#mOOO4 ADAPT: Alternative Design After Pandemic Times

Similar to our #mOOO3 ISO[NATION] competition, we are donating everything we receive to the World Health Organization (WHO) COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund. This time, we invite you to cross-pollinating public health initiatives with physical infrastructures.

The Question: A collective crisis exposes us to deep interdependencies between social and physical systems. What does the exacerbating gap between mental and labour workers, for example, reflect about urbanisation, the nature of commute, and the definition of “essential work”? How does changing demographics affect the ecosystem of care homes for the elderly? What do we think about the public school system’s role and responsibility in caretaking beyond education? What happens to the future of social dining? How might the rising need for delivery change our cities? … All in all: what features of our society can we empower and reimagine to promote an infrastructure of health?

The Conversation: The site of design in response to systemic issues should be systemic in nature. We want to promote thoughts and conversation about health as an integrated medical and social infrastructure that manifests physically in the fabric of society – an architectural issue. This competition aims to encourage innovative design that grows out of a cross-pollination of features and ideas from various social and physical systems.

To aid in this process, we have created two lists of keywords: one representing physical systems, ranging in scale from objects to buildings and to urban features; and one representing non-physical infrastructures, in terms of activities that are central to maintaining wellness in the areas of mental, physical, as well as social health. Each participating team shall pick one keyword from each list, and create a proposal of how the two items might interact and come together to promote public health. You have absolute freedom in choosing the site/context of your design in relation to your chosen keywords.

Jury Panel

Dina Battisto

Associate Professor at Clemson University
Coordinator of the Built Environment and Health concentration area in the interdisciplinary Planning, Design and Built Environment Ph.D. Program
Chair of the AIA’s Academy of Architecture for Health Foundation Grants Committee from 2006-2012

Emmett Zeifman

Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Columbia GSAPP
Principal of Medium Office
Founding editor of Project
Previously taught graduate and undergraduate design studios and visual studies seminars at SCI-Arc

Jaffer Kolb

Co-founder of the award-winning architectural practice New Affiliates based in New York
Teaches most recently at Parsons, the Copper Union, Princeton, and Columbia

Jesse Lecavalier

Associate Professor of architecture at the University of Toronto
Daniel Rose Visiting Assistant Professor at the Yale School of Architecture
Author of The Rule of Logistics: Walmart and the Architecture of Fulfillment

Organised in partnership with Baolin Shen, Yale SoA ‘20; Megan Tan, Yale SoA ‘20; Jiageng Guo, Columbia GSAPP ‘22; @competitions.archi; @archdlofficial; @barchitecture.studio; @design.alters; @winnersdaily; @thearchitecturesarcasm

Follow @mOOOarch on Instagram for competition updates.