2023 Vitruvian Awards

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Consistent with the Façade Tectonic Institute’s (FTI) mission strategy of bridging the silos of the fragmented building industry and bringing everyone together in a common dialogue, the Vitruvian Honors & Awards (VH&A) program includes a broad array of award categories that span industry sectors. As a non-profit, free of the constraints of commercial interests and niche industry advocacy, FTI is optimally positioned to pursue a mission that puts the pursuit of sustainability in buildings and urban habitat ahead of all else.

The 2023 Vitruvian Honors & Awards program is divided into two parts: projects and people. The project categories are outstanding new construction for low-rise, mid-rise, and high-rise buildings, outstanding façade renovation, outstanding façade heritage conservation, outstanding façade innovation, and outstanding façade integration. Two new award categories, outstanding unbuilt façade and outstanding façade research were added in 2023. On the people side, awards will be given for collaborative achievement, unsung hero, and emerging professional.

Submissions for the Vitruvian Awards will be accepted until June 19, 2023. To be eligible, built projects must have been completed in the last five years. Finalists will be notified in mid-July. Winning projects will highlighted in a virtual program in September and the awards ceremony will take place on September 19^th at the Center for Architecture in New York City. As in 2021, FTI will publish a book with information and photos on the winning projects. Click here to see the 2021 Vitruvian Book.

This issue of SKINS emphasizes how sustainability connects to the VH&A program. You will notice that there is no “sustainability award” category in the program. We believe that sustainability is an overarching consideration, integral to all award categories, as reflected in the award criteria developed by FTI. We, the judges, will keep considerations of sustainability in the forefront as we judge all the various award categories, including new award categories announced for the 2023 VH&A program, outstanding unbuilt façade and outstanding façade research.

We are fortunate to have a broad array of experience, expertise, and geographical representation on our jury this year. Achilles Ahimbisibwe is an architect and Associate Dean at Uganda Martyrs University. Julia Gersovitz is the Co-founder of EVOQ Architecture in Montreal, and also a Professor of Practice at McGill University. Ulrich Knaack, Professor at TU Delft in the Netherlands, returns after serving on the 2021 Vitruvian Awards jury. We also welcome back to the jury Karen Brandt, senior principal at Heintges in San Francisco, and Kelly Sutherlin McLeod, principal at Kelly Sutherlin McLeod Architecture, Inc. in Long Beach, CA. A project winner in 2021, Paula Lavarello, a principal at Zas Lavarello & Associates in Buenos Aires, Argentina, rounds out our jury for 2023.

We asked our jurors to point to resources they felt important to the facades community. We’ve included some as features in this issue of SKINS as follows (others will be included in future issues this year):

The first resource addresses sustainability and historic preservation. The information comes from the Whole Building Design Guide, a comprehensive web-based guide developed by the National Institute of Building Sciences in the United States.

The second feature highlights ten of the most sustainable buildings in South America. Published on the Rethinking the Future (RTF) website, this article combines excellence in project design with a sustainability metric.

The third addresses issues of sustainability and construction in Africa. This project was part of the Collaborating Centre on Sustainable Consumption and Product (CSCP), an international nonprofit organization initially formed as a collaboration between the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) and the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy.

The fourth resource comes for the U.S. Department of Energy and tackles the subject of retrofits and ways of saving energy.

The fifth paper comes from Dr. Lucio Blandini. His paper, Innovative Facades for Sustainable Architecture, was presented at the 2022 World Congress. It focuses on six case studies that utilize different design strategies to lessen embodied and operational energy.

We hope you enjoy the content of this edition of SKINS. Please share with us your outstanding projects and people by submitting them for a Vitruvian award!

Daniel Artzmann
Schüco Int.KG
Vitruvian Honors & Awards Chairman

Rowan Georges
Skidmore Owings & Merrill
Jury Captain

The SKINS Team:

Mic Patterson, Facade Tectonics Institute
Executive Editor

Val Block, Facade Tectonics Institute
Associate Editor

Brienna Rust, SGH
Christopher Payne, Gensler
Content Editors

Nick Carrillo, WWCCA
Event Calendar Editor

Alberto Alarcon, Kuraray
Event Calendar Editor