Call for Submissions
We have pleasure in inviting you to enter your project for the 2021 Zumtobel Group Award which honours pioneering concepts and developments leading to greater humanity and sustainability in the built environment. Acting as a stimulus, the architectural award addresses core issues of our age. For the sixth time in a row, we have issued a public call for submissions. Please read the Entry Information and Criteria carefully before you start submitting your project. We are very much looking forward to your projects and encourage you to disseminate this call for submissions among your networks and communities.
Participation is free. Multiple submissions of different projects in the same or the respective other category are possible.
The deadline for submissions is 15 May 2021.
About the Award
The Zumtobel Group Award was established in 2007 by the Zumtobel Group and carries a total purse of EUR 120,000 for 2021. Today it ranks among the most respected awards in the world of architecture. The two categories, each sponsored by a Zumtobel Group brand, are:
New Special Prize for Innovation
For the first time, the 2021 Award will also include a Special Prize for Innovation, sponsored by Tridonic brand. Projects from both categories can qualify for this award if they stimulate outstanding innovations and smart resourceful solutions in the built environment or urban infrastructure, addressing creative concepts that serve human needs and reduce environmental impacts. Through this new addition to the award, the Zumtobel Group is setting a sign to value interdisciplinary and future-looking research work.
Point of Departure
In view of the finite nature of the earth’s resources, the issue of sustainability is charged with social, ecological and economic significance. In the built environment, architects, urban planners, engineers and related disciplines are challenged to engage with these issues by combining scientific knowledge, technical innovation and design ideas with courage and a strong sense of responsibility.
Founding of the Zumtobel Group Award
For many years the Zumtobel Group (with its Zumtobel, Thorn and Tridonic brands) has made sustainability and energy efficiency key objectives in the production, function and application of its products. Aware that significant, innovative solutions in architecture and urban planning can help cut global energy consumption and boost the general quality of life, the Zumtobel Group decided to initiate the Zumtobel Group Award – Innovations for Sustainability and Humanity in the Built Environment in 2007. The Zumtobel Group Award recognises outstanding architectural and technical achievements. It commends sustainable solutions, pioneering social initiatives, research projects and applied innovations in the built environment.
Curated and organised by Aedes Architecture Forum Berlin, the award acts as a stimulus for new developments and concepts in the built environment that help meet current and future demands for improved urban living conditions and energy needs.
Criteria
The Zumtobel Group Award honours contemporary realised or conceptual works of exceptional innovative content, design, technology and construction. Submissions must make a significant contribution to greater humanity and sustainability in the built environment.
The Zumtobel Group Award aims to:
The Zumtobel Group Award 2021 is presented in two categories: Buildings and Urban Developments & Initiatives. The jury will nominate five projects in each category and from among these five finalists will select the winner in each of the two categories.
Buildings Category
This category – sponsored by the Zumtobel brand - is dedicated to architecturally outstanding buildings or complexes realised within the last four years (15 January 2017 until 15 May 2021). The winning submission will constitute an innovative, sustainable and socially beneficial contribution to the built environment. Applying the latest technologies, new materials and creative design concepts, it will lead to a distinct improvement in the quality of life. The award will go to an implemented building or complex of exceptional architectural merit, but also includes projects dealing with the re-use, conservation or refurbishment of existing structures or the addition of new components.
Applications are submitted online and should include:
Buildings Category
New buildings, re-use, conservation or refurbishment of existing structures or the addition of new components.
Contact Data
• Background of applicant and represented organisation (max. 600)
Project Details
• Brief Project description (max. 700 characters)
Presentation Requirements
• Background (including location, brief, commissioner)
• Concept
• Aspect of innovation (including new technologies/methods/modes of use)
• Design strategy (including resourceful use of materials)
• Sustainability strategy (including societal, economical, functional and ecological sustainability)
• Urban planning context and spatial approach
• Cooperation with partners/networks
• Overall aim (especially including socio-cultural context + impact)
• Detailed project description (max. 3000 characters)
Upload Images
- Please append photos and drawings (section and ground plan or location/urban situation) of your project:
- min. 3 and max. 5 images, each max. 10 mb
- description images (max. 300 characters / each)
- You can upload video (optional):
- Max. size 2 GB
- Description video (max. 300 characters)
Urban Developments & Initiatives Category
Innovative urban developments and on-going research into the improved implementation of sustainability and humanity.
Contact Data
• Background of applicant and represented organisation (max. 600)
Project Details
• Brief Project description (max. 700 characters)
Presentation Requirements
• Background (including location, brief, commissioner)
• Concept
• Aspect of innovation
• Design strategy
• Sustainability strategy (including societal, economical and ecological sustainability)
• Social relevance and political context
• Cooperation with partners/ networks
• Overall aim and impact (especially including socio-cultural context + impact):
• Detailed project description (max. 3000 characters)
Upload Images
- Please append photos and drawings (section and ground plan or location/urban situation) of your project:
- min. 3 and max. 5 images, each max. 10 MB
- description images (max. 300 characters / each)
- You can upload video (optional):
- Max. size 2 GB
- Description video (max. 300 characters)
Special Prize for Innovation
This special award – sponsored by the Tridonic brand - is dedicated to outstanding innovations and smart resourceful solutions in the built environment or urban infrastructure. It addresses creative concepts that serve human needs and reduce environmental impacts.
Technological innovations could include, for example, new materials, sensors, intelligent controls, renewable means of energy generation or smart networking of the different trades such as HVAC (heating, ventilation, air-conditioning) and lighting.
The award also honours initiatives to empower a group of actors or citizens to work together to address urban challenges in more efficient and intelligent ways. This can also include original practices or inventive methods to optimise (building) processes and mechanisms.
The Special Prize for Innovation will be chosen from the projects submitted in the two categories.
Conditions of Participation
Only the project author is allowed to submit the proposal. The project author has to be at least 18 years old. Participation is not limited to certain professions, such as architects or urban planners; it is the quality of the concept and the innovative impact of the submitted project that is decisive. The submitted projects in the category Buildings have to be completed between 15 January 2017 and 15 May 2021. Projects in the category Urban Developments & Initiatives may still be in the process of realization. Realized projects may not be older than 15 January 2017. The Special Prize for Innovation will be chosen from the projects submitted in these two categories.
The digital application form is available from 25 November 2020 until 15 May 2021 at zumtobel-group-award.submit.to
Proceedings and Jury members
A first-line jury will select ten projects in each category from among the submissions. In September, the main jury of renown international experts from the fields of architecture and urban planning, design, engineering and building technology, will nominate five projects per category and select a winner for each category from among these five.
Jury members
Liz Diller, Architect / Founding Partner Diller Scofidio + Renfro / New York / USA
Alfred Felder, CEO Zumtobel Group/ Dornbirn/ Austria
Francine Houben, Architect / Founding partner of and creative director at Mecanoo, Netherlands
Zhang Ke, Architect and Founder of ZAO/standardarchitecture / Beijing / China
Dorte Mandrup, Architect / Founder of and Creative Director at Dorte Mandrup A/S, Denmark
Tobias Nolte, Architect / Founding partner of the design studio Certain Measures/Berlin/Germany
Werner Sobek, Architect and Engineer / Founder of the Werner Sobek AG / Stuttgart/ Germany
Kjetil Trædal Thorsen, Architect / Founding Partner Snøhetta / Oslo / Norway
Prices and Timeline
The price-winning projects carry a total purse of Euro 120,000 which is divided up by category as follows:
Announcement
The winners will be announced in march 2022.
Awards Ceremony
The awards ceremony will include statements and contributions by winners, participants and experts. Date, format and place will be subject to conditions at that time.
Publication
An Aedes/Zumtobel Group catalogue featuring the final nominated and award-winning projects in both categories will be published in late 2021.
Timeline
Any recourse to courts of law is barred.
For more information, please visit: z.lighting/zumtobel-group-award or www.aedes-arc.de