Living Steel today announces the winners of its International Competition for Sustainable Housing at the UN-Habitat World Urban Forum III in Vancouver.

"Housing a developing global population that is growing at the rate of a small city every day poses a unique set of challenges," explains Carl Perry, Chairman of the Living Steel Steering Group. "Flexible, sustainable and cost effective housing solutions must be found. The Living Steel competition challenges architects around the world to think about how steel can offer a solution to the global housing and environmental challenges. It is an innovative material that facilitates speed of construction and design flexibility, to provide durable and comfortable living space."

The competition called for designs that could be built in two locations: Warsaw in Poland and Kolkata in India. Architectenbureau cepezed from the Netherlands has won the competition for a design to be built in Poland. The competition for India has been won by UK architects Piercy Conner Architects. Each firm will be awarded a prize of €50,000 and a contract to develop their designs for construction.

The winners were selected by an independent jury chaired by internationally-renowned architect Glenn Murcutt and approved by the International Union of Architects (UIA). Jury members included Charles Correa, James Berry, Andrew Ogorzalek, Jaime Lerner (UIA) and Nicholas de Monchaux (UIA).

Glen Murcutt, speaking on behalf of the Jury, said: "We are impressed by the ambition and scope of the Living Steel programme. This architectural competition will provide an excellent contribution to the crucial global debate on sustainability and quality of residential environments. Many proposals, and the winning entries in particular, displayed the potential for steel construction to provide light weight, open, flexible and refined spaces responding to contemporary urban living. We're delighted to be part of such a pioneering approach."

The Jury selected winners from a short-list of ten architecture firms for the Polish competition and eight for India. Each company making it on to the short-list received an honorarium of €10,000. They were asked to design buildings that advanced the concept of sustainable housing in each location, demonstrating the value and performance of steel in improving economic, environmental and social performance.

Commenting on the winning entries, Glenn Murcutt said: "We were very impressed with the entry from Architectenbureau cepezed for Poland. It incorporated simple floor plans, robustness and flexibility of design and the use of double loaded corridors. The flexibility of the layout will enable full advantage to be made of ventilation and daylight. The scale of the proposed design and, in particular, how the configuration of the building can respond to its context also impressed the Jury.

"The Jury was struck by the simplicity and lightness of the scheme proposed by Piercy Conner for India. Specifically we were attracted to the strong concept of ventilation across every space. The inclusion of the roof terrace and the potential for the plan to provide open and closed zones within apartments was also striking. The Jury felt this idea was sufficiently robust and flexible to allow consideration for other proportions of the floor plate too."

Carl Perry concluded: "I am delighted that the Jury has unanimously selected these two winners for our competition. The successful designs use steel in a truly innovative way and clearly demonstrate the spirit of Living Steel in promoting sustainable housing. We are looking forward to working with Architectenbureau cepezed and Piercy Conner Architects over the coming months to develop their designs for construction with local supply chain partners."

Further information about the Living Steel competition, a full press pack and interviews with the winning architects can be viewed at http://www.livingsteel.org/.

Editor's Notes

About Living Steel

The competition is sponsored by Living Steel. Members of Livkng Steel include the steel companies Arcelor, Baosteel, BlueScope Steel, CELSA Group, Corus, Erdemir, IMIDRO, Mittal Steel, Posco, Ruukki, and Tata Steel.

Supporting members of Living Steel include Brazilian Centre of Steel Construction, European Convention for Constructional Steelwork, Fondazione Promozione Acciaio, Institute for Steel Development and Growth, International Zinc Association, Korea Iron & Steel Association and The Steel Construction Institute.

Living Steel is managed by the International Iron and Steel Institute (IISI) on behalf of the programme members. The IISI is a non-profit research organisation which serves as a world forum for the international steel industry. It was founded in 1967, with a headquarters located in Brussels, Belgium. IISI was the first international association to deal solely with one industry. It has now grown to become one of the largest and most dynamic industry associations in the world.

For more information, visit http://www.livingsteel.org/

About the Competition

Living Steel, a worldwide programme to stimulate innovation in the design and construction of housing using steel, launched an international architectural competition to take on this challenge.

The competition is seeking to develop innovative approaches to meet sustainable housing needs. Underlying the competition is a desire to address the economic, environmental and social aspirations of a growing world population. It is a population with an undisputed shortage of housing that is fit for purpose and one growing at the rate of a small city each day. The need to address the shortage quickly, cost effectively, and in a way that does not diminish the world's natural environment is increasing.

The competition was developed with the guidance of the UIA and consequently follows the provisions of the International Recommendations for Competitions in Architecture and Urban Planning adopted by the General Conference of UNESCO on 27 November 1978.

An open Expressions of Interest call for the 2006 competition was made in July 2005 on the occasion of the International Union of Architects' (UIA) world congress held in Istanbul, Turkey.  Over 300 individuals and firms complied with the call.  Ten firms were invited to submit designs for a five story apartment building located in Kolkata, India and another ten firms were invited to design a five story apartment building for Warsaw, Poland.  Ten firms submitted designs for the Warsaw building while eight firms submitted designs for the Kolkata building. Each short- listed firm was paid an honorarium of €10,000.

The winning submissions for India and Poland, as selected by an independent, UIA approved jury, are awarded a prize of €50,000. The winning submissions are also being developed for construction with Living Steel and local supply chain partners beginning mid-2006.  

About the World Urban Forum

The World Urban Forum was established by the United Nations to examine one of the most pressing issues facing the world today: rapid urbanisation and its impact on communities, cities, economies and policies. It is projected that in the next fifty years, two-thirds of humanity will be living in towns and cities. A major challenge is to minimize burgeoning poverty in cities, improve the urban poor's access to basic facilities such as shelter, clean water and sanitation and achieve environment-friendly, sustainable urban growth and development.

The World Urban Forum is a biennial gathering that is attended by a wide range of partners, from non-governmental organisations, community-based organisations, urban professionals, academics, to governments, local authorities and national and international associations of local governments. It gives all these actors a common platform to discuss urban issues in formal and informal ways and come up with action-oriented proposals to create sustainable cities.

The third session of the World Urban Forum (WUFIII) is being hosted by the Government of Canada in Vancouver from 19 to 23 June 2006.

For more information, visit http://www.unhabitat.org/wuf/2006

Media Contact

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