Six students from the Institute of Architecture and Design won the 6th LIXIL International Student Architectural Competition in Japan. In addition to the prize of $15,000, the students will realise their winning proposal - a sustainable, mobile house - together with the acclaimed Japanese architect, Kengo Kuma (KKAA).
This year’s LIXIL competition focused on the environment and the theme of ‘Comfort and Lightness’. Entrants had to design a sustainable, mobile house for five people, located in a particular area of meadowland in Hokkaido, Japan. The idea was for the mobile house to enable its residents to live comfortably and close to the surrounding countryside at all times of the year.
For several months, the six KADK students worked on their competition project, ‘Infinite Field’ under the guidance of Professor Anders Brix. The team was selected for the finals along with two teams of students from the École d’Architecture de Paris La Villette and Yokohama National University, over students from the likes of ETH (Zurich) and Cornell University (New York).
Infinite Field will be built in Japan
For the finals, the three teams had to devise a final project plan for their houses. On the basis of these, the jury, headed by Kengo Kuma, selected the KADK team as the winner of the competition. Three of the students are now in Tokyo, where they are working to finalise the production drawings together with Kengo Kuma’s studio, so the house can be produced and constructed on the Memu meadows by October.
Peter Thule Kristensen, Head of Subject in the School of Architecture, is delighted with the excellent result: “It is wonderful that students from the KADK School of Architecture have once again won the first prize in an international competition with an excellent, well-conceived project. It is all the more important to be well represented internationally, when the labour market is becoming increasingly global.”