World Architectural Festival recognizes Beloit College Powerhouse
Beloit College Powerhouse Receives WAFX Prize for Re-Use From World Architecture Festival
Owner: Beloit College
Architect: Studio Gang Architects & Angus Young Associates
General Contractor: Corporate Contractors Inc.
Architects and designers address the world’s most pressing ecological and societal challenges as part of WAFX 2018.
Beloit College Powerhouse was among ten projects awarded a WAFX prize from the World Architecture Festival. The WAFX Award, supported by GreenCoat©, heralds the world’s most forward-looking architectural concepts and is awarded to future projects that identify key challenges that architects will need to address in the coming years. The WAFX Award was created in 2017. Key challenges spanned diverse topic areas comprising of: climate, energy & carbon; water; aging and health; re-use; smart cities; building technology; cultural identity; ethics; power and justice; and virtual world.
Each of the ten 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.
Re-Use – Beloit College Powerhouse by Studio Gang
Transforming a former power plant into a student union and recreation facility, Studio Gang’s Beloit College Powerhouse Project seeks to replace an old model of energy with a new model to support the health and well-being 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 maximizes its riverfront location, utilizing river water to manage the temperature of the building whilst also significantly minimizing total energy use.
The CCI team is proud to be part of this project and extend our congratulations to Beloit College and Studio Gang. Good luck in Amsterdam!
