TerraViva Competitions Announces the Results of Tactical Urbanism Now! #2021

TerraViva Competitions has officially released the complete list of awarded projects of the design contest “Tactical Urbanism Now! #2021.” The challenge of this competition was to reinterpret what is commonly known as traditional public spaces, such as parks, streets, playgrounds and squares, with a strategical vision capable of providing them with new features of multi-functionality and flexibility.

The awarded proposals were able to experiment with new scenarios within the city, understanding public space as an opportunity to design common areas capable of reflecting the diversity of the infinite categories of potential users and encouraging citizens to “Live Together”.

Organized by TerraViva, the competition was open to students, architects, designers, artists, makers, activists and anyone interested in the transformation of the contemporary urban space.

The winners were selected by an international jury panel composed by: Arturo Mc Clean (Barcelona | Miralles Tagliabue EMBT),  Liz Wreford (Winnipeg | Public City), Francesco Garofalo (Rotterdam | Openfabric), Nasrin Mohiti Asli (Rome | Orizzontale), Hannah Klug (Lima | Intuy Lab), Greg Corso (New York | Sports), Nathalie Eldan (Paris | Atelier Nea), and Sojung Lee (Seoul | OBBA)

View this year's winning projects below.

1st Prize - “Rewilding Japan: a Playscape of Collective Memories”
Project by: Wai Yin Ryan Tung, Ho Yin Cheung, Ching Tao Albert Leung, Long Kwan (Hong Kong) 

Project Details: The ongoing pandemic has shifted the domestic space as the key active space and virtual interactions have altered the way we rest, work, connect, and consume. Empathy is not confined to merely verbal communication but is further translated through body language and collective participation. The nostalgia of childhood play transcends generations but gradually fades through technology and a fast-paced lifestyle.

The target region is Tokyo which is renowned for its narrow alleys and compact living situation. The urban Tokyo’s fabric is rewilded through inserting small-scale but socially catalytic interventions which would greatly impact people’s quotidian lives. The interventions are inspired by Atelier Bow-Wow’s concept of ‘Pet Architecture’, a peculiar typology of architecture that occupies leftover urban spaces and produces a unique attribute of self-appropriation in the metropolis which forces the users to make the most of smaller spaces.

Just as the practice of acupuncture is aimed at relieving stress in the human body, the goal of ‘Urban Acupuncture’ is to relieve stress in the built environment. Therefore, the interventions are consciously designed to be playful and not take themselves too seriously. The playscape opens the door for uncontrolled creativity and freedom. Each intervention is a mix-and-match of a nature element and a play element. Whether it is a moment of bird-feeding, a quick footbath, or sliding down ‘sushi’ hills, nature acts as the core mediator between human interaction. A shared play’ ground is manifested which may begin to spark individuals and communities in a reciprocal search for understanding and mutuality. 

2nd Prize - “Encuentro”
Project by: Alibek Atahanov, Camila Saulino, Erika Cavallo, Davide Di Bella (Italy)

Project Details: Encuentro takes place at the entrance of Barrio Padre Carlos Mugica (also known as Villa 31), the most iconic informal neighborhood of Buenos Aires, because of its location in the heart of the city, which showcases a huge social inequality. The spot is set just between two realities, represented by business skyscrapers on one side and informal and self-constructed, overlapped houses on the other.

The project aims to generate a space where people with different backgrounds can share a public square, create and strengthen communities through sport and other activities that can take place in a new, bright, green, and safe environment.

Encuentro, which combines the term “match” as intended for sports, with the word “meeting” for sociality, represents a tactical popular stadium, a rounded space made of metal scaffoldings and wooden surfaces that create a grid open to free interpretation and personalization, as the whole neighborhood is build. In this perspective, people can build their own space by bringing some personal furniture and other elements to share with the community. A social urban garden is also included in the stadium, as the whole neighborhood lives in a total lack of green spaces or any vegetation. On the exterior, street market cabins are included for the daily fair that currently takes place in the square. The bright giant balloons above the structure act, both symbolically and functionally, as a stadium roof, floating over the place and making it more visible from the surroundings. 

3rd Prize - “Green Tamburi”
Project by: Giacomo Caputo, Leonarda Pace (Germany)

Project Details: On 10th April 1969 the ILVA, Europe ́s largest steel plant, was inaugurated in the Tamburi district of Taranto. Together with new jobs, it brought a high rate of environmental pollution and has caused about 11000 deaths, especially due to cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. The dramatic choice between health and work has created social conflicts and rifts in the population.

Because of the pollution, public spaces in the Tamburi district are actually unused spaces, dominated by cars and parking lots. Even the balconies and terraces cannot be used because of the fine dust coming from the deposits of Ilva, which spread and accumulate daily on the external surfaces. The chimneys became the symbol of a neighborhood that once, due to its geographical conformation and the health of its air, was considered the garden of Taranto. 

The project proposes a new landmark, which reinvents the model of the chimney, giving it a new meaning. Instead of being a source of pollution, the new chimney takes advantage of atmospheric elements, (purifying the rainwater and producing energy from the wind) , fosters the development of biodiversity, and promotes an alternative socio-economic development. The goal is to transform the Tamburi district into the largest agricultural hub in Europe, spreading a new ecological sensitivity. The dream is to trigger a process of conversion of the industry, transforming its facilities in research centers, Km0 restaurants, leisure areas, touristic and food promotion centers, proposing an alternative model of economic development. 

Golden Mentions

• “En Moto - Social Public Transport” by Sahar Naz Taleb Nezhad, Tatiana Nebiolo Iran (Italy)
• “Filling the Blanks” by Mariana Paisana, Margarida Marques, Inés Sebastian, Bruno Guimarães, Carolina Barreiros, Moisés Rosa, Carolina Cardoso (Portugal)
• “3 Theaters” by Valentina Del Motto, Maria Mastella, Arianna Zambelli, Ambra Chiesa (Italy)
• “Oasis in the Urban Desert” by Jorge Andres Darcourt and Sergio Puch (Peru)

Honorable Mentions

• “Urban Platforms” by Amy Evans (Australia)
• “New Forms of Co-Urbanity” by ChenhaoLuo (China)
• “Co-Encrypting Murmur”by Kongho Wong (UK)
• “The Upper Space” by Margaux Button (France)
• “Teatro Estacion Cultural Tapachula” by Florence Methot, Brittany Gray, Samantha Richman, Christian Coronel, Liza Otto, David Ruiz, Pedro Cruz, and Gregory Melitonov (Mexico)

• “@babel_t” by Chiara Milella and Diletta Ciuffi (Italy)
• “Collection Point” by Nomundar Munkhbaatar, Battushig Togtokh, and Glynis Hong Mongolia (Singapore)
• “City Hall Square” by Jacob Chawner, Joseph Riordan, Sam Hall and Magdi Khalil (UK)
• “Garden of Everyday Relations at Chai Chee" by Yu Han Ching (Singapore)
• “Paranomasia” by Lucia Emma Avolio and Matteo Andreoletti (Italy)

TerraViva thanks all the competitors for participating in the second edition of Tactical Urbanism Now!  To learn more about the competition, its winners, and selected projects click here.