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Institutional care can be beautiful, June's FRAME Awards winner shows

BOOKMARK ARTICLE

With soft lines and a timber build, June’s FRAME Awards winner shows us how the design of a reform school in Finland is made to express care in more ways than one.

Anttinen Oiva Architects takes the June winner’s crown with Lagmansgården Reform School, a calming timber building complex housing a safe, home-like rehabilitative environment for special needs youth. Submitted in the Learning Space category and taking home a total score of 8.53, the project impressed the jury with its serene setting and beautiful construction. The Finnish reform school shows ‘the world how good care infrastructure can be,’ wrote Sam Derrick, Awards juror and managing director at Brinkworth.

 Above and top: Kalle Kouhia

In a landscape where care institutions for children too often resemble the ‘classic’ institutional architecture of hospitals or prisons where children are reduced to numbers, this one elevates the standard. At this reform school, 20 accommodation rooms across four units give children a calm, reflective environment to grow. The incorporation of energy efficient systems such as geothermal heating, solar power and low construction-phase emissions made the project as climate-friendly as possible, too.  

Photo: Akira Arai

In close second with a score of 8.43 is the honourable mention project Kumoo, a furniture system designed by Hakuten and Studio co to reflect values of collaboration, play and co-creation (Furniture, 8.42). The system is designed for use in schools, taking a two step approach: ideation and execution. In the first step, children test their ideas by building with 1:10 scale models of the furniture, which consists of panels, bases and joints. Then, they work together to assemble the furniture at full scale, which can be done freely and without tools. The goal of the project was to position children not a s passive users of space but as active designers, encouraging them to think spatially, make decisions and collaborate with their peers. ‘Very powerful,’ writes jury member and SJK Architects partner Sarika Shetty, noting how Kumoo is ‘a simple yet smart way of placemaking at the user’s own discretion.’

 Photo: Takuya Seki

Tyfa/Takaaki Fuji + Yuko Fuji Architecture gets the second honourable mention for June with a stacking chair that accommodates both floor-sitting and chair-sitting cultures. One single module of Wind Stories-01 is low like a floor cushion, but as they stack higher, they transform from a low stool into higher chairs. The wooden frame of the modules are covered entirely with rattan by skilled traditional Japanese furniture craftsmen and the stacking mechanism is virtually invisible, contributing to the elegance of its form.

 Photo: Daisuke Shima

The Shodaiji Columbarium by Upsetters Architects disrupts the traditional columbarium typology, providing an alternative to the existing formats of shelf-like spaces or prayer rooms to which remains are delivered mechanically (Cultural Space, 8.08). The prayer area is shaped like a fan, gently orienting its visitors to face the centre of the space, where ceremonial offerings take place. Natural textures and materials are incorporated with great care into the space, creating a quiet and personal realm for the bereaved. The studio ‘delivers quiet, respectful reflection in its simplicity and materials, says juror Kevin Maclachlan, CEO at NomadK.

 Photo: HE Chuan from Here Space Photography

 ‘A Mondriaan in 3D,’ wrote jury member Peter Meinders of SFEEL Design Hotel – Chunxi Road IFS (Hotel, 8.06). The final June FRAME Awards runner-up has, according to the lecturer at Saxion University of Applied Sciences, ‘smoothly finished and good sized spaces,’ with the lighting being an ‘asset to the serene atmosphere.’ The Chengdu hotel by Harmo Design sports a white atrium with a sculptural staircase and red pill-shaped elevator, a surprisingly clean contrast to the more cosy, rounded interiors of the hotel rooms. Throughout the hotel, there is a rhythm of subtractive forms that unifies it as a whole.  

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