James BryceBy James Bryce
AN innovative Spanish building has seen off fierce competition to win the world’s top architecture prize.
The Media-TIC was crowned World Building of the Year 2011 at the World Architecture Festival Awards (WAF) held in its home city of Barcelona.
The cube-like structure – which will provide space for companies, research and training – was picked from 16 finalists by a panel of industry experts.
Located in the city’s @22Barcelona creative district, the project was designed by Spanish architects Cloud 9 with an emphasis on its green credentials, which include solar panels on the roof, sun filters and smart sensors to increase energy efficiency.
In his acceptance speech, Cloud 9 architect Enric Ruiz-Geli said the building should act as a seed for an environmental revolution.
The competition, now in its fourth year, attracted over 700 submissions from 59 different countries.
Other Spanish entries included Madrid’s new Coca Cola HQ and a Tenerife-based medical centre.
Will the World Building of the Year 2011 still be standing in 2111? Probably not. Its unlikely to see 2061.
Corbusier started the bunker building design lunacy and today’s architects after looking at a matchbox for 7 years of university “studies” replicate it with the usual concrete, stone, brick, steel and glass and call it architecture. With 40% of all office building standing empty it is typical that the racketeers should construct more with the usual debt finance from the banks that will ultimately be left with the empty shell. Spanish banks are all now real estate agents apart from selling second hand cars, washing machines, etc. BBVA have a whole book available of all the stuff they now sell and inside their branches property pictures are hanging on the wall just like in an estate agent. Of course architects give architects prizes for keeping the racket going because they get their fees even if the building stays empty or keeps other buildings empty.
i love this building