Earlier this year, Arquine launched a design competition to welcome ideas and proposals that might challenge and innovate public space. The open call involved devices, prototypes, or installations to foster community building and safe social engagement. The competition team asked for designers to “think about the likelihood of humanizing our cities, of reinventing the utilization of the urban environment during a creative, versatile and economic way. a gathering point that, when built, allows us to satisfy again.”
Thanks to their esteemed jury members Raúl Cárdenas Osuna, Santiago Cirujeda, Wonne Ickx, María Verónica Machado, and Isabel Martínez Abascal they chose three projects that exemplified ingenuity while responding to the competition brief. additionally to first, second, and third prize winners the jury also selected 4 honorable mentions.
Below are the competition winners and brief project descriptions:
1ST PRIZE – “Meeting Column”
By: Azócar Catrón (Carolina Catrón Lazo, Ricardo Azócar Ulloa) con el apoyo de Josefina Tardones Ortíz. Concepción, Chile
Project Description: it’s a ghost building that’s dematerialized. A totem as a gathering point, a really clear and legible gesture. it’s a connotation of a virtual architecture and, therefore, permeable and transparent, making tons of sense with the instant we currently live. entertain the immaterial and convey the quintessential architectural element like Adolf Loos’s column to the Chicago Tribune contest as an iconic gesture. A duality that creates it very interesting. The building base is 3 meters on a side, therefore, following the security distance established in Mexico of 1.5 meters. It becomes a private experience for those that stand inside the totem but at no time lose their contact with the environment and therefore the people around them.
Jury Response: Of the finalist projects, we agree that it is the one with the most technical viability for its realization.
(Tied) 2ND PRIZE – “La Charca”
By: Sara Enríquez Legarra and Daniel de Diego Barrios. Valladolid, Spain
Project Description: It goes beyond a contemplative water mirror. a few of entrances invite the citizen to enter this space and it’s an interruption and play point. it’s a proposal that as a garden invites reflection and revaluation of public space. A proposal that cares social distancing and gambling. We appreciate that the outline is well written and therefore the graphic work, even the mockup that the contestants made.
(Tied) 2ND PRIZE – “Une Cienaga”
By: Monica Feldman. Bogota Colombia
Project Details: A landscape intervention. A radical proposal and gesture. it’s not built, but is poured and spilled in large quantities on the Alameda Central. As Borges said: “Everything is made on sand, but we must build as if sand were stone.” It interrupts the passage at during a ll|one amongst|one in every of”> one among the busiest crossings within the park in a poetic way, within the same way that the pandemic has obstructed our daily lives. Its title Ciénaga and therefore the image of muddy clay, refers to how muddy we are within this reality, which has unexpectedly broken the continuity of the historical thread. It attracts us that a network of points is proposed within the city. the quantity of clay necessary to realize what’s represented within the image and its dumping at different points would make it difficult to hold out this project, or in its translation into practice, its scale would need to be adjusted considerably then it might lose the strength of the proposal.
3rd Prize – “Arial”
By: Roberto Michelsen and Panósmico (Mariana Mañón and Manolo Larrosa). Mexico City
Project Details: A proposal that comes from the proposal of a pavilion as an architectural artifact that invites all citizens to participate which their word is written within the sky with a drone. The poetry of a word within the air in several parts of the town is highlighted. Taking under consideration the experience that the festival organization has in applying for permits to fly a drone within the Historic Center, we are concerned about counting on said authorization (that of the utilization of airspace) for its realization.
Honorable Mentions:
- Guido Guernetti, Pablo Galicer and Guido Mezzera. Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Open Study (Eduardo Dana Cohen and Rafael Buzali Przedecky), Carlos Metta Saade, Santiago Moyao Sánchez. Mexico City
- Noelia Cordero Valentín and María Cobos Averturo. Valladolid, Spain
- Chris Falliers and Antje Steinmuller, California
To learn more about the competition click here
