Building of the Year 2015

A tower with a photovoltaic facade is Building of the Year: With 20 percent of the votes, Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture's (AS+GG) FKI Tower in Seoul, South Korea, has won the Building of the Year 2015 on American-Architects.

FKI TOWER bested the other projects featured as Building of the Week last year, in which the theme focused on buildings overseas designed by US architects and the inverse: buildings in North America designed by foreign architects. Chicago's AS+GG designed the 50-story, 240-meter tower for Seoul's Yeoido District, which mandated that new large-scale commercial buildings generate at least 5% of their energy onsite. In response, the architects covered the glass tower in a high-performance envelope with a "rippled" profile that provides sunshade and is integrated with photovoltaic (PV) panels. It is an ingenious solution to the mandate and a valuable precedent for building sustainable towers, and we're glad our readers rewarded the design with their votes.

Known for the 1-kilometer-tall Jeddah Tower under construction in Saudi Arabia, AS+GG has been at the forefront of designing energy-efficient, sustainable tall buildings since its founding in 2006. In addition to the curtain wall with PV panels (selectively located on the tower's four sides according to exposure and other factors), FKI Tower incorporates a number of planted atrium terraces that serve the office workers and a podium at the base with public amenities. The rippled facade, atria and podium add up to an architectural icon for Seoul.

Runner UP

Second Place (16% of votes): JW Marriott Hotel in Hanoi, Vietnam, by Carlos Zapata StudioAdd caption

Tied for Third Place (11% of votes): MUZEIKO – America for Bulgaria Children’s Museum in Sofia, Bulgaria, by Lee H. Skolnick Architecture and Design Partnership
 

Tied for Third Place (11% of votes): Vitra in São Paulo, Brazil, by Studio Libeskind