Search
Staff Board of Directors SAH Committees News Advocacy SAH IDEAS Initiative Charnley-Persky House

Studio Gang: Beloit College Powerhouse is World Architecture Festival Overall Winner

Nov 13, 2018 by SAH News
World Architecture Festival (WAF) has revealed the winners of ten WAFX prizes, supported by WAF sponsor GreenCoat®, with the overall prize awarded to Studio Gang, for its Beloit College Powerhouse Project in Wisconsin, USA. The prizes are awarded to future projects that identify key ecological and societal challenges which architects are actively seeking to address over the next ten years. These challenges span diverse topic areas including climate change, energy saving and carbon emissions, water wastage and shortage, ageing populations and health issues, reusable materials, smart cities, building technology, cultural identity, ethics and power and justice.

The prize winners will be given the opportunity to present their projects live at the World Architecture Festival on 28th and 29th November, with the overall winner receiving a prize at the Festival’s star-studded Gala Dinner on the 30th November, the culmination of the three-day event at the RAI convention centre in the Dutch capital, Amsterdam.
 
The WAFX judges were impressed by the diversity of innovative approaches by architects and designers across the globe, which varied from innovative solar panel fields in The Netherlands, to urban green corridors in Bangkok, eco farms in rural Vietnam and river parks in Colombia.

Transforming a former power plant into a student union and recreation facility, Studio Gang’s winning Beloit College Powerhouse Project seeks to replace an old model of energy with a new model to support the health and wellbeing of its many inhabitants. The Powerhouse is designed to become a centre for human energy, activity and health. Nestled between the Rock River and the college’s campus, the Powerhouse will serve as a recreational resource and a community forum, all the while fostering a public connection to the riverfront - embracing it rather than polluting it - that foregrounds the connection between human and environmental health. The judges were impressed not only with the repurposing of its cavernous industrial spaces, but with how the project maximises its riverfront location, utilising river water to manage the temperature of the building whilst also significantly minimising total energy use.

Read full article with photos here.

Jeanne Gang, FAIA, founding principal of Studio Gang co-chaired the 2010 SAH 70th Anniversary Benefit, and has been an SAH member since 2014.