Every two years, the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the International Paralympic Committee (IPC), and the International Association of Sports and Leisure Facilities (IAKS) present the architectural awards for the best international sports and leisure facilities.
This year, 4 gold, 7 silver, and 7 bronze awards were presented in Cologne, where the only Hungarian architect, Péter Bordás, was the only one to receive the highest gold award for his design of the Aquaticum Water Park in Debrecen. Bord was thus awarded alongside internationally renowned star architectural practices such as Bjarke Ingels Group (CopenHill), Nikken Sekkei (Ariake Gymnastics Centre), and Populous (Tottenham Hotspur Stadium).
Photo by Szabolcs Kandert
A video of the Debrecen beach spa can be seen here.
Previous awards
This is not the first international architectural recognition for the Aquaticum: already in the design phase, the Water Park was named one of the best tender designs of the last period by the Dutch Mark Magazine, which focuses on contemporary architecture, and was also awarded a prestigious sustainability prize (Green Good Design Award) and numerous articles in the international press. In January, for example, the building was featured on the cover of the RIBA Journal (the UK’s largest-circulation architecture magazine).
Bord Architecture Studio was a finalist in two categories of the A+ Awards, the largest international architecture platform, and was shortlisted in the ‘Aquaticum’ Water Park in Debrecen: in the ‘Gyms and recreation centers’ category and in the ‘Architecture + Engineering’ category of the special ‘PLUS’ award.
Although the Debrecen beach was ahead of other projects in both categories in the public vote, Aquaticum Debrecen Strand won the jury’s prize in the Architecture + Engineering category.
The Aquaticum was ahead of buildings such as Dubai’s Museum of the Future, which won the People’s Choice Award, the Skyboat in China, the Paper Store Museum in Cambridge, and the Crystal, a horizontal skyscraper in Chungking.
Source: dehir.hu
