Assistant Professor Nikole Bouchard won the 1st Place Award for the Baltic Thermal Pool Park 2014 International Design Competition, held in Liepāja, Latvia, as well as Honorable Mention awards in the Mojdeh Baratloo Urban Urge 2014 competition (Brooklyn, NY) and the One Prize 2014 design competition (Brooklyn, Navy Yard, New York City). Click here to see images.

Baltic Thermal Pool Park competition:

This competition, held by Homemade Dessert in cooperation with Liepaja City Council, Latvia asked designers to present the vision for a new development that would consist of thermal pool park with outdoor and indoor SPA facilities. Prof. Bouchard’s project, SP•ÄRK, provides a productive place for rest, relaxation and rejuvenation. It ignites with a cut-and-fill landscape strategy. Soil is excavated to create several ponds of varying sizes throughout the site. Some ponds are Constructed Wetlands for Rainwater Remediation - Others are Thermal Springs rich with healing minerals and salts. The excavated matter is then redistributed on the site to create topographic variation.

Next, the site is draped with elevated, undulating, inhabitable slabs (which borrow from Timber Boat construction techniques) to create an artificial landscape that houses SP•ÄRK, The Thermal Pool Park. These slabs provide recreational space, collect rainwater, produce agriculture and allow access to views of the stunning surroundings.

SP•ÄRK, is home to The Summer Cinema with outdoor film screenings, many Music Festivals, snow-related Winter Wonderland Adventures, and The "Fruit Forest" with planted plots of harvestable native apple, pear, cherry and plum trees. Pockets of Flexible Market Spaces found throughout the site provide opportunities to sell this locally grown produce.

With this hybrid program, SP•ÄRK attracts people of all ages and types throughout the entire year.

MOJDEH BARATLOO URBAN URGE AWARDS 2014 International Design Competition

The Urban Urge Awards recognize that multidisciplinary perspectives generate creative interventions to challenges of the urban environment. The Awards encourage new avenues of urban artwork, performance, installation, and support novel means of developing inquiry and generating discussion. Prof. Bouchard’s design, BEEbrane, was developed in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, which swept through New York City. The storm struck the city’s trees like a chain saw, toppling more than 8,000 street trees and destroying thousands more in parks and woodlands. Following the storm, the City’s Parks Department responded to over 20,044 tree-service requests, which resulted in more than 13,000 work orders. NYC’s Parks department makes a constant effort to rid the city’s parks of tree debris and fallen branches. BEEbrane proposes to convert this material into new homes for Urban Honey Bees. One of the oldest forms of Bee Keeping is the Bee Gum - an existing section of tree where the hollow trunk cavity serves as the Bee habitat. This form of habitat provides an environment that protects the hive(s) from threatening weather conditions, like rain, frost, snow and wind. The Bee Gum artificial hive allows for the cultivation of many more Bee species in comparison to most artificial hives since it enables the Bee(s) to build their own hive. BEEbrane proposes to gather and collect tree debris and fallen branches throughout NYC. From there, community members pick up their very own “Pile Pack”, an extendable pile that packs nicely into a carry-case. With the carry-case in hand, community members plant their piles on the gridded pavilion site located along the DUMBO Waterfront. The planted piles are then inserted into the fallen trees. Slowly but surely, as the pavilion is planted, the BEEbrane habitat grows, creating a productive source of Bee By- Products, a spectacle for the city and a reinstated Urban Forest.

ONE PRIZE 2014 International Design Competition

SKOOL HAUS operates on the principle that learning can happen at any time and in any place. The project proposes a flexible system of diverse components that can be deployed (on land and in water) to accommodate different types of learning environments. The system can also be configured to create inviting urban spaces and cultural platforms for engaging the local community. Taking cues from the rich history and industrial context of The Navy Yard, the project appropriates industrial naval materials, structures and techniques in the design of ONE Lab’s new educational facility. The use of innovative timber technology in conjunction with boat building techniques promote an interdisciplinary process that relies on the collaboration between students, boat builders, physicists, fabricators, and material scientists. The result is a smart and sensitive facility that respects the architectural language of Building 128 while providing a space that supports active learning and innovation.