Rewarding "humanism in architecture". The 2017 Alvar Aalto Medal goes to Zhang Ke of ZAO/standardarchitecture

Alvar Aalto Medal turn 50 years in 2017. In order to celebraty the honorable history, the medal will be handed out exceptionally already after a two years’ interval.

Hutong Children’s Library and Art Centre, Beijing (Architect: ZAO / standardarchitecture / Zhang Ke) Photograph © Su Shengliang, ZAO, standardarchitecture

The prestigious Alvar Aalto Medal program has announced Chinese architect Zhang Ke as laureate of its 2017 prize. Established in 1967 and presented by the Alvar Aalto Foundation, the Museum of Finnish Architecture, the Architectural Society, the Finnish Association of Architects SAFA, and the City of Helsinki, this is the 13th time the Medal has been awarded.

The jury, chaired by Japanese-born architect Toshiko Mori, emphasized its focus on up-and-coming young architects for the Alvar Aalto Medal's 50th anniversary year and expressed four criteria: creativity in the architecture, sustainable development in its execution, excellence of design and the ability to place the architecture in a frame of reference that honors Aalto’s legacy.

The international Alvar Aalto Medal jury consisted,

The world-renowned architect Toshiko Mori heads his eponymous practice, Toshiko Mori Architect , and is the keynote speaker at the Architecture Day seminar on February 3, 2017. Mori’s office creates architectural solutions that improve quality of life and engage in a respectful dialogue with their particular cultural setting.

Tina Saaby has been Copenhagen’s Chief City Architect since 2010, and she has an extensive history of planning experience as head of Witraz Architects. She additionally chairs the advisory board of the Royal Academy of Arts.

Asmo Jaaksi is a founding member of JKMM Architects. Over the past 20 years, JKMM has notched up a formidable list of awards and nominations. Jaaksi is currently supervising the construction of the new Amos Rex Art Museum adjoining Helsinki’s Glass Palace.

Vesa Oiva ranks among Finland’s most accomplished architects of the younger generation. He is the founder of Anttinen Oiva Architects, a practice that has gained recognition for its expressive and user-friendly architecture, particularly through architectural competitions.

Alvar Aalto Medal, carrying the name of the beloved architect and designed by Aalto himself, was founded in 1967 in order to honor creative architectural work. The medal can be given to live persons who have gained merit in the field of creative architecture in a very significant way.

Courtyard, Micro Hutong. Photograph by Wu Qingshan © ZAO/standardarchitecture.

Across the rooftop, Micro Hutong. Photograph © Wu Qingshan, ZAO/standardarchitecture.

Patio, MCourtyard, Micro Hutong. Photograph by Wu Qingshan © ZAO/standardarchitecture.icro Hutong. Fotografía por Wu Qingshan © ZAO/standardarchitecture.

Access. Micro Hutong. Photograph © Wu Qingshan, ZAO/standardarchitecture.

Micro Hutong. Photograph © Wu Qingshan, ZAO/standardarchitecture.

Shanghai Novartis Office Building (2016). Photograph © ZAO/standardarchitecture

Detail. Shanghai Novartis Office Building (2016). Photograph © ZAO/standardarchitecture

Interior view. Shanghai Novartis Office Building (2016). Photograph © ZAO/standardarchitecture

Sketch. Shanghai Novartis Office Building (2016). Photograph © ZAO/standardarchitecture

Tibet Niyang River Visitor Centre (2010). Photograph © ZAO/standardarchitecture

Tibet Niangou Terminal (2014). Photograph © ZAO/standardarchitecture

Tibet Yarlung Tsangpo Boat Terminal (2008). Photograph © ZAO/standardarchitecture

Tibet Namcha Barwa Visitor Centre (2008). Photograph © ZAO/standardarchitecture

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Zhang Ke ZAO/standardarchitecture

Founded by Zhang Ke in 2001, ZAO/standardarchitecture is a leading new generation design firm engaged in practices of planning, architecture, landscape, and product design. Based on a wide range of realized buildings and landscapes in the past ten years, the studio has emerged as the most critical and realistic practice among the youngest generation of Chinese architects and designers.

Consciously distance themselves from many of the other “typical” young generation architects who are swallowed by a trend of noise making, the office remain detached in a time of media frenzy and their focus is consistently positioned on the realization of urban visions and ideas. Although standardarchitecture’s built works often take exceptionally provocative visual results, their buildings and landscapes are always rooted in the historic and cultural settings with a degree of intellectual debate.

ALVAR AALTO

Alvar Aalto (1898-1976) qualified as an architect from Helsinki Institute of Technology (later Helsinki University of Technology and now part of the Aalto University) in 1921. He set up his first architectural practice in Jyväskylä. His early works followed the tenets of Nordic Classicism, the predominant style at that time. In the late 1920s and early 1930s, he made a number of journeys to Europe on which he and his wife Aino Marsio, also an architect, became familiar with the latest trends in Modernism, the International Style.

The pure Functionalist phase in Aalto’s work lasted for several years. It enabled him to make an international breakthrough, largely because of Paimio Sanatorium (1929-1933), an important Functionalist milestone. Aalto had adopted the principals of user-friendly, functional design in his architecture. From the late 1930s onwards, the architectural expression of Aalto’s buildings became enriched by the use of organic forms, natural materials and increasing freedom in the handling of space.

From the 1950s onwards, Aalto’s architectural practice was employed principally on the design of public buildings, such as Säynätsalo Town Hall (1948-1952), the Jyväskylä Institute of Pedagogics, now the University of Jyväskylä (1951-1957), and the House of Culture in Helsinki (1952-1956). His urban design master plans represent larger projects than the buildings mentioned above, the most notable schemes that were built being Seinäjoki city centre (1956-1965/87), Rovaniemi city centre (1963-1976/88) and the partly built Jyväskylä administrative and cultural centre (1970-1982).

From the early 1950s onwards, Alvar Aalto’s work focused more and more on countries outside Finland, so that a number of buildings both private and public were built to his designs abroad. Some of his best-known works include Villa Mairea, Noormarkku, Finland (1937–1939), the Finnish Pavilion at the 1939 New York World's Fair, Baker House, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA (1947–1948), Helsinki University of Technology, Espoo, Finland (1949–1966), The Experimental House, Muuratsalo, Finland (1953) or Essen opera house, Essen, Germany (1959–1988).