Author: danielstatham

Invited by the Royal Institute of British Architects, Studio Founder Daniel Statham will serve as one of the nine judges for the 2022-23 Design Competition of International Islands and the Future Residence.

Humans travelling and residing in international islands is a coastal lifestyle that combines the traditional culture with the modern service. It is a desire of modern people toward a retreat on islands, leading a secluded life just like the peach blossom spring (a poem written by Tao Yuanming, a famous Chinese poet and politician during the Six Dynasties period).

2022-2023 Design Competition of International Islands and the Future Residence is thus organised to bring such intimate connection between human and island into Jiangdong New Area in the city of Haikou, China, with architectural design. With an area of approximately 298 square kilometers, Jiang dong New Area is an essential component of China (South Sea) Free Trade Experimental Area. The Competition calls for the enhancement of the community living supporting facilities, formation of a symbiotic urban life circle, provide convenient transportation, and integration of the rich environmental resource of the area into the everyday life of the local community.

Major organisers of the Competition include Haikou Jiangdong New Area Development and Construction Co., Ltd., Haikou Jiangdong New Area City Investment Co., Ltd., and the Royal Institute of British Architects.

Studio Founder Daniel Statham is invited to serve as judge alongside Dr. Christopher Pierce, Head of Visiting School at Architectural Association School of Architecture, Umi Lyu, Head of Development at RIBA China Chapter, and many leading experts within the global architectural field.

“We look forward to seeing the amazing designs that guide us to contemplate and maybe even reconsider the relationship between human residence and island in this contemporary social narrative.”

Studio Founder Daniel Statham has recently been invited to act as the judge of the forthcoming “Qingtai International Industrial Design Village Master Workshop Design Contest.”

Bird-eye view of the Master Workshop Render. Courtesy SPARK Architects.

Suzhou Qingtai International Industrial Design Village is surrounded by the wetland of Tiger Hill as well as Beijing-Hangzhou Great Canal. Located in the former Qingtai Village of Huangqiao Street, the project site, which encompasses an area of approximately 535 mu (around 88.13 acre), sits at the junction of Xiangcheng District, High-tech Zone and Gusu District, adjacent to the north extension of the West Ring Expressway and the Central North Line Expressway. The Contest aims to transform the current area into an industrial design complex with an international draftsman spirit.

This design contest invites the participation of domestic and foreign colleges, enterprises, design institutions, students, experts, and industry designers, transforming the results of the contest into the driving force to attract investment in construction. In addition, it also looks forward to making intelligent manufacturing and traditional industries more sustainable and environmentally friendly, cultivating while guiding the development of new local industry, and eventually enhancing the brand value of Suzhou City.

In order to reflect the global essence of Qingtai Design Village, as well as to envision the Village as a hub for exchange of conversations and ideas for designers all over the world, the Qingtai International Industrial Design Contest invites eight internationally celebrated architects to serve as jury.

It is both a great honor and a wonderful opportunity for Daniel Statham Studio to join hands with master architects such as Mayayuki Kurokawa in the process of contributing and perfecting the architectural environment of Suzhou Qingtai Design Village.

Daniel Statham Studio is excited to announce that Suzhou Galactic Super Campus has been recognised as the 2022 Global Future Design Awards Gold Winner in the Mixed Use Architecture (Under Construction) and Hangzhou Future Car Park as the 2022 Global Future Design Awards Gold Winner in the Transportation Architecture (Under Construction).

The two wins are testaments to the Studio’s creativity and constant effort in intertwining design with technological innovation.

“Creating a ‘Super Campus’ requires a new thought process from the original work that had been developed on this scheme to date by other design teams. Our goal, therefore, was to focus on the aspiration of the client to produce a masterplan design that has a vision and iconic land presence. A strong masterplan requires logical and strong geometry that can form efficient and flexible spaces to adapt and produce intuitive way of finding and creating community within.”

“With the reduction of carbon emission, the invention of self-driven and electric/solar energy vehicles, it is no secret that technological pioneers, including Tesla, Google, and Apple, strive to make automobiles more sustainable and environmentally friendly. Such innovation has inspired our client of the Hangzhou project to envision not only a careful reconsideration of the parking for these vehicles, but an unprecedented prototype of car parking for the future – less congestion, higher destiny, and cleaner air in our cities.”

Click here for more information about the projects

FOHO Galactic Super Campus, Suzhou, China

Future Car Park, Hangzhou, China

Click here for more information about Global Future Design Awards 2022

Global Future Design Awards

On July 30th, Studio Founder Daniel Statham was invited as guest speaker to the 12th Global Master Architects Forum to deliver a keynote speech on “Forking Paths.” Afterwards, Daniel joined Professor He Jingtang, Academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering, and Dr. Wang Shaosen, Dean of the School of Architecture and Civil Engineering at Xiamen University, for an insightful conversation regarding the interdiscriplinary nature of architectural practices of today.

This year’s forum was sponsored by Xiamen Municipal Natural Resources and Planning Bureau, Xiamen Construction Bureau, and China Xiamen International Stone Fair Committee, and co-organized by the School of Architecture and Civil Engineering at Xiamen University, Xiamen Planning Bureau, and Xiamen Engineering and Consulting Association. Journal of Human Settlement in West China, AC (ArchiCreation), Strait City, New Architecture, Planner, Academy of Architecture and many other media presses demonstrated generous supports to the Forum.

As an experienced architect, Daniel completed the majority of his works in the so-called “borderless” status. In his early years, Daniel has worked, studied, and traveled all across the globe, including Singapore, Brazil, Venezuela, the United States, Egypt, South Africa, India, Malaysia, Indonesia, Japan, and many more. The diverse cultural backgrounds, geographical conditions, and social environments have always inspired him to contemplate the way of genuinely integrating architecture with its designated location.

Daniel suggested in the presentation that nowadays, any architect can find themselves in a maze-like garden of forking paths, with complicated and intertwining crossing points in front of their eyes —— childhood dream, personal interest, education background, professional development, professional peer, project client, collaborators, etc. Upon experiencing all various forking paths and making different choices, the term “architect” would be delicately coated with multiple layers of brand new meaning. It is also during this forking, amalgamating process that architecture would gradually generate an irreplaceable, unduplicatable aura of uniqueness.

May 12-14, Daniel Statham Studio Partner Ms Feng Shi was invited to Xi’an with ten UK architecture design, engineering and consulting firms led by Matt Ashworth, Commercial Counsellor, Department of International Trade, British Embassy in China. The delegation participate in the 2021 Xi’an Industrial Investment Cooperation Annual Meeting, visit the local government, enterprises and development zone, and discuss with all parties the construction and infrastructure industry chain cooperation and how to achieve the goal of energy saving, emission reduction, green and low-carbon transition.

The delegation was composed of top companies such as Aedas, Zaha Hadid Architects, Arup, Heatherwich Studio, Haskoll, Savills, etc. They had talks with the Mayor and Vice Mayor of Xi’an and other local government leaders. Visit Qujiang New District, Xi’an High-tech Zone and Xi’xian New District, and visit local enterprises including Qu Jiang Cultural Industry Investment (Group) Co., Ltd., Xian Rail Transit Group. Ms. Feng Shi, partner of the studio, introduced and demonstrated Daniel Statham Studio’s expertise and representative works of innovative, green and sustainable architecture.

The local companies show great interest in studio and we are expecting great opportunity in Xi’an in coming future.

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