Manchester Civil Justice Centre,

WAN Award 2009 ~ Civil Building joint Winner


Manchester, United Kingdom
Denton Corker Marshall completes largest UK justice project in 100 years

Manchester Civil Justice Centre (MCJC) is the largest court complex to be built in the UK for a century. Her Majesty’s Court Service wanted a building to symbolise the open and accessible character of the Civil Justice system, a truly public building of European architectural significance. The building needed to be light, airy, welcoming and extremely legible through clear design and planning.

The client’s brief also demanded minimal impact on the environment and low energy use. The courts were required to maximise daylight, natural ventilation and acoustic privacy whilst maintaining comfort temperatures. Building form, orientation, layout, shading and engineering systems were key elements in achieving these requirements. These characteristics were maintained from competition stage to completion.

The MCJC employs advanced environmentally sensitive design principals, using local and sustainable materials and suppliers targeted during construction, helping to achieve an 'excellent' BREEAM rating.

This project has offered a cultural shift of perception of the British public of what a court building should look like. On entering the building, the occupants move from the spacious reception area into the vast light filled 11-storey atrium. This space, with the pods apparently floating in the upper void area, becomes an exhilarating spectacle.

Her Majesty’s Court Service noted that the MCJC will greatly enhance the administration of Justice in and around Manchester, creating a welcoming atmosphere and considerably improving the operational efficiency of the Department. The building is the flagship of the Spinningfields development, which is acknowledged as setting new world-class standards for city centre regeneration.

The other WAN Civic Building of the Year 2009 Winner ~  Amsterdam Public Library by Jo Coenen

WAN Award ~ Civic Building of the Year 2009

Quality and variety of projects is 'heart-warming' says panel member Robert Adam

As a category, Civic Buildings is as enthralling as it is broad. Receiving the largest number of entries to any sector so far, projects entered in the WAN Civic Building of the Year 2009 award encompassed everything from the smallest Mexican chapel, to the grandest Swedish concert hall, from a ticket booth in New York, to a gymnasium in China. With such variety it can come as little surprise that WAN have the pleasure of awarding two projects as joint winners of Civic Building of the Year 2009.

"The variety across the world, the different strands of civic building, the different ways that people treated it was really genuinely very interesting and actually heartwarming," said jury member Robert Adam.

A jury of six members of the architectural glitteratti was formed for the award: Michel Rojkind - founder of rojkind arquitectos, Robert Adam of Robert Adam Architects, John McAslan of John McAslan + Partners, Kate Goodwin - curator of the Architecture Programme at the Royal Academy of Arts, Peter Murray - founder of New London Architecture and WAN's very own Editorial Director Michael Hammond came to the conclusion that the two very different but equally spectacular winners each deserved the title of Civic Building of the Year on their own merit.

Manchester Civil Justice Centre by Denton Corker Marshall and
Amsterdam Public Library by Jo Coenen can therefore both celebrate their crowning as WAN Civic Building of the Year 2009.

The original approach to a building typology which is traditionally secretive saw jurors impressed by Manchester Civil Justice Centre's application of transparent space. "It's interesting that it's challenging how we see law courts. Its organisational relationship of space in a vertical way, in terms of challenging a typology it becomes quite important," said Goodwin.

Amsterdam Public Library was praised for its composition in a context where the building must be viewed with different sympathies on each side.

"It's really a collection of buildings put together in one building but managing to be one building at the same time," remarked Adam.

Our congratulations go out to Denton Corker Marshall and Jo Coenen whose projects will now both be automatically entered for the ultimate prize of WAN Building of the Year 2009.

WAN Award 2009 ~ Health Sector WINNER

WAN Healthcare Award, London, United Kingdom

HEALTHCARE BUILDING OF THE YEAR

World Architecture News are proud to announce the winner of WAN's prestigious Healthcare Building of the Year 2009 as Richard Desmond Children's Eye Centre at Moorfields. The London based architects responsible for the design, Penoyre & Prasad, will now receive the coveted prize beating competition from fellow London architect Zaha Hadid and scores of other architects from 22 countries over 6 continents.

A panel comprised of representatives from the National Health Service (NHS) and the architecture community praised the project for its ‘simple clear massing and organisation between front and back of house.’ Canadian architect Tye Farrow added, “The facade is one of the best I have seen; period. I have a very high regard for it.”

The Children’s Eye Centre design was bred from a desire to provide the best functioning children's eye hospital in the world without it looking like a hospital. The design works to dispel preconceptions of hospitals to create a holistic, child-focused and welcoming environment. A potentially traumatic experience becomes a positive one, supported by a clear layout giving a sense of security, engaging colour schemes and large relaxation and play areas.

The project's most distinctive feature is the solar shading used to both transform the facade and to provide the functional solution of shade. To do this, ornithology and ophthalmology combined with the study of flock flight patterns used to devise a rhythmic placement for the shard like shades of the Eye Center.

Also highly commended is the Östra Hospital - Psychiatry Building by White Arkitekter AB which came a very close second to Richard Desmond Children's Eye Centre. This well thought out project works to aid the recovery process through a de-institutionalising by design. Normality was the key word to the design process for this project.

The WAN Award scheme is among the most prestigious of its kind and is unique for its use of ‘ground level’ judges having previously employed a 13 year old school girl and a Headteacher to judge the Education Award. The Healthcare jury employed the judgement of Jonathan Millman of NHS Estates to this effect.

 

WAN Awards 2009 ~ Education Sector WINNER

Education Building of the Year 2009 ~ Sunshine, Australia

Australian Technical College by Spowers wins inaugural WAN International Sector Award

Australian Technical College in Sunshine, Victoria, has pipped to the post five international projects to win the title of WAN Education Building of the Year 2009. The inevitable humming and hawing of the WAN

Education Award jury finally subsided as the fun and imaginative design by Spowers won over the pioneering panel consisting of educational design experts, a headteacher and a thirteen year old pupil.

From a long list of 27 international projects, six were announced for the shortlist last week covering six corners of the globe: Australia, Bangladesh, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, India, Norway and Scotland. But it was the Australian entry which gained the utmost respect of the panel.

Providing a new and innovative model for technical trade training facilities in Australia, the project addresses the challenge of designing a purpose built school for a specific student demographic whilst maintaining maximum flexibility of use within the confines of a tight government budget. Judges commended its fun, imaginative and demonstrably usable design, considering the College as a place where both the students and teachers would thrive.

Receiving a high commendation from the jury was Hazelwood school in Glasgow, Scotland. Already the recipient of numerous awards, this special needs school was commended for its tactile and innovative use of materials and proved a tough contender to the Technical College

WAN Award 2009 ~ Product Sector WINNER

iGuzzini - ENEL SOLE: Archilede, Recanati, Italy

Direct lighting fixture for LED’s with road optic

With iGuzzini’s new LED public lighting, electricity consumption can be slashed by up to 40% compared to traditional systems, improving the quality of light and reducing light pollution.
Featuring sophisticated optics, these innovative lights are regulated by smart and versatile electronic systems that can be applied to different road traffic situations and to a wide range of urban furnishings.

 

 The light emitted is directed onto the areas to be illuminated with absolute precision, guaranteeing no upward dispersion, excellent uniformity on the road surface, minimum environmental impact and unsurpassed energy savings (to be precise: up to 464,000 KW/h and 195,000 Kg CO2 per 1000 points of light per year).
In addition, they look great and can blend into any landscape: Lleida, Zurich, Modena and Prague are just some examples of all the European cities where Archilede has been installed.

 

Not just “street lights”, but design objects of the highest aesthetic and technological value.
• Direct lighting fixture for LED’s with road optic.
• Pole-top or lateral installation with tapered poles for ø 46/60/76 mm.
• Die-cast aluminium optical assembly and frame subject to chromate treatment, double primer, passivation at  120° C, grey liquid paint, baking at 150° C; frame fixed with captive screws, 50 Shore black silicone gasket between body and frame, PMMA 3mm thick diffuser joined with silicone to the body.
• Monochromatic LED version with 39-59-84 LED circuit with Cool White (6000K) colour, optics with plastic lenses.
• Pull-out control gear with fast-coupling connectors.
• 220-240Vac 50/60 Hz built-in selv electronic ballast.
• Driver with internal temperature automatic control system.
• Driver with 4 predefined operation profiles selectable by means of a deep switch and customisable with dedicated software via USB interface.
• Resistance to mains voltage peaks up to 4KV with varistor.
• Vertical orientation with graduated scale, +20°/ -20° in pole-top installation and +5°/-20° in lateral installation.
• Terminal block with 4 AT fuse.
• Twilight photocell on request.
• Die-cast aluminium cylindrical element, supplied with adapter for columns with ø 46-60mm, ø 60-76mm without adapter, bolts with safety locking nuts.
• There is no light dispersion into the upper hemisphere above this luminaire.
• Stainless-steel external screws.
• The technical characteristics of the fitting comply with EN60598-1 standard.
• IP66
• Class of Insulation II