The Fraunhofer Portugal Headquarters, located in the UPTEC building in Porto, is among the finalists running for the “Building of the Year Awards 2011” (in the “Interiors” category), an initiative from ArchDaily.com, the world’s largest and most popular architectural platform.
Fraunhofer Portugal Headquarters was selected for the final round, among circa 30.000 candidates in 14 categories, and is now competing with other four finalists in the “Interiors” category –the Redbull New Headquarters, the AOL Offices, the MTV Network Headquarters and the No Picnic building.
It should be noted that the FhP Headquarters is one of the 10 Portuguese buildings running for this award and the only one located in Porto.
After a first round that was held until 21st February and where 5 finalists were in every category, the winners will now be selected by public voting, a process that will last until the 6th March. On the 7th March the winners in each category will be announced.
Users can vote for their favorite project in the ArchDaily website as long as they register for it, being able to vote once a day.
The Fraunhofer Portugal Headquarters is a project of Pedra Silva Architects and was inaugurated in May 2011. According to Pedra Silva Architects, the Fraunhofer’s innovative philosophy and the Fraunhofer Innovation Center in Stuttgart were the main sources of inspiration: “our design took into account Fraunhofer’s innovative philosophy trough a message that is simple, but at the same time positive and dynamic. Workplace layout and organizational elements from Fraunhofer Office Innovation Center in Stugard (Germany) were also an important input to the project, adding another layer to our concept.”
Indeed, Fraunhofer Portugal Headquarters interior is highly “innovation-friendly” and its usability was already recognized by Fraunhofer AICOS collaborators – a survey carried on among them in order to evaluate their opinions on the new building showed that the vast majority is fully satisfied with it and considers it to be “optimal to achieve top notch results”.
You can find more details about the building, from an architectural point of view, in its ArchDaily.com webpage
Source: 22.02.2012, Fraunhofer Portugal