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WINNERS & HONOURED

PRIX W 2023

1st price: Al traverso

Vanni Renzini, 24 years old

Italian, Graduated from the University, Florence.

and Silvia Roseto, 25 years old

Italian, Graduated from the University, Florence.

2nd price: Un héritage industriel au profit de logements sociaux

Brieuc de Norre, 24 years old

Belgian, Student from the Faculté d’architecture La Cambre Horta de l’Université libre, Bruxelles.

and Phan Dang Khoa, 26 years old

Vietnamese, Student from ENSA Paris-Malaquais, Paris.

3d price ex aequo: Laneway Village

Viet Thai Dang, 26 years old

Vietnamese, Graduated from the ENSA Paris la Villette, Paris.

3d price ex aequo: Le toit du quartier

Théo Bienvenu, 26 years old

French, Graduated from the ENSA Nantes.

and Claire Romsée, 25 years old

French, Graduated from the ENSA Nantes.

10 honourable mentions

A New Heart

Alberto Roncelli & Nicole Vettore, Graduated from the Politechno di Milano.

UNE VIE SOUS LE TOIT

Thai Hong Lim & Khac Kien Nguyen, Student from the ENSA Paris Belleville.

SETTLEMENTS UNDER THE ROOF

David Nielsen, Graduated from the Det Kongelige Akademi - Arkitektur, Design, Konservering.

A ROOF OVER EVERYBODY’S HEAD

Anna Myts, Student from Czech Technical University, Prague.

PORTIQUES DANS LES PRES

Marine Hazan & Juliette Martine, Graduated from ENSA Paris La Villette.

SHELTER-IN

Alessia Maurri & Camilla Marchionni, Students from University, Forence.

STATION TO STATION

Alexander N.C Christensen, Graduated from The Royal Academi - school of architecture, Denmark.

220.757 KM

KAY JANSEN, Student from FH Kaernten, Austria.

SIX + MORE

Benjamin Koslitsch & Samuel Grasser, Students from Carinthia University of Applied Sciences, Austria.

UN HANGAR COLLECTIF A PISE

Juliette Douillet & Nicolas, Students from Ecole d’Architecture de la ville et des territoires, Paris.

EDITO

EDITORIAL: LAUNCH OF THE PRIX W 2023

Dear students and young architects,

For the past 16 years, the Wilmotte Foundation has been promoting the meeting of heritage and contemporary creation through the organization of the W Prize.

For its tenth edition, we propose a challenge as stimulating as it is essential: A ROOF OVER EVERY BODY’S HEAD !

Rooftops shape the cities' and countryside's landscape, they draw the horizon. A roof is a protection, it is a shelter to rebuild oneself. It is a promise of a renewed family and social life.

Given the current crisis of poor housing, we invite you to imagine original solutions to design habitable modules that would be inserted under these existing and unused roofs (roofs of agricultural sheds, industrial wastelands, railway or military heritage but also former medium-sized commercial surfaces ...). You will be able to rethink these sheltered spaces and their immediate environment by developing a typology of quality housing, dignified and thought with common sense which will allow to palliate the crisis of the bad housing.

We are counting on you to innovate while respecting the constraints and stimulate your creativity to propose a project that is up to the challenge.

We are looking forward to discovering your proposals and to be able to answer this almost vital problem: how to revitalize dormant sites, and develop in the long term a new way of living in order to give back a dignified place to live to the people who need it the most?

Now it's your turn!

PROGRAM

The lack of housing is a growing crisis that is becoming universal. Homelessness is a major and additional handicap for people in difficulty. It is imperative to devise new types of accommodation to respond to the emergency situations but also to the never-ending waiting times for access to housing for many of our fellow citizens. Simple ideas which, once implemented with all the necessary pragmatism, could prove to be solutions to reduce this lack of housing and restore dignity to those, too many, who are still homeless.

Roofs shape the landscape of cities and countryside, they shape the horizon. A roof is a protection, it is a shelter to rebuild. It is a promise of a renewed family and social life.

Transition zones, commercial zones, activity zones, interfaces between urban and rural areas, city entrances have a high potential for development. On the outskirts of our cities, there are agricultural sheds, industrial wastelands but also obsolete railway infrastructures, unused military heritage and logistics sheds in commercial areas... These are millions of square meters of unused space that could change the lives of hundreds of thousands of people.

These unused spaces are the perfect stage for experimenting a new way of occupying urban edges, and expressing architecture. This allows program to revitalize dormant sites, to requalify city entrances and to develop a new way of living in the long run.

It will not be a matter of destroying to rebuild, but of using the existing framework and roofs of these empty buildings. Participants in the Prix W 2023 are invited to imagine, through architectural grafting, original solutions to reinvent housing and its immediate environment by developing a whole typology of quality housing, which will make it possible to soften this social crisis.

PROGRAM

For this new edition of the Prix W, you are invited to choose a roof typology either among those we propose or a similar typology you may know. Once the typology has been chosen, it will be a question of sliding under the framework and the existing roofs in order to imagine original solutions to invent a contemporary habitat and to revisit its immediate environment. You will thus develop a whole system of quality housing and a program allowing the creation of a neighborhood life, under and around the roof.

The 3 typologies proposed as examples are intentionally simplified so that you have the opportunity to focus on the idea and the proposal of your project that will come in it, rather than on the details and measurements of the existing roof. The same will be true if you choose another site.

BUILDING RECYCLING

The suggested place typologies have in common that they are sheltered, protected spaces with waterproofed ground. The objective is to create decent housing, achievable at a reasonable cost, in a requalified environment by sliding living volumes under the roofs. We expect a simple, economical, frugal, ecological and feasible reflection building systems. The building must be flexible in order to be able to adapt itself to uses evolving over the life of the building. In the short and medium term, this allows a sum of program to revitalize dormant sites, and in the long term to develop a new way of living.

A 'RESPONSIBLE' AND INNOVATIVE ARCHETYPE

You must think about the quick integration of program that meet an urgent need. The value of your proposal lies in the immediate effect this space can have on the population. The architecture you will propose should be modular, adaptable, responsible and inclusive. It should use local and bio-based materials.

WHICH ROOF?

In order to enable a viable system, if you choose a different roof than the ones we propose, the following rules must be respected:

It is imperative that the roof chosen is located on the urban edge, i.e. at the entrance or exit of a town.
It must belong to one of the three categories proposed: agricultural shed, railway wasteland, medium-sized logistics shed in a commercial or industrial zone.
In order to allow sufficient natural light to enter the building, it is important to choose a roof that is not oversized.
The chosen roof should have a paved floor in order to provide a sound and waterproofed base for the housing. These housing units will be composed by sliding habitable volumes under the roof.
The roof may not be pierced or moved, the aim is to use the framework as a whole, in its raw state.

A HUMAN SCALE

The proposed housing archetype should be qualitative, modular, and achievable at reasonable cost and in a relatively short period of time.
It will be necessary to plan housing surfaces ranging from one-bedroom to two-bedrooms flat.
The notion of reversibility of the new building (without foundations) is fundamental
The notion of a mixed program is important (hybrid building) to design a future living space often far from an urban center: imagine new program, even new uses