The Swiss Architectural Award 2022 belongs to Xu Tiantian of DnA Design and Architecture

The eighth Swiss Architectural Award 2022 went to DnA Design and Architecture’s founder, Xu Tiantian, from China. The Fondazione Teatro dell’architettura de Mendrisio established the biannual Award in 2018 to recognize young leaders under 50 who have completed at least three noteworthy projects and whose work exhibits a great awareness of the discipline’s current ethical, aesthetic, and environmental challenges.

©Rujie Wang for PIN-UP

Swiss Architectural Award 2022

The eighth edition of the Swiss Architectural Award 2022 reaffirms the collaborative effort between the three Swiss Schools of Architecture USI – Accademia di Architettura, Mendrisio; EPFL – ENAC, Section d’Architecture, Lausanne; ETHZ – Departement Architektur, Zurich, supported in the jury, chaired by architect Mario Botta, by their supervisors, Walter Angonese, Dieter Dietz and Tom Emerson. The Università Della Svizzera Italiana – Academy of Architecture provides overall organizational support to the Award.

Working with a panel of internationally known architects and architecture critics, the Swiss Architectural Award has again proven that it is one of the world’s best-equipped and most prominent architectural honors.

Xu Tiantian, born in 1975 in Fujian, China, received the most prevailing Swiss Award for three of her projects:

The reuse of the Shimen Bridge over the Songyin River
The tofu factory in Caizhai Village
The reuse of the Jinyun quarries

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Reuse of the Jinyun Quarries (2021-2022) ©Wang Ziling, DnA_Design and Architecture

Tiantian holds a bachelor’s degree in architecture from Tsinghua University in Beijing and a master’s degree in urban design from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design. Tiantian established her DnA Design and Architecture practice in Beijing, China, after getting expertise in the architectural profession under OMA.

DnA Design and Architecture is a multidisciplinary practice that moves between small- and large-scale projects while being conscious of their physical and social surroundings. The Chinese architect pays close attention to each project’s context and criteria, along with their relationship, allowing her to identify the heart of each project.

Tofu Factory ©Ziling Wang

Most of Tiantian’s projects have been developed in the Songyang and Jinyun counties of China’s Zhejiang province, which are wild, undeveloped, and unspoiled places with untouched natural landscapes and Vernacular architecture and construction techniques that continue despite the influence of modernity.

However, these districts, like other rural areas that have remained firmly opposed to modern urban advances, face the threat of habitat loss, with the majority of today’s youth migrating to urban areas in search of better means and modes of working and living.

Only under the direction of Xu Tiantian, DnA Design and Architecture suitable application to the region’s public deficiencies, including a bridge connecting two villages, a tofu factory enabling the improvement of the production process, and the revival of several quarries to satisfy meditative spots for reading and studying, staging performances, and presenting expositions.

The Jinyun Quarries’ reading spaces ©Wang Ziling

Xu Tiantian provided physical assistance to the community and aimed for a cultural resurgence. Despite Tiantian’s structural enhancements, the dominance of natural elements maintains the space’s attractiveness while accommodating functional services in the landscape’s niches and nooks.

All of these elements mentioned above aligned with the Swiss architectural Award 2022 objectives since the projects offer distinctive and sustainable approaches to current concerns, improving the quality of life and establishing a solid footprint in the contemporary architecture field.

From a selection of 26 applicants from 14 nations, the Swiss Architectural Award 2022 winner was chosen. On May 4, 2023, The Jury will present the award ceremony and exhibition of works by the nominated candidates at the auditorium of Università Della Svizzera Italiana’s Teatro dell’architettura Mendrisio. The monetary value of the prize is close to 102,000 euros.