Diller Scofidio + Renfro win $1.3 billion 'Pearl Eco-Island' competition in the South China Sea

2016-09-02T13:28:00-04:00

The South Sea Pearl Eco-Island development is funded by HNA Group and will include houses, hotels, a cruise ship port, yacht harbour, spa and theme park. [...] The jury said the “singular and clear” design would “create a beautiful, iconic form rising naturally out the landscape, recalling the volcanic caldera of the area, and shape the island into a continuous structure that would be an extremely efficient compaction of resort, retail, and housing."

The "eco" stands for... well, it depends. To HNA Group: “This proposal is one for a truly a human-made island that celebrates all that makes such water-bound places so attractive and beautiful, while contributing to our understanding of deep, intrinsic ecology.” To the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, these manmade islands are an explicit move by China to exert sovereignty (a status that The Hague explicitly rejects), and they're causing massive environmental harm.

Investigating China's role in the South China Sea this past July, "The tribunal clearly decided that China had caused severe harm to the coral reef environment," according to Kent Carpenter, the tribunal's expert witness and a professor of biological science. Much of that damage was attributed to island building. You can find more on their proceedings here.

Runners up to the competition include Foster + Partners and Morphosis.

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Diller Scofidio + Renfro win $1.3 billion 'Pearl Eco-Island' competition in the South China Sea