Winners of the d3 Unbuilt Visions 2013 Competition

d3 announced four Grand Prize winners and 11 Special Mentions in the 2013 Unbuilt Visions competition. The program recognizes excellence in unbuilt projects to promote critical debate about architecture and design.

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.

Unbuilt Visions recognizes excellence in projects that to date remain unbuilt. Theoretical, academic, and other unbuilt projects were juried and awarded by a distinguished international panel of architects, designers, theorists, and historians. Sponsored by New York-based d3, this annual competition is open to all architects, landscape architects, designers, students, and  other makers of the built environment. Unbuilt architecture and design projects of any type are eligible. There are no restrictions on site, program, or geographic location.

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 UV2013 jury consisted of a panel of international architects and designers including: Cressica Brazier, MIT; Liam Young, Architectural Association; Margaret Kirk, Pratt Institute;  Sandra McKee, Columbia University; Francis Bitonti, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; Ji Young Kim, Shigeru Ban Architects; Jungwoo Ji, Iowa State University; Phuttipan Aswakool, RADs; Erin Carraher, University of Utah; Wing Yun, MVRDV; Sarah Deyong, Texas A&M  University; Frank Jacobus, University of Arkansas; Kari Smith, University of Louisiana; Mark Titman, AD Journal; Onat Öktem, Middle East Technical University; Hiroki Yoshihara, Yohishara McKee Architects; Marc Manack, University of Arkansas; Kevin McClellan, University of Texas   at San Antonio; David Nguyen, Studio David Nguyen; Victor Nieto Villalón, Arquillano; Ana Peñalba, Leon 11; Zeynep Öktem, Bilkent University; Angela Person, University of Oklahoma;  Ziad Qureshi, Iowa State University; Arnaldo Sanchez, Office One Architecture; Irina Solovyova,  University of the Incarnate Word; and Lisa Tilder, Ohio State University

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.

The UV2013 jury awarded four $750 Grand Prizes to:

• 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)

Below are the 11 Special Mentions:

All images courtesy of Unbuilt Visions competition.