Umsicht — Regards — Sguardi — La distinction de la SIA — La Galerie d’Architecture — Exhibition — Slash Paris

Past: October 31 → December 1, 2012

Now in its second edition, the SIA (Swiss Society of Engineers and Architects) recognizes pioneering projects that are exemplary in the way they integrate into their surroundings and that represent an innovative contribution to the viable development of today’s living environment. Agencies to have been singled out in this second round of awards include Burkhalter Sumi Architekten, Gion A. Caminada and agps architecture.

The SIA invited architects, engineers, public authorities, companies, investors, and private and public developers to submit projects covering schemes of any size. Each project was then judged on the design’s response to its environment and on the way it applied solutions that would meet users’ needs in an exemplary or novel way.

Six projects received awards and two others were given honorable mentions for their pioneering roles in designing evolutionary living spaces and their contribution to the sustainability of Switzerland’s built environment.

Awards were presented to : the Glattal — Zurich tramway ; the lecture theaters in a disused Von Roll factory in Berne — giuliani.hönger ; the refurbishment and extension of the Weberstrasse Tower in Winterthur — Burkhalter Sumi Architekten ; the Benedictine Monastery and farm at Disentis — Gion A. Caminada ; the extension to the UICN Center in Gland — agps.architecture ; and the Selnaustrasse residential and commercial building in Zurich — PARK Architekten. Honorable mentions were given to the redevelopment of the railway viaduct in Zurich — EM2N Architekten and the rebuilding of the main road through the Uri Valley between Seedorf and Amsteg.

The exhibition brings together plans and documents produced by the projects’ designers, extracts from the jury’s report, Jules Spinatsch’s striking photographs and a series of short films by director Marc Schwarz in which he opens the floor to people involved in the projects and to members of the jury. Both Spinatsch and Schwarz were asked to view the award-winning projects from a personal angle and to analyze them through their specific media. The result is a truly different “look” at the winning schemes.