Winning ideas of Architecture for Humanity Vancouver's NEXT BIG ONE

Any country in the world faces the grim reality that big natural disasters, like high-magnitude earthquake or tsunamis, can occur at any time. To raise awareness, the Architecture for Humanity Vancouver chapter organized the NEXT BIG ONE competition to search for new ideas in designing for resiliency against natural disasters.

In the single-stage open competition, designers worldwide proposed inventive design solutions that would alleviate the impact of natural disasters while providing permanence for local communities.

After the jury convened to evaluate the proposals on October 25, they selected one winner for the Design Professionals Award and one student team to receive the Bing Thom Emerging Designers Award. The Design Professional winners won a cash prize of CAD$3,000 while the students were awarded a CAD$1,500.

Three Honorable Mentions from each category were also awarded for the merit of their proposals.

Have a look at the prize-winning entries below.

DESIGN PROFESSIONAL Winner:

ECO-FORT
By Grant C. LaBossiere, Joseph G. Orobia (Winnipeg, Canada)

Project summary: "This entry addresses resiliency at the macro scale using passive means to remediate habitats and mitigate disasters.  This entry demonstrated that the repairing of the existing ecological system, regenerating the waterfront, would benefit the city at multiple scales of economies.  Rather than relying on new technology, the success of this entry lies in its use of the infrastructure of nature, which has proven to be resilient.   Furthermore, the judges felt that this proposal was comprehensive and articulate, and that the design was clear, simple and intuitive."

EMERGING DESIGNER - Bing Thom Emerging Designers Award Winner:

REVIVE THE MOAT
By Yoshihiro Kaneko (Tokyo, Japan)

Project summary: "This solution exposes and reinforces the history and culture of its site, integrating well into its existing urban fabric.  The judges appreciate the simplicity of this passive, low-tech and robust solution.  Shown deployed in different configurations, this solution chooses to embrace the effects of the disaster in a way that softens the disaster impact rather than confronting it head-on."

See the Honorable Mention winners in the image gallery below.

All images courtesy of the NEXT BIG ONE competition.