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Brick Award 08 - Wienerberger awards exceptional brick architecture
Presentation of the “Brick Award 08” in Vienna on April 3rd, 2008; Wienerberger hands out prizes for best international brick architecture for the third time.
 Since 2004, Wienerberger has awarded the most creative brick structures in the world, as well as their architects, with the “Brick Award” every second year.
In this way, the world’s largest producer of bricks acknowledges the undisputed role of bricks as a sustainable and ecological building material.
Altogether 255 projects from 19 countries were submitted for the “Brick Award 08” by architecture critics. Apart from the innovative external architectural design and the usage of the building material, the most important criteria for the selection of the winners also included the functionality of the buildings. The awards ceremony “Brick Award 08” was held during a great gala event on April 3 in the architecturally and historically fascinating Old Hall of the Academy of Sciences in Vienna. 300 guests from across Europe as well as the board of management of Wienerberger AG attended the awards ceremony.
The next Brick Award will be held in 2010. As was the case with the previous Brick Awards, architects of note will be asked to submit interesting brick architecture projects.
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Building know-how
“Building know-how. Innovation in the building fabric” was centre-stage at the new SaieSpring exhibition just held in Bologna. With examples of the expertise of world-renowned institutions and professionals, this exhibition focused on the role of technological innovation. The world of architecture is related to the theme of the vocabulary and image, as well as to the technologies that have to turn ideas into reality,” says Fabrizio Bianchettie, the commissioner of the exhibition. “The performance of materials has for centuries constituted the main constraint for architects. Such limits are nowadays overcome by research. The transformation has been ‘silent’,” he adds. This is due to the gradual replacement of traditional products, but also because the architectural debate has always been based on an ideology that considers materials as simple means of expression. And yet, the increase in architectural designs, materials and products is more symptomatic of the age we live in. The plethora of solutions is surely an effect of the globalisation of the demand. It is certain that the incessant progress of technologies, in particular nanotechnologies, make the capacities and possibilities of all materials all but infinite: intelligent interfaces, sensory surfaces, self-cleaning materials and inflatable membranes are redefining our environment. The impulsive need to save the plant has led to new materials but, as Quentin Heslinger of matériO underscores, materials are not good or bad in and of themselves, but everything depends on how they are used. We must systematically consider their life cycle, minimise their weak points, and put them to the challenge of constant improvement. It is vital, above all, to accept the complexity of the world we live in and the imbrication of the various levers at our disposal. In brief, we must admit that there can be no simplistic and short-sighted answers to the challenges of the today. |
