Kengo Kuma & Associates wins Butrint National Park Visitor Center International Competition
27/04/2023.
[Butrint] Albanian
metalocus, ANDRÉS BLANCO
metalocus, ANDRÉS BLANCO
The Minister of Culture of Albania and President of the Butrint Management Foundation (BMF), Elva Margariti, announced in Tirana that, yesterday, April 26, 2023, the team led by Kengo Kuma & Associates (Japan) won the international competition to project a new visitor centre for Butrint National Park, an outstanding UNESCO World Heritage Site (WHS) on the Ionian coast of Albania.
The complete winner's team consists of an Albanian partner, CHwB Albania, as well as Ervin Paci, SOLARON Albania, iMEPS Engineering & Consulting, YOKE, Esmeralda Agolli and GE-D Engineering. The team led by Philippe PROST / AAPP (France) has been in second place.
Butrinto, which is close to the modern city of Saranda and overlooks the Strait of Corfu, is the most important archaeological site in Albania. Recognized for millennia as an extraordinary place, Butrinto has an exceptional cultural resonance and visual appeal, which comes from its rare combination of monuments and a spectacular, unspoiled natural environment.
The complete winner's team consists of an Albanian partner, CHwB Albania, as well as Ervin Paci, SOLARON Albania, iMEPS Engineering & Consulting, YOKE, Esmeralda Agolli and GE-D Engineering. The team led by Philippe PROST / AAPP (France) has been in second place.
Butrinto, which is close to the modern city of Saranda and overlooks the Strait of Corfu, is the most important archaeological site in Albania. Recognized for millennia as an extraordinary place, Butrinto has an exceptional cultural resonance and visual appeal, which comes from its rare combination of monuments and a spectacular, unspoiled natural environment.
Rendering. Butrint National Park Visitor Center by Kengo Kuma & Associates.
Rendering. Butrint National Park Visitor Center by Kengo Kuma & Associates.
Rendering. Butrint National Park Visitor Center by Kengo Kuma & Associates.
Rendering. Butrint National Park Visitor Center by Kengo Kuma & Associates.
Rendering. Butrint National Park Visitor Center by Kengo Kuma & Associates.
Rendering. Butrint National Park Visitor Center by Kengo Kuma & Associates.
Model. Butrint National Park Visitor Center by Kengo Kuma & Associates.
Rendering. Butrint National Park Visitor Center by Lahdelma & Mahlamäki Architects.
Rendering. Butrint National Park Visitor Center by Lahdelma & Mahlamäki Architects.
Rendering. Butrint National Park Visitor Center by Lahdelma & Mahlamäki Architects.
Rendering. Butrint National Park Visitor Center by Lahdelma & Mahlamäki Architects.
Rendering. Butrint National Park Visitor Center by Philippe PROST/AAPP.
Rendering. Butrint National Park Visitor Center by Philippe PROST/AAPP.
Rendering. Butrint National Park Visitor Center by Philippe PROST/AAPP.
Rendering. Butrint National Park Visitor Center by Philippe PROST/AAPP.
Rendering. Butrint National Park Visitor Center by William Matthews Associates.
Rendering. Butrint National Park Visitor Center by William Matthews Associates.
Rendering. Butrint National Park Visitor Center by William Matthews Associates.
Rendering. Butrint National Park Visitor Center by William Matthews Associates.
The competition proposes a carbon-neutral visitor centre with a singular and at the same time practical architecture that was related to the cultural and natural environment.
The other two finalist teams were led by Lahdelma & Mahlamäki Architects (Finland) and William Matthews Associates (UK).
The anonymous finalist submissions were judged by a jury of local and international experts, including representatives from the BMF.
The other two finalist teams were led by Lahdelma & Mahlamäki Architects (Finland) and William Matthews Associates (UK).
The anonymous finalist submissions were judged by a jury of local and international experts, including representatives from the BMF.
"The jury’s mission was to select a winner who could create an architectural exemplar, a unique design statement for Butrint and Albania. Additionally, the competition brief specified a design that promotes community participation and environmentally sensitive tourism and also respects the Outstanding Universal Values of this World Heritage Site.
In our unanimous opinion, the concept presented by the Kengo Kuma-led team achieves this through an astonishing duality: the visitor centre is conceived as an upper mountain gate with panoramic views over the estuary and lake and a lower archaeological site gate. This is an intervention that is both infrastructure and welcoming shelter; and offers a new public space, a plaza where the local community and visitors can meet. The team’s guiding idea is to establish new connections between local communities and archaeological site visitors.
In our unanimous opinion, the concept presented by the Kengo Kuma-led team achieves this through an astonishing duality: the visitor centre is conceived as an upper mountain gate with panoramic views over the estuary and lake and a lower archaeological site gate. This is an intervention that is both infrastructure and welcoming shelter; and offers a new public space, a plaza where the local community and visitors can meet. The team’s guiding idea is to establish new connections between local communities and archaeological site visitors.
Visualización. Centro de Visitantes del Parque Nacional Butrinto por Kengo Kuma & Associates. Essentially, the design for the visitor centre consists of a series of limestone roofs emerging from the ground, inspired both by Albania’s beautiful stone monuments, gates and bridges, and by the surrounding natural rock formations. Albanian vernacular architecture is also apparent in its hybrid structure between mass timber and steel, which reinterprets the traditional cross-wood structure used to support the roof stone canopies in the south of the country.
The roofs frame the most significant views of the estuary and the mountains, seamlessly connecting the new building with the natural setting.
Using locally sourced material and a natural ventilation system and rainwater capture, the Center’s carbon footprint is expected to be minimal.
In a site that can reach temperatures upwards of 40°C in high summer, the visitor is sheltered underneath roof eaves that are supported by a timber structure and rammed earth walls.
The jury was impressed by the team’s evident passion and thoughtfulness, and their connection with Albanian culture and memory. We believe that Kengo Kuma’s design is global in projecting a universal timeless serenity but with a naturalness that is utterly site-specific. It has the potential to become an icon, and we congratulate the team on their vision. It is one we share, and we look forward to realising it with them."
Jury Citation.
Model. Butrint National Park Visitor Center by Kengo Kuma & Associates.
With offices in Tokyo and Paris, Kengo Kuma & Associates (KKAA) has a well-established career delivering high-profile projects such as the National Stadium of Japan in Tokyo for the 2020 Summer Olympics and the V&A Dundee in Scotland. Among the latest projects are the Albert-Kahn Departmental Museum in Boulogne-Billancourt, France and the Hans Christian Andersen Museum in Denmark.
As for the finalist, Philippe PROST / AAPP (France), the jury highlighted the sensitivity and elegance of the project, in particular the delicacy of its integration into the existing landscape.
The new centre will welcome visitors and serve as an educational forum and community gathering place. It is also intended to be a gateway to the wider National Park and will help the BMF to better manage the increasing number of visitors to the WHS.
Butrint's highlights include an ancient Epirot Theatre, the Roman Forum, and an early Byzantine baptistery with a well-preserved mosaic pavement, along with other monuments dating from the Hellenic, Roman, Byzantine, Angevin, Venetian, and Ottoman periods.
The wider National Park is endowed with hills, lakes, wetlands, marshes, plains, reedbeds and offshore islands. In July 2020, the Government of Albania approved an Integrated Management Plan to safeguard the site and promote sustainable and environmentally friendly community tourism.
The new visitor centre is scheduled to open in September 2025.
More information
KENGO KUMA
Kengo Kuma was born in Yokohama (Kanagawa, Japan) in 1954. He studied architecture at the University of Tokyo, finishing his degree in 1979. In 1987, he opened the "Spatial Design Studio". In 1990 he founded "Kengo Kuma & Associates" and extend the study to Europe (Paris, France) in 2008. Since 1985 and until 2009, has taught as visiting professor and holder at the universities of Columbia, Keio, Illinois and Tokyo.
Main Awards:
· 2011 The Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology's Art Encouragement Prize for "Yusuhara Wooden Bridge Museum."
· 2010 Mainichi Art Award for “Nezu Museum.”
· 2009 "Decoration Officier de L'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres" (France).
· 2008 Energy Performance + Architecture Award (France). Bois Magazine International Wood Architecture Award (France).
· 2002 Spirit of Nature Wood Architecture Award (Finland).
· 2001 Togo Murano Award for “Nakagawa-machi Bato Hiroshige Museum.”
· 1997 Architectural Institute of Japan Award for “Noh Stage in the Forest”. First Place, AIA DuPONT Benedictus Award for “Water/Glass” (USA).
Philippe Prost
Philippe Prost, after dedicating to research for ten years or so, was called for help in 1991 on a 15-year long adventure at the citadel of Belle-Ile-en-Mer. Today, he has gathered a team of about fifteen professionals as passionate and demanding as he is to work with in the long-term.The main features of their work are the respect for the site’s history and geography, a deep analysis of the programme issue, a constructive approach, the choice of sustainable materials, and finally a regular presence on the construction site.
The notions of memory and context are at the root of all the projects they carry on, whether on a large or a small scale. He is professor and president of the Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture de Paris-Belleville. He has been awarded the Chevalier des arts et des lettres in 2014 and the Prize Equerre by the french group Le moniteur for the Memorial international Notre-Dame-de-Lorette.
In 2009 he was awarded the Prix de l’Equerre d’Argent awarded by the press group Le Moniteur for La Cour des Images, Bourg-lès-Valence. In 2008 he received the Prize for the architecture book for Vauban: the style of intelligence. A reference work for contemporary architecture. In 2004 he received an special mention in the Prix de l’Equerre d’Argent for Zac Réunion (housing), Paris 20th district.
Ilmari Lahdelma, Rainer Mahlamäki. Lahdelma and Mahlamäki architects
Lahdelma & Mahlamäki Architects. Founded in 1997 Lahdelma & Mahlamäki Architects was the creation of long-term architectural partners Ilmari Lahdelma (architect SAFA) and Rainer Mahlamäki (architect SAFA). Previously the pair had been working together for 11 years, both in architecture collective 8Studio and as a practice at Kaira-Lahdelma-Mahlamäki. Since then the company has grown into a team of over 25 employees, both local and international.
They have won over 100 prizes in architecture competitions, which makes LMA one of the most experienced and successful Finnish offices.
Instead of relying on ready-made formulas, LMA creates one-of-a-kind buildings that not only exist as solitary objects but grow into organic elements of their surroundings. The offices works towards understanding not only the location they are designing for but also the people who will be living together with the buildings.
WMA William Matthews
WMA is a creatively driven architecture studio that delivers fresh and elegant designs that set the highest standards; socially, environmentally and architecturally. Established in 2013 and based in central London the practice designs all types and scales of projects, both in the UK and internationally. Current and completed projects range from a handcrafted kayak for Wallpaper* Magazine to a regeneration project for the largest ski resort in Bulgaria.
The practice has won several international competitions including the UBA Gallery in Sofia, the Tintagel Footbridge in Cornwall and the Borovets ski resort project. In 2017, the practice received a special mention for its submission to the Ross Pavilion competition in Edinburgh, working in collaboration with Sou Fujimoto Architects. As a firm we enjoy collaborating with other architects, engineers and artists in delivery unique and unexpected design solutions.
Prior to starting the firm William Matthews was an Associate at Renzo Piano Building Workshop in Paris. During his time there he completed a variety of internationally recognised projects such as the Beyeler Foundation Basel, Potsdamer Platz Berlin and the Modern Wing of the Art Institute of Chicago.
From 2001 until its completion in 2013 William led the design team of the Shard in London.
The practice has won several international competitions including the UBA Gallery in Sofia, the Tintagel Footbridge in Cornwall and the Borovets ski resort project. In 2017, the practice received a special mention for its submission to the Ross Pavilion competition in Edinburgh, working in collaboration with Sou Fujimoto Architects. As a firm we enjoy collaborating with other architects, engineers and artists in delivery unique and unexpected design solutions.
Prior to starting the firm William Matthews was an Associate at Renzo Piano Building Workshop in Paris. During his time there he completed a variety of internationally recognised projects such as the Beyeler Foundation Basel, Potsdamer Platz Berlin and the Modern Wing of the Art Institute of Chicago.
From 2001 until its completion in 2013 William led the design team of the Shard in London.
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