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Seven buildings in Ireland are on the shortlist for the World
Building of the Year 2010, which will be judged at the World
Architecture Festival (WAF) awards in early November.
The winner will be chosen from 236 buildings in 55 countries,
ranging from Kazakhstan to the US.
Two of the Irish projects are by international practices
- Dublin’s Grand Canal Theatre by New York-based Studio Daniel
Libeskind (with Irish architects McCauley Daye O’Connell)
and the Aviva Stadium by London-based Populous (with Scott
Tallon Walker in Ireland).
Scott Tallon Walker’s 250-bedroom Gibson Hotel, with a vast
glazed entrance, in the new Point Square in Dublin’s docklands
is also on the shortlist.
Architects O’Donnell and Tuomey have two buildings in for
the award - An Gaeláras - Cultúrlann Uí Chaná, an Irish language
Cultural Centre in Derry, which has already won an AAI (Architectural
Association of Ireland) award and the Timberyard social housing
scheme in Cork Street, Dublin, which won AAI and RIAI (Royal
Institute of the Architects of Ireland) awards this year.
The new Humanities Research Building in Trinity College by
McCullough Mulvin Architects, whose library in Rush made last
year’s shortlist, is also in the running. Both O’Donnell and
Tuomey and McCullough Mulvin are established design practices
with gaining international reputations, but the World Architecture
Festival award organisers pride themselves on the fact that
anyone can win the major prize, from big names - such as Foster
+ Partners, Zaha Hadid and Studio Daniel Libeskind, who are
on the shortlist - to ‘'unknown'’ architects.
The final Irish project on the shortlist is by the lesser
known, but highly experienced, Dhb Architects, run by Marié
Henry (who heads the architecture course at Waterford Institute
of Technology), Fintan Duffy and Harry Bent. Their project
is a health centre in Waterford converted from a 19th century
convent, designed by AW Pugin.
The awards began three years ago and the first winner of
World Building of the Year was Irish practice Grafton Architects
for Bocconi University in Milan.
There were more than 500 entries from 61 countries for this
year’s WAF
awards.
Those on the shortlist must personally present their projects
to the judges and up to 1,500 other competitors and delegates,
at the World Architecture Festival in Barcelona, from November
3rd-5th.
Among the attributes the judges are assessing are, clarity
of organisation and expression, appropriateness of ambition
and sustainability. They will also bear in mind Classical
Italian architect Vitruvius’s call for 'commodity, firmness
and delight'.
Source - The Irish Times
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