Architizer’s 14th A+Awards judging is dwell! Subscribe to our Awards Publication for updates on Public Voting and the massive winner reveal later this spring.
Whereas cohesion is commonly the protected route, we architects have all the time had a delicate spot for materials contrasts that, on paper, shouldn’t fairly work, and but someway do. However when the road is evident, the outcome can really feel sharper and extra intentional than any rigorously matched palette.
And at a time when add-ons and adaptive reuse are fairly frequent and a renewed curiosity in honoring what already exists, these materials splits have develop into much more seen. Extensions declare themselves. Insertions refuse to mimic. However the technique isn’t restricted to simply renovations. Even new builds are embracing deliberate divides to make clear construction, sign perform or just set up id.
This assortment spotlights eight tasks that draw that line with confidence. Initiatives the place distinction isn’t an unplanned facet impact, however the organizing concept.
Virunga Mountain Spirits Distillery
By BE_Design, Musanze, Rwanda
Jury Winner, Structure +Low Value Design, thirteenth Annual A+AwardsPopular Alternative Winner, Structure +Low Value Design, thirteenth Annual A+AwardsSpecial Point out, Factories & Warehouses, thirteenth Annual A+Awards
On the foot of the Virunga Mountains, this 1,100 sq. meters distillery is organized round a transparent materials divide. Designed for Virunga Mountain Spirits, a women-led Rwandan firm, the constructing locations manufacturing at its middle and wraps it with a thick inhabitable wall.The distillery room occupies a clear and semi-transparent quantity that exposes the total peak of a 10-meter copper and stainless-steel nonetheless. Daylight enters freely, turning the technical course of into one thing seen and shared. Surrounding this luminous core, hand-shaped volcanic rock partitions type a dense outer ring that comprises workplaces, tasting areas and storage.
The Refinery at Domino
By Observe for Structure & Urbanism | PAU, Brooklyn, New York
Jury Winner, Business Adaptive Reuse Initiatives, twelfth Annual A+AwardsPopular Alternative Winner, Business Adaptive Reuse Initiatives, twelfth Annual A+Awards

Few industrial conversions have been as carefully watched because the transformation of the previous Domino Sugar Manufacturing unit Refinery. As soon as constructed for sugar manufacturing, the landmark construction has been reworked into modern workplaces by a transparent architectural incision: a brand new constructing inserted throughout the outdated masonry shell.
The unique brick stays heavy and scarred, its small home windows recalling a time of managed mild and intense labor. Set again from this envelope, a freestanding glass and metal vault introduces tall, accessible flooring plates and daylight-filled atria. The distinction is intentional and sharp. Weathered masonry holds reminiscence and mass, whereas the brand new inside type reads as mild, exact and overtly fashionable, establishing a agency line between preservation and current use.
A TOUCH OF NEW
By ARISTIDES DALLAS ARCHITECTS, Tinos Regional Unit, Greece

Within the village of Triantaros, the place homes have grown regularly by cautious additions, this residence follows the identical logic whereas making the second of change express. The venture begins with an current Tinian stone construction, which is retained because the grounded base of the home. As a substitute of extending it in stone, a fair-face concrete quantity is positioned above, held aside by a steady horizontal slit that marks the junction between eras.
This hole, crammed with glazing, brings mild into the depth of the plan and frames distant views, whereas making the development sequence legible. The tough, load-bearing stone speaks of native constructing traditions and accrued labor, whereas the graceful concrete sitting above reads as intentional and modern. The home tells its story by this measured separation, permitting outdated and new to coexist with out imitation.
Arghavan (Cercis) Business Challenge
By 13 Levels Structure Studio, Yazd, Iran
Common Alternative Winner, Structure +Innovation, thirteenth Annual A+Awards
This venture elevates wicker weaving from a rural method to an architectural system, utilizing branches of the Cercis tree to type a full constructing shell. What’s often non permanent and light-weight is right here organized, detailed and glued in place.
The woven display stands earlier than a traditional structural body, creating a transparent separation between load-bearing building and climatic envelope. Its porous floor filters Yazd’s intense solar and moderates warmth, performing as a breathable membrane quite than a sealed wall. The distinction lies within the assembly of scales and values: fragile branches assembled by hand set in opposition to city mass and commonplace constructing strategies, remodeling low-cost natural materials right into a everlasting civic façade.
VJC Iporaga Home
By Marina Salles Arquitetura e Interiores, Guarujá, Brazil
Set on a steep, forested website in Guarujá, VJC Home is organized as a vertical sequence of platforms stepping down the terrain. The decrease ranges are partially embedded within the slope and include the non-public rooms, whereas the higher flooring opens towards the cover and distant sea.A concrete construction establishes the primary slabs and roof airplane, giving the home a transparent geometric define. Inside this body, vast glass panels and slatted timber screens outline the residing areas. The wooden wraps the center ranges as a permeable layer, filtering mild and air, whereas granite flooring prolong from inside rooms to the pool deck, anchoring the home to the bottom.
Thirty75 Tech
By Verse Design LA, Santa Clara, California

From throughout the intersection, Thirty75 Tech seems as two separate volumes positioned facet by facet. A transparent glass nook exposes the workplace flooring on to the road, whereas the remainder of the constructing reads as a dense metallic mass.
As you strategy, that studying shifts. The seemingly strong quantity is, in actual fact, wrapped in a steady layer of vertical aluminum louvers set in entrance of a curtain wall. What first feels opaque begins to disclose depth and spacing. The fins are exactly angled to fulfill photo voltaic shading targets, turning the façade right into a performative display that contrasts with the unfiltered transparency of the glass nook.
Lagar Oliq Complicated
By Play Arquitetura, SĂŁo Bento do SapucaĂ, Brazil
Oliq Restaurant completes a small architectural ensemble constructed over almost a decade round an olive oil manufacturing facility in rural Minas Gerais. What started as a easy shed for processing olives regularly expanded into an annex and, lastly, a restaurant positioned on the entrance of the positioning overlooking the valley. Every section is marked by a cloth shift. The unique mill is outlined by a broad wood roof sheltering a timber field. The annex introduces concrete and masonry, partially embedded within the slope. The restaurant continues the development with a stone-clad base and plastered higher volumes painted darkish inexperienced. The venture doesn’t disguise its evolution. Wooden, concrete and stone document totally different moments of development, giving the ensemble a layered however legible id.
Fireplace Station in Straubenhardt
By wulf architekten, Straubenhardt, Germany
This fireplace station brings collectively six beforehand impartial firefighting models on a single, strategically situated website. It was conceived in keeping with the »Cradle to Cradle« precept, an strategy to round building by which supplies are chosen, detailed and assembled to allow them to be disassembled and reused on the finish of the constructing’s life.
The venture organizes its operational, public and administrative areas by a transparent vertical stacking that’s legible from the surface.
A concrete base is minimize into the slope, containing the automobile storage, storage and all important operational services, with the north façade opening on to the road for fast deployment. Above it, an open-air deck features as parking and occasion area. The highest degree is in-built timber and wrapped in a steady white expanded metallic façade, housing lecture rooms and workplaces.
Architizer’s 14th A+Awards judging is dwell! Subscribe to our Awards Publication for updates on Public Voting and the massive winner reveal later this spring.














