The China Exploration & Design Association has awarded Steven Holl Architects the 2015 First Prize in Architecture for “Sliced Porosity Block – Raffles City.” The award is the most prestigious national award issued by China’s Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development.
The project was given top honors out of several hundred selected projects in the Architecture Award category. Sliced Porosity Block – Raffles City incorporates a hybrid of programmatic functions with large public plazas and innovative sustainable interventions. Creating an urban public space instead of object-icon skyscrapers, the three million square foot project takes its shape from its distribution of natural light. The required minimum sunlight exposures to the neighboring buildings prescribe precise geometric angles that slice the exoskeletal concrete frame of five mixed use towers. Three large openings are carved into the towers, featuring a local art pavilion, a pavilion of history, designed by Steven Holl Architects, and a Light Pavilion by Lebbeus Woods.
In addition to this award, Sliced Porosity Block – Raffles City has also won the Emirates Glass Leaf Mixed-Use Building of the Year Award in 2013, AIA NY Merit Award in 2013, and the Chicago Athenaeum’s Green Good Design Award in 2014.
Learn more about the project through a conversation with Steven Holl in the link below: