Winners of the d3 Unbuilt Visions 2012 Competition

Three Grand Prize winners and thirteen Special Mentions have been announced in d3's Unbuilt Visions 2012 competition. The program promotes critical debate about architecture and design by acknowledging excellence in unbuilt projects.

Unbuilt Visions provides an opportunity to engage with architecture, urbanism, interiors, and designed objects at the conceptual stage—recognizing work that offers a vital contribution to advancing global architectural discourse.

Throughout time, unbuilt projects have exerted significant influence on global architecture and design. Étienne‐Louis Boullée’s monolithic Cenotaph for Newton expressed 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.

The 2012 jury, a panel of international architects and designers, participated in the selection process for Unbuilt Visions included Jonathon Anderson, University of North Carolina at Greensboro; Francis Bitonti, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; Sarah Deyong, Texas A&M University; Ji Young Kim, Japan Lab/Columbia University; Marc Manack, University of Arkansas; Kevin McClellan, University of Texas at San Antonio; Sandra McKee, Fordham Unversity/Columbia University; David Nguyen, Studio David Nguyen; Victor Nieto Villalón, Arquillano; Ana Peñalba, Leon 11; Angela Person, University of Oklahoma; Ziad Qureshi, University of Iowa; Arnaldo Sanchez, Office One Architecture; Irina Solovyova, University of the Incarnate Word; and Lisa Tilder, Ohio State University.

Unbuilt Visions 2012 was co‐directed by Tobias Holler, Assistant Professor of Architecture at New York Institute of Technology and Gregory Marinic, Assistant Professor of Architecture and Director of Interior Architecture at the University of Houston.

The competition awarded three $1,000 Grand Prizes to:

• The Emperor's Castle, Thomas Hillier, UK
• Transcendent Site, Roger Wilson, Yunwei Xu, Patricia Bruner, New Zealand
• Fuel Delusion, Ross Damien Jordan, UK

Following are the thirteen projects that were awarded a Special Mention.

All images courtesy of Unbuilt Visions competition.