Winning results of the 2018 Laka Competition: “Architecture that Reacts”

The popular-as-ever Laka Competition challenges architects, designers, and students to send their most inventive ideas of “Architecture that Reacts”, meaning architectural, design, or technological solutions that are capable of dynamic interaction with their surroundings. This year, over 130 entries were submitted from some 200 designers representing 30 countries.

From Tidal Terrains to a Platinum City to a Cactus Pavilion, the jury selected three prize winners, three special recognitions, and 14 honorable mentions. Check 'em all out below.

1st prize: Tidal Terrains. Author: Mary Denman (Architect/Designer) | USA

Project summary: “Climate change experts predict a temperature rise of up to four degrees in the next millennium. This increase will result in a drastic reorganization of our planet as sea levels rise and more extreme weather events such as hurricanes and tsunamis disturb our cities. Ninety percent of the world’s largest cities are located next to water, and so to address increasing population density and differing environmental conditions, perhaps we need to start looking at using existing urban water as a place of opportunity to build on with new types of dynamic landscape which are able to respond flexibly with changing tidal levels.”

2nd prize: Embodied Homeostasis. Author: David Stieler (Architect) | Austria

Project summary: “Today, we live in a world of ubiquitous computation. Advancements in information technology and sensing objects have fundamentally disrupted the way not only digital space is perceived, but also altered the way social interaction is organized in our built environment.”

3rd prize: Platform of Motion. Authors: Nusrat Jahan Mim, Arman Salemi (architecture graduate students) | USA

Project summary: “Through our project we are envisioning a future, where human moments will not be replaced by the fastness of machines, rather human-machine interaction will start to develop a new set of vocabularies to perceive space, to visualize architecture.”

Special Recognition: Surftopia. Authors: Eduardo Camarena Estébanez (Architect, Product Designer), María Urigoitia Villanueva (Architect) | USA

Project summary: “Surftopia is born from the observation of human activity at the beaches. This temporary colonization is often determined by the use of umbrellas that deploy, acting as occupancy indicators. The proposal dialogues with the environment through a series of reactive masts that open and close like umbrellas depending on the amount of surfers using the beach.”

Special Recognition: Platinum City. Author: Sean Thomas Allen (Architectural Assistant) | UK

Project summary: “Civilisation thrives in the city. Hi technology is optimised to simulate earth like conditions in space within the context of the first post-human city.”

Special Recognition: Volcano Lite. Author: Patorn Sangruchi (Architecture student) | USA

Project summary: “Volcanic eruptions often provide scientists and geologists rare opportunities to study geomorphological processes and biological succession in an environment unaffected by external factors. However, volcanic landscapes often produce a hostile environment in a remote location that prevents any semi-permanent structures from being set up.”

Don't forget to check out the Honorable Mentions in the gallery below.

All images courtesy of the 2018 Laka Competition.