FACE-Federation of Aluminium Consumers in Europe

Aluminium in Renovation Award 2009

Energy efficiency was the big protagonist

In the EU Parliament Building in Brussels the winners of the 2nd European Aluminium in Renovation Award 2009, an initiative of the Building Group of the EAA and the Aluminium For Future Generations-AFFG programme in cooperation with Aluminium Associations in 14 European countries, were presented.
The 31 nominations are subdivided into 9 in the Residential and 22 in the Non-Residential category. A European Aluminium Award was given in each of the 2 categories. Besides this also 4 Special Prizes and a Jury Prize ex-aquo are given. The criteria taken into account by jury when assessing the entries were:
- Significant use of aluminium
- Energy efficiency
- Life-cycle thinking
- Contemporary design
- Socio-economic impact
- Value added to the original building.

Category Residential LoftLiving Ackermannfabrik (winner) The new aluminium windows and doors add a modern touch to the former textile factory whilst taking aspects of building conservation into consideration (fig. 1). The high windows with their narrow profiles still let in the daylight, something that was so important for the interior of the former textile factory; the modern window profile contributes to a level of thermal insulation geared toward future requirements. The special shape of the window profiles resembles the appearance of the previous steel windows.		1) Category Residential - winner LoftLiving Ackermannfabrik, Augsburg, Germany Nething Generalplaner Architekten, Ulm/Neu-Ulm Metallbau Glock, Donauwörth.
3) Extra prize for small-scale renovation (Residential) Residentie Huybens Otten, Herent, Belgium Denef Mattelaer Oosters Architecten (DMOA), Heverlee Schrijnwerk Alu-V, Wommelgem & Industriebouw Schriers, Peer.		Residentie Huybens Otten In this renovation of a detached property from the 1950s, the badly positioned rear structure was replaced with a ‘light’ aluminium mass on a concrete base, in which one side hovers over the premises and the slope down to the cellar (fig. 3). In order to arrive at a peaceful harmony between existing and new, a restrained syntax was chosen. This break with the existing building is accentuated by the choice of profiled aluminium sheets as siding. Owing to the narrow gauge of the profiled aluminium (15/40mm), the connotation of the industrial disappears and it lends the property its own modern character.
De Torenflat, Zeist The Torenflat (high-rise apartment block) contains 484 apartments on central corridors on 19 residential levels (fig. 4). One of the important objectives of the renovation, which was carried out entirely whilst people were living in the building, was the elevation of all thermal bridges in the complex. This was tackled by enclosing the whole building in a ‘warm jacket’, a thermal skin comprising fully prefabricated aluminium façade units. By enclosing the building in this way, balconies were turned into loggias, thereby considerably increasing the duration of use of these outdoor spaces during the year. The traditional ‘layer cake’ appearance of the block has been transformed into a monolithic character.		4) Jury prize for Energy Efficiency (Residential) De Torenflat, Zeist, The Netherlands Frowijn de Roos Architecten, Zeist Kremers Aluminium, Tilburg.
2) Category Non-Residential - winner Corriere della Sera headquarters, Milan, Italy Gregotti Associati International Architects, Milan - Installation Focchi, Rimini.		Category Non-Residential Corriere della Sera, newspaper headquarters (winner) This was a difficult and complex renovation project (fig. 2). It entailed finding a pertinent, all-embracing solution to the renovation requirements of a city centre block whose stratified development over the years had created an irregular ground plan comprising a series of heterogeneous units. The requirements were not just to restore formal unity and identity to a cluster of buildings but to ensure their functional practicability and compatibility with state-of-the-art technology, making the complex compliant with current safety regulations and appropriate for IT production techniques that have revolutionized the world of the printed press.
Elsa Morante Public Library The ‘Elsa Morante’ municipal library occupies the renovated former Oratory of San Michele and the new extension. The concept underlying the whole project was the dialogue between ancient and modern (fig. 5). The library’s extension has a curtain wall exterior. The outer envelope is in sheet, finely perforated with linear rows of 3 mm holes. Most of the panels are modular in design. They vary, however, in the graduated horizontal spacing between perforations. The panels have been laid so that the spacing between perforations becomes progressively narrower towards the top of the building, in keeping with its stereometric dimensions.		5) Extra prize for small-scale renovation (Non-Residential) Elsa Morante Public Library, Lonate Seppino, Italy DAP Studio architects, Milan Contractor Gruppo EDILIA, Turin.
6) Extra prize for roofing solutions (Non-Residential) Hochschule fur bildende Kunste, Dresden, Germany CODE UNIQUE Architekten, Dresden.		Hochschule fur bildende Kunste The arrangement of the composite aluminium panels as anoptical roof covering gives the metallic covering skin a smooth appearance that creates an exciting relationship between the substance of the historic building and the technically modern roof design and links the individual wings of the whole complex (fig. 6).
10 Hills Place, London This is a very interesting project just off Oxford Street, London (fig. 7). Aluminium strips have been bent, twisted and secured onto sculptural armatures to create inverted eyelids opening to the sky from the narrow street. The form is zoomorphic and simultaneously reminiscent of a hull construction. This is a very interesting project in many ways when you look at the transformation achieved with this aluminium rainscreen cladding. Because of its inventive use of aluminium extrusions to make a sort of ship’s sail detail that is doubly curved, this is a practice that understands aluminium and what it might achieve. It is a very intelligent use of aluminium and it is evidently an aluminium project.		7) Additional prize for innovation & design (Non-Residential) 10 Hills Place, London, United Kingdom Amanda Levete Architects, London Frener & Reifer Metallbau, Brixen.
8) Jury prize for energy efficiency (Non-Residential) ENERGIA Building, Paris (FR) Architecte DTAAC, Paris Construction FACE Ile-de-France, Perigny-sur-Yerres.		ENERGIA Building The renovation and reconstruction of this building near the Saint-Lazare station show a nice combination of contemporary aesthetic, homogeneous and modern design (fig. 8). Furthermore, the main goal of this renovation is energy efficiency and environmental benefits achieved through noise reduction, waste and dust reduction. After completion, the building met the High Environmental Quality (HEQ) standard. The best qualification possible.