Alvar Aalto Medal - architeria.eu

ALVAR AALTO MEDAL AWARDED TO THE DANISH TEGNESTUEN VANDKUNSTEN


The tenth Alvar Aalto Medal has been awarded to the Danish architectural practice Tegnestuen Vandkunsten.
This is the first time that the Alvar Aalto Medal was awarded to a team of architects instead of an individual.

For almost forty years now, Tegnestuen Vandkunsten has focused on residential architecture and housing
developments. In this field, the group has been a pioneer and trend-setter with designs characterized
by convertibility, communality, residential involvement, dense-low rise, and sustainable development
- long before they became buzzwords in residential architecture and policies.

Working as a team and recognizing social dynamics have been the necessary prerequisites and main source
of inspiration for the creative work produced by Vandkunsten's 30 designers. For Vandkunsten, social
awareness is also a source of beauty which does not compromise their ability to retain a firm grip
over aesthetically perfected and innovative spaces, forms and materials. Vandkunsten is a link that combines
the best traditions of the Nordic welfare society with those of Nordic architecture. Vandkunsten's work
is a modern interpretor and elaborator of Alvar Aalto's ideological heritage.

Socially and aesthetically sustainable architecture

The overarching principles applied by Vandkunsten to design were crystallized in the office's early works
- the best known being Tinggården, an innovative residential district near Køge. Spatial solutions derived
from the immediate environment that promoted social coherence; the minimization of construction costs
through the use of advanced technology and simple materials; and the relaxed yet modern expression
of the Danish traditions were widely emulated in the 1980s.

Dianas Have at Hørsholm, Denmark, and Hestra Parkstad in Sweden serve as models of the 1990's row
house districts in which the narrow ‘fingers' of buildings giving out to the surrounding landscape pave
the way for new types of dwelling designed with true insight into needs of the residents.
The elegant details of the interiors and exterior and innovative use of materials enhance the daily life
of the people in an exemplary manner.

Worth a special mention is the conversion of the Torpedo Boat Shipyard at Holmen Copenhagen into a block
of flats at the turn of the millennium. In this project, the challenging starting point inspired the designers
to create a unique place in which to live. In several other recent works, such as the Sømærk at
Teglværkshavnen and the Ørestaden blocks in Copenhagen, Vandkunsten has also succeeded
in introducing earthbound social, spatial and functional elements to multi-storey residential construction.

Vandkunsten's works are characterized by creative use of the composition of the landscape. Prime examples
of this are Det Blå Hjørne (the Blue Corner, 1989) in Copenhagen's Christanshavn which defies orthodox
ideas of harmony, and their winning entry to the recent Kløvermarken zoning competition, again
in Copenhagen, in which the edges of a central park area are boldly adorned with a new type of housing
and building block typologies.

Additional information:
Tegnestuen Vandkunsten, Jens Thomas Arnfred, tel. +45 60402755, www.vandkunsten.com
Alvar Aalto Medal Jury, Mikko Heikkinen, Chairman, tel. +358 40 731 0531
SAFA: Päivi Virtanen, Communications Officer, (background material, interview requests), p. 050 570 4180,
www.safa.fi

The Alvar Aalto Medal is awarded every five years or so to ‘persons with significant achievements
in creative architecture'. The medal, designed by Alvar Aalto, is awarded by the Ministry of Education,
the Finnish Association of Architects SAFA, the Museum of Finnish Architecture, the Finnish Society
of Architecture and the Alvar Aalto Foundation. The institutions have their nominees in the medal jury
which also includes two non-Finnish members. This time, the jury comprised the architects Anna Brunow,
Mikko Heikkinen (Chairman), Juha Ilonen, Pekka Pakkala and Matti Rautiola, with Yoshio Taniguchi
and Gert Wingårdh.

Previous medalists:

1967 Alvar Aalto
1973 Hakon Ahlberg (Sweden)
1978 James Stirling (UK)
1982 Jørn Utzon (Denmark)
1985 Tadao Ando (Japan)
1988 Alvaro Siza (Portugal)
1992 Glenn Murcutt (Australia)
1998 Steven Holl (USA)
2003 Rogelio Salmona (Colombia)

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CREDITS:
Text: Museum of Finnish Architecture
Photography:
1.Teglværkshavnen block in Copenhagen, Tegnestuen Vandkunsten
2. Hestra Parkstad in Sweden, Tegnestuen Vandkunsten
3. Dianas Have at Hørsholm, Denmark, Tegnestuen Vandkunsten
4. Tinggården residential district near Køge, Tegnestuen Vandkunsten