Results of 3rd Advanced Architecture Contest "The Self-Sufficient City"

Barcelona-based Institute of Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC) just announced the winning entries of the 3rd Advanced Architecture Contest “THE SELF-SUFFICIENT CITY: Envisioning the habitat of the future”. The international competition, organized by the IAAC in collaboration with HP, invited architects to submit ideas which transform cities into more stimulating environments for the human life. The contest was open to architects, planners, designers and artists who aim to contribute to progress in making the world more habitable by developing a proposal capable of responding to emerging challenges in areas such as ecology, information technology, socialization and globalization, with a view to enhancing the connected self-sufficiency of our cities.

The jury presented a joint first prize to contestants “HURBS” designed by Sergio Castillo Tello and María Hernández Enríquez from Spain and “WATER FUEL” designed by Rychiee Espinosa and Seth Mcdowell from the United States.

Here are the two winning entries in detail:

Finalist “HURBS” Hybrid Human Urban Re-adaptive Bidirectionally-Relational System which proposed the creation of a participatory experiment in order to develop an urban informational system in which the citizens and experts work together to develop cities through solutions that optimize urban resources. The jury acknowledges this vision of a city as a structure which is re-informed through digital management systems.

Finalist “WATER FUEL” which proposed the development of technologies that transforms salt water into energy, generating hydrogen in urban environments, to be utilized for transportation systems and urban consumption. The jury acknowledges this as the integration of energy production systems into an urban context and it’s ability to transform civic environments and foment the generation of energy by means of self sufficiency. These structures have been well designed and are capable of urban landscape integration.

The jury also gave honorable mentions to the following four projects:

“Massive Urban Recycling-Plastered Stadium”, designed by Adrian Garcia from Mexico which proposed to recycle urban obsolete structures, incorporating new functions such as domestic functions, without destroying prominent urban buildings, when they’ve lost their function.

“SKY CITY” designed by Victor Kirillow from Russia which proposed the construction of urban mega structures, in which the city is stacked vertically to protect it’s green spaces, giving access to each level through future transportation systems.

“RECIPROCITY” designed by Jason Butz from the United States which proposed the creation of recycling structures which recycle urban waste and capable of creating materials of high architectural design for urban reuse.

“MOBILIZING VILLAGES” designed by Do Trung Kien from Vietnam, which proposed a floating city off the coast of Vietnam, with forms that abstract the surrounding landscapes, approaching the question ¨Is it possible to rise above sea level?¨, and its effect on coastal cities.

708 proposals from 116 countries were evaluated through the internet from October to December by the jury comprising Jaime Lerner, Architect, former Mayor of Curitiba, former President of UIA; Mr. Mityrev, Representative for the Governor of Saint Petersburg; Brett Steele, Director of the Architectural Association, London; Stan T. Allen, Dean of Princeton University School of Architecture; Yung Ho Chang, Head of the MIT Department of Architecture; Aaron Betsky, Director of The Cincinnati Art Museum; Haakon Karlsen Jr, Director of MIT Fab Lab Norway; Pankaj Joshi, Director of Urbanism Design Research Institute. Mumbai, India; Benyam Ali, Head of the Addis Ababa University Department of Architecture; JM Lin, Architect , The Observer Design Group, Taiepi, Taiwan; Bostian Vuga, Sadar & Vuga architects, Lubjana , Slovenia; Michel Rojkin, Rojkin Arquitecto, México; Vicente Guallart, Director of IAAC, Barcelona; Willy Muller, Director of IAAC Development; Marta Male-Alemany, Co-director of IAAC Master in Advanced Architecture; Areti Markopoulou, Academic Coordinator of IAAC Master in Advanced Architecture; and Lucas Cappelli, Director of 3rd Advanced Architecture Contest.

Images: Institute of advanced architecture of Catalonia (IaaC)