Museum of Ocean and Surf, by Steven Holl Architects in collaboration with Solange Fabiao, 2011 - in Biarritz, France
The ”Building of the Year 2011” award winner (Museums and Libraries category) explores both surf and sea and their role upon our leisure, science and ecology. The building form derives from the spatial concept “under the sky”/“under the sea”. A concave “under the sky” shape forms the character of the main exterior space, the “Place de l’Océan.” The convex structural ceiling forms the “under the sea” exhibition spaces.
Serpentine Gallery Pavilion, by Peter Zumthor, 2011 - in London, UK
The concept for 2011 Pavilion is the hortus conclusus, a contemplative room, a garden within a garden. One enters the building from the lawn and begins the transition into the central garden, a place abstracted from the world of noise and traffic and the smells of London - an interior space within which to sit, to walk, to observe the flowers.
