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DFA Awards 2020:
Recognition of exceptional designs in Hong Kong and Mainland China

Longfu Life Experience Centre

Being a part of the flagship programme of the HKDC, the DFA Design for Asia Awards continues to acknowledge outstanding design projects that embody Asian aesthetics and culture, and that have inspired wider Asian design trends.

2020 is a year full of trials and the world is ready for some changes. In response to the unusual circumstances this year, innovative ideas have emerged for rebuilding people’s relationship with the natural world, connecting the community, and fostering cultural sustainability. Some of the awarded projects promote the reconnection with nature through communication and environmental designs. Some stay on track with design thinking, providing designs and solutions for social problems, medical needs, industrial needs and more. Some praise the uniqueness of cultures and try to remind people the importance of cultural conservation through cross-media presentations.

This year’s awardees come from professional designing firms all around the world with projects in Asia. Japan was the biggest winner by economy, taking away 61 awards, followed by Mainland China and Hong Kong with 48 and 21 awards respectively. Other winning company locations included Denmark, Korea, Lithuania, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, the Netherlands, the United Arab Emirates and more.

GRAND AWARD: TAINAN SPRING, TAIWAN
Winning Company: MVRDV B.V.

Tainan Spring, a public space design transformed a former city-centre shopping mall into an urban lagoon, surrounding by young plants that will develop into a lush jungle and reconnecting the city with nature and its waterfront. The area hosts playgrounds, gathering spaces, and a performance stage, while some of the artful building concrete frames after deconstruction are left for converting to shops, kiosks, and other amenities in due course.

GRAND AWARD: ARANYA ART CENTRE, MAINLAND CHINA
Winning Company: Neri&Hu Design and Research Office

Aranya Art Centre is an area that has a strong emphasis on the spiritual nature of the designers’ lifestyle ideology, an oneness with the environment. The design scheme is as much about the internal courtyard, a communal space for the residents, as it is about the exhibition being displayed in the centre. The building design attempts to encapsulate the natural wonder of water at its core. The scheme maximizes its outer footprint but carves out a pure conical geometry at the centre with a stepped amphitheatre at the base, which can be reconfigured and used in many ways.

GRAND AWARD: UCCA DUNE, MAINLAND CHINA
Winning Company: UCCA Center for Contemporary Art

UCCA Dune is a museum that is nestled beneath a sand dune, with the building’s exterior largely covered by the surrounding sand. The building covers an area of 930 square meters, including seven indoor, three outdoor galleries, a cafe, and a reading room, with different cell-like shapes and sizes. It is conceived as an art and architecture destination, where exhibitions will unfold in dialogue with the building and its natural surroundings.

GRAND AWARD: LONGFU LIFE EXPERIENCE CENTER, MAINLAND CHINA
Winning Company: LUO studio

The Longfu Life Experience Center is designed and constructed with an environmentally friendly concept. Though utilizing common timbers and reversible construction methods, the whole architecture can be moved. Some of the units in the building are able to combine freely, which help to meet different functional needs at zero cost. Also, the architecture can be thoroughly dismantled, and the building materials can be reused for new constructions. Merely in 49 days, with common materials, processing techniques and ordinary construction workers, an efficient 1,600-square-metres space can be designed, built and put into use. — Construction+ Online