Holbaek Harbour masterplan, Holbaek, Denmark

MIPIM AR award hattrick for schmidt hammer lassen architects

Announced in WAN's News Review two weeks ago, schmidt hammer lassen architects (SHLA) won the MIPIM AR Future Project award in the Mixed Use category. Now the company reveal their happiness at having received the award for the third year in a row. Their Holbæk city harbour masterplan including a new "DGI City" - a sports complex concept developed by the Danish Gymnastics and Sports Associations, took the prize with judges commenting that "what might have been a prosaic response to a conventional waterfront programme has been turned into an occasion for a celebration of architecture, form and seamless combination of uses. Here is urban design and a sense of place."

"We are very proud to have won this important prize for the third time in a row,"said founding partner of schmidt hammer lassen, Bjarne Hammer. "It shows that our architecture is competitive internationally and remains competitive year after year. The project in Holbæk, which we won in 2008, effectively unites the city, the harbour and the fjord in a natural townscape and offers a social breathing space in a stressful society."

The winning proposal includes a lyrical, contemporary interpretation of a locally anchored, traditional building culture. It is inspired by the vision of an area where new and old merge to create a spatial interplay between the new townscape and the DGI complex.

In 2008 SHL won in the Offices category with Amazon Court, Prague and in 2007 their residential project Skytthusbugten Vejle took the title in the Residential category
source: www.worldarchitecturenews.com
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