Last month, 21,415 developers and real estate executives from 74 countries met in Cannes, France, for MIPIM (Marché Internationale des Professionnels d'Immobilier), the international property market show. Attendees chose winners of the MIPIM Awards from among three nominees in each of five categories: Business Centers, Shopping Centers, Refurbished Office Buildings, Residential Developments, and Hotels and Tourism Resorts. Portuguese developer Amorim Imobiliária had two winners. A six-member international jury also awarded a Special Jury Prize to a retail project in Cologne, Germany, designed by the Paris office of Renzo Piano Building Workshop.
German retail chain Peek & Cloppenburg's new department store in the center of Cologne, by Bernard Plattner, senior designer with Renzo Piano Building Workshop, is located near the city's cathedral. The retailer wanted a modern building, but with a clear reference to tradition, through the use of wooden arches and glass, along the lines of the IBM traveling pavilion, according to the Piano firm's description.
 SPECIAL JURY PRIZE Weltstadthaus Peek & Cloppenburg Cologne, Germany Project manager: Peek & Cloppenburg KG Architect: Renzo Piano Building Workshop (Paris office) Structural engineer: Knippers & Helbig Façade: Büro Mosbacher General contractor: Hochtief Construction Area: 4,400 sm |
The building is in two parts: a classical cubic form, and a five-story glass nave inspired by the orangeries of the 19th century. The main structure consists of vertical wooden arches, spaced 2.5 meters apart, between which are placed metal strips that support the glass curtain wall. Plattner set the roof of the glass structure lower at the center of the building, to avoid rivaling the neighboring St. Antoniter church. The curvature of the site left space in front of the church for a public square.
Jury comments: The design "brilliantly mastered" the client's challenge of creating a clothing store full of daylight. In addition, the engineers and contractor solved a second difficulty related to a four-lane highway below the building that needed to be bridged. "This placed high demands on the engineers and resulted in an enormous enrichment of the city scenery," said the jury. "The formerly not very inviting gap between Schildergasse and Caecilienstrasse has now become an architectural attraction and a spacious surrounding for high-quality fashion."
This residential project, located in the Algarve along Portugal's southern coast, was developed inside an ecological reserve and integrates the first sand-bottomed swimming pool in Europe. An artificial saltwater lake surrounds the building, creating a direct
 RESIDENTIAL DEVELOPMENT The Lake Apartments Vilamoura, Portugal Developer: Amorim Imobiliária Architects: WATG, Promontorio Arquitectos, HB Hipolito Bettencourt, and Arquitectura Paisagista lda Area: 10,600 sm |
connection to the sea; this permits renewal of the natural water and encourages development of maritime flora and fauna.
Jury comments: "The originality of the Lake Apartments lies in the construction within the same development of seven residential buildings and a five-star hotel, completely distinct yet benefiting from common synergies. The project is located in the center of Vilamoura, within an ecological reserve, surrounded by the Falesia beach and the local marina."
The title "Home Office Project" refers to the British governmental department responsible for internal affairs for England and Wales—including the police, prisons, drug misuse, passports and immigration, and homeland security. This project brings together about 3,450 Home Office and Prison Service staff into what the MIPIM judges called "a flexible, cost-effective, state-of-the-art headquarters" in Marsham Street, in the Westminster section of London.
The project replaced three 1970s tower blocks (affectionately known as the "Three Ugly Sisters") that were the former home of the EnvironmentDepartment and was financed through a £274 million bond package. The government will use a private finance initiative to lease the property for 26 years, at a total rental of £311 million, from the developer, Anne's Gate Property plc. The project also includes affordable housing, high-end apartments, and retail shops.
Jury comments: The project "fosters a new community-oriented
 Business Center Home Office Project London, England Developer: Anne’s Gate Property plc Architect: Sir Terry Farrell, AIA, RIBA, Terry Farrell & Partners Design/build contractor: Bouygues Construction SA Area: 75,500 sm (office space) |
district. Cross streets have been created between the blocks, giving permeability and introducing pocket parks." The developer and contractor were "actively supportive of the need to explore a diversity of uses and restore the area to its former historical pattern."
The development is also "contemporary," the jury said, and "incorporates the best of modern design expertise and will leave its mark on the 21st century. The aim was to achieve genuine urban renewal combined with architecture integrating its surroundings."
Dolce Vita Coimbra, the first regional shopping center to be built within the Coimbra metropolitan area, is part of the Eurostadium complex, built for the Euro 2004 football (soccer) championship, which was held at various sites throughout Portugal.
Dolce Vita encompasses five retail floors, linked by a 30-meter-high glass dome, with 119 shops, a 10-screen cinema complex, a Jumbo hypermarket, parking, and a children's area. St. Louis-based Suttle Mindlin was the designer.
Jury comments: "Dolce Vita Coimbra has clearly been a great success, with more than 4.5 million visitors since it opened [in 2005]. It constitutes a new central area for the city and provides a range of services previously nonexistent or only just beginning [to be available] in the city."
Originally designed by Belgian architect Robert Goffaux and completed in 1965, this is the tallest building in Brussels' central business district, in the Saint-Josse-ten-Noode borough, said to be the poorest commune in Belgium. It served as an office for such firms as Olivetti and Belgacom, the Belgian communications company, but fell on hard times in the 1980s, when asbestos abatement was required. The building was sold to a Swedish firm, which in turn was bought by IVG in 1999.
 SHOPPING CENTER Dolce Vita Coimbra Coimbra, Portugal Developer: Amorim Imobiliária Architect: Suttle Mindlin Area: 39,734 sm |
For its €140 million renovation, IVG added a 12-story extension (by architects Eric Ysebrant of ASSAR and Philippe Verdussen of Archi 2000, b Brussels), which is appended to the tower by a triangular addition with an open lobby and congress center. Floor area was increased by 10,000 sm, to 40,000 sm. The increase in surface required a complete building reshape and structural reinforcements: welding shells on certain steel beams, adding concrete columns in the basements, and some strengthening of the foundations.
In 2005, two directorates of the European Commission (Education & Culture and Press & Communications) moved into the renovated structure.
 REFURBISHED OFFICE BUILDING Madou Plaza Brussels, Belgium Developer/owner: IVG Real Estate Belgium Lead architect: ASSAR Design architect: Archi 2000 Contractors: Herpain Entreprise SA and Strabag Bau-AG Area: 40,000 sm |
Jury comments: Madou Plaza's renovation is "probably one of the most ambitious of its kind ever undertaken" in Brussels. "Completely rethought in terms of its function, circulation routes, and relationship to its surroundings, the 34-level, 120-meter-high building has been entirely rebuilt around its original structure. The 'glazed promontory,' located in the façade, allows the recessed building ... to get closer to the typical urban street alignment and as such helps to integrate the tower in the urban grid."
This €120 million renovation of the historic Villa Speyer (1904), on the former site of the Max Planck Institute for Biophysics, resulted in Frankfurt's first five-star hotel, a 163-room, 28-suite neo-Gothic facility (now managed by Rocco Forte Hotels) situated in a parklike setting. London architect Demetri Porphyrios, an advisor to the Prince of Wales, positioned four new four-story buildings and a tower around a colonnaded courtyard lined with arcades.
Jury comments: "The originality of this hotel lies in the successful unity of historical ambience, classic architecture, and the security of a luxurious hotel."
 HOTEL & RESORT Deluxe Hotel Villa Kennedy Frankfort, Germany Developer/CM: FAY Development GmbH Architect: Porphyrios Associates Area: 28,394 sm |
Peter Cole, Jury President, Executive Director, Hammerson plc, United Kingdom
John René Frederiksen, President, The Danish Property Foundation, Denmark
Suzanne Heidelberger, Director of Real Estate, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, United States
Georges Panayotis, President, MKG Consulting, France
Bärbel Schomberg, Managing Director, DEGI - Deutsche Gesellschaft für Immobilienfonds mbH, Germany
Steve Williams, President, RICS - Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors, United Kingdom
Lofos Edison
Athens, Greece
Developer: Real Estate Development Services
Marina Towers
Beirut, Lebanon
Developer: Stow Marina sal
Architect: Kohn Petersen Fox Associates International PA
