Archinect - News

Constructive destruction: How would you imagine the ideal demolition scheme?

2016-02-19T14:36:00-05:00

'Preservation is good, but it doesn’t allow any opposing force,' says Bench. 'If you save a few beautiful buildings, it’s not as if the stuff that really should go then gets demolished. Instead, we end up putting the pressure on the buildings that are quite good, but not quite good enough to be deemed historical.'

Architects David Bench and Jonathan Chesley share the thought process behind their "Taking Buildings Down" competition proposal, which was one of the winning entries in the Storefront for Art and Architecture's Competition of Competitions in 2014.

"[R]ather than ask for new architectural developments, the pair wondered what kind of submissions they might receive if they called for architects to dream-up a demolition scheme?"

More recent news about demolition:

A final hurrah for L.A.'s Sixth Street Viaduct

"Stop the unpermitted demolition": Roche Dinkeloo's shiny UN Plaza Hotel lobby might be remodeled

"Too old to be hip but too young to be venerated" – say good-bye to the brutalist Fogarty building in downtown Providence

Winners of the Competition of Competitions

2014-05-08T17:44:00-04:00

The winners were finally revealed for Storefront's Competition of Competitions, where entrants got to question the boundaries and shortcomings of competition brief formats by writing their very own. From the 18 finalists announced back in February, the jury picked 4 prize-winning projects, 7 honorable mentions, and a Storefront Special Prize.

All selected projects will be publicized and given support to reach the pertinent agents and authorities. The Storefront Special Prize winner will get to run their submitted competition as part of the 2014 Storefront for Art and Architecture program calendar.

Below are the winning competition briefs:

1ST PLACE WINNER - US$2,000: Deploy Yourself, Not Your Designs
By The Coalition for the Improvement of Refugee Camps (Marcy Monroe & Lee Dykxhoorn)
2ND PLACE WINNER - US$1,000: Labyrinth
By grey_matter(s) (Annie Charleston William McCommon Megan McDonough Shota Vashakmadze)
3RD PLACE JOINT WINNER - US$500: Amazonia 2020
By Civic Projects (Kati Rubinyi, Deborah Richmond , Michael Powell, Ewan E. Branda)
3RD PLACE JOINT WINNER - US$500: Open Source Open Space: Hacking the Built Environment
By Boot/Trunk (Nicole Lindahl, Louise Mackie and Samantha Senn)

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

The City is The Room. The Room is The City by FormFictionFormat [Elena Palacios Carral, Manijeh Verghese]
dePOLITIsign: An open ...

Finalists of Storefront’s Competition of Competitions

2014-02-08T11:23:00-05:00

Competition briefs for urban development can overlook the most pressing and relevant needs of local communities, and architects are usually limited to satisfying the brief's requirements in their proposals. As a response, Storefront set up the Competition of Competitions, where interdisciplinary teams got to ask the questions in creating their own competition briefs.

Eighteen finalists were chosen out of 100 submissions. The jury will then select 3 winners, 7 honorable mentions, and a Storefront Special Prize. The Special Prize will get to run their submitted competition as part of the 2014 Storefront for Art and Architecture program calendar.

The 18 finalists are:

TAKING BUILDINGS DOWN by IncA
THE DISCREET ARCHITECT by Local provision Studio
OPEN SOURCE OPEN SPACE, HACKING THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT by Boot Trunk
THE CITY by Form Fiction Format
NO TITLES by GroundLAB
NATURE, ERROR, BABIES by Metonymy's Architecture
DEPLOY YOURSELF, NOT YOUR DESIGNS by CIRCa
DEPOLITISIGN by Min Chen & Kristin Enright
AMAZONIA 2020 by Civic Projects .
THE NEXT SUBURB by The Thirteenth Hour
OFF-THE-RADAR: THE ARCHITECTURE OF NON-EXISITING SPACE by MITNICK-RODDIER
LABYRINTH COMPETITION by Gray_matter(s)
ARCHITECTURAL WORK by The Architecture Lobby
BLISS [BETTER LIVING THROUGH INTUITIVE SOFT SURVEILLANCE] by Yeadon Space Agency
FUTUR...