When thinking of cities, environments, or places, one wonders what is the role of the user, audience, observer or citizen in the formation of a space. Who activates the space? Who is the orchestrator of the event one experiences? Who personalizes the experience? What is the ontology of the experience: who is the subject and what is the object?

According to Jonathan Cott the separation between subject and object is not that clear:

“There’s no perception without the perceived and no perceived without the perception. People always think they’re the in the world, but they never realize they are the world. They are identical with what they see and hear, whether they like it or not. The sounds that I hear are me. I become the sound otherwise I ‘d never hear it.”

If you are interested in speculating on the role of experience in art, space, and culture, you probably can join one of the Experience Economies that take place in the area of Cambridge/ Boston the last one-year and half. Although knowing their existence since their birth, I managed to join only the most recent event, the one with the provocative title: “Innovate or Die.”

Figure 01. Experience Economies 6: Innovative or Die (poster).

Experience Economies is a loan from The Experience Economy term first described by Joseph Pine II and James H. Gilmore. In brief the concept of Experience Economy describes the shift of our society from that an Economy based on commodities, to that of services, and later to that of events and experiences. According to Experience Economies (EE) founders and organizers, Gavin Kroeber and Rebecca Uchill:

“Experience Economies is an event-based art series presented at unique sites throughout Boston. Experience Economies supports work by an array of artists and cultural producers, working across the visual and performing arts, the sciences, and the humanities. Our events are structured as experiments that encompass entire evenings, emphasizing experimentation, site specificity, discussion, and conviviality. Not a lecture and not a party, Experience Economies welcomes audiences that want their spectacles to mess with them and presenters who need a space to make that mess.”

The latest, 6th episode of EE was collaboration between EE and The Laboratory at Harvard. The Laboratory at Harvard: Experiments in Art and Sciences, operating between and at the intersection of art and science, has been active the last, and in fact its first, 3 years, with events like: Neuroscience, Healing, and Music, Africa in Motion: Reception, Cross[x]Species Adventure Club Dinner ,  and 3 states of Hors d’Oeuvres, among other experience-based art manifestations.

Being interested in innovation myself, and having spent 4 years in one of the most dense in terms of innovation areas of the world, I was curious to re-discover innovation’s reason d’etre through a site-and audience-specificity, emphasizing our geographical and anthropological experience during that night.

[ 5:00 pm: Event Start ] Following consumerism techniques, that invests in the element of surprise, theme, and scripted routes, the organizers kept the details of the one night-event as hot, top secret. What we knew was a minimum of 4-hour commitment in a very popular, limited-seats-only experience. What we found out was a one-way bus-ticket to innovation; a red or black ride to novelty. Attendance and purchase was not enough, the participants would sign a contract to their exotic journey to Boston’s clubs of innovation. Along with this signature, they allowed themselves to become significant participants by sharing their faces, bodies, discussions, and engagements. Actions were seriously surveilled and documented by the Lab’s paparazzi and EE enthusiastic volunteers!

The bus stops-destinations were not surprise spots, they were the usual aspects of the Bostonian art, technology, and science scene. Starting point: The Lab at Harvard. First stop the newly made I-Lab or “Hi” where red and black riders would experience a psychological experiment with cards to create a series of questions on identity, branding, products, and names. The experiment was orchestrated by Jeremy Blatter, a historian of science. It was followed by Blatter’s talk on the work of Dr. Hugo Münsterberg, the pioneering psychologist whose work at Harvard University in the early 20th Century established important reciprocities between science and business. When ended, the guests left the empty (according to the host researchers are partying on a Saturday night – a very opposite situation to the always alive MIT Media Lab) to arrive at Continuum, Newton. The best deal out of the EE experience was in fact the in-between events, the journey itself, the ride coming along with networking, drinks, potato-chips and other gifts to be distributed along with talks and tasks while traveling.

Figure 02, 03. Continuun and Keely Sherman’s work.

Continuum, along with other firms like IDEO (and others in the area) are design consulting companies, known as creative, team-based, cool environments to work if you are interested in developing ideas, research, working with brainstorming and collaboration, and perhaps with unique office routines. Although creative, these organizations do not necessarily have outcomes like artifacts. Their “products” are often studies, a brochure, a set of rules, policies, ideas, suggestions or improvisations, to be delivered to big corporations/ clients aiming to attract and please more and more users. In a way, to some extend they invest in understanding and creating memorable experiences. This somehow formless creativity has interesting links with the art-forms of the two artworks presented in Continuum. The piece by Kelly Sherman was “recognized” by colorful post-its, a medium used in the brainstorming sessions and also in office culture. According to the press release:

“Ms. Sherman will present a work developed by applying innovation methods to the creation of an artwork addressing social violence in Roxbury. A cross-disciplinary project positioned at the confluence of art and innovation, Ms. Sherman’s project traces the common “social turns” that both worlds have undertaken, emerging from studio and laboratory environments to address major social issues.”

The form of the Catherine McMahon piece, was made by a collection of text-based speeches, created and delivered by participants based on template to be filled in the bus and be presented at Continuum in a intimidating entrepreneurship stage. According to the Lab at Harvard announcement:

“Ms. McMahon will produce a multi-part art experience that asks participants to step into the comportment and speaking strategies of innovation and entrepreneurship: from TED talks to couture.”

Figure 04, 05. Talk preparation and talk delivery space (Catherine McMahon’s work).

Similarly to the Kelly Sherman artwork, the piece would demonstrate the audiences’ participation, the power of the mass, and the importance of the individual expression.

After having a long buffet dinner and interesting discussion on edible art with artist Caitlin Berrigan and architectural historian Olga Touloumi, and an art-climate conversation with journalist and Knight Fellow Eli Kintisch, the art-science-innovation experience continued in the bus. The target would be the Cloud Place, another experimental–educational space by David A.Edwards. And in order to be promptly prepared we would feed ourselves with caffeine aero-shots, and potassium doses (the last in the form of bananas). Energy consumption was followed by a tutoring session; both to create the best ground for the participants to take the ARE (Anhoek Required Examination), both an artwork and a standardized test on Beautiful Economy, organized by Mary Walling Blackburn. The test was accompanied by piano time-reminders and the scary voice of the test-referee to warn for “No talking (please).” This acoustic perception converted the test experience to an interesting one, both spatially and socially: the participants would create conspiracies in copying, drinking, and sharing laughers. The test experience also augmented the perceptual mechanism of learning: At the end, almost all participants filed their responds towards evaluation with the hope to receive the results sometime soon. And, as it was diagnosed by many of us, the test was the ultimate manifesto of the whole event.

Figure 06, 07. Cloud Place: Staircase and work-space.

Last experience on the bus experience, was a small talk by Joseph Pine II, to reinforce the link between experience and innovation. The final destination of the night was an introduction to the Industry Lab (IL). IL, “an artful, co-working space”, is  a collaborative office platform for emerging artists, designers, and technologists, possibly a form of professional, individual continuation of the MIT Media Lab environment and experience. The introduction to this innovative experience was celebrated with a pizza-beer happy party. [ 10:00 pm: (almost) Event End ]

Figure 08, 09. Magical Economies Session and ARE Test.

Figure 10, 11. ARE Test sample questions: Antonym and Analogy.

Figure 12, 13. ARE Test event: during and after the exam.

Figure 14, 15. Bus ride experience: Organizers and Joseph Pine II talks.

Figure 16, 17. Industry Lab party and Catherine McMahon’s “talk” project.

Experience Economies: Innovative or Die introduced us into a mode of perception, a way of seeing, living, through scripts, narrations, journeys, paths similarly to the concept of Scripted Spaces by Norman Klein. According to him, scripted spaces are spaces carefully designed like labyrinths in every single square foot, to keep the viewer’s journey not boring or to maximize profit. By decoding them, one can learn who has the power. In scripted spaces, there is a journey, a narrative story; we are focused on the path, not on the wall, in the in between. “The audience walks into the story.” He questions what does the narrative say to us when we are becoming active characters inside an “interactive” or scripted space?

Throughout this night, it became obvious that space and event became inseparable both at the stops and while on the bus. The destinations-stops, all of them generously designed, with spacious arrangements and flexible room configurations, would signify the importance of the event and experience towards innovation. Our experiences essentially constituted a set of experiments to prove the general theory: Play, fun, interactivity, rules, cheating, friendship, social interaction, food-based memories, all collaborate creatively to construct an innovative artifact delivered to the world throughout our personal engagement(s). Such situations can perhaps re-invent the principles with which we can redesign and rethink the city as Olafur Eliasson suggests.

Note: This specific review, is based a personal and subjective documentation; a diary of the specific event in order to reinforce the experience of the experience.

References:
John Pine II, and James H. Gilmore: The Experience Economy.
Jonathan Cott: Stockhausen. Conversations with the composer.
Michael Corris: What Do Artists Know?
 Contemporary Responses to the Deskilling of Art
.
Norman Klein: From Vatican to Vegas. The history of Special Effects.
Olafur Eliasson: Your engagement has consequences.
Zenovia Toloudi: Mythopoeia.From metropolis to utopia to heterotopia to metapolis.

In a period where world’s news are occupied by the economical crisis in Greece, Museum of Science in Boston presents Made in Greece Plus: Architecture Now, as one of its temporary exhibits. In case you love either Greece or Architecture, do not miss this show!

From the curatorial statement:

“Made in Greece Plus exhibits contemporary built and unbuilt work by young Greek architects that demonstrate how design thinking, technological innovation, and scientific research play a role in the creation of the human-made environment.

Sixteen architectural projects have been selected for the clarity of their objectives and the experimental character of their design strategies. These works are juxtaposed with one research installation that showcases how computational technology can foster design education.

The diverse repertoire includes works that use digital technology to reinterpret craftsmanship; incorporate landscape topography to complement built form; mutate traditional typologies to invent new ones; organize building volumes to reflect social structure; create transformable interiors to maximize utilization of space; use social stereotypes to criticize culture; and develop computational tools to nurture structural intuition.

Through these examples, Made in Greece Plus illustrates the value of design in the current socioeconomic conditions in Greece.”

The show is at Boston Museum of Science in the Green Wing, Level 2, and will be running until mid June. More information about Museum of Science schedule you can find at the MoS website.

Since January 18th, one can visit and experience the project PHOTODOTES, an installation that brings naturally light in dark spaces, currently on show until the beginning of May at Brant Gallery at MassArt. PHOTODOTES is architectured and presented in three stages (collect-transfer-diffuse).

PHOTODOTES detail. Photo credits: Dominic Tschoepe

A. COLLECT

The installation has two sources, the natural sun-light, collected in the roof of South Hall building in MassArt); and the artificial LED box, to be used only when there is no sun (night times and cloudy-stormy days). The research regarding the collection of the ever-changing natural sun-light is on-going and consists of multiple experiments to be tested on-site throughout the residency at MassArt.
COLLECT: Natural light collected at the roof. Photo credits: Dominic Tschoepe

COLLECT: Artificial light source to be used when there is no sun.

B. TRANSFER

The light (either natural or artificial) it is transferred via fiberoptics to the origami structure, found in the dark  (or not enough lighted) space.

TRANSFER: Transferring artificial light through a transparent fiberoptic cable. Photo credits: Dominic Tschoepe

TRANSFER: The (transparent) fiberoptic acts as a light vain, that gives light to the origami structure. Photo credits: Dominic Tschoepe

TRANSFER: Transferring natural light through a black thick fiberoptic cable (traveling distance: 100 feet). Photo credits: Dominic Tschoepe

C. DIFFUSE

The origami structure is as an alternative to the black-box solution (often used to expose light). It is designed as a free-standing element of space, that can be reconfigured to different forms (wall, cave, surface, etc) based on needs, and desires. The flexible system configuration is consisted of folded triangles that provide a dark area (the alternative to black-box) for the light to be seen and diffused. The critical detail is conceived by George Toloudis (gtroza). The origami structure was constructed at Panagiotis Stamboulidis shop at Alexandroupolis, Greece. Mr. Takis, head of the shop, had generously offered the materials for its construction and shop resources (equipment and personnel) for 5 days and nights.

DIFFUSE: Detail from the light diffusion structure. Photo credits: Dominic Tschoepe

DIFFUSE: Natural light arriving to the origami diffusion structure. Photo credits: Dominic Tschoepe

DIFFUSE: The light captured in the origami structure niche. Photo credits: Dominic Tschoepe

DIFFUSE: Looking to the niche where the natural light arrives after traveling 100 feet from the roof.

The research has started with a series of 56 light machines on collecting, transferring and diffusing light. The experiments were part of ZITOFOS workshop that took part in Alexandroupolis, Greece the last summer. The documentation of the experiments, along with other material related to spatial light, can be found in ZITOFOS website.  PHOTODOTES is the first permanent spatial experiment to deal with this issue.  One can watch the ”Made in Greece” process in the following video:

PHOTODOTES: the making of from Zenovia Toloudi on Vimeo.

The research is being accomplished in collaboration with MIT Art, Cutlure, +Technology and the director of the program Ute Meta Bauer. Please see below the details of project credits:

Project credits:

Design: Zenovia Toloudi
Research: Zenovia Toloudi, Ute Meta Bauer (MIT Art, Culture, and Technology), George Toloudis
Construction: Zenovia Toloudi, George Toloudis, Panagiotis Stamboulidis @ Stamboulidis Panagiotis Workshop in Alexandroupolis, Greece
Gallery Installation: Zenovia Toloudi, Dominic Tschoepe, Dimitris Papanikolaou
Photography: Dominic Tschoepe, Zenovia Toloudi, Dimitris Papanikolaou
Movie: Zenovia Toloudi
Special thanks to: Maria Toloudi, Yannis Stratakis, Theodoros Koukos, Marrikka Trotter, Jonathan Santos, Evelyn Rytz

In case you are interested in urbanity, the crisis, or you are around New York, you may want to attend one of these lectures, all belonging to the 2^nd Design and Urban Practice Colloquium at Parsons School of Design Practices.

The Urban Crisis title of the public lecture series refers to  alternative and innovative 
forms of design and urban practice. The speakers, representing different disciplines, are:

• Frank Morales, Housing Activist [Feb 9]
• Paula Z. Segal, Urban Lawyer [Feb 23]
• Tom Angotti, Urban Planner [Mar 1]
• Don Mitchell, Geographer [Mar 8]
• Ana Mendez de Andes, Urban Activist [Mar 28]
• Andrew Ross, Urban Advocare [Apr 5]
• Erik Swyngedouw, Geographer [Apr19]
• Jeanne van Heeswijk, Artist [Apr 26]
• Pelin Tan, Sociologist [May 3]

The lectures will be starting at 6pm at The Kellen Auditorium, 66 Fifth Avenue, NY. More info about:

The Urban Crisis

The 1st Colloquium

Sources:

Pelin Tan, MIT, and Parsons

What would make you stop? A glowing greenhouse? A rolling theatre or how about a super pier?

This summer SHIFTboston challenged architects, urban designers, designers and landscape architects — professionals and students — to visualize new destinations along the proposed South Coast Rail extension, a new rail that will connect Boston to Taunton, New Bedford, and Fall River, Massachusetts.

This international competition generated brilliant concepts for a new, vital urban network along the railway from 5 countries and 7 states.

Winning and select submissions from the WHY STOP Competition have become part of the WHY STOP Exhibition at South Station in Boston Massachusetts. The winner and three honorary recipients presented their proposals at the opening of the exhibition on January 19, 2012. Attendees included competition participants and a number of local leaders in architecture, academia and government including competition advisor Edward Mitchell assistant professor of Yale University, Fred Koetter of Koetter, Kim and Associates and Richard Henderson, Executive Vice President of MassDevelopment.

The opening began with a comprehensive presentation by the competition winner, Emer O’Daly of Dublin, Ireland. Emer’s ‘New Bedford Super Pier’ proposal establishes New Bedford as a regional infrastructural hub for New England.

According to juror and former Massachusetts governor, Michael Dukakis “The bold, exciting Super Pier, is a recognition of New Bedford’s historic and continuing connection with the sea and its prominence to this day in the fishing industry. It brings the train into the city where it belongs– and where it can connect directly with the island boat service. Add to this the possibility of major cultural and recreational events, and you really have something that is impressive in its modernity and contrasts nicely with the city’s historic center.”

Following the winner were presentations by three honorable mentions: Marcus Martinez and Ana Ansari of AlloyBuild Somerville, MA presented Urban Grafting; David Yang and Amir Shahrokhi of DnA, New York, NY presented AgroLand; and Chris Aubin of New York, NY presented Sky Lab.

Presentations were followed by a celebration at Sorriso Trattoria in the Leather District.

Honorable and select design proposals will be on display at South Station from

January 16 – January 30 as part of the traveling WHY STOP Exhibition exhibition which

will move to select locations in New Bedford and Fall River.

WHY STOP Competition Honorable Submissions

Honorable: AgroLand by David Yang and Amir Shahrokhi of DnA, New York, NY

Agroland is a reconsidered form of agricultural settlement that seeks to reinforce the cultures of local food production and family farming while reconciling the economies of food production. By analyzing traditional homestead farms and various aspects of industrialized agricultural practices, the project arrives at innovative hybrid models of modular homesteads and small-scale, high-productivity enhanced farming outfits. Agroland will not only serve as a regional market and distribution center, but will export new models of living and food culture, ultimately attracting a diverse constituency of individuals who wish to live work, shop and learn around it.

Honorable: Urban Grafting by Marcus Martinez and Ana Ansari of Alloy Build, Somerville, MA

A bold appreciation for the capacities of existing systems strategically relocates the site to the more dense and historic downtown area as a ‘superblock’. This reinforces established public spaces, businesses and services for new ventures. The fusion of he plaza assemblage directly with the rail form a new perspective on the train cab as the public realm, transforming the rail cabs into a spatial catalyst or spontaneous theatre or marketplace. The compound response delivers a new value through the serial arrival to the city and a kinetic public realm.

Honorable: SKY- LAB by Elihu Rubin, Jacob Dugopolski and Chris Aubin, New York, NY

For more than 10 years, Fall River city officials have considered taking down the I-195 double stacked connector. This submission proposes transforming the derelict right-of-way into a new gateway for the city. This new ‘Sky Lab’ will re-purpose the sturdy piece of infrastructure, a more sustainable approach that eliminates the costs associated with removing it. The authors of Sky Lab propose transforming the lower levels of the double decked highway connector into incubator spaces for the region’s emerging bio-tech sector while energizing the upper levels with a public greenway for cyclists, pedestrians and outdoor programming.

Winner : New Bedford Super Pier by Emer O’Daly, Dublin, Ireland

The New Bedford Super Pier creates a new waterfront center for New Bedford while establishing the city as a regional infrastructural hub for New England. The city of New Bedford sits at the end of the South Coast Rail line. Currently, the PROPOSED train station is positioned north of downtown, which unfortunately will cut it off from the waterfront and the community it will serve. New Bedford Super Pier proposes rotating the station OUTWARD from this location toward the river in the form of a pier, tying into the existing infrastructure and reconnecting the town with the sea.

The New Bedford Super Pier also becomes a ferry terminal for all of the New Bedford passenger ferries which depart daily to the Massachusetts South Coast Islands. These two infrastructural elements combine to form a major transit oriented hub with commercial and public programming throughout from downtown area to the waterfront. In addition to transportation, the pier would house open markets, food production spaces, performance spaces and landscaped parks.

The pier would become a hub of activity to which visitors would have easy-access by rail, car or ferry. In this way, a new waterfront urban centre may be defined for New Bedford ensuring its establishment as the primary infrastructural hub of southern Massachusetts and the South Coast Islands.

PHOTODOTES,* a ‘machinic’ installation,** explores the manipulation of natural and artificial light in space, architectured to perform in 3 stages: collecting, transferring and emitting light. The experimentation discusses phenomena related to lack of light, like the lack of vitamin D, depression, women’s cycle patterns irregularities, and work separation from exterior conditions. By augmenting the individual and collective perceptual mechanism, PHOTODOTES emphasizes how light’s relation to energy and the survival leads to well-being of people.

*PHOTODOTES is the plural form of the greek: φωτοδότης = giver of light, luminary
**PHOTODOTES installation is currently on exhibition at The Garden Lab. The project will be presented this Thursday at 6:30pm at the exhibition opening. More information at Brant Gallery at MassArt.

Project credits:
Design: Zenovia Toloudi
Research: Zenovia Toloudi, Ute Meta Bauer (MIT Art, Culture, and Technology), George Toloudis
Construction: Zenovia Toloudi, George Toloudis, Panagiotis Stamboulidis @ Stamboulidis Panagiotis Workshop in Alexandroupolis, Greece
Gallery Installation: Zenovia Toloudi, Dominic Tschoepe, Dimitris Papanikolaou
Special thanks to: Maria Toloudi, Yannis Stratakis, Theodoros Koukos

Join us for the opening reception of the GARDEN LAB! Thursday, January 26, from 6:30 – 7:30pm. Meet the Artists-in-Residence (Caitlin Berrigan, Andi Sutton, and Zenovia Toloudi) and learn about their projects.

“When I go into the garden with a spade, and dig a bed, I feel such an exhilaration and health that I discover that I have been defrauding myself all this time in letting others do for me what I should have done with my own hands.”
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

The Garden Lab, an experimental project for the 2012 spring semester in the Brant Gallery. The aim for this initiative is to create a garden space and platform where all students and the community-at-large can engage in an open conversation about art, design, food, community, and the environment. The project examines these topics and concerns in experimental and investigative ways, while proposing creative and sustainable solutions and possibilities.

This initiative is not only to enrich students’ learning experience, but also to facilitate a collaborative milieu of growth and creativity. Through workshops, visiting artist projects, lectures and events students will be introduced to a variety of interdisciplinary practices to broaden the learning, making and understanding of art and design. Students will have an opportunity to participate in how-to grow, consume and forage for food in an enjoyable and sustainable practice. Through sharing and gardening, we hope to inspire students to play an active role as “citizen artists”.

This project is supported in part by Sustainable MassArt: Art and Design at the Intersection of the Environment, Social Justice, and Health, and the Studio Foundation Sustainability Committee. It is directed by Jonathan Santos and Evelyn Rydz.

Many Thanks to: Paul Dobbs, Rachel Resnik, Yamilah A Kenny, Christian H Restrepo, Scarlett Hoey, Lisa Tung, Darci Hanna, Gamalia Pharms, Kyle Brock, David Tames, Jamieson Wicks, Howie Larosee and Jane Marsching

Garden Lab: January 18 – May 7, 2012
Brant Gallery: South Hall, 3rd floor
Hours: Monday- Friday: 9:00 AM -6:30 PM
Contact: brantgallery@massart.edu
Online Resource: MassArt Library + Garden Lab
Accommodation: If you need a disability-related accommodation for a MassArt-sponsored event on campus, email Mercedes Evans at mercedes.evans@massart.edu at least two weeks prior to the program date.

More information at Brant Gallery at MassArt

Exhibition South Station, Jan 16 – Jan 30 – Opening event Thursday, January 19, 6-8pm!

“We will not understand the full potential of the South Coast Rail Project until we can see it.” – Greg Guimond, Deputy Director and Comprehensive Planning Manger, SRPEDD

In support of the Massachusetts Department of Transportation’s South Coast Rail Economic Development and Land Use Corridor Plan, SHIFTboston challenged urban planners, architects, urban designers, designers and landscape architects — professionals and students — to explore and visualize destinations along the proposed South Coast Rail extension, which will connect Boston to Taunton, New Bedford, and Fall River, Massachusetts. What sort of developments might we see and how might they look? How could these new developments borrow from and build upon local resources?

This international competition generated interest from 12 states and 10 countries and a number of brilliant concepts for a new and vital urban network along the railway.

Winning and honorable design proposals will be on display at South Station from January 16 – January 30 as part of the traveling WHY STOP Exhibition exhibition which will move to select locations in New Bedford and Fall River. Join us for the opening and a presentation by competition winner Emer O’Daly of Dublin, Ireland on Thursday, January 19th from 6:00 – 8:00 pm.

For more information on the competition please click here!

Guergana Barabonkova - Graduated from the University of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Geodesy in Sofia, Bulgaria. Lives in Winchester, MA and currently is the principal of her own firm “Studio GB Architecture & Design” and is the co-founder of the Passive House Bulgaria since the summer of 2011. Passive House Bulgaria is accredited by the Passivhaus Institut Darmstadt, Germany to conduct training courses for Passive House Designer and Consultant, examinations for certification, and to make the first correction of the exam. Mrs. Barabonkova is accredited by the U.S. Green Building Council as a LEED AP BC+C and is also trained by the Passive House Institute US and the Passivhaus Institute in Darmshtadt, Germany. She also teaches at the Boston Architectural College. Her current work includes a single family house in Bulgaria aiming for Passive House certification, and a single family home renovation in Winchester, MA.

Ms. Barankova has also recently initiated the first electronic  Passive House Architectural Design Competition. The Passive House Bulgaria Competition challenges the architectural community to develop affordable, low energy, single-family houses, focuses the public attention to this new type of energy efficient buildings, and promote the design and construction of Passive Houses in Bulgaria.

We were interested in her competition and wanted to learn more about Passive Housing and what inspired Ms. Barabonkova to create this competition.

SB: Is this the first Passive House Competition?

GB: This is the first electronic design competition for design for a passive house in Bulgaria. Passive House Bulgaria as the organizer of this competition challenges the architectural community to develop affordable, low energy, single-family houses and to prove that the passive houses can be beautiful and affordable. Our main goals are: – to focus the public attention to this type of energy efficient buildings, which achieve energy savings of 90% for space heating and savings of 60-70% for the overall energy use. – and to promote the design and construction of passive houses in Bulgaria.

SB: Europe seems to be creating and designing more green homes and buildings than in America. Do you think this is so and why do you think this is happening?

GB: Europe has been leading the way in sustainable and energy efficient buildings. The main reason for this is because in Europe the gasoline, natural gas, and energy in general cost significantly more than in America, and it has been that way for many years. The Europeans and the European governments are more cautious when it comes to the use of energy and conservation. In some European countries there are government subsidies for passive house constructions and low energy buildings. I think we are catching up a little bit here in the United States in regards of designing more energy efficient homes. We see more and more consumers, concerned about the economy and about the rising energy cost, who are looking make their homes energy efficient and to lower their utility bills.

SB: Although this competition is centered in Bulgaria, do you think that the potential winning design could be replicated in other parts of the world and what do you think the likelihood of that happening is?

GB: The Passive House standard takes into account the specific climate of the country (region) where the building will be built. The teams participating in the competition will be given the climate data for Sofia, Bulgaria. In these terms, the winning design cannot be replicated without being adapted to the particular climate of the country in which it will be built. A passive house, built in Southern Europe for example will need less insulation to meet the standard than a house built in Northern America. The principle remains the same, the goals are the same and the standard can be applied to all climates and for all countries.

SB: What makes Bulgaria the best location for this type of design competition?

GB: Bulgaria is a great location for this type design competition and for construction of passive buildings. The geographic location of the country and the mild climate are in favor of achieving the Passive House Standard. On the other hand, the country is located in Europe, where there is a big variety of passive house products and components, that are still not available in the United States. This makes it easier to achieve the standard without significant increase of the construction cost. Bulgarians, as the most of the Europeans are concerned over the high prices of the gasoline and the energy, and they are looking into finding ways to reduce their energy use, and the interest in passive house building is growing rapidly. It is important to add also that the European Commission has decided to boost Passive House development significantly by 2015, and the European Parliament has implemented the requirement that all new buildings in the EU must be near zero energy.

SB: What inspired you to become involved with green design?

GB: I became interested in sustainable design and energy efficient buildings few years ago when I decided, that if I am to continue working in the design and the architectural field, I needed to learn more about what I could do to help bring about a change. The buildings we design have to be energy efficient and healthy for the people and for the environment. A big impact in my career was the training I had by the Passive House Institute in US (PHIUS), and later at the Passivhaus Institut in Darmshtadt, Germany. I met amazing people, who are really making a difference through working for implementing the Passive House standard in Europe and in the United States. I strongly believe that in the next few years more and more passive houses will be built worldwide and I am very excited to be part of this movement.

Below are the important dates and competition details. Registration opens soon. Good luck and thank you to Guergana Barabonkova for letting us know about this amazing competition!

Passive House in the village of Lozen, near Sofia:

Official announcement of the design competition and the start of registration for contestants – January 16, 2012

Deadline for registration and project submission – March 16, 2012

Deadline for public vote, and vote from the teams participating in the contest to determine the ten finalists – from March 19, 2012 till April 6, 2012

Announcing the ten projects (finalists) – April 9, 2012

Official announcement of the decision of the jury: Project Winners – April 9, 2012

Prescott Passive House” in Kansas City, Kansas -  Studio 804.

If you’re in the New York City area next week be sure to stop by the The Architectural League to listen to SHIFTboston 2011 Barge Design Competition winners Phu Hoang and Rachely Rotem speak about their winning design and other works they have done.  They will be presenting ‘Lighter than Air’ as one of the outdoor pavilion projects at Pavilions and Follies at 594 Broadway, Suite 607