d3 has unveiled the 2013 winners of Unbuilt Visions, a competition designed to “promote critical debate about architecture and design by acknowledging excellence in unbuilt projects.” Get a glimpse of the four grand prize projects, which were awarded $750 each for their winning contributions, and the eleven special mentions after the break.
“Throughout time, unbuilt projects have exerted significant influence on global architecture and design,” describes the competition’s website. “Étienne-Louis Boullée’s monolithic Cenotaph for Newtonexpressed a sublime grandeur than continues to beguile contemporary architects. LeCorbusier’s utopian Ville Radieuse (1924) proposed a blueprint for social reform that radically transformed the design of 20th century cities worldwide. Mies van der Rohe’s austere concept for the Friedrichstrasse Skyscraper Competition (1921) fostered a sea change in our perceptions and expectations of the modern commercial workplace.
“Continual shifts in architectural theory and production drive new desires to address untapped opportunities. Reflecting forces of globalization and crisis, contemporary architects and designers are negotiating new territories, defining alternative approaches, and engaging untested methodologies. The increasingly multidisciplinary nature of our work has become more experimental, while correspondingly less classifiable. In an era of significant technological innovation, speculative projects offer vast potential for advancing theoretical discourse, as well as alternative ways to intervene within the built environment. However, there are inherent risks and challenges attached to exploring uncharted frontiers.
“In the 21st century, which unbuilt ideas will reflect the most salient and avant-garde notions of our time?”
Grand Prize: Coastal Caretaker / Ursula Emery McClure, Michael McClure, Kristi Dykema Cheramie, Sarah Young (USA)
Grand Prize: Here After: The Material Processor / Aron Wai Chung Tsang, (Hong Kong)
Grand Prize: Sadic Apiaries / Loukia Tsafoulia (Greece/USA)
Grand Prize: Urban Paradox / Chris Tsui (Hong Kong)
Special Mention, Built Ecologies: Cloud Ecologies / Lydia Kallipoliti (ANAcycle), Andreas Theodoridis (207x207), Stella Nikolakaki (207x207), Katie Okamoto, Ezio Blasetti (USA/UK)
Special Mention, Urban Futures: Swarm Urbanism / Kenichi Kabeya (Japan)
Special Mention, Environmental Intervention: Restorative Aquaculture of Silt Island / Carl Harper (UK)
Special Mention, Dystopian Futures: Post-Nuclear Necropolis / Compagnie-O Architects: Joke Vermeulen, Francis Catteeuw, Bram van Cauter, Ioannis Gio (Belgium)
Special Mention, Commemoration: Slanted Memorial / Jin Young Song (Korea/USA)
Special Mention, Fantastical Typology: Grimm City: An Architectural Fairytale / Pascal Bronner, Thomas Hillier (UK)
Special Mention, Transport Infrastructure: Port-City / Alban Denic, Camille Labelle, Anais Pointillart (France)
Special Mention, Visualization: Young Makers Bowery Association / Han G. Dong, Harry M.X. Wei (USA)
Special Mention, Landscape Intervention: 10577 Rays in Helsinki / Roque Peña Pidal (Spain)
Special Mention, Rural Typology: Farmland World / DesignWithCompany, Stewart Hicks, Allison Newmeyer (USA)
Special Mention, Alternative Urbanism: Volumetric Urbanism / Bill Or (Hong Kong)
UV2013 was co-directed by Gregory Marinic, Assistant Professor of Architecture and Director of Interior Architecture at the University of Houston Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture; and Ryann Aoukar, Assistant Professor at the University of Tennessee College of Architecture and Design.
More on each proposal can be found here.
