UNI International Architecture Design Awards - Refurbishment Category
Refurbishment ‘20 - Result Story
Background
The last 200 years have seen society evolve at a rapid pace, from the industrial revolution to the digital revolution. Urbanization has however remained to be a common thread.
Taking the fragmented urban fabric of a city, Re: Urbanism and placemaking seeks to reknit a complex set of spaces to come together within context, aiming at spatial continuity (this being both an urban and spatial issue) occurring at the architectural scale.
As cities continue to evolve, so do their programs and functions. Invariably calling for a change in the forms that make it, often crucial in ensuring that it does not fall into misuse/ disuse.
Adapting over time, can the existing fabric of the building/city assume the role of cultural memory?
Can the transitional element, acting as a bridge between the past and the future, mean that its users draw parallels with the ones that were there before them?
Can refurbishment become a way to renew the urban fabric, refurbishment being not only a matter of aesthetics but also that of social, economic, and ecological impact?
Focusing on the most basic of frameworks (typologies) of built spaces, UNI introduces Architecture (A- Z).
Challenge
‘R for Refurbishment’ aimed to bring together global design talents that explore one of our most primary needs as a population.
The challenge invited entries of spaces that are converted, renovated, restored, or retrofit, this theme aimed to recognize residential, retail, hospitality, and industrial spaces which have evolved with the utmost understanding of its user groups, its function, its adaptability, its environmental responsibility, and its urban context.
Some of the Best of competition projects are as follows:
Winning Project: Beira Mar House
By: Paulo Martins

Description: Built on a plot of land measuring 30 meters long and 2.5 meters wide, it formally establishes itself as a habitable corridor, which, from the moment of entry, is filled with moments of darkness, light, surprise, discovery, compression and, lastly, release… the backyard patio!
People’s Choice: Casa dos Oleiros
By: Paulo Martins
Description: This house is in the old part of the city, which has been in an increasing state of decline in recent years. In response to this trend, this project was aimed at taking on the contours of an archetype, in an attempt to establish a trend in the urban occupancy of the city: urban revitalization of the historic center and its occupancy by younger age groups.
Discover the design brief here: https://uni.xyz/competitions/refurbishment/info/about
Discover the full results here: https://uni.xyz/competitions/refurbishment/entries
Follow us on social media: Facebook | Instagram | LinkedIn | Twitter | Youtube
Discover other design competitions to participate here: https://uni.xyz/competitions
Popular Articles
Popular articles from the community
Faces of the Soviet Avant-Garde: Turning Moscow's Street Names into an Open-Air Museum
A network of sculptural installations across a Moscow residential district transforms forgotten architect names into spatial encounters with cultural memor
Temporary Home for Dogs: A Reversed Zoo Rethinks Animal Shelter Architecture
In Bucharest, a sinuous corridor and freed landscape flip the logic of containment, designing a shelter that works to make itself unnecessary.
Singing Woman: An Opera House That Performs Before the Curtain Rises
Ovidiu Cristian Pavel's conceptual opera house translates Estonia's choral identity into a sculpted waterfront landmark facing the Baltic Sea.
Extended Shell: Retrofitting Kolkata's Balconies as Living Urban Thresholds
A modular retrofit system recovers the social and environmental intelligence of Kolkata's historic verandas for contemporary Park Street residents.
Similar Reads
You might also enjoy these articles
Play: Fragments of Their World: Remembered Architecture Rebuilt as a Modular Playground for Refugee Camps
Tom Gardner abstracts domes, arches and towers from the homelands of displaced families into a kit of child-scaled play parts for camp settlements.
REBIRTH: A Circular Settlement Where Afghan Widows and Their Children Rebuild Life Together
A shortlisted Resile entry turns the circle into a protective ring of timber and brick, gathering homes, classrooms and gardens around a shared landscape.
The Main Dream: A Recycled Plastic Kit That Lets Refugee Children Build Their Own Playground
Thirty-centimetre interlocking cubes that connect on three axes turn play into construction, letting children author the spaces they occupy.
Lunar Spiral: A Fibonacci-Driven Moon Settlement Rising from Shackleton Crater
Golden-spiral geometry organises buried infrastructure and orbiting habitable spheres into a lunar base designed to grow as life on the Moon expands.

Comments (0)
Please login or sign up to add comments
No comments yet. Be the first to comment!