In judging the 2020 The Building category, our INDE.Awards Jury has faced a monolithic challenge – in every sense of the word. Entries into The Building partnered by Alspec have this year been incredibly strong, revealing, as juror Budiman Hendropurnomo of DCM describes it, “common threads on locality and culturally sustainable design”.

With the Shortlist now announced, we can see at-a-glance that these select projects are of an exceedingly high quality – “both in terms of original ideas and create solutions”, says Hendropurnomo.

“It seems that the more interesting and culturally sensitive design has a common interest forwards to sustainable architectural solutions. The future of architecture [zooms] into both physical as well as cultural sustainabilities,” he says.

Welcome to the Jungle House, CplusC Architectural Workshop

Welcome to the Jungle House by CplusC Architectural Workshop in Australia explores active and passive sustainability systems. Architectural innovations include an aquaponics system, a green roof with fruit and vegetable gardens, a solar panel facade with battery storage system, and an underground rainwater harvesting system. If ‘a house is a machine for living in’ (Le Cobusier), then CplusC has proven itself to be a talented mechanic.

Official partner for The Building category, Alspec, shares Hendropurnomo sentiments on the role of locality in establishing a sense of place through future-driven architecture. “Each of [the shortlisted] projects responds to it locale or culture through materiality, the materials used often tell the story of the building,” says Ross Baynham, national specification manager for Alspec.

Samsen STREET Hotel, CHAT Architects

Samsen STREET Hotel by CHAT Architects in Thailand involves the renovation of a ‘curtain sex motel’. This is one of Bangkok’s longstanding ‘unspoken’ typologies, catering to secret affairs, and as such has a unique spatial sequence. The Samsen STREET Hotel turns the existing model inside out, introducing pastel green ‘scaffolding’ components to reprogramme the hotel and create new relationships with the street. The project represents an architectural awakening for Bangkok, in a formal, tectonic, programmatic and cultural sense.

“The Building category really does showcase a new direction in the future of architecture. This aspiration towards creativity and invention is perfectly in line with our desire to push the boundaries of performance and product capabilities,” says Baynham. “The INDE.Awards are about a commitment to quality and a recognition of creativity, at Alspec, we see ourselves in the same light.”

Explore the full 2020 Shortlist for The Building category, click here.

Join us and the region’s top winners at the free INDE.Awards 2020 Digital Gala this August 13, register here.