The American Concrete Institute (ACI) has announced the winners of the 2017 Excellence in Concrete Construction Awards, who were honored during the Concrete Convention & Exposition in Anaheim, Calif.
The highest honor was presented to R·torso·C, Tokyo, Japan. This award is given to a project that demonstrates excellence in concrete innovation and technology, and stands out above all other entries.
This house is in the center of Tokyo, sitting on an area of 710-feet-squared. The clients are a married couple, sharing a passion for architecture and art. When they found a rare corner lot of land in central Tokyo, they knew they wanted to build a home with unique materials and construction methods. In high-density residential districts, one way to architecturally build is towards the sky, creating an insulated audiovisual room respecting nature and the environment. It is a direction that captures the feeling of the vastness of nature. The project team has studied this approach towards the sky as an element of nature for years, and for this project they pruned away the corner of a rectangular volume to achieve this. For architecture on a small site, sectional and volumetric design becomes important.
Cutting away the internal volume creates a sense of spaciousness in the continuous four-story space inside. Large openings facing the sky are a means to incorporate the feeling of vastness into the internal space. The chamfered corners not only provide a view to the sky from the internal space, but also for the people outside. There is a sound-insulated audiovisual room in the basement, and a gallery and a Japanese room on the first floor. Functionality was prioritized on the second floor with a living room, dining room, kitchen, and bathroom. The living room is a small space, but a 5-meter high ceiling and an oblique triangular window—drawing in an abundance of external light results in a cognition of spaciousness. The final design of this space was derived through a number of three-dimensional models.
“Concrete has been and still is the main material used for the structure of contemporary architecture worldwide, a trend I believe will continue for a while,” states Yasuhiro Yamashita, Atelier Tekuto Co. Ltd.
The ACI Excellence in Concrete Construction Awards were created to honor the visions of creative projects in the concrete industry, while providing a platform to recognize concrete innovation, technology, and excellence across the globe. In order to be eligible for participation in the Excellence Awards, projects needed to be winners at a local ACI Chapter level and submitted by that Chapter, or chosen by one of ACI’s International Partners.
An independent panel of industry professionals judged the projects and selected winners based on architectural and engineering merit, creativity, innovative construction techniques or solutions, innovative use of materials, ingenuity, sustainability and resilience, and functionality.
The winning projects were selected from among several possible categories, and included:
- First Place: Market Street Parking Garage Restoration, in Wichita, Kan.
- Second Place: Chillon Viaducts, in Veytaux, Switzerland.
- First Place: Denver International Airport – Hotel Transit Center in Denver, Colo.
- Second Place: Columbia University Medical and Graduate Education Building, in New York City
- First Place: Ryerson University Student Learning Centre, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
- Second Place: Lock 8 Skate and BMX Park, in Port Colborne, Ontario, Canada.
- First Place: R·torso·C, in Tokyo.
- Second Place: Frick Environmental Center, in Pittsburgh, Pa.
- First Place: Embassy Lake Terraces, in Karnataka, India.
- Second Place: Premiere on Pine, in Seattle
- First Place: Johnson County Gateway in Overland Park, Kan.
- Second Place: Winona Bridge, Winona, Minn.
Repair & Restoration
Mid-Rise Buildings
Decorative Concrete
Low-Rise Buildings
High-Rise Buildings
Infrastructure
The winning project details can be found here. Entries for the 2018 Excellence in Concrete Construction Awards are being accepted now through April 2, 2018.
Visit www.ACIExcellence.org for more information.