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The results of the 1st Annual Architecture & Design Competition are in!
From a total of 126 submissions, an international jury that deliberated at Architekturforum Linz during the 2007 Ars Electronica Festival chose four finalists. All entries were put on public display both online and live in Second Life.
(Linz, September 10, 2007) The selected projects in this internationally one-of-a-kind competition won over the jury members with unconventional ideas and approaches. The finalists stood out from the crowd on account of the innovative ways they took advantage of both the artistic and technical possibilities afforded by Second Life. Maintaining the discrete categories as defined in the call for submissions was possible only to a limited degree since it turned out that generally the most interesting entries were clustered among the so-called freestyle projects. Several of these projects displayed extraordinarily innovative perspectives and potential for commercial use as classical replicas.
The experts concentrated on those projects that, in terms of form, were for the most part abstract, were conducive to other users engaging in playful activities, or were just more interesting than reality.
Berliner Tanja Meyle’s “Living Cloud” project took top honors in the Private Homes category sponsored by Ligne Roset. The cloud surrounding her avatar Creatina Ferraris is not only a transportable house; its variability brings in an association with the idea that the house is just an extension of the body of the person who inhabits it. “Living Cloud” is thus a fascinating metaphor involving what could be referred to as the private sphere. It also brings about concrete encounters and communication in virtual space.
(Press Photo 1)
“Whitenoise” by Max Moswitzer from Vienna consists of so-called freebies, which are comprised of a growing architectural structure of virtual objects that can be acquired free of charge. The objects require only a minimal number of so-called prims, the construction elements in Second Life. These freebies—white, no texture—can be exchanged/enhanced/updated at any time. In addition to its play aspects, this project represents a new iconographic architecture that could be further developed into a novel commercial architecture.
(Press Photo 2)
“Seventeen Unsung Songs” is a temporary interactive sound garden by Adam Nash from North Melbourne. Seventeen unsung songs are offered by a world into which one can playfully immerse; it consists of audiovisual elements that produce sounds, undergo spatial modification and thereby give rise to an aesthetic and sensory spatial construct via interaction. The question of whether a new trend for innovative, futuristic music videos could be derived from this remains open as yet.
(Press Photo 3)
“Hyperformalism,” a technically elaborate project by San Franciscan DC Spensley, won admirers through its consistent abstraction and interactive elements. This structure is defined as less a building than a spatial interface. In an orthogonal framework, this interface contains numerous interactive application possibilities.
(Press Photo 4)
The array of submissions gives some indications of trends that will perhaps become important for other virtual 3D platforms that come along in the future. The next competition will also explore linkups to real buildings and, accordingly, will be expanded to include other virtual platforms in addition to Second Life. The selected projects are presented online at www.sl-award.com. All users are invited to vote for their favorite. The winner receives the 1,000 euro grand prize, which will be awarded on October 25, 2007 at Zollverein Essen (UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site).
The competition was made possible by French furniture manufacturer Ligne Roset and by Münchner Südhausbau.
Both companies are interested in furthering the cultural confrontation with this theme as well as in the reciprocities between physical architecture and virtual design. What new spatial consciousness is engendered by the use of mass media like Second Life, which also functions like a 3D telephone? How might it be possible to innovatively use this medium to facilitate people’s encounters with architecture as well as to sell architecture to clients and perhaps enable them to participate in the planning process?
The members of the jury are international experts:
Shumon Basar, author, publisher, curator, director of AACP at the Architectural Association, London
Mathieu Wellner, architectural scholar, Haus der Kunst and Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich
Tor Lindstrand, architect, International Festival and Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm
Pascal Schöning, author and architect, unit master at the Architectural Association, London
Dr. Melinda Rackham, net-artist, curator and author, “empyre- instigator,” director of the Australian Network for Art and Technology
Stephan Doesinger, artist, creative director and conceptual architecture, initiator of the competition, Munich
Details: www.sl-award.com
Press photos and info: presse@sl-award.com
Interviews: +49-179-2141861
With queries, please contact:
Christopher Ruckerbauer
Pressesprecher Ars Electronica
Tel +43.732.7272-38
Fax +43.732.7272-638
Mobil: +43.664-81 26 156
email: christopher.ruckerbauer@aec.at
URL: http://www.aec.at/press
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