Social sustainability

Project nominated for the Mies van der Rohe Prize 2021   Shiroka is a fishing village located on the shores of Shkodra Lake, near the border with Montenegro. Its inhabitants lived for centuries from the lake, men fishing with small rowboats and women tending orchards and weaving carpets by hand. The reaction to the end of a communist regime that had deprived citizens of living from traditional “private” activities was widespread mistrust in the public sphere, which led to a period characterized by uncontrolled occupation and privatization of public space. As result, the public space of the waterfront of Shkodra lake was occupied with illegal constructions such as private houses, restaurants, private parking areas, and kio... More

The couple Mr. & Mrs. Shroff are Vadodara's most envied and admired couple who devoted a lot of time in uplifting the lives of Gujarat's rural population. The needs of each family member are completely divergent from a carpentry workshop to a chef kitchen. The complexity of diverging requirements and the manner to put them together was the main challenge.The plan was kept deceptively simple and the idea was to use natural materials to create a warm inclusive home. The uniqueness of each wing had to be maintained while bringing out a feeling that it was a simple home. The interaction between the spaces inside and outside is extremely compelling and of great visual appeal. The driveway is a simple curve brick wall which screens the o... More

Wohnen ohne Auto (literally “Living without a car”) is a co-housing project, developed in a process of participatory design with a community of future residents. The project features a series of strategies which aim is to minimize the superfluous, to estabilish a collective attitude towards sharing and to encourage in general an environmentally conscious behaviour.The building is located in the former airport area of Munich-Riem and is part of the fourth and last construction phase of its reconversion. Its core point lies in the voluntary renouncement of car ownership by all the inhabitants, which is reflected in a sustainable planning approach.Together with three other new constructions, the project forms a rectangular city block around an... More

Jonas is located at the harbor of Amsterdam IJburg and accommodates 190 mid-market rental studios, 83 owner-occupied apartments and a range of supporting facilities. It’s a building with an innovative housing concept and a spectacular spatial interior that received the highest possible sustainability certificate: BREEAM Outstanding. Jonas will enhance social cohesion, in what is still a new city district, by creating a sustainable, inviting heart for the neighborhood. Orange Architects designed Jonas, with a mixed-use program, for Amvest in collaboration with ABT, Felixx Landscape Architects, Site Urban Development and city maker Floor Ziegler. Ballast Nedam West was in charge of construction. Caption   The name Jonas refe... More

NORD Architects, together with Sahl architects, Danish Boligbyg, DAI and ARKPLAN, have won the project for a new district and block of student accomodation in Gellerup district of Aarhus, Denmark for the Brabrand Housing Association. The student flats are the first part of an ambitious master plan for the coming decade to convert the Gellerupparken area of the city. The building concept creates various communities of different scales and characters within a modified perimeter block. The 12,500 m2 building accommodates 354 housing units, a large common courtyard, and many smaller diverse communal areas resulting in accommodation that enables and encourages informal and spontaneous meetings and relationships between the student residen... More