Laureates – Azure magazine – "1st Annual AZ Award winners announced"

“Last night at Toronto’s Harbourfront Centre, over 300 guests were on hand to cheer on the 14 winners of our first international awards program, and to take in the newly installed AZ Awards exhibit – on all summer at Harbourfront Centre.

Members of Toronto’s design and architecture community gathered at the terrace of Toronto’s Harbourfront Centre to learn which of the 600 submissions from 25 countries were picked as winners of the first annual AZ Awards. Thanking all who entered the awards, as well as its sponsors – Audi, Ceasarstone and Keilhauer – Azure’s publisher, Sergio Sgaramella, turned the microphone over to editor Nelda Rodger, who announced the winners.

They range from a stunning all-glass Valcucine kitchen that disassembles for recycling (winner in the Best Furniture Systems category) and an ingenious portable prayer mat (the A+ student award prize), to an oceanside artist residence on Newfoundland’s Fogo Island by Todd Saunders of Norway (Best Commercial Building), and a mind-expanding concept for a vertical amusement park, dreamt up by Ju-Hyun Kim of New York. Kim’s multi-storey park, which features a skyhigh ferris wheel and spiralling water shoot, was winner of both the jury-selected Best Unrealized Concept award, and the People’s Choice.

Montreal’s Saucier + Perrotte was the biggest winner of the night, taking two top prizes: one for its exquisite urban spa in downtown Montreal, Scandinave Les Bains (Best Commercial Space), and for an expansion plan for Quebec City’s Musée National des Beaux Arts du Quebec (Best Competiton Scheme).

The 14 winners were selected by our international jury, comprised of landscape architect Claude Cormier, industrial designer Patty Johnson, architect Craig Dykers of Snøhetta, interior designer Glenn Pushelberg of Yabu Pushelberg, and designer Eero Koivisto, of Stockholm’s Claesson Koivisto Rune.

Here is the entire list of jury-selected winners, along with the 14 People’s Choice Award winners and the 38 finalists. Congratulations to everyone. Check out our July/August issue featuring all the winners and finalists, and hitting newsstands June 27 (July 7, in the U.S.).”

To continue reading the press release…

(Source: Myriam Sénécal et Marie-Laurence Lampron, Saucier + Perrotte architectes)