Responses to the call came from architects, landscape architects, lighting designers and designers all over the world. The event will include a digital exhibition of ALL submissions, a review of selected submissions and a presentation of the three finalists. Guest speakers will include members of the jury panel: Nader Tehrani, Professor and Head of the Department of Architecture at the MIT School of Architecture and Planning; and Paul Zafferiou, Lighting Designer and Principal of Lam Partners in Boston, MA.

The GLOW Forum will be held in the Channel Room of the new BSA Space, on Wednesday, May 16, 2012 from 5:30 – 7:30 pm. Wine will be served. This event is free but please be kind enough to send your RSVP to: info@shiftboston.org.

For more information on the competition please visit here! Hope to see you there.

ONE Prize 2012 is a call to put design in the service of disenfranchised communities, to reinvigorate deindustrialized and depressed urban areas, and to repurpose spaces for economic growth and job creation. Situated in the context of a struggling U.S. economy and the tension of stagnant unemployment, ONE Prize 2012 aims to explore the socially, economically, and ecologically regenerative possibilities of urban transformation and design. The competition is powered by the idea that social, ecological, and economic struggles can simultaneously be addressed through collaborative action and innovative planning.

The ONE Prize seeks architects, landscape architects, urban designers, planners, engineers, scientists, artists, students and individuals of all backgrounds:

Can we rework the skeletons of 20th century manufacturing for 21st century innovation?

Can former plants in Detroit become greenhouses, schools, theaters?

Can mill towns be revamped as digital fabrication hubs?

Can vacant parking lots become farms or parks?

Can abandoned strip malls be reinvented?

Can we reboot the American economy?

For more information on ONE Prize 2012: Blight to Might, this year’s competition jury and to submit your ideas visit: www.oneprize.org.

]]> http://blog.shiftboston.org/2012/05/announcing-the-blight-to-might-open-international-design-competition-for-transforming-cities-with-innovation/feed 0 http://blog.shiftboston.org/2012/05/announcing-the-blight-to-might-open-international-design-competition-for-transforming-cities-with-innovation http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/shiftboston/~3/p-J27RVlYPk/announcing-the-winners-of-the-passive-house-design-competition-in-bulgaria http://blog.shiftboston.org/2012/04/announcing-the-winners-of-the-passive-house-design-competition-in-bulgaria#comments Mon, 23 Apr 2012 21:22:52 +0000 Elizabeth Tereshko http://blog.shiftboston.org/?p=2139 Here is the winner and honorable mentions from the Passive House Competition in Bulgaria! Passive House Bulgaria challenged the architectural community to design a schematic design proposal for an affordable, low energy, single-family houses, focus the public attention to this new type of energy efficient buildings, and promote the design and construction of Passive Houses in Bulgaria.

Hristo Stankushev Dipl. Arch, Svetoslav Michev Dipl. Arch. – dontdiy, Bulgaria and Rumen Yordanov Dipl. Eng. MEP and Sustainability Consultant – AEE Asian European Engineering Ltd.

Comments from the judges regarding the project of dontdiy: Excellent design & sustainable concept; Talented compact design and thought through; Energy: great energy efficiency presentation; very thorough explanations, Passive House concepts and calculations; Well thought out integration of mechanical systems, day lighting and architecture. The team will receive an award of 1500 BGN

Honorable Mentions

Seymour-Smith Architects, Rob Statham BArch, BA [Hons], Helen Seymour-Smith B.Arch [hons], Dip. Arch, RIBA , Cotswolds, UK

Comments from the judges regarding the project: Beautiful sustainable design in material & construction, correct design; nice details of the facades; Energy :The south facade with the sun shading works very well; wonderful presentation.

Dragos Fodoreanu, Romania

Comments from the judges regarding the project: Beautiful exterior and interiors; Simple but effective layout, feasible solution, economical building form; Energy: one of the few projects that could be a Passive House.

Peter Tchordov Dipl.Eng. Arch. and Sofia Kodjamanova – Tchordova Dipl.Eng. Arch., Bulgaria

Comments from the judges regarding the project: Good sustainability concept, simple but good design; Passive House concepts; good detailing; mechanical design, and sun control.

SPA Inovations – arch. Bogdan Teodorescu, arch. Ionut Tudose, arch. Sorin Juverdeanu, and urb. Octavian Dragomir, Romania

Comments from the judges regarding the project: Beautiful sustainable project and presentation. Energy: excellent thoughts about the wood pellets and water reflection of the sun light to the solar panels.

Figure 01. “Sleeping with Stallman – Digital Disobedience Project” by Giacomo Castagnola (2011) at MIT Media Lab. Image source: Giacomo Castagnola

The concept of micro-spaces,  explored in (the recent) Antoni Muntadas, Volume 1: Between book and (for long present) work, is also very present in  Giacomo Castagnola‘s practice, where he explores a series of interstitial spaces interconnecting the building with the body. His latest project, is a micro-space for sleeping, a semi-private small environment,  can be found and experienced in the semi-public  Fumihiko Maki‘s new MIT Media Lab ”whitish” lobby.  According to the artist (also designer,  architect, and currently a graduate student at MIT Art, Culture & Technology) :

“Sleeping is a behavior that happens all the time in hidden corners and library couches throughout MIT, and I am interested in accommodating a space for that ‘non conforming’ activity in order not to represent civic disobedience only, but to actually embody it within the project…

 

Figure 02. Students sleeping (anywhere) at MIT. Image source: Giacomo Castagnola

 

Figure 03. Students sleeping (anywhere) at MIT. Image source: Giacomo Castagnola

…The ideas generated by “sleeping in public” as a form of social critique led me to an article on Richard Stallman by K.C. Jones in InformationWeek, that notes: ‘until around 1998, his office at MIT’s AI Lab was also his residence. He was registered to vote from there.’ In other words, Stallman was sleeping on campus.”

Figure 04. Philosopher of “free software” Richard Stallman and artist Giacomo Castagnola.  Image source: Giacomo Castagnola

The multi-faceted project refers to MIT’s  hacking culture (with famous examples like that of students placing MIT Police Car on the Great Dome of MIT back in the 1994) . From installation’ s manifesto: ”Sleeping with Stallman is a ‘hack’ into the exhibition space with the simple activity of sleep or rest. ‘Hack’ is another MIT-coined word: ‘A hack is a parodic, practical joke designed to debunk authority.’ As Stallman says, ‘hacking means exploring the limits of what is possible, in a spirit of playful cleverness’.”

Figure 05. Person sleeping in the installation.  Image source: Giacomo Castagnola

The temporary micro-space is part of the “Disobedience Archive” research and exhibition curated by Marco Scotini together with Nomeda & Gediminas Urbonas on show until April 15th in the MIT Media Lab  lobby. It consists of a soft platform that hosts three sound compilations and three reading sections.

 Figure 06. Inside view of the installation.  Image source: Giacomo Castagnola

Figure 07. Outside (elevational) view of the installation.  Image source: Giacomo Castagnola

The project is very popular among MIT community since in this case art provides a function, an opportunity for the users to occupy the building in a more  comfortable way through naps and rests. It creates a contrasting to the transparent (surveilling, open) Media Lab, little corner where one can hide and sleep without complete isolation. It provides an opportunity to enjoy the small (individual bubble) while being part of the big (system).

*ZIG-ZAG is a series of two-fold posts that present one project (ZIG) and their creator (ZAG). SHIFTboston’s readers can participate in the process by submitting their questions and comments (ZAG), or to pinpoint interesting projects or their projects for exploration (ZIG).

Niall McLaughlin Architects have designed a houseboat built for two as part of a Swedish design competition. Small on size, but big on innovation, the houseboat takes in thee design considerations; light, space, and construction. The architects took their inspiration from a light-weight, traditional Celtic  fishing boat called “currachs.” Woven carbon-fiber was used to create a  basket-like structure, similar of the currachs.  A translucent, argon gas filled space insulates the home and interwoven electronic elements collect energy from the environment to reuse to power the home. Adding to the home’s sustainability, solar panels power a pump that circulates water through underwater coils to the exterior wall of the home which passively cool the space. Below are the architect’s designs for the exterior and interiors on the Houseboat.

Figure 00. Contemporary Art Archipelago (CAA). Image source: Contemporary Art Archipelago (CAA)

The experience of Finland, the country, is inseparable from its landscape. Similarly to her forests, and large snow-scapes, the Turku Archipelago is another vast (water) landscape. It is a huge area, consisting out of approximately 20.000 islands. One needs around 6 hours to traverse the area from Turku city (North End of the archipelago) to Uto island (South end, and place for many of exhibition’s artistic interventions).

Why Turku Archipelago? Being the european capital (at that time), Turku, with its long history (military too) and cultural tradition, was expected to be seen as a particular environment, beyond the city itself.  Turku Archipelago has very few people living in the winter, and perhaps 10 times more in the summer. The archipelago has a permanent community, with a very challenging life. The communities are getting smaller; there are islands with one person, and they are spread out. The infrastructure is being also dismantled making jobs like that of the postman the event of the area: the only connection between people. At the same time, the water in the area is very swallow, making it difficult to navigate. The proximity with Baltic Sea, a polluted,  fragile ecology with minimum salinity and global traffic (there are still big ports, an example would be a traffic of 96.000 tons of oil) creates urgencies for catastrophes (a danger in the area my not be caused only by oil, but coca-cola too).

In such a context, ecological tourism, integrated with cultural activities seems to be the only future: the artists were invited to think, imagine and envision new sustainable futures.The exhibition focused on the ecological issues that were very crucial and the flows in-between the islands; the constantly moving matter that defines the islands and not the actual islands. For the ecological, the organizers were inspired by Felix Guattari‘s “Three ecologies” where one thinks beyond the banal duality of nature-culture; instead the emphasis is given to the environmental, social and mental aspects.

Why artists? According to Taru Elfving, art may be the only free platform, not defined by media, form or space; art allows to weave connections, it allows understanding and knowledge. The question of the local and site-specificity was also very present in the dialogue.  Taru Elfving used Renée Green  concept of site-sensitivity that creates a dialogue with the site, instead of focusing on the specific. The project maintained a very multidisciplinary approach, with international artists, to bring different perspectives, methodologies, practices, and modes of knowledge. Taru Elfving talked about the ”dysfunctionality” of the exhibition since it would require in practice 3-4 days in order to see all the works. This “dysfunctionality”  in a way, according to Taru Elfving, transforms the works to islands themselves: there is no unique identity or unified element “It is the context that unifies them.” One more, she suggests to focus on the in-between, as the only way for the works to make sense. “You have to experience archipelago itself; not to compete with the landscape.”

Some of the projects of the exhibition are:

Glass Meadow is an environmental art work made of recycled glass out of discarded old windows. The sculptural surfaces form a glistening web that changes its light and colors throughout the period of the exhibition. According to the artist, Pia Rousku, “The fragility of glass echoes the vulnerability of earth.”

 Figure 01. Glass Meadow by Pia Rouskou. Image source: Contemporary Art Archipelago (CAA)

Figure 02. Glass Meadow by Pia Rouskou. Image source: Contemporary Art Archipelago (CAA)

Fishnest by Armi Nurminen, is both an artwork and an artificial reef at the bottom of the sea. “Light plays around the shell-like shapes while they form shelters for small fish and other marine life. Gradually the sculpture will find its place in this ecosystem and become part of the underwater landscape.” The piece is a permanent underwater sculpture, that can be experienced by swimming, snorkeling or diving (Watch the video).

Figure 03. Fishnest. Image source: Contemporary Art Archipelago (CAA)

Architects and urbanists, John Palmesino and Ann-Sofi Rönnskog (Territorial Agency), teaching at Architectural Association (AA), have developed Fathoming Extraterritoriality: sensing the remote series of maps. Their work was based on their earlier North project presented at Slought Foundation. According to Slought Foundation, North is:

“…an occasion to think about how water is rapidly becoming the central issue in the management of inhabited territories. The changing conditions related to its ownership, protection from shortages and excesses, disputes on sovereignty, as well as underwater oil and mineral resources exploitation are modifying our perception of the geography of large parts of the Northern European regions, of the Artic Sea and Northern America. The research project addresses these themes through investigation of a number of case studies, from the oil resources off the coasts of Norway, to the disputed continental shelf under the North Pole, to the waterways accesses of Russia on the Baltic. By shifting our understanding of ‘location’ away from nation states and towards geographical regions and the interplay of different fields, North explores the dynamic relations between contemporary politics and their spaces of operation.”

Figure 04. North project by John Palmesino and Ann-Sofi Rönnskog.  Image source (Still from the slideshow): Slought Foundation

Open Hut by Minerva Cuevas addresses issues of extinction, disappearance, and global shifts in the modes of communication, economy and social organisation. According to Taru Elving, she rethinks how basic infrastructures, like the phone, take control of all the infrastructures. Minerva Cuevas invites the audience to make their own connections via an island’s independent mobile network.

Figure 05. Open Hut by Minerva Cuevas. Image source (ACT presentation slide): Taru Elving

Nomeda & Gediminas Urbonas  presented  their environmental art project Uto-pia that “works with experimental media and communication techniques to map heterotopias – spaces that are remote and simultaneously next to us, the places that are connected and disconnected at the same time.” They are interested in the encounters between traditional and new technologies. According to the artists Uto-pia:

“…focuses on the sheep that during the summers graze on the outer islands, literally opting out of the modern way of life as they often inhabit the small pockets of land that fall outside mobile and other wireless networks. More sheep are needed in the archipelago to take care of the landscape. What kind of potential do these animals carry as they grow on the natural meadows, beyond the reach of the networks? Do they provide some answers to those searching for a way out of the endless flows of data in the urban everyday?”

Figure 06. The sheep. Image credits: nugu/ Uto-pia

Uto-pia ”R&D” is documented in a very detailed, interesting to read and experience, website where one can explore all the different layers of their practice, including understanding the notion of island through philosophical reflection, learning about the (military) history through site visits to the island’s bunkers…

Figure 07. The remote bunkers are simultaneously the most interconnected. Image credits: nugu/ Uto-pia

…studying the ecological transformations through observations during their Archipelago visits, learning from the experts in sheep-cheese, milking-sessions, sheep-farming, and cheese-making through many fieldtrips and interviews…

Figure 08. Yanis’ sheeps in Crete, Greece. Image credits: nugu/ Uto-pia

Figure 09. Cheese Factory in Crete, Greece. Image credits: nugu/ Uto-pia

… and eventually introducing the 1st Baltic sheep-cheese-workshop to produce cheese that can be stored in the bunkers, and tasted in different settings including the exciting guided tour performance to the bunker.

Figure 10. Taste visit to banker.  Image credits: nugu/ Uto-pia

Renée Green, artist and ACT director and Associate Professor showed excepts from her film “Renée Green: Endless Dreams and Water Between.”According to CAA: ”Renée Green is known for her films and installations that address issues such as migration and its affects on subjects in the cross-cultural encounters. In Turku archipelago Green continues her research into the myriad desires projected over the oceans and onto islands. In the new work she brings together these isles with other distant ones through memories, fictive narrative and documentary footage.”

Figure 11. Endless Dreams and Water Between (still). Image source: Harmony Blog. To learn more about time-based art, read Renée Green‘s book “Endless Dreams and Time-Based Streams“

After the presentation of the excerpts, Renée Green raised interesting questions on what living on an island means: She compared the Turku Archipelago to her own experience living in Manhattan (island) and the San Francisco Archipelago.

Figure 12. Renée Green, artist, and MIT Associate Professor and director during her talk.

Figure 13. Slide from Renée Green’s short film.

Figure 14.  (From left to right ) Artists Gediminas & Nomeda Urbonas, Renée Green, and curator Taru Elving. 

During this event some questions on art and sustainability emerged:

What is sustainable for art and individual practices?

What the exhibition leaves behind locally?

How the work continues elsewhere?

Questions about “the audience” were asked from the audience. Taru Elfving discussed the audience (of this exhibition) as a very complex one. Audience is the locals, the residents, the visitors, the participants, but MIT ACT audience as well. It is worth noticing the interesting remark by Ute Meta Bauer on curation and dissemination: “Curators need to focus on the dissemination of the exhibitions and also to avoid the bureaucratic, audience-driven choices in exhibitions. Exhibitions should be seen as spaces and opportunities for artists’ experimentation.”

(This report was written by Zenovia Toloudi)

Sources:

Contemporary Art Archipelago (CAA)

MIT ACT Lectures Series

Nomeda & Gedimina Urbonas

Renée Green

FAM

Spheres of Interest

Have you made your way over to visit the BSA’s newest exhibit – IN FORM? The exhibit explores projects in Boston over the past 50 years. Three themes are explored: Legible City, New, Public and Futures. Each theme reflects on how design can shape our understanding the city’s urban landscape, while discovering new possibilities for development. SHIFTboston recently caught up one of the creators with Mark Pasnik of over,under to get his thoughts on IN FORM.

SB: What aspects of Boston’s history did you find most influential while creating this exhibit?

MP: In creating IN FORM for BSA Space, Chris Grimley, Michael Kubo, and I were drawn to the history of designers inventing ways to improve the legibility of the city. Often the projects we included were ones where architects were creating ways to make public events out of existing problems in the city. For instance, the Chelsea Salt Terminal work by Landing Studio or Where’s Boston? by Cambridge Seven or the Interim Bridges Project by Kennedy Violich all would have never happened without the architects inventing a role for themselves.

SB: What are your favorite cultural characteristics of Boston and how can they be reflected through design?

MP: Boston is well known for being a great walking city, and I find this to be one of its best urban features. Design has helped this in many of the cases we have highlighted in the show—not only making it easier for people to get around the city, but also interpreting what they see or creating events along the way. Yet we as designers can do more to enhance Boston’s clarity and enrich its activities. I’m just back from a week in Madrid, which is also a walking city. The difference is Madrid feels much more vibrant on foot, especially in its core. I’m hoping we can increase the vibrancy here through design coupled with public policies that encourage greater density and more activities that enliven streets.

SB: In your opinion, why is the combination of urban planning and architecture important to a city’s future?

MP: These disciplines shape the urban form and therefore create the framework for a city’s experiences and evolution. One portion of IN FORM is dedicated to the idea of urban futures. In particular, we highlight a project proposed for the Expo 76 in celebration of the Bicentennial. It was a megastructure designed to be built over the water south of Boston, which would have provided an entirely new neighborhood. The project was supported by the BRA and eventually fell victim to provincial politics. As radical as it may seem now, it was nothing compared to Boston’s physical growth that actually occurred in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, with efforts like the filling of the Back Bay.

Today, it seems to me we have lost the big picture in thinking about Boston. We are too tentative about the possibilities for urban change. This partly comes from a loss of respect for the disciplines of architecture and urban design after the trials of urban renewal and the rise of the public process. We need to recapture the prospect for larger visions and think more boldly about where our city can go in the future.

SB: What would you change about the current state of the city? Is there a particular neighborhood that you would focus on?

MP: Great cities continually evolve. Change should come across the city, not just in one neighborhood. I would like to see greater density in Boston, to increase its services and vibrancy for those of us who live in its core. The city also needs to provide access to a broader citizenry. This is true of many urban historic cores in the United States, where census data show that residents are overwhelmingly white and wealthy. One of the surprisingly positive results of urban renewal is that it created the only areas in present-day Boston with any demographic diversity. It did this through access to public housing. Perhaps we can find other better ways to increase Boston’s density and urban diversity. To do so, the attitudes in the city will have to shift toward embracing contemporary design, variation in scale, increased density, and inventive urban approaches.

SB: Do you see a bright future for upcoming projects within the city and why?

MP: I hope we are seeing signs of openness toward contemporary design in Boston. A series of recent projects has indicated the city’s collective willingness to place contemporary architecture next to the historical. All three of the projects in our New/Public portion of the show (Boston Harbor Islands Pavilion, the Cambridge Public Library, and the Community Rowing Boathouse) are positive examples of enlightened design that serves the public well. Other recent additions like the Gardner and MFA also indicate hope for better design to complement our historic fabric. Such buildings represent meaningful contributions to the evolving discourse that is the city’s form. As we go forward, the developments being proposed in Chinatown and the South End offer opportunities to invest in contemporary design. It would be ideal to see those developments achieve the same high standards that our recent cultural buildings have.

The BSA is located at 290 Congress St. Boston, MA and is open 7 days a week from 10 to 6. Be sure to catch IN FORM before it’s too late!

The hybrid structure, with the potential name  ”Light garden,”  has the special feature of bringing light in the roots via fiberoptics. This idea has emerged and developed during Zitofos (meaning Light Lives among many other things), a workshop that took place in Alexandroupolis, Greece during last summer in collaboration with MIT Art, Culture and Technology. Zitofos workshop has been the instigator of a research on spatial light that has been documented in the Zitofos platform. Part of the experimentation has been expressed in Photodotes I currently on show at Brant Gallery until May 7th.

Figure 04. Experiment to hypothesize how fiberoptics inserted in the water affect growth. Photo credits: Dominic Tschoepe

Figure 05. Refunctioning ingredients towards the making of a living wall. Photo credits: Dominic Tschoepe

Figure 06. Light inserted in the water via the fiberoptic cables in order to help the growth of the plant.  Photo credits: Dominic Tschoepe

Figure 07. Participants scuptured the recycling containers in a unique way to allow plants to develop in multiple directions, to co-evolve, and to grow better. Photo credits: Dominic Tschoepe

Figure 08. Vertical growth of different plants. Photo credits: Dominic Tschoepe

Figure 09. Each plant is linked to at least one optic fiber that emits light at its end. Photo credits: Dominic Tschoepe
The second part of the workshop included the collaborative assembly of the individual garden clusters towards the creation of one “circular” garden-space. The collaborative character of the installation registered individual craftsmanship and signature expression of each author.

Figure 10. The ”circular” garden-space or a possible living structure.  Photo credits: Dominic Tschoepe

More info:

Zitofos platform on spatial light.

Project Credits: 

Idea and project instigator: Zenovia Toloudi
Research: Zenovia Toloudi, George Toloudis, Ute Meta Bauer (MIT Art, Culture and Technology)
Photography: Dominic Tschoepe, Dimitris Papanikolaou, Zenovia Toloudi
Light Garden Collaborators: Dominic Tschoepe, Amir Banihashem, Dimitris Papanikolaou
Exhibition Curators: Evelyn Rydz, Jonathan Santos
Workshop assistants: Yamilah Kenny, Christian Keebler Restrepo
Participants: Lydia See, Brianna Dawes, Juliet Demasi, Colin Cardinal, Anika Catterfield, Georgia Kennedy, Julie Chen, Hayden Lemire

Throughout this intense session, participants will be making a hybrid structure consisting of plants, fiberoptics, and light through the method of hydroponics. Could this experimentation aim towards evolving, ever-changing structures? Or eve edible architecture?

Garden Lab workshop: March 14th, 1:30PM-3:00PM

Location: Brant Gallery: South Building, 3rd floor
621 Huntington Ave, Boston, MA 02115

Garden lab exhibition: January 18 – May 7, 2012
Hours: Monday- Friday: 9:00 AM -6:30 PM

For more information on upcoming events and workshops, please visit the website of Brant Gallery or  e-mail: brantgallery@massart.edu