Winners of Arquine's 'Meeting Point' Competition propose innovative designs for public space

Earlier this year, Arquine launched a design competition to welcome ideas and proposals that would challenge and innovate public space. The open call called for devices, prototypes, or installations to foster community building and safe social engagement. The competition team asked for designers to "think about the possibility of humanizing our cities, of reinventing the use of the urban environment in a creative, versatile and economic way. A meeting point that, when built, allows us to meet again."

Thanks to their esteemed jury members Raúl Cárdenas Osuna,  Santiago Cirujeda, Wonne Ickx, María Verónica Machado,  and Isabel Martínez Abascal they selected three projects that exemplified ingenuity while responding to the competition brief. In addition to first, second, and third prize winners the jury also selected 4 honorable mentions.

Below are the competition winners and brief project descriptions:

1ST PRIZE - "Meeting Column" 
By: Azócar Catrón (Carolina Catrón Lazo, Ricardo Azócar Ulloa) con el apoyo de Josefina Tardones Ortíz. Concepción, Chile

Project Description: It is a ghost building that is dematerialized. A totem as a meeting point, a very clear and legible gesture. It has a connotation of a virtual architecture and, therefore, permeable and transparent, making a lot of sense with the moment we currently live. Flirt with the immaterial and bring the quintessential architectural element like Adolf Loos's column to the Chicago Tribune contest as an iconic gesture. A duality that makes it very interesting. The building base is 3 meters on a side, therefore, following the safety distance established in Mexico of 1.5 meters. It becomes an individual experience for those who stand inside the totem but at no time lose their contact with the environment and the people around them.

Jury Response: Of the finalist projects, we agree that it is the one with the most technical viability for its realization.

(Tied) 2ND PRIZE - "La Charca"
By: Sara Enríquez Legarra and Daniel de Diego Barrios. Valladolid, Spain

Project Description: It goes beyond a contemplative water mirror. A couple of entrances invite the citizen to enter this space and it has a pause and play point. It is a proposal that as a garden invites reflection and revaluation of public space. A proposal that thinks about social distancing and gambling. We appreciate that the description is well written and the graphic work, even the mockup that the contestants made.

(Tied) 2ND PRIZE - "Une Cienaga"
By: Monica Feldman. Bogota Colombia

Project Details: A landscape intervention. A radical proposal and gesture. It is not built, but is poured and spilled in large quantities on the Alameda Central. As Borges said: "Everything is built on sand, but we must build as if sand were stone." It interrupts the passage at one of the busiest crossings in the park in a poetic way, in the same way that the pandemic has obstructed our daily lives. Its title Ciénaga and the image of muddy clay, refers to how muddy we are within this reality, which has unexpectedly broken the continuity of the historical thread. It attracts us that a network of points is proposed in the city. The amount of clay necessary to achieve what is represented in the image and its dumping at different points would make it difficult to carry out this project, or in its translation into practice, its scale would have to be adjusted considerably and then it would lose the strength of the proposal.

3rd Prize - "Arial"
By: Roberto Michelsen and Panósmico (Mariana Mañón and Manolo Larrosa). Mexico City

Project Details: A proposal that comes from the proposal of a pavilion as an architectural artifact that invites all citizens to participate and that their word is written in the sky with a drone. The poetry of a word in the air in different parts of the city is highlighted. Taking into account the experience that the festival organization has in applying for permits to fly a drone in the Historic Center, we are concerned about depending on said authorization (that of the use of airspace) for its realization.

Honorable Mentions:

• Guido Guernetti, Pablo Galicer and Guido Mezzera. Buenos Aires, Argentina
• Open Study (Eduardo Dana Cohen and Rafael Buzali Przedecky), Carlos Metta Saade, Santiago Moyao Sánchez. Mexico City
• Noelia Cordero Valentín and María Cobos Averturo. Valladolid, Spain
• Chris Falliers and Antje Steinmuller, California

To learn more about the competition click here.