European Copper in Architecture Awards 15

Overall Winner

Avanto Arkkitehdit designed the Chapel of St Lawrence in Vantaa, Finland, based on the concept of 'the Path' - a Christian's journey from here to eternity. This dedicated cemetery chapel aims to reconcile the emotional needs of mourners with the pragmatic demands of funerals.

The building uses similar materials to the old structures in the area and the roof is patinated copper, like the roof of the old church. Many of the ceilings are finished with removable, perforated copper trays. The glazed walls toward the graveyard in the chapels are covered with a patinated copper mesh, which functions as a screen between the outside and the internal spaces of the chapel.

The judges found this project a highly compelling and atmospheric study in the handling of space, light and materials. In particular, copper is used to evoke a tranquil sense of the numinous, creating an appropriately solemn, yet nonetheless uplifting, setting for the rituals of death and parting.

Further details and images

Highly Commended

Diane Heirend and Philippe Schmit Architects' thoroughly contemporary intervention at Villa Vauban, the Musee d'Art de la Ville de Luxembourg, was Highly Commended. The new building gives two levels of exhibition spaces behind the villa, rising up from the foundation of the fortress wall below park level. Openings in the frontage create viewing points to help visitors' spatial orientation and to reveal activities inside the museum to passes-by.

The judges were extremely impressed by this new addition to the existing art museum. Although the new parts are conspicuously of their time, they form a sensitively judged counterpoint both to the original historic building and the surrounding parkland landscape. The new extension is wrapped in delicately perforated panels of brass, and the judges especially admired how this metal skin appears to dissolve when viewed at night, changing from an opaque surface to a sensuously glowing, translucent veil.

Further details and images

Commended

Project - Family House, Seeheim, Germany
Architect - Fritsch und Schlueter Architekten

Fritsch und Schlüter Architekten’s House in Seeheim, Germany, abstracts the traditional archetype of the gabled, suburban villa.

A central aim of the design was to create a homogenous appearance for both the roof and external wall planes. Cladding all these surfaces in copper made it possible to realise this monolithic character in the form of an abstract, sharp-edged geometric colume, while also providing a robust, weather-proof skin. The roof and outer wall surfaces are clad with large, pre-oxidised copper panels, contrasting with the white internal surfaces.

The judges admired the way the house connected its inhabitants to its surroundings, through a series of glazed cuts in the wall and roof planes . There was evident skill in the way that pre-oxidised panels of copper were used to clad the exterior, creating an elegantly smooth carapace.  

Further details and images

Commended

Architects Make have transformed a relatively undistinguished six storey 1960s block in the heart of London, giving it a striking new identity with extensive use of brass cladding and dramatic cantilevered balconies.

Brass was chosen for its qualities of sustainability and complete recyclability, as well as its distinctive architectural appeal. A key aspect of this is natural oxidisation that will cause the brass to weather over time and provide added depth to the building. Each panel will patinate differently but this process has been enhanced by varying components in the copper alloy to achieve a wide range of colours.

The judges were impressed with the imaginative approach to materials, especially how they age and weather.  The perforated brass balcony frames, which filter light and cast a pattern of rippling shadows around the interiors of the flats, are particularly seductive.

Further details and images

Judges' Special Prize

Studio Weave's design for Freya's Cabin, a lakeside visitor shelter in Northumberland, UK, received the Judges' Special Prize. The award recognised recognised this unusual submission's folk tale narratives woven around a compact, jewel-like cabin cloaked in a golden copper alloy.

The architects have created a modern folly that chimes beautifully with the landscape. The attention to detail in the choice and use of materials was especially lyrical and imaginative. The fantasy of the design story is echoed in the cabin's construction. The building is supported on a series of brass-clad 'stems' planted into concrete foundations. Preformed trays of a copper and aluminium alloy are used to clad the cabin. The sheets represent Freya's golden tears and the copper alloy was chosen for its rich, golden colour and durable finish.

Further details and images

Shortlisted

A new Fire Brigade, Ambulance and Alpine Recovery Centre building in Italy's South Tyrol unifies different functions in a challenging setting. Here, Austrian architects AllesWirdGut have developed a copper clad aesthetic that reflects a mountainous context, without overpowering its village location. The new building forms a major landmark but maintains a low-key presence at the same time.

This project impressed the judges with its powerful topographic quality. Long and low slung, it almost becomes part of the landscape, a reassuringly rugged presence in the town. The building's copper cladding emphasises this connection with its environment. The hue and texture of the dark copper panels evoke the surrounding farmhouses and forests

Further details and images

Shortlisted

Project - New Town Hall, Police and Cultural Centre, Berriozar, Spain
Architect - Garcia Rodriguez Alcoba

This project aims to bring several basic facilities together at the perimeter of a future square that will shape an important civic meeting place in Berriozar. The building configures the public square and ensures its own prominence. It is conceived as a single, forthright volume, a building that folds back onto itself, defining voids and volumes, both inside and outside. This is an abstract, timeless sculptural form clad in pre-oxidised copper to appear powerful yet, at the same time, light. The copper bestows a gravitas appropriate to the building's prominent civic role.

The judges were particularly impressed by how it articulates a sense of civic life, through a skilful interplay of solid and void, and how it meshes with the wider urban realm, defining and enclosing new public spaces. In this, copper cladding plays a key part. Copper is used in horizontal strips of varying widths to animate and articulate facades with great finesse.

Further details and images

The winning and shortlisted projects will appear in a special feature in The Architectural Review and this is available as a reprint:
View/save pdf copy - European Copper in Architecture Awards 15
For a hard copy please email helpline@copperdev.co.uk.

All 66 projects entered in the 2011 Awards are featured at http://www.copperconcept.org/awards.