The former USSR naval base Karosta and its abandoned and decaying buildings are fuelling a vibrant art community as well as increasing tourism. Our 2nd Prize winning entry “Peekaboo” rethinks Karosta’s new urban furniture – bus stops, seating modules, playgrounds and info posts - as objects that frame views in surprising ways. The sightline of each view – whether it is pointing to an insignificant house or the grand cathedral – becomes the basis of a projection that hollows out the volume. Each piece of furniture houses two material worlds, separated through distinctions between outside and inside and/or front side and backside. On one side, mitered corners and reflective paint hide material thicknesses and tectonics and foreground geometry. On the other side, surfaces are braced and subdivided by a grid, working as an armature for a heterogeneous mix of cement and ballast, creating an intense materiality. Together, these two material worlds begin to forge relationships with Karosta’s own – from the shiny cupolas of the cathedral, to the eroded remains of naval bunkers and the modular facades of blockhouses.

Team: Daniel Norell, Einar Rodhe, Aron Fidjeland, Axel Wolgers