Bee Breeders Architecture Competitions has announced winners for Kip Island Auditorium architecture competition. With winning entries from the US, the Netherlands and Spain, the competition was to reimagine an addition to the Riga International Convention Centre saw numerous different approaches taken. In this architecture competition, judges demanded a well-considered alternative to the typical sprawling multi-block exhibition structures that are often surrounded by parking lots and urban reclusion.

The winning entry from the US was chosen for its proposal to completely entangle city and stage, creating a performance space that radically deconstructed the separation of a proscenium and an audience. The project’s centrepiece was an elevated theatre space, cantilevered as a truss over the site, containing a sequence of auditorium spaces that would be interconnected by a series of panels that open up to form a monumental stage.

The second place winners are the entry from the Technical University Delft in the Netherlands. They have also received the BB Student Award as well as the BB Green award for their designs. This project was chosen for its simple solution - using an economy of form and material to create a flexible building, characterised by tactful iconicity.

The third place winners from Spain were chosen for their use of urban engagement and social inclusion, the project taking a stance on the nature of large exhibition centres and making a case for the public.

See 3-winning projects with jury comments below:

1st prize winners: The Urban Lighthouse by Space4Architecture / Team: Michele Busiri-Vici, Clementina Ruggieri, Matteo Biasiolo, Pino Pavese

The first place entry for the Kip Island Auditorium was chosen for its proposal to completely entangle city and stage, creating a performance space radically deconstructing the separation between proscenium and audience. The project centerpiece is an elevated theatre space, cantilevered as a truss over the site, creating an iconic figure in the city. 

Inside this truss, the linear sequence of auditorium spaces is interconnected by a series of panels that can either separate each stage for simultaneous performances or open up and interconnect, forming a monumental stage that transfigures the nature of performance. The skin reinforces this programmatic gesture and tectonic diagram. Double layers of mesh establish the project’s powerful ambiguity between interior and figure - both exterior form and internal volume assert themselves as equal components of the project’s expression and identity. The iconicity of the auditorium lies in this opposition between object and performance, creating a project in which the archetype of the stage is activated into an entirely new model for spectacle and spectatorship.

1st prize winners interview

2nd prize winners: Kip Island Auditorium by Technical University Delft / Team: Deyan Saev, Panayiotis Hadjisergis

The success of the second place entry for the Kip Island Auditorium competition lies in its simple solution to the existing conditions, using an economy of form and material to create a flexible building characterized by tactful iconicity. The project parti stitches the site, unifying the shed buildings of the exhibition centre, by infilling the triangular space between with a repeating, extruded sawtooth bay. Within this triangular massing, the project contains a large, non-hierarchical, and reconfigurable space, allowing for multiple auditoria and conference spaces while maintaining fluid connections to the existing buildings on the site. 

The project provides an expansive new public façade: a serrated wall, functioning as a sieve that filters visitors into the inner world of the aggregated and vast exhibition centre. Additionally, the structure and detailing of the project is tectonically thoughtful and ecologically considerate, deploying a repeated post and beam module of engineered wood with steel cable and polycarbonate infill to provide natural, indirect light. Combined, this kit-of-parts produces a subdued iconicity, evoking the industrial nature of the existing buildings and imposing order on a site characterized by an accumulation of disparate conditions.

2nd prize winners interview

3rd prize winners: Agir by Moisés Royo, Carlos Orbea, Gonzalo García-Robledo, Cristina Martín Consuegra

The strength of the third place entry arises from its urban engagement and social inclusion. The project takes a stance on the nature of large exhibition centers, making a case for the public. Expo and convention center typologies, due to their scale often create a barrier within the city, isolating the pedestrian rather than including. The siting of the third place entry adeptly uses the scale of the project to engage the public through a strategy of solid/void in lieu of the typologically conventional solid. 

Rather than attach to the existing exhibition center, the auditoria stretch the perimeter of the site, creating both a boundary and filter to a new public plaza. The plaza, filled with a series of trees, becomes the stitch between new and old allowing each structure to stand on its' own. The project keenly makes use of section to engage pedestrians in the program of the building by elevating and exposing the underside of each auditorium space. The undulating underside becomes a filtered threshold to the public plaza beyond. By elevating the auditoria, the project takes advantage of the exhibition center's sitting on Kip Island, gaining 360 degree views of the city. Arranged linearly, the auditoria create a new public promenade where visitors participate in each performance as they pass by. The promenade culminates in an open room overlooking the plaza and city beyond, engaging the visitor directly with the public.

3rd prize winners interview

Deyan Saev and Panayiotis Hadjisergis' proposal from Technical University Delft has been awarded with BB Green Award and BB Student Award. The competition also awarded 6 projects for Honorable Mention Awards. See all 6 Honorable Mentions here.

World Architecture Community is Media Partner for Bee Breeders Architecture Competitions. Bee Breeders Architecture Competitions are still receiving registrations for Hong Kong Pixel Homes Architecture Competition, Mango Vinyl Hub Architecture Competition In Latvia and Stone Barn Meditation Camp Architecture Competition. 

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