The Best and the Brightest
Every year, we are beyond thrilled with the number of remarkable submissions to the AZ Awards competition. They come in from around the world; some are already familiar to us (we may have even published them in our pages), while others are completely new to our eyes. What impresses most is how each edition of our annual program, now in its 12th year, sees architects and designers reach novel heights in creatively solving problems, with equity, sustainability and community in mind.
In 2022, after careful virtual deliberation, our world-renowned jury — which you can read all about on page 60 — has chosen 24 AZ Awards winners and 46 Awards of Merit. These deserving honourees, as well as the People’s Choice favourites, are celebrated in our digital Winners Reveal (go to awards.azuremagazine.com for the complete experience, which launches on June 24), as well as in the special issue you are holding in your hands.
They are full of surprises — as well as lessons — for our increasingly complex world. Kornets Hus, an architecture winner, is hyperlocal yet global in ambition. Located in Hjørring, Denmark, the learning centre is devoted to educating visitors about the importance of grain to civilization (a powerful message in a time when climate- and war-exacerbated food shortages loom), and of the need for a return to heritage and biological methods of agriculture. Another winning project, the Stackabl furniture collection, also asks us to reassess how we typically do things: The line is made from excess materials — what factory owners call “dead stock” — scavenged with the use of a custom app that also allows end-users to determine the design of the seating.
The latter is an example of a commendable Canadian project — and it’s not alone. We were delighted to see a great number of Canadian projects competing among the international contenders. Based in Toronto and Halifax, Omar Gandhi Architect is a double winner for both a deeply personal work and an expansive urban undertaking: his own home and the new public infrastructure at Peggy’s Cove. Both show an abiding reverence for their Nova Scotia contexts.
Another double winner is a singular project: Bethesda Medical Center. Designed by Phoenix, Arizona, firm August Green, the unbuilt structure and its plant-rich landscape is a winner in Concepts and Environmental Leadership. If brought to fruition, it would provide a much-needed facility to Cap-haïtien, Haiti, and actually feed the people who work there and those who access the space for care. This exemplar of holistic circular design, one that nurtures the environment while it nourishes patients and visitors, is exactly the kind of project that needs to get built today.