BIG's Vancouver House awarded 'Best Tall Building Worldwide'

Connecting 160 projects from 104 cities and 41 countries, the 2021 Tall + Urban Innovation Conference recently wrapped up after taking place in a virtual format this year. The event culminated in the announcement of the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat's combining both the 2020 and 2021 Award of Excellence winners across 29 award categories.

The coveted title of "Best Tall Building Worldwide," the jury selected Vancouver House designed by Bjarke Ingels Group in collaboration with Architect of Record DIALOG.

Asia Financial Center & AIIB Headquarters by von Gerkan, Marg and Partners Architects (Architect of Record: Architectural Design and Research Institute of Tsinghua University). Photograph by CreatAR Images.

“This is really an example of how to do something brilliant on a site that almost doesn’t exist,” of the site’s creative maximization of residential space through an inverted massing concept. Bjarke Ingels, Founding Partner, Bjarke Ingels Group, and Ian Gillespie, Founder, Westbank, accepted the award.

The project went on to also win several other category titles, including Best Tall Building 100-199 Meters, Best Tall Residential or Hotel Building, and the Structural Engineering Award.

Best Tall Building Jury Chair Karl Fender, Founding Partner, Fender Katsalidis Architects, praised Vancouver House as a "formally striking building brilliantly conceptualized to enhance its surroundings from a seemingly improbable development site."

Another BIG-designed Canadian building, Telus Sky in Calgary, won the title in the Best Tall Building 200-299 Meter category.

See more of illustrious field of main category winners, below.

- Best Tall Building under 100 meters: 25 King, Brisbane, Australia by Bates Smart.

- Best Tall Building 100-199 meters: Vancouver House, Vancouver, Canada by Bjarke Ingels Group (Architect of Record: DIALOG).

- Best Tall Building 200-299 meters: Telus Sky, Calgary, Canada by Bjarke Ingels Group (Architect of Record: DIALOG).

- Best Tall Building 300-399 meters: Raffles City Chongqing, Chongqing, China by Safdie Architects.

- Best Tall Building 400 meters and above: CITIC Tower, Beijing, China by Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates (Architect of Record: Beijing Institute of Architectural Design; Concept Architect: TFP Farrells).

- Best Tall Building – Americas: Comcast Technology Center, Philadelphia, USA by Foster + Partners.

- Best Tall Building – Asia Winner: Asia Financial Center & AIIB Headquarters, Beijing, China by von Gerkan, Marg and Partners Architects (Architect of Record: Architectural Design and Research Institute of Tsinghua University).

- Best Tall Building – Australia Winner: ARC by Crown Group, Sydney, Australia by Koichi Takada Architects.

- Best Tall Building – Europe Category Winner: White Tree, Montpellier, France by Sou Fujimoto Architects, Laisné Roussel, and OXO Architectes.

- Best Tall Building – Middle East & Africa Winner: ToHA Tower 1, Tel Aviv, Israel by Ron Arad Architects and Yashar Architects.

Winners in other award categories included:

    Best Tall Office Building Winner: ToHA Tower 1 Office, Tel Aviv.
    Best Tall Residential or Hotel Building Winner: Vancouver House, Vancouver.
    Best Tall Mixed-Use Building Winner: Daphne Cockwell Health Sciences Complex, Toronto.
    Urban Habitat: Single-Site Scale Winner: DUO Tower, Singapore.
    Urban Habitat: District/Master Plan Scale Winner: Hudson Yards - Eastern Yards, New York City.
    Construction Award Winner: Rainier Square Tower, Seattle.
    Facade Engineering Winner: Lakhta Center, St. Petersburg.
    Fire & Risk Engineering Winner: CITIC Tower, Beijing.
    Geotechnical Engineering Winner: Claridge's Hotel, London.
    Innovation Award Winner: Baker Brace.
    Interior Design Award Winner: UTS Central, Sydney.
    MEP Engineering Winner: Museum Tower Kyobashi, Tokyo.
    Renovation Award Winner: Hanwha Headquarters, Seoul.
    Structural Engineering Winner: Vancouver House, Vancouver.
    10-Year Award (2010 Completions) Winner: Burj Khalifa, Dubai.
    10-Year Award (2011 Completions) Winner: 1 Bligh Street, Sydney.

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Telus Sky by Bjarke Ingels Group (Architect of Record: DIALOG). Photograph by Ema Peters.

Vancouver House by Bjarke Ingels Group (Architect of Record: DIALOG). Photograph by Ema Peters.

Raffles City Chongqing by Safdie Architects. Photograph by E-Jay Photography, courtesy Safdie Architects.

CITIC Tower by Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates (Architect of Record: Beijing Institute of Architectural Design; Concept Architect: TFP Farrells). Photograph by H.G. Esch.

White Tree by Sou Fujimoto Architects, Laisné Roussel, and OXO Architectes. Photograph by Iwan Baan.

ToHA Tower 1 by Ron Arad Architects and Yashar Architects. Photograph by Sharon Tsarfati.

ARC by Crown Group. Photograph by Tom Ferguson Photography.

Comcast Technology Center by Foster + Partners. Photograph by Nigel Young and Foster + Partners.

25 King by Bates Smart. Photograph by Tom Roe.

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CTBUH Awards.

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Edition 2020-2021.

BJARKE INGELS

Bjarke Ingels (born in Copenhagen, in 1974) studied architecture at the Royal Academy in Copenhagen and the School of Architecture of Barcelona, obtaining his degree as an architect in 1998. He is the founder of the BIG architecture studio - (Bjarke Ingels Group), a studio founded in 2005, after co-founding PLOT Architects in 2001 with his former partner Julien de Smedt, whom he met while working at the prestigious OMA studio in Rotterdam.

Bjarke has designed and completed award-winning buildings worldwide, and currently, his studio is based with venues in Copenhagen and New York. His projects include The Mountain, a residential complex in Copenhagen, and the innovative Danish Maritime Museum in Elsinore.

With the PLOT study, he won the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale in 2004, and with BIG he has received numerous awards such as the ULI Award for Excellence in 2009. Other prizes are the Culture Prize of the Crown Prince of Denmark in 2011; Along with his architectural practice, Bjarke has taught at Harvard University, Yale University, Columbia University and Rice University and is an honorary professor at the Royal Academy of Arts, School of Architecture in Copenhagen.

In 2018, Bjarke received the Knight's Cross of the Order of Dannebrog granted by Her Majesty Queen Margrethe II. He is a frequent public speaker and continues to give lectures at places such as TED, WIRED, AMCHAM, 10 Downing Street or the World Economic Forum. In 2018, Bjarke was appointed Chief Architectural Advisor by WeWork to advise and develop the design vision and language of the company for buildings, campuses and neighborhoods around the world.

Published on: June 1, 2021

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