Third edition of an international WT SmartCity Award 2017 for urban and architectural design rewarded the most innovative and visionary architectural and urban projects. The selected projects are open to new urban scenarios facing the crucial aspects of sustainability, density and urban complexity proposing futuristic and innovative design approaches. The WT SmartCity Award 2017 selected two winning projects as joint winners. 

Driven by a deep reflection about the future of our cities, Architect Chiara Cantono curator of WT SmartCity Award with the WT Studio office that she leads, research and select the most visionary and sustainable ideas and projects to transform the urban landscape in a positive way.

The Exhibition of WT SmartCity Award was held during the Milan Design Week at the prestigious Palazzo Isimbardi in collaboration with the Metropolitan City of Milan. The exhibition has received excellent feedbacks with a large influx of visitors, more than three thousand in the seven days of the Milan Design Week, among them were architects, designers, journalists, institutions and relevant personalities from the business world. 

WT SmartCity Award Ceremony, chaired by Arianna Censi Deputy Mayor of the Metropolitan City of Milan and Chiara Cantono, Architect and curator WT SmartCity Award, has the participation of internationally renowned architects, including Arch. Piero Lissoni (studio Lissoni Architecture), Arch. Massimo Roj (Progetto CMR), Arch. Nicholas Bewick and Angelo Micheli (studio Arch. Michele De Lucchi), Arch. Joseph di Pasquale, Arch. Richard Moreta, Studioata and many others.

See the winning projects below:

1st prize: aMDL - Unicredit Pavilion

''The structure was designed with a strong focus on environmental sustainability with natural materials and modern building techniques,'' mentioned by the jury panel.

The choice of an open structure of curved laminated wood ribs gives both a sense of accessibility and protection to everything that is going on inside. The buildings internal ground floor level has been raised 110cm above the surrounding pedestrian podium. This contains the structural foundations and floor ventilation plenums, and emphasizes the buildings sense of lightness and personality as an object that has landed. To accentuate the ‘skeleton’ effect the vertical rib structure and roof beams, in laminated larch wood, are separated from the internal service core volumes that enclose all vertical circulation, toilets and principal technical ducts.

2nd prize: Lissoni Architettura - New York City Aquatrium

''A submerged circular aquarium  in New York that interacts with its surrounding, offering multiple ways to experience the water world represented by eight triple-height transparent biomes,'' mentioned in the press release.

The main idea is to generate an environment whereby visitors feel that they themselves are entering the water to discover the beauty of the marine life on display; a living shell that opens to the sky during the day to reveal the sea worlds and which closes as darkness falls to take on a ''second life'' as a planetarium, protecting the arena and the biome domes within, like a shell protects the pearl.

2nd prize: Studioata - Tree Housing

''An expandable and flexible module that can have the dual function of home and place of work, a structure that at the same time could produce electricity and collect sufficient water for the needs of families,'' mentioned in the competition.

It is so well developed a "home-workshop" based on a prefabricated modular structure in wood, central body of a system that will be completed and finished by the inhabitants themselves with local materials. The building consists of two blocks: the first, which faces the street, it is intended in employment, however the second block is facing the small courtyard in the center of which there is the tree. 

In the back part of the structure it will be able to create spaces to raise animals or farm the land. Each block is covered by a roof equipped with solar panels and gutters that allow the collection of rainwater, which is collected by an industrial container positioned in a gap between the roof and ceiling. This position allows the inhabitants to exploit the force of gravity to use the water, eliminating the need for a more complex, expensive and delicate water pumping system.

3rd prize: AM Project, Joseph Di Pasquale Architects - Chorus Life

''A sport village in Bergamo with an area of 150,000 sqm with the purpose of bringing three generations together in a city model for the third millennium,'' mentioned in the competition.

A low urban density plan with a high relational density, where the real land value is the "capacity to generate social and intergenerational exchange."
The multifunctional arena, shops, services, SPA medical sports center, rooftop gym and jogging trail are the main functions of the complex. Moreover 100 housing completes the complex promoting a new idea of housing. A subscription fee for “residential services” that includes also energy, maintenance, entertainment content, food, and access to all services in the compound. 

The urban design has adopted the functions along the perimeter of the area, generating compact building facades to better link with the traditional city, but revealing in a highly innovative inner core, a fluid urban space, completely pedestrian, that avoids any physical and psychological barriers to the meeting and the social exchange and access to the functions and services of Chorus Life.

The WT SmartCity Award 2017 selected 6 Honorable Mentions and see all Honorable Mentions in the competition website. 

All images courtesy of WT SmartCity Award

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