WORDS FROM THE JURY THE UNBELIEVABLE

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1 WORDS FROM THE JURY THE UNBELIEVABLE CHALLENGE 2017

2 THE JURY Eli Synnevåg Santa Claus Maciej Sanetra SENIOR ARCHITECT MNAL, SNØHETTA, NORWAY INVESTOR, KORVATUNTURI, FINLAND SHOPPING CENTRE DIRECTOR AT EPP PROPERTY MANAGEMENT, POLAND Kari Korkman Petteri Lautso Alexandru Oprita FOUNDER & DIRECTOR, HELSINKI DESIGN WEEK, FINLAND ARCHITECT AND CUSTOMER VALUE DIRECTOR, RUUKKI, FINLAND ARCHITECT & WINNER OF 2014 COMPETITION, ROMANIA

3 WORDS FROM THE JURY Aim and purpose The competition organisers strongly believe that a centrally located shopping mall can have a positive effect on its immediate urban surroundings, provided there is a positive dialogue between the shopping mall and the city. Here, the façade of the building plays a key role in how such a mall is able to give back to the community, whilst also benefitting from creating a strong sense of communal space. The objective was, in a nutshell, to create a façade design that communicates the new role of shopping malls in urban life. After all, this narrative is key as new trends of consumer commerce and behaviour are changing in the business environment. Combining all facets laid out in the assignment into a feasible and comprehensive proposal proved to be a challenging endeavor, which requires comprehensive command in design and business thinking. The jury recognised a few recurring themes in the proposals. Some combined various themes, some revolved around one all of them had their strengths and weaknesses. This jury report focuses on these themes instead of particular entries. As the themes are easily recognisable, the participants can use the report to reassess their entries using the same themes if they wish to do so. Nature A few proposals suggested incorporating greenery and vegetation as an architectural element. The jury considered this theme to have good potential. The challenge and promise the jury saw in this theme was how to utilise or connect the shopping experience with nature elements and activities. The level of spatial quality varied significantly in the entries. Display Exploring the balance between open and closed was a distinct theme Some proposals worked with different ways to showcase life within the shopping mall on the façade. The jury liked the general idea of making the internal life of the shopping mall visible to the exterior, but many of the proposals left open the question of how to ensure the spontaneous life occupies the reserved visible spaces on continuous basis.

4 WORDS FROM THE JURY Scale down Many of the proposals considered the main challenge for attracting people to be the sheer size of the building. As the shopping mall does not relate to the scale of the city, the entries proposed to divide the façades into smaller areas. Some tried to tackle this by looking into familiar or historic sizes, scale, and proportions in the surroundings. The jury considered it to be a good approach to scale down and connect to the urban fabric, yet many proposals were lacking in follow-through. Tech Several entries integrated digital features into their design proposals, and thus raised the question on how to use digital tools in relation to shopping and advertising in an architectural solution. As topical as the digital angle is, it seemed quite challenging to find lasting and truly functioning solutions as new technology advances at a rapid pace, and valuable consumer benefits seemed to be difficult to bring about. Skin Skin was the most popular theme. Many entries examined different ways to wrap a façade skin around the existing building and thus telling a story of what the building stands for. For this, a strong, consistent narrative is essential, yet lacking in many proposals. This might have been because it is difficult to find examples of strong narratives in commercial buildings. These challenges left one pondering if it is possible to separate the façade from the building and also how the façade brings architectural value to the interior or exterior. Portal The theme of attenuating the main façade or the main entrance was visible in some entries. It often seemed a surprisingly difficult task to do this in a way that would attract people and give back to the city perhaps because maintaining a holistic approach at the same time would have been important to avoid confusion. The jury felt that all modern interpretations of a main entrance served the purpose of the competition goals in the most satisfying way.

5 10-WEEK INTERNSHIP AT SNØHETTA + 1,000 CASH PRIZE UNWRAPPED Ben Feicht The amazingly inventive Unwrapped bravely took the task of enhancing the connection between the interior and exterior of the building. The most crucial insight was to use mirrors that make the interior visible to the street and vice versa. This tied the mall to its surroundings, and made the shops inside a part of city life, attracting people to explore the inside of the building. The jury did not fully agree with the choice of enhancing the connection to the city via the street instead of the square, nonetheless, the proposal had a truly inspiring and convincing narrative. Technically the proposal was schematic.

6 1,000 CASH PRIZE INVOLVED Stefania Vasilkova Involved added a steel structure between the mall and the square to create a buffer zone where different activities are made visible to the square. The narrative is strong and close to that of the winner. The activities in the buffer zone are new to the existing situation. This would have benefitted from a more detailed description on how these new functions would be made attractive enough to keep the added part populated, and, in turn, make the mall more attractive.

7 1,000 CASH PRIZE THE NIVAL SPLASH Daria Karadzhan, Polina Voevodina, Elena Zobova The proposal showed great merit in wrapping the building in a new, white, elegant skin to make it appear like a monolithic body with clearly attenuated main entrance. The story was strongly derived from winter and snow, but perhaps the joy of sharing and spending time together would have been a more fitting aspect of Christmas in this context, as shown in some other proposals. The strategy was altogether very sensitive to the quality of aesthetic design on the portal.

8 1,000 CASH PRIZE POWRÓT Almudena Sánchez-Buitrago Morales Powrót s idea of using the façade surface to display local communal spirit promoting pictures mixed with commercials was beautifully realised in both technical and aesthetic sense using perforated Cor-Ten skin. It combined the different aspirations of the competition into a very solid way and was able to scale down the building while keeping the idea interesting at all observation distances. The jury did not, however, agree with the choice of looking back in history in search of motives, but felt instead that the building should rather portray a new, fresh, forward-looking interpretation of the local communal spirit.