“Structures of Freedom” winners announced​ — Valerio De Santis + Andrea Cappiello​ to design illuminating 2017 Sziget Festival pavilion

Architectural platform Archtalent and Budapest's Sziget Festival teamed up to establish the “Structures of Freedom” competition. Architects younger than 40 were invited to submit their best proposals for a temporary pavilion for the festival, focusing on the elements of design, innovation, context, recyclability, and sustainability. For the 2015 festival, French practice Atelier YokYok was commissioned to bring their illuminating “Treedom” to life.

The competition attracted 65 entries from 151 participants representing 35 countries. Valerio De Santis and Andrea Cappiello from Italy won first prize and will have their proposal realized for the Sziget Festival happening August 9-16, 2017. Second place went to Seth McDowell from the U.S., while third place went to another U.S. team comprising Anthony Maiolatesi, Sean McTaggart, and Rosa Zlotkovsky. The jury* (listed below) also picked seven special mention finalists from around the globe. Archtalent shared more details about the winning entries below.

1st Prize: Valerio De Santis (IT) and Andrea Cappiello (IT)

Project description: “Music festivals are among the few events in human history that have managed, successfully, to gather people of every race, origin, social background, in one place under the concepts of unity and brotherhood. Ephemeral places where diversity is not demonized, flattened it in any way, but exalted and held together by the common passion for music. The project is born from this consideration and tries to concentrate the spirit of the festival into a single object. 

The design presents itself in the pure form of a platonic solid acting as an iconic landmark and lantern for the festival. The visitors will easily recognise it from distance and be able to orientate themselves around the festival during day and night. The pure form conceived by the external layers of veil that wrap around the structure hide a much more intricate and irrational volume yet to discover by the visitor. 

This last one will initially be attracted by the glowing aura of the object, to then start perceiving the existence of an inner element. As the visitor approaches the object, the initial visual connection now becomes physical as he stands in front of the platonic solid.”

2nd Prize: Seth McDowell (USA)

Project description: “Cornelius Cube is a cube measuring 10m x 10m x 10m. At Budapest’s Sziget Festival, Cornelius is precariously perched on a temporary foundation made of painted plywood appearing as if he was dropped from the sky and crashed into the earth—corner first. The perfect cube has been sliced, creating a triangular interior space from which festival goers can relax and become part of a three-dimensional painting.

Cornelius Cube is constructed from timber construction debris. Small, fragments of waste wood are collected from construction sites throughout Budapest, Hungary, and Europe and stitched together using a three-layer lamination technique. All sides of Cornelius’ Cube are fabricated in this layering approach that allows for flexible construction generated from scraps of the construction industry. Each wood fragment will be painted with a color—either Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, or White— which will codify where it has come from and give it a fresh identity. This colored lumber will become the brush strokes to paint a three-dimensional painting—a map of material détournement.

The construction of Cornelius Cube will be executed as an art performance. Six teams, corresponding to the six sides of Cornelius, will work to laminate three layers of material. Each layer is organized by a grid, but the color and rhythm will be orchestrated by the team of artists. The act of construction will work like a musical jam session. Each face of Cornelius will have a unique aesthetic driven by the intuitions of the construction team. All connections will be bolted or screwed to allow for easy disassembly.”

3rd Prize: Anthony Maiolatesi (USA), Sean McTaggart (USA) and Rosa Zlotkovsky (USA)

Project description: “The annual Sziget Music Festival in Budapest features hundreds of musical performances & art installations over the course of 10 days in early August, which requires a place to relax in between concerts and RECHARGE! Visitors can cool off on the hammocks under the mist machine, charge their cellphones, play & record their own music, and check out the LED lighting and projections, all powered by the latest in solar technology.

Our innovative summer pavilion will be assembled using recycled materials that reinforce the festival’s themes of sustainability, while honoring the design traditions of Budapest. Our design utilizes three decommissioned 20’ Maersk reefer shipping containers, and 500 recycled wood pallets, which will provide enclosure and shading to visitors of the RECHARGE pavilion. The materiality of the wood also serves to improve the albedo of the structure, so as to reduce the heat island effect.

The RECHARGE pavilion would not have its name, were it not for the plentiful cellphone chargers, linked directly to the Goal Zero Yeti 1400 Lithium Portable Solar Generator. With four panels on the roof, the sun provides enough energy for fifty people to continuously plug their devices throughout the day, as well as the LED lighting & projections. Most importantly, the RECHARGE pavilion itself has the ability to be recycled and redeployed year after year.”

*Jury: Sam Jacob (UK) - Principal of Sam Jacob Studio; Filipa Frois Almeida (DE) - Co Founder and partner of FAHR 021.3; Caroline O´Donnell (IE) - Principal of CODA; Hugo Reis (PT) - Co Founder and partner of FAHR012.3; Dávid Raday (HU) - Creative Director of Sziget Festival

Don't forget about the finalist entries in the gallery below!