinois Institute of Technology

+22 points Buildner University Rankings!
United States

SKYGATE

Alessandro Sperduti

Mattia Brambilla

Italy

Ninho

Sarkis Semerdjian

Domingos Pascali

Leopoldo Schettino

Brazil

Pape Bird Observation Tower

Jeffrey Clancy

United States