ArchDaily's Building of the Year 2021 Finalists Determined

From January 26 January to February 10 2021, online voting took place on My ArchDaily. Users chose the best designs from 2020 published projects in 15 categories.

The names of the finalists in the «private home» category.

1.Qishe Courtyard, Beijing. ARCHSTUDIO architects

Reconstructing a traditional Chinese residence with three courtyards. The main challenge —is to unify the old and new into one whole. The original pine frame was preserved, repaired, and reinforced while maintaining the traditional look. Many elements, including woodcarvings, were restored. But new rooms and amenities have also been added: a bathroom, a kitchen, a garage, a porch and piping.

(Upd. 02/18/2021 This project won the competition.)

The new veranda, doors, and windows use laminated bamboo panels (a new material that looks like wood and feels like steel), which echoes the old pine.

The roofing system uses waterproofing materials with good thermal insulation, preserving the original gray tile roofs. The curved roof of the new porch is in smooth polymer mortar. The building walls have been restored by reusing gray brick from demolished blocks in the courtyards.

2. CH House, Hanoi. ODDO architects

Home for three generations of families, an attempt to create an island of tranquility in the noisy chaos of the city. The site, on which the house  — is elongated, tubular, 4,2 m by 35 m.

The shape of the plot, in which the house — is located.

The façade of the house is double. Outer layer —of perforated cement blocks, and inner —glazed steel frame. The double layer facade protects from sun, dust and provides natural ventilation. Large windows on the upper floors give even more light and highlight the facade.

Functionally, the house is also divided into two parts: The lower 2 floors —under commercial activities, the upper floors —family.

3.Stairway House, Tokyo. Architects nendo

The house is designed for two families and turned with a fully glazed façade to the south to give as much light as possible to the living space. To erase the generational divide, a «penetrating staircase was designed between the exterior and interior, beginning outside the house and extending all the way up to the third floor. Inside the «staircase» are the bathrooms and the staircase itself for actual use.

4.Brick Vault House, Spain. Space Popular architects

This is a prototype country house trying to combine in industrial construction methods with traditional Valencian craftsmanship. The house is like a constructor, with a green steel frame and load-bearing brick vaults and plasterboard partitions. The modular system allows you to make a variety of terraces and verandas in different modifications. So while maintaining a certain level of standardization in the design, you can get different house configurations and avoid repetition.

5.HOUSE (Human’s Optional USE), Vietnam. H&P Architects

This project won't shock you with its scale and excess. Instead it's a basic rapid construction project for vulnerable, disaster-ridden, flooded, displaced, low-income communities.

The house consists of three main parts: a reinforced steel frame, a double-layer covering, and utilities.

The steel frame is made of steel tubing (15×15 cm) with multiple points of connection, which allows multiple floors to be built. The frame also allows you to form a house on piles (for mountainous terrain) or lay the foundation in a floating house supported by many barrels from below.

The roof can be covered with locally available materials like brick, steel pipes, corrugated iron, etc. The roof has solar panels and a sprinkler system for cooling the roof. There are also systems for reuse of water for domestic needs.

Which project did you like best? We're rooting for Stairway House.

There's still one more week to vote. Winners will be announced February 18 2021 year.

The ArchDaily Awards will be announced.

The ArchDaily’s Building of the Year Awards are annual and have been around for 12 years. The winners are chosen not by a jury but by the readers through an online voting process.

The ArchDaily’s Building of Year Awards is an annual event that has been around for 12 years.