The winning ideas for the 2017 Laka Competition: “Architecture that Reacts”

2018 is off to a high note for the winners of the 2017 Laka Competition! Every year, the highly anticipated competition challenges participants around the world to submit their most innovative ideas of “Architecture that Reacts”, meaning architecture that dynamically responds and adjusts to current needs as well as unpredictable circumstances.

Out of 90 entries from participants based in over 40 countries, the three prize winners emerged from Switzerland, Germany / UK, and USA. The jury also picked 11 honorable mentions. Check out all the top-winning designs below.

1st prize: “Civilization 0.000”
Author: Dimo Ivanov (architect) | Switzerland

Project summary: “Civilization 0.000’ is a high tech structure, placed at Cape Horn in Southern Chile, that uses locally available renewable energy sources to generate electricity. Making use of the ample wind, wave, and tidal energy of this region, the structure would utilize a combination of 19 wind turbines, 4 wave power plants, and 6 tidal power turbines to create 100 million kWh of renewable energy each year.” More info

2nd prize: “noMad – a Behavioral Assembly System”
Authors: Paul Bart (architect), Marvin Bratke (architect), Dmytro Aranchii (architect), Flavia Ghirotto Santos (architect), Yuqiu Jiang (architect) | Germany, UK

Project summary: “‘NoMad’ proposes a behavioral fabrication system that marks a shift from built environment as a finite lifecycle construct to autonomous, non-finite and real-time solutions to adapt dynamically to the demands of its environment. The project aims at social-architectural issues of integrating automated, self-sustaining behavioral and fully mobile systems into people’s daily life. The system acts at the interface between architecture, (autonomous) mobility and the citizens of a city. ‘NoMad’ proposes a system that can self-regulate and adapt, react to outside influences and demands and encourages both interaction and communication.” More info

3rd prize: “Towards a Lively Architecture”
Author: David Heaton (architectural designer) | USA

Project summary: “‘Towards a Lively Architecture’ explores response through tectonic assembly and material behavior. By focusing on the natural behaviors of wood and designing for those behaviors, we can begin to understand new forms of assembly that can change how we think about space. This increased sensitivity to the behaviors of materials can result in an architecture that is in turn sensitive to its surroundings.” More info

Don't forget about the honorable mentions in the gallery below!