The innovative Rotterdam residential building SAWA has received the Green GOOD DESIGN™ Award 2021. The building was designed by Mei architects and planners on behalf of Nice Developers and ERA Contour. In November last year, SAWA also won the first prize of the ARC20 Innovation Award. Despite the fact that the building is still in the design phase, it is already in the spotlight.
The Green GOOD DESIGN™ Award – presented by the European Center for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies and The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design – is an international prize awarded annually to exceptional projects that contribute to a healthier and more sustainable world. SAWA is praised for its innovative, daring, and circular concept, making it a deserved winner in the Architecture category.
Healthiest building in the Netherlands
SAWA will be the first 50-meter-high fully wooden residential building in Rotterdam. An exceptional feature of the project is that the building will be built in CLT (cross laminated timber), including the main supporting structure. The building is distinctive in its appearance due to the generous green terraces and is completely designed from the point of view of plants and animals, with which the building enhances the biodiversity of the district and the city. With this ‘healthiest building in the Netherlands’, a place is created that adds value to the neighborhood, by stimulating communities, a common deck, shared facilities, and connection with existing local initiatives. The future residents are actively involved in the development of SAWA and participation meetings are regularly organized. The official sale is scheduled for the summer of this year and the aim is to start construction of SAWA by the end of 2021.
About Green GOOD DESIGN™ Awards
GOOD DESIGN™ was founded in Chicago in 1950 by Eero Saarinen, Charles and Ray Eames, and Edgar Kaufmann, Jr. to promote and foster a greater public understanding and acceptance for Modern Design. Like 1950, when Modern Design was blazing a new direction in design history, Green GOOD DESIGN™ attempts to impact consumer habits, restructure manufacturing output, influence the design of cities and public spaces, and raise a consciousness about our limited global resources and the disappearance of clean air, clean earth, and clean water. The founding organizers of GOOD DESIGN™ in the 1950s introduced Modern Design to the public forefront with passion, innovation, and revolutionary zeal. With Green GOOD DESIGN® the current organizers aspire the same.
Team of experts
Mei architects and planners designs SAWA for Nice Developers and TBI company ERA Contour. In recent decades, Mei has built up a proven track record when it comes to designing and realizing innovative living concepts and valuable communities, based on shared values, both at home and abroad. After the monumental Fenix I warehouse, with which the office won no less than 11 architecture prizes, SAWA is the next promising project by Mei in Rotterdam.
SAWA is developed and designed with an extensive team of experts, including Pieters Bouwtechniek, DERIX, Pirmin Jung, Ralph Hamerlinck, DGMR, Atto Harsta, Piet Vollaard, Bureau Stadsnatuur en Copijn. De Wijde Blik Communicatie and Kettner Makelaardij are involved in the promotion and sale of the apartments in SAWA.