Galvanized projects, from all over the World, competed at Global Galvanizing Awards 2018. The Silo, from Denmark, won the Judges’ Award and the Arts West Building, from Australia, got the Industry Award. The Magicone Water Slide, who represented Turkey in the competition, entered to the Short List.
Prizes have been awarded for the most effective and innovative use of galvanizing in architecture and civil engineering – with special attention given to projects that demonstrates the contribution of galvanizing to sustainable construction.
The Awards are organised through the international network of galvanizing industry associations and were sponsored by the International Zinc Association.
36 projects were entered through the national and regional galvanizers associations across the world. The projects have been reviewed in two separate judging processes:
- ‘Judges’ Award’ that was judged by a panel from the world of architecture and design. Bernhard Hauke (director of Bauformstahl , Germany); Burkhard Frohlich (editor of Deutsche BauZeitschrift (DBZ) – a journal for architects and planning structural engineers) and Matthew Wells (founder of Techniker, UK) took place in the panel.
- ‘Industry Award’ that was voted by the global galvanizing industry through the participating associations.
Projects were evaluated for their effective and innovative use of galvanizing in architecture and civil engineering, as well as the functionality and aesthetics of the structure. Special attention was also given to demonstration of the contribution of galvanizing to sustainable construction. The entrant’s incorporation of galvanizing in the design stages was also considered important.
The Global Galvanizing Awards were presented on 19 June 2018, during Intergalva 2018, at the Estrel Hotel, Berlin. Delegates were enthralled by presentations of each of the winning and highly commended projects.
The Silo Got the Judges Award
The judges agreed that this project combines all the practical benefits of galvanizing – robustness, suitability for offsite prefabrication, longevity – with an outstanding architectural beauty. The project has brought new life to an otherwise derelict area of Copenhagen. It is an approach that could be used for many other dull, unexciting concrete buildings.
Designed by Danish architects COBE with clients Klaus Kastbjerg and NRE Denmark, a 17-storey former grain silo and the largest industrial building in the area has been transformed into “The Silo”, housing residential Apartments and public functions.
To bring The Silo’s industrial concrete facade up to current standards, the exterior was reclad, while the interior has been preserved as raw and untouched as possible. An angular faceted exterior facade made of galvanized steel has been installed to serve as a climate shield. This has allowed the building’s characteristic slender tall shape to be maintained.
Dan Stubbergaard, Founder and Creative Director of COBE, says: “We wanted to retain the spirit of The Silo as much as possible – both in terms of its monolithic exterior and majestic concrete interior, by simply draping it with a new overcoat. The aim was to transform it from the inside out in such a way that its new inhabitants and the surrounding urban life would highlight the structure’s identity and heritage. Hence, the use of galvanized steel for the facade, which patinates in a raw way and retains the original harbour character and material feel, lending a roughness and raw beauty to the area, as in its industrial past.”
Industry Award Winner is Arts West Building
The Industry Award is judged and voted by the 
galvanizing industry itself. The global votes are collated through the worldwide industry associations.
ARM and Architectus worked with the University of Melbourne, Faculty of Arts to tailor the building for object-based learning. The learning spaces are customised for exhibiting items from the University’s cultural collections. Arts West’s distinctive facade involves ground-breaking and extremely innovative use of steel. The facade features images of selected objects from the University’s 23 cultural collections. Hence, the facade is both a passive solar-control element and an architectural manifestation of the Faculty of Arts’ pedagogical aspirations.
Galvanizing for the steel frames on the outer skin of the facade was chosen for a variety of reasons. The fins on the facade serve two purposes – to provide sun shading to the all glass curtain wall behind and to house images of objects from the Cultural Collections. The images are ‘pressed’ into the facade and reveal themselves to viewers at different times of the day and from different viewpoints. The architects say – ‘Galvanizing is of course a wonderful way to protect steelwork, but we also liked mottled and crystalline effects that galvanizing provides. It will change over time, from a bright reflective material to a dull grey. Galvanizing provided the façade with the kind of raw surface that we were after. We liked the inconsistencies that batch galvanizing of 8mm steel gave us.’
Highly Commended: Architecture And Circular Economy
The Greenhouse, Utrecht, Netherland
Many of the projects highlighted the use of galvanized steel to meet the objectives of sustainable construction. But the architectural world is increasingly focused on the opportunities to extend the life of buildings. Design for re-use and future adaptability is often a key objective. The Greenhouse by Architectenbureau Cepezed illustrates this perfectly. From the beginning of the project the project team building used the flexibility of steel and the durability and robustness of galvanized steel to design a building that can be reconfigured and re-used when its current purpose is no longer required.
The Green House houses a restaurant with its own urban farm and a conference centre. True to the principles of the circular economy, the entire building can be disassembled. Owing to their high degree of precision, steel components are easy to take apart and put together again. A special feature of the steel frame of The Green House is its square grid, with which multiple building configurations are possible with one-and-the-same construction kit. In fifteen years, it can be taken apart and rebuilt at another site. Re-use also played an important part in the choice of materials for the project. The pavilion was designed as a generic construction kit with a dis-assemblable steel frame comprised of hot dip galvanized steel sections. Galvanizing was also used for trellis trusses for the façade, the roof (including roof construction for a small greenhouse), balustrades and the staircase within the pavilion.
The hot dip galvanized steel perfectly underscores the bold character of The Green House and the urban-farming greenhouse. The architects also recognised that hot dip galvanizing lends itself perfectly to disassembly and reassembly – as the coating will not be damaged in that procedure.
Highly Commended: Landmark Architecture
The Saar Polygon, Ensdorf, Germany
One project was so iconic and such a striking example of how galvanized steel structures can create permanent landmarks with real purpose and intent, that the judges wanted to recognise it as a landmark using galvanized steel.
In 2012, coal mining in the Saar ended after more than 250 years. To create a monument for the Saar Mining region and the miners, but also to look towards the future, the Saar- Polygon has been designed by Pfeiffer Sachse Architekten and created at Ensdorf.
The finished sculpture combines the past, the period of change and the future to create a reminder of an essential historical part of the region: its coal mining. The Saar-Polygon is already one of the striking sights in Saarlouis and it allows an impressive view even to France and Luxembourg.
The 30m-high hot dip galvanized steel structure forms a walk-in monument consisting of two slanting towers connected by a bridge. Depending on which direction you look at the monument from, it changes shape, assuming the form of a rectangular arch, an inverted triangle, an inverted V, an hour glass-like structure and finally like the letter T falling onto its side. The shape of ‘The Polygon’ itself vaguely resembles the supporting structures that have been used in underground mining.
Proud of Turkey: Magicone
Magicone, who represented Turkey at Global Galvanizing Awards 
2018, took attention by its design and advantages gained by using HDG. Magicone, designed and implemented by Polin Waterparks, has achived to enter Short List.
In addition to water corrosion elements, the strong UV radiation and dynamic tension on the steel structure guided Polin Water Parks to prefer hot dip galvanized coating in this project. The hot dip galvanized coating is a tailor made coating for water parks, as it is a long-lasting application. Reliable and maintenance-free. Briefly, the use of galvanized steel in such projects means to safely use for many years without any interruption.
58 tons of steel used for only Magicone Water Slide, the dish part of the project, and all of them have been galvanized. Size of the dish is: 21 m height, 20 m length and 25 m width.