UK’s 2018 Civic Trust Awards Announced! Tsinghua Ocean Center Designed by OPEN Architecture Wins

On the morning of March 10, 2018 (Beijing time), at the 2018 Civic Trust Awards ceremony held at Manchester's iconic Old Trafford stadium (home of Manchester United), OPEN's completed project, the “Tsinghua Ocean Center,” was honored with a Civic Trust Award!

Established in the UK in 1959, this prestigious award is highly regarded, because it recognizes not only outstanding project design but also its value to the public. From urban planning to public art, the awards consider the built environment within a broader context, driven by the belief that design must serve its users.

The Ocean Center is a laboratory and office building designed by OPEN for the Ocean Department of Tsinghua University Shenzhen Graduate School, completed at the end of 2016. From the outset, the architects envisioned that this building, occupying the last plot of land on campus, would transcend its singular physical presence. It was designed to engage with campus life in a fresh, open manner, facilitating learning and research in a nature-infused environment where interdisciplinary exchange occurs organically, thereby addressing the challenges of rapidly developed university towns, which often suffer from a vast scale devoid of public space and human warmth. This award recognizes the architects' dedication to “considering the built environment within a broader context” and “design serving its users.”

The Ocean Center has also previously won the 2017 German Iconic Awards (Winner), the 2016 WA Award for Chinese Architecture (Urban Contribution Award of Merit), and second prize in the 2014 Re-thinking The Future Awards (RTFA).