LocHal Public Library was titled World Building of the Year 2019!
>
The LocHal Public Library in the Dutch city of Tilburg was the absolute winner among the projects presented at the World Architecture Festival (WAF), which was held from December 4 to 6, 2019 in Amsterdam.
The World Architecture Festival offers a variety of unique opportunities to engage with the international architectural elite to promote the product, services and brand. WAF is the place to connect with leading architects from over 68 countries.
The World Architecture Festival is where the world architecture community meets to celebrate, learn, exchange and be inspired. It is the only architecture event where keynote talks from the industry’s most influential figures sit alongside live crit presentations from 534 award finalists, global networking and an international product exhibition
They were reviewed and evaluated by 148 members of the jury from 68 countries, and the decisions on awarding the three main awards of the festival were made by the superjury consisting of five people: Francine Houben, founding partner and creative director of Mecanoo, Netherlands; Ben van Berkel, founder and principal architect of UNStudio, Netherlands; Murat Tabanlıoğlu, one of the leaders of Tabanlıoğlu Architects, Turkey; Carin Smuts, principal at CS Studio, South Africa; and Maria Warner Wong, founder and design director of WOW Architects | Warner Wong Design, Singapore.
So, LocHal Public Library, Tilburg, Netherlands (Civic architects, Braaksma & Roos Architectenbureau, Inside Outside / Petra Blaisse) was recognized as the “World Building of the Year 2019”; “The Connected City Oberbillwerder”, Hamburg, Germany (ADEPT / KARRES EN BRANDS / Transsolar / Büro Happold / Kraft) – “Future Project of The Year”; and “Demonstration Section of Yangpu Riverside Public Space”, Shanghai, China (Original Design Studio) – “Landscape Project of The Year”.
A jury commentary on the LocHal Public Library emphasizes: “This project transformed a significant building which had been planned for demolition. The result has created a physical facility in which a variety of users can meet for a variety of purposes, in this sense the building has become a social condenser. It celebrates and exploits local traditions of textile manufacture and it has an environmental strategy aimed at heating and cooling people, not the building. It provides spaces of very different scales to provide both communal and more intimate uses.
A strong, sustainable approach to convert a former industrial facility into a civic building. It takes on the potential of the big void and turns it into the marvellous, heroic central space of the library. The fine details and the use of textiles create the necessary intimacy for the human scale, while putting in value of the old steel structure.”
WAF
