Introduction
Buildner is excited to announce the results of the third edition of its "Workplace Reimagined" competition, which invited architects, designers, engineers, students, and creative thinkers worldwide to redefine the workspace of the future.
This international challenge aimed to anticipate the evolving needs of a modern workforce that increasingly embraces remote work. Participants were tasked with envisioning a flexible, sustainable, and digitally-integrated workspace for approximately 100 employees, serving as an effective hub for collaboration, innovation, and productivity.
A critical aspect of the competition was the strategic selection of the site, either existing or theoretical, reflecting its unique attributes and potential. Designs were expected to incorporate considerations of flexibility and adaptability, sustainability, digital integration, human-centric design, community and culture, and multifunctionality. The challenge sought innovative solutions that balanced remote working trends with the necessity for physical spaces to foster a shared sense of identity and community.
Buildner worked with an international, experience jury panel that included: Christina Cho Yoo, cofounder at Atelier Cho Thompson; Ece Calguner Erzan an Interiors Principal at SOM - Skidmore Owings & Merrill; Ed Han Myo Oo a Senior Associate for Design at SHVO; Juriaan van Meel, a co-founder of BriefBuilder based in the Netherlands; and Katrina Yin, an architect and design manager at JDS Development Group.
Buildner and its jury panel would like to thank all participants for their work and to congratulate the winners and shortlisted participants for their outstanding ideas.
We sincerely thank our jury panel
for their time and expertise
Christina Cho Yoo
Cofounder at Atelier Cho Thompson
USA
Ece Calguner Erzan
SOM
USA
Ed Han Myo Oo
Senior Associate for Design at SHVO
USA
Harsha Kotak
Founder of Women in Office Design
UK
Frank Fliskow
architect at Make Architects
UK
Primo Orpilla
Cofounder at Studio O+A
USA
Juriaan van Meel
Co-founder of BriefBuilder
Netherlands
Katrina Yin
architect and design manager at JDS Development Group
USA
1st Prize Winner +
Buildner Student Award
Buildner Student Award
POPULATUS
As a recent graduate in architecture, I feel that I still have to mature in certain aspects when facing a new project. In addition to exploring my capabilities as an architect, participating in this type of competitions helps me improve not only in the project phase but mainly, in how to efficently present and explain a project.
Read full interviewJury feedback summary
According to the author of POPULATUS: "The abandonment of rural towns is a phenomenon that has been occurring for decades and has affected numerous rural communities around the world. This trend is especially accentuated in European countries such as Spain and has been driven by a variety of factors, both economic and social, that have contributed to population decline and loss of vitality in many rural areas." The proposal claims that the factors driving such movement include migration to urban areas, aging populations, deindustrialization, changes in economic structures, as well as the lack of basic services, investments and infrastructure. This project thus aims to soften the problem by bringing urban job opportunities to rural areas without necessarily gentrifying or repopulating these towns. It proposes a building designed to adapt to a rural environment, offering ideal spaces for installing businesses, with open workspaces, relaxation spaces and exterior activity areas. The building, designed for a nonspecified Mediterranean site, is designed to be flexible, resilient, quick to assemble and disassemble, and respectful of the environment.
Buildner's commentary, recommendations and techniques review
Order your review hereThe project excellently varies its imagery to place clear focus on a single, high-quality primary image for each sheet, supported by smaller but equally well-developed diagrams and drawings. The use of color is also very advanced, and the author has found a way in the renderings to balance the vibrant colors of the building and its material details with the quieter but still engaging colors of the sky. The project would benefit from a reduced and more segmented use of text, and in particular a more developed use of annotation to describe concepts or materials and spaces within all drawing types, from perspectives to plans and sections. In terms of the information conveyed, the project would be more convincing if it clearly showed connections to an existing town or rural development: how is the building used and integrated within Europe's rural areas, as it claims?
2nd Prize Winner
X-BOX
Architectural competitions provide an kerf to look though real issues around us and encourage designers to think outside the box . This is a great opportunity to help architects understand the world, mutually, it allows the world to meet our vision.
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According to the author of X-BOX: "In the post-pandemic era, digital work and telecommuting have gradually become common ways of working. Facing rising office vacancy rates, long commutes and high costs in Beijing, how should the new workspace change?" The well-researched proposal focuses on 'old' neighborhoods in Beijing geographically located between business districts and sprawling residential areas. The design considers a six-level existing apartment building in Beijing. It retains the load-bearing portion of the brick structure and inserts a series of modular office 'boxes' as a means to infuse residential areas with business or work spaces. The project aims to meet the physical needs of small and medium-sized enterprises as well as individual workers. It is proposed as a pilot program for commercial renewal, a retrofit strategy which might be applied to similar structures within the city.
Buildner's commentary, recommendations and techniques review
Order your review hereThe documentation of research makes this project stand out among the submissions. The project is also clear in its ambitions, design intent and technical analysis of existing buildings. The use of a range of advanced drawing types, from two-dimensional plans to renderings and developed axonometrics, is to be praised. The presentation would benefit from clearer, shorter text descriptions and larger fonts: the texts are in some cases barely legible at the scale of the sheet; the introduction is also too lengthy for easy reading in terms of the way it spans the page as if a book. The project is also very gray in nature: this is perhaps a stylistic choice, but the project's ability to communicate would certainly be strengthened from more dynamic, even if select, use of color to focus a reader's eye on key points or design elements within the project.
3rd Prize Winner
Ethiopian Cultural Centre
Although it’s worth noting it’s an opportunity to push boundaries with creativity and technical expertise, like many others have said, who have answered this very question. But, to be real it’s to show the world what we are capable of, either as individuals, architectural designers, or as recent graduates/students, out of the academic/professional settings.
Read full interviewJury feedback summary
Ethiopian Cultural Centre is a proposal that aims to establish a community-driven cultural workplace focused on visual arts across various fields. It seeks to organize enjoyable educational and entertainment events for people of all ages and backgrounds within Ethiopian communities, run by local individuals with the assistance of external organisation such as UNICEF. The submission states that Ethiopia is a multicultural and multiethnic country, a manifestation of socio-cultural differences of over 82 ethnic groups that have inhabited the land for generations, and that each of these manifests its own respective "values, ideals, arts, rituals, songs, stories, literature, moral and spiritual wisdom." The project seeks to reimagine the workplace in Ethiopian communities to foster collaboration and showcase positive aspects of culture. Such a building, it claims, would instill a sense of pride and community involvement, facilitate community integration, and mitigate feelings of isolation. The chosen site is located some five kilometers from the capital city of Addis Ababa.
Buildner's commentary, recommendations and techniques review
Order your review hereThis presentation excellently uses bold colors and clear, simple diagrams to communicate a very special project. The full-sheet site plan in particular is standout for its visual clarity balanced with detailed complexity. This is a submission which makes an argument for the use of a select number of high-quality visuals rather than a large number of smaller and often less-impactful drawings. The use of text on the site plan could be improved, as it is difficult to read amidst a visually complex background. The four sheets would also benefit from more consistency in layout: as drawn, each of the four sheets takes on its own organization. This is not inherently a problem, but it always helps a reader or juror when annotation and texts are placed consistent among all presentation boards. The enlarged section on the third sheet would be clearer from a more varied use of lineweights to describe ground and 'cut' lines versus information in elevation.
Buildner Sustainability Award
Metamorpho Space
We participate in competitions for fun! Architecture competitions offer us the chance to let our creativity run wild, unfettered by the usual shackles of professional projects. We architects thrive on challenges – the kind that make us grow taller, not just our buildings! These competitions throw us into a whirlwind of diverse concepts, like a wild ride through the theme park of design. We get to play with different design philosophies, shuffle spatial arrangements like a deck of cards, and indulge our curiosities until they're bursting at the seams. It's like being mad scientists in a laboratory of architectural innovation!
Read full interviewJury feedback summary
In response to the recent global pandemic, the need to reassess workspaces has become paramount, urging a shift towards adaptability to ensure productivity in uncertain times. Traditional office setups are experiencing a decline, as sustainability, human-centric design, and emerging technologies are now prerequisites for discerning tenants. The proposal of Metamorpho Space: A Sustainable Office Evolution introduces an innovative and replicable approach. It intertwines cutting-edge architectural techniques with the sustainable repurposing of construction and demolition (C&D) materials. By utilizing recycled materials, the project aims to inspire dynamic architectural solutions while strategically reducing material waste and carbon footprints. A key aspect of the initiative is its pre-collection strategy, efficiently gathering waste materials from the local neighborhood for salvage and reuse in construction. The focus lies on the adaptive reuse of materials sourced from the deconstruction of Bunshaft's 270 Park Ave building, with a systematic approach addressing curtainwall panels, fixtures, drywalls, and steel frames in reverse order. Utilizing locally sourced waste, the project creates modular office hubs tailored to the diverse needs of different companies. New office tenants are actively engaged in the design process through an open-source toolkit, fostering a collaborative negotiation dynamic that goes beyond traditional boundaries of private and shared spaces.
The proposal showcases some excellent and unique visuals, yet it lacks consistency in layout and could benefit from further annotation. For instance, the second sheet lacks any annotations, leaving much of the information to the reader's imagination. Since the project emphasizes material reuse, the process of disassembly and reassembly should be clearly depicted. The presentation would benefit from a diagrammatic description of this process. Additionally, the text appears too small and dense, particularly on the introductory sheet, where there's ample space to enlarge the font and break it into clearer segments. These segments could be supplemented with diagrams and highlighted key concepts using bold text to enhance clarity.