Israeli skyscraper wins top honours at 2021 CTBUH awards
CHICAGO, February 25, 2021
An Israeli office development project, ToHA Tower 1, located in capital Tel Aviv, has won big at The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) 2021 Awards in the Interior Design category.
Located in the Israeli city's Nahalat Yitsak neighbourhood, the ToHA tower complex features three office skyscrapers. ToHA 1 is the first development on the site and a second 75-storey tower is also underway.
The two buildings will be connected via an elevated walkway, and the taller will also be elevated on a slim support to maximise the open space on the ground floor.
The first tower comprises 28 floors, was completed in 2019 while the second tower is slated to be inaugurated in 2024.
The 'iceberg-inspired' tower - with an angular glass exterior that widens in the middle - has been designed by British-Israeli designer and architect Ron Arad and the ToHA Tower 1 was the only winner from the Middle East region in the Interior Design category.
The others who made it to the winners list are: L'Oréal Headquarters Düsseldorf (Germany); Leeza SOHO - Beijing and One Excellence - Shenzhen (both China); Rosewood Bangkok Hotel (Thailand); Sixty Martin Place and UTS Central - both Sydney - (Australia); The Independent - Austin (US); The Warsaw HUB (Poland).
In addition to the interior design category, the CTBUH also announced the winners of 2021 Award of Excellence in Renovation category.
These are Hanwha Headquarters - Seoul (South Korea); Hudson Commons and The Woolworth Tower Residences - both New York City (US); Necker Laboratory - Paris (France); Shinjuku Sumitomo Building - Tokyo (Japan); LondonHouse - Chicago (US) and The Residences of 488 University Avenue - Toronto (Canada).
Announcing the winners, CTBUH said these winning projects reflect that, in the first instance, operational and environmental requirements of tall buildings can change rapidly.
The most sustainable response to a change in these requirements is to undertake a significant renovation. In the second, while a tall building’s initial appearance on the skyline grabs most of the headlines, the occupant experience of the interior is crucially important, it added.
According CTBUH, the Award of Excellence Winners will now move on to the next stage of the Awards Programme, in which the owner/developers and design/engineer teams for the projects will compete in the CTBUH 2021 Tall + Urban Innovation Conference for “Best in Category” distinctions.
The conference will take place online on a dedicated virtual portal from May 18 to 20. The conference will include several program tracks discussing hot topics in the urban development and tall building industry. Additional category winners will be announced at later dates, it added.
The CTBUH is the world’s leading nonprofit organization for those interested in the future of cities.
Founded in the US in 1969, the CTBUH member network embraces more than one million professionals working in all building industry sectors in almost all countries of the world: investors, owner-developers, occupier-tenants, government agencies, urban planners, architects, engineers, contractors. It has offices in Chicago, Shanghai and Venice.-TradeArabia News Service
