More than half – or 25 – of the 44 finalists contending for this year’s Mipim Awards taking place Cannes on Thursday evening hail from Europe. The European contingent includes Ghelamco's Warsaw Spire (pictured), the first Polish project to feature in the finals of the prestigious real estate competition.
While the contenders come from all regions around the world including Europe, North and Latin America, Asia/Pacific and Africa, many of the categories are dominated by finalists that hail from Europe. Indeed, three European healthcare projects dominate the Best Healthcare Development category: Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool, GAPS, a new psychiatric hospital in Slagelse, Denmark – the largest and most ambitious psychiatry construction in Denmark, and the RPC psychiatric facility in the Swedish town of Trellebord.
With the healthcare real estate sector set to show strong growth in the coming years due to the ageing of the population in the UK and the mainland, these pioneering projects may well attract more than average interest from investors keen on pursuing new strategies where product is still scarce.
11 categories
Altogether, European projects account for half – and in many cases 75% – of the 11 categories included in the Mipim Awards. In total, the jury reviewed 214 entries from 46 countries and shortlisted the top four projects in each of the categories. All in all, 25 of the 44 contenders are located in a city across Europe, which is equal to more than half of the total.
The dominance of European projects is a trend that is also apparent in many of the other 10 categories. Three of the four finalists for the Best Innovative Green Building are from Europe as well. These include Grosvenor’s 119 Ebury Street in London, the first listed residential building to achieve BREEAM ‘Outstanding’; Siemens’ new headquarters in the heart of Munich which combines an ambitious architectural design with high-efficiency technologies; and the Värtan Bioenergy CHP-plant in Stockholm. KVV8 is one of the largest bio-fuelled, combined district heat-and-power plants in the world and aims to help the Swedish capital reach its goal of becoming a fossil fuel-free city by 2040.
Three of the Best Industrial & Logistics Developments likewise hail from Europe and also incorporate green characteristics. Nike European Logistics Campus, for example, offers a wide variety of sustainable features of which one of the most visually spectacular is the 1.3-km long green serpentine along the west facade. Probably the world's longest such hanging green façade it provides 3,000 m2 of green frontage which integrates useable spaces for the people, sun protection and hidden emergency routes. The design creates a benchmark for Nike and has been based on three focus points: fossil-free operations, closed loop flows and a healthy and biodiverse environment.
Polish first
Poland is represented among the finalists for the first time in the history of the Mipim Awards as Ghelamco Poland's Warsaw Spire project has been nominated in the Best Office and Business Development category. Warsaw Spire has been the most recognisable project in Poland in recent years and one of the highest (220 metres) office building in the CEE region.
The main drivers behind the project's success, according to the motivation text on the MIPIM Awards website, include its location, innovative solutions and an added value not yet offered by any other commercial developer. On its own plot the investor built a perfectly designed public square — Plac Europejski — with fountains, restaurants and an art passage. Ghelamco’s project has radically changed the shape of Warsaw’s business city centre and has become a great commercial success —currently the project is leased in over 90%.
Two other contenders in this category are European, while the fourth is from China.
Best Urban Regeneration Project
The Best Urban Regeneration category is an all-European affair: the Battersea Power Station Masterplan and the MediaCityUK scheme in the UK; the be-Mine project in Belgium and Nowadays in central Amsterdam. The latter was developed by Top Vastgoed and owned by a Bouwinvest fund. The motivation text for Nowadays describes it as the largest high-street retail redevelopment project of its kind in the Netherlands. It includes Damrak 70 and 80, on the main gateway into the city, and the parallel Nieuwendijk 196, that runs into the busiest shopping street in the country.
Ceremony
The winners will be announced at the Mipim Awards ceremony on Thursday, 16 March at 6.30 pm in the Grand Auditorium of the Palais des Festivals in Cannes. The winners are selected by both Mipim delegates voting in Cannes for projects of their choice and by the jury.
