AIAVT hosted its Annual Meeting & Design Awards on December 13th, 2018 in which Birdseye was the recipient of three design awards this year for the following projects:
AIAVT Merit Award – ADK Camp
Jury Comments: This lake house for two families was an early favorite among the jury. It was one of the few projects that thoroughly redefined its site with the introduction of a new building that clearly contrasted in scale and expression with the existing buildings on the site, casting them into entirely new light. While significantly larger than the existing adjacent structures and establishing a new center of gravity for the site, the house modulates this potentially jarring contrast by reducing this imposition through its broad, low-slung form and dark color. The house stands back away from the lakefront, retreating just into the edge of the woods, enveloped in shadow. The historic boathouses at the water’s edge stand out against this new building. There is an effective and striking contrast between this dark exterior and the monolithic light wood interior. The jury appreciated how well-crafted and cleanly articulated the new house was inside and out, and noted the disciplined use of a two-tone palette of natural wood and gunmetal gray that played out consistently through the selection of furniture, fixtures and art. The strong symmetry of the planning for two families under a single, sheltering roof that comes together in a central communal area creates a compelling diagram of gathering.
AIAVT Citation Award – Hygge
Architects’ weak spot for the archetype of the primal hut was apparent in the reaction of the jury to this project; a clean, virtually platonic diagram pares the program of this little house down to some primal relationships, dramatizing the boundary between land and water, earth and sky. There is asceticism to this simplicity that implies ritual, while highlighting the most fundamental of spatial relationships – front and back, inside and out. The rigor of expression and simplicity of the material palette allows nothing to distract from these relationships. The axial path to and from the lake is uncompromising and delivers the occupant to a kind of spatial focal point. Once inside, the views to the sides and behind are restricted: The house presents the lake to you and you to the lake. The image of the context of surrounding houses was important to the jury, emphasizing the quiet, elegant simplicity that is the elusive result of a great deal of rigor and restraint. The little house sits like a moment of mindful calm amidst the hustle and bustle of the workaday world.
AIAVT Peers’ Choice Award: First Place – Lift House
As selected by voters at the Annual Meeting and Design Awards as their favorite of 46 project entries.
The Jury for the 2018 Design Awards consisted of the following members from AIA Minneapolis: Shida Du, AIA: BWBR Architects; Damaris Hollingsworth, AIA: Thor Design Plus; Michael Roehr, AIA: RoehrSchmitt Architecture; Matthew Tierney, AIA: Snow Kreilich Architects.
For more information visit www.AIAVT.org.