Three exceptional developments have been selected as winners and a fourth was highly commended in the 2011 ULI Awards for Excellence: Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) competition.
The three winning developments are ENER[GIE]NGER in Munich, Perseo in Milan, and the Triangle Building at Wolverton Park in Milton Keynes, U.K. In addition, the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Thuwal, Saudi Arabia, was singled out for praise by the jury.
The three winners qualify for the ULI Global Awards for Excellence competition, in which a jury of international members will select up to five winners from this year’s winning projects in the Americas, EMEA, and Asia Pacific. The global winners will be announced in October at the ULI Fall Meeting and Urban Land Expo in Los Angeles.
The winners are:
| Ener[gie]nger, developed by Wilhelm Geinger Verwaltungs GmbH and designed by peterlorenz ateliers. |
ENER[GIE]NGER
—developed by Wilhelm Gienger Verwaltungs GmbH; architect, peterlorenz ateliers. A 28,000-square-foot (2,600-sq-m) office and retail development that opened in 2009 in Munich, the project is based on the idea of an energy spiral that allows rays of light to move inside the building. The development emphasizes sustainability, with a 2,700-square-foot (250-sq-m) solar panel and a combined heat and power plant providing electricity and thermal energy.Perseo—developed by Galotti S.p.A.; architect, FGS Goring & Straja Architects. A 172,000-square-foot (16,000-sq-m) greenfield office development built in the Expo 2015 district of Milan, this building is the first in Italy meeting a triple-A standard for sustainability and is leased entirely to one tenant, Sole 24 Ore.
The Triangle Building, Wolverton Park—developed by Places for People; architect, RPS Group. This historic former railway station and workshop buildings just outside Milton Keynes has been redeveloped to provide 300 mixed-tenure homes alongside commercial space, community facilities, and a 2.5-acre (1-ha) park. Three Grade II–listed buildings—placed on the U.K.’s Statutory List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest as meriting preservation—stand next to two new buildings, complementing each other and providing a variety of housing for the local community.
| KAUST, developed by aramco and designed by HOK. |
KAUST--
developed by Aramco and designed by HOK, is on the Red Sea coast. The university campus was established by an independent board of directors to contribute to scientific and technological advancement in the country. The project moved from conception to complet in only 30 month. It combines the teaching campus with a business incubator and research park—one of the first universities in Saudi Arabia to do so.The 2011 winners, selected from an impressive collection of entries representing countries across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, demonstrate holistic urban design and sustainability principles, said jury chair Andrew Gould, U.K. chief executive of Jones Lang LaSalle in London. “They represent some examples of tremendous innovation and thoughtful approaches to urban design and regeneration in retail, office, mixed-use, as well as education and civic uses.”
The competition is part of ULI’s Awards for Excellence program, established in 1979 and based on ULI’s guiding principle that the achievement of excellence in land use practice should be recognized and rewarded. ULI’s Awards for Excellence recognize the full development process of a project, not just its architecture or design. The criteria for the awards include leadership, contribution to the community, innovation, public/private partnership, environmental protection and enhancement, response to societal needs, and financial viability.
The winners were announced during the ULI Europe Trends Conference in Amsterdam in June. ULI Europe, which serves 2,000 members across Europe, hosted the conference as one of its many events that help keep the region’s property financiers, developers, architects, lenders, public officials, and other real estate professionals informed about the latest trends in the land use industry.
Over the years, the Awards for Excellence program has evolved from recognition of one development in North America to an international competition with multiple winners. The ULI Awards for Excellence: Europe (now EMEA) was added in 2004, followed by the ULI Awards for Excellence: Asia Pacific and the Global Awards in 2005. More information about ULI’s Awards for Excellence program is available at www.uli.org/awardsandcompetitions.
