The Bank of China in Peking, the Mother’s Temple in Hiroshima, museums, squares, buildings made of Italian marble and technology. In the run-up to CarraraMarmotec 2005, prizes awarded to designs and companies in Florence 

Everyone is well aware by now that China is invading Italy with its goods. One is much less aware that the headquarters of Peking’sNew Bank of China have been built with the assistance of Tuscan companies and a lavish use of Italian marble and stone. Even the spectacular Hill of Hope in Hiroshima, a park and a temple dedicated to the Mother, is all made of pure white Carrara marble. And Italian materials and technology (most from Tuscany) have been largely used to build the new museums of Nagasaki and Shizuoka in Japan, squares and buildings in Singapore, Korea, Taiwan and anywhere there is a building site at work in the Middle East.

A group of these extraordinary architects and technicians has been selected over the last few days in Peking and disclosed in Florence today as the winners of the 21st Marble Architectural Award (MAA 2005), the prestigious architecture award that Internazionale Marmi e Macchine (IMM) of Carrara and ICE, in conjunction with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Region Tuscanyand Toscana Promozione, and with the aid of the bank Cassa di Risparmio di Carrara, gives to foreign designers who use Italian marble and stone (this year the award was open to buildings erected in the Far East) and to their Italian suppliers.

The press conference, held at the Faculty of Architecture of Florence University, was attended by the Head of the university degree course in industrial design, Massimo Ruffilli, and the top management of the Carrara Fair, president Giancarlo Tonini, who chaired the MAA jury, and CEO Paris Mazzanti. The emerging scenario shows definitely favourable aspects for the stone industry. And namely: whenever technology, style and quality are still at a premium over cost, Italy, Tuscany and in particular the companies of Carrara have no rivals anywhere in the world. When instead quality loses all importance, and competition plays on prices, as well as on the resources of a country as a system (facilities, services, promotion, overseas assistance, including financial assistance), the ‘made in Italy’ has a hard time.

The Marble Architectural Award is part of an intensive promotional campaign that IMM Carrara has been carrying out for a long time with the Italian Trade Commission (ICE) and Toscana Promozione, and which is delivering results also in the Far East. According to the IMM observation post on the stone industry, in 2004 the Italian exports to the Far East amounted to 468 thousand tons (+8.9%) worth 142 million euros (– 5.7), up to 184 thousand tons for China alone (+46.5%), worth 35 million euros (+40.2), a record-breaking figure that is mostly due to raw marble (+264% by quantity, +282% by value).

As usual, the MAA winners are disclosed a couple of months before CarraraMarmotec (www.carraramarmotec.com), one of the world’s greatest marble fairs, which this year will be held from June 1st to June 4th, with over 400 exhibitors and a very tight schedule of events. One of which is precisely the prize-awarding ceremony for the MAA Award.

The international jury (which included, as well as Tonini, also architect Fan Xue for the Chinese Architects’ Society, professor Qin Youguo, head of the Faculty of Architecture of the Tsinghua University in Peking, and Antonino Laspina, manager of the Peking branch of ICE) reviewed a total of 53 designs before reaching the following conclusions.

The Exterior facings section was won by Japanese architects Yoshinori Chidori and Kengo Kuma for the new Arts Museum of the Prefecture of Nagasaki, first opened in 2004. An award was given for the same building to Campolonghi ItaliaSrl based in Montignoso (Massa Carrara, Italy) for its custom-made materials and technical assistance. The special mentions include: 1) the firms Nihonsekkei (Japan) and Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates (USA) for the amazing Nihonbashi Building skyscraper in Tokyo, built, one again, with the assistance of Campolonghi; 2) to Chinese architect Wang Lu, who designed the extraordinary museum of Tiantai; 3) to the firm Raymond Woo & Associates Architects for the Equity Plaza skyscraper in Singapore, made of materials supplied by IMEG based in Viareggio, Italy.

The Interior design award was given instead to Pei Partnership Architects LLP for the headquarters of the New Bank of China in Peking and to its suppliers Furrer Spa (Carrara) and Mariotti Carlo & Figli (Tivoli). A mention went to DP Architects and Michael Wilford & Partners, the designers of the Esplanade, the new music centre of Singapore. A lavish use of Italian travertine and pietra dorata supplied by two companies from Pietrasanta, SAVEMA and TSS Europe. Finally, two equal-first prizes were won by two Japanese architects in the Urban landscape section: Kazuto Kuetani for the wonderful Hill of Hope in Hiroshima (materials supplied by Marmi Galleria Ravaccione of Carrara) and Junzo Munemoto for the Sculpture Garden, the spectacular outdoor museum of Shizuoka dedicated to Tuscan sculptor Giuliano Vangi.

Nagasaki Prefectural Arts Museum
Nagasaki, Japan 2004

At a cost of over 42 million euros, the new museum of the prefecture of Nagasaki (it houses a magnificent collection of paintings, fabrics, silverware and sculptures from Spain and Portugal), it is composed of two parallelepiped buildings split into two by a stream and screened by a sort of vertical Venetian blind made up of bands of granite anchored to steel pillars. The designers (Nihonsekkei and Kengo Kuma Associates) are to be credited with the invention of this new type of facing (a total of 12 thousand square metres of Brazilian granite) which lets light seep in, but filters out all sunlight.

Section I – External facings
Special Mention

Nihonbashi 1 – Chome building
(Tokyo, Japan 2003)

The design firm Nihonsekkei (with Khon Pedersen & Fox) also designed the Nihonbashi Building, which takes its name from the area of the port of Tokyo in which it is located. It is a 120-metre-tall, 190-million-euro office tower. The external facings required 15 thousand square metres of granite (from Spain, USA, Angola, Brazil) combined with wide, bent glazed walls. Two such different materials with which the designers means to symbolise the typical values of the finance multinationals that are situated in the Nihonbashi Building: modernity and openness to markets (glass), stability and durability (stone).

Section I – External facings
Special Mention

Tiantai Museum
Tiantai (China)

Local granite, a one-storey building, traditional building techniques. The new Tiantai museum (in the province of Zheijang) designed by Wang Lu, a young lecturer at the Faculty of Architecture of Peking, is all inspired by Chinese tradition. Clearly argumentative against his colleagues converted to Western standards. The structure consists of 4 large exhibition halls (plus offices and service rooms) and an internal patio, taking inspiration from the similarly-looking utong, the typical Chinese lower-class houses. The stone features have been deliberately given an uneven shape. The Museum, of course, houses local finds and historical and cultural exhibits.

Section I – External facings
Special Mention

Equity Plaza on Cecil Road
Singapore

Designed by Raymond Woo, one of the most famous architects in the Far East, the Equity Plaza rises 28 floors up above the heart of the business centre of Singapore, the ancestor (it dates back to 1922) and a model for the many skyscrapers by which it is surrounded today. The external facings are American red granite processed at Viareggio by the extraordinary staff of IMEG, one of the best companies that know how to find the right bend for solid stone. These slabs, over 20 centimetres thick, have been installed in the impressive base of the building.

Section II – Interior design
1^st prize

Bank of China Head Office
Peking (China)

At the entrance to the financial district of Peking, as many as 50 thousand square metres of stone (as much as it would take to face a 55-storey skyscraper) decorate the new headquarters of the Bank of China, the brainchild of Pei Partnership’s creativity. Roman travertine in a warm beige shade for the external and internal vertical walls. Italian, Spanish, American and Chinese multicoloured marble and granite for the internal floors, in a checkerboard pattern to fit in with the decoration of the walls. The building is home to 3000 employees and has a 2000-seat auditorium, a parking lot for 500 cars and 2000 bicycles, all sorts of comforts (restaurants, cafés, Internet centres, etc.).

Section II – Interior design
Special Mention

Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay
Singapore, Indonesia 2004

It took the robot machines and the experience of Savema of Pietrasanta to cut 30 thousand square metres of stone facings into the intricate rounded and sinusoidal shapes of the Esplanade, the spectacular centre (consisting of a 1800-seat Concert Hall and a 2000-seat Opera Theatre) that Singapore has dedicated to music. The Esplanade has been designed by the local firm DP Architects in cooperation with Michael Wilford & Partners, one of the most prestigious British design firms. The facings are made of sandstone (pietra dorata from Manciano) and Italian travertine, as well as Indian and Brazilian granite.

Section I I I – Urban landscape
1^st prize (equal first)

MUSEO VANGI – THE SCULPTURE GARDEN MUSEUM
(Shizuoka, Japan, 2002)

A clan of powerful bankers and great collectors, the Okano family funded, in the city of Shikuoka, a museum all dedicated to the Tuscan sculptor Giuliano Vangi, who is a real cult in Japan. It was designed by Junzo Munemoto, lecturer at the Faculty of Architecture of Kyoto, who divided the museum into outdoor exhibition areas and indoor halls. Munemoto was deeply inspired by the Zen setting of the famous gardens of his city and tried to recreate these suggestions in the wide site of the museum (25 thousand square metres), which also houses an Italian restaurant, the Okanos’ tribute to our country.

Section I I I – Urban landscape
1^st prize (equal first)

THE HILL OF HOPE
(Hiroshima, Japan, 2000)

There is a special feeling between Japanese plastic arts and white Carrara marble. A perfect example of this is the Temple of Hope in Hiroshima that the patron of the arts Kozo Kosanji wanted to be built as a monument to his mother and that was designed by the artist/designer Kazuto Kuetani, also devoted to the cult of the Mother. Erected on a hill that stands out on the backdrop of the sea, started 12 years ago and opened in 2000, the temple is still an open site where there’s room for white Carrara marble only. You just have to look at it to feel it is a veritable rib of the Apuan Alps moved to the East.