THE WINNER OF THE 2017 ANTEPAVILION: H-VAC
By PUP Architects - August 2017
"Designed and built by upcoming architecture firm, PUP Architects, H-VAC was selected from 128 entries including 5 finalists as the winning proposal for the inaugural Antepavilion international competition. PUP worked with the clients and the Architecture foundation to realise the project in July and August 2017.
Clad in reversible Tetra-Pak shingles, H-VAC is a playful subversion of planning legislation, exploiting permitted development rights for rooftop plant to confront the habitation of rooftop space.
Covertly extrovert, the snaking linear form references the voluminous curved surfaces of rooftop ducting and air handling plant; primarily functional yet surprisingly sculptural. A shelter in disguise, the enlarged scale allows inhabitation and exploits its inaccessible location, concealing a rooftop garden."
2017 BRIEF
Architects, artists and designers are asked to propose work that engages with ideas around:
A: Innovative and alternative ways of living within the city, proposing new ways for urban dwelling; an idea that could resonate with existing concepts around Micro Dwelling.
B: An engagement with issues of sustainability and in particular the use of recycled and recyclable materials.
The winning design will receive sponsorship in the form of free issue materials, craftsmen and a small cash prize. It is intended that within this framework the winning design team will be engaged directly with the construction process. The installation will remain on display for up to two years and should be fast build, easily disassembled, light-weight and can be erected within a 40 sq m rooftop footprint.
Considerable importance will be attached to the aesthetic contribution that structures can make to a highly visible, eclectic, experimental urban environment. As an external work it can respond to the complex urban condition of the Columbia and Brunswick Wharf, a unique site that sits adjacent to the Regents Canal in Hackney.
The purpose of the project is to explore and encourage the range and complexity of work currently being produced across the disciplines of architecture design and fine art and particularly to support and promote the work and ideas of less established architects, emerging practices, artists or craftsmen.
SHORTLISTED:
THE HACKNEY ONION
BY STUDIO MERLIN
"The Hackney Onion concept was derived from Hackney’s multiple layers. The onion represents the borough’s diversity, food culture and the technology hub that East London is becoming. The project is an experimental repurposing study of the functional credentials of the traditional onion dome form, which is more usually seen adorning buildings for a primarily aesthetic purpose.
The Hackney Onion proposed for the Arts House Foundation rooftop a temporary structure consisting of 5 single occupancy units, a bathroom, in-built storage and a communal living space with onion-tip ceiling and openable roof hatch. The design attempted to proactively tackle some of the issues facing London, including homelessness and unaffordability through the creation of just one of a series of colourful rooftop almshouses. The colourful recycled plastic onion-shaped roof tiles highlight the city's waste problems, whilst promoting the innovative and participatory re-use of materials to minimise life-cycle cost."
SHORTLISTED:
ARE WE BORED IN THE CITY
BY NICOLO LEWANSKI
"We wish we had the instruments to understand the city like they did in the sixties, when they designed all these bold futures. We wish, but we don’t know how. No matter! There is no excuse to hide behind concrete façades, like Shinohara did after the Metabolists.
We designed a dialectic machine to assess our relationship with the city. Floating on a net above the plants – a secret garden of sorts, yes, a comfortable world hidden away – we start from this degree zero to select, open and close, angle the panels which constitute the façades. Thus we construct our understanding of the surroundings."
SHORTLISTED:
SPARE ROOMS
BY HAN HAO
"This flat-sharing house is an experiential prototype that intensifies and evaluates the daily experience of co-housing. Cohousing with strangers is the norm of how London homes are occupied today. The house in the housing climate of London could serve as a ‘trial period’ for potential flatmates to meet and come up with their own interpretations of domesticity.
Within this context, the house becomes a physical setting whereby friends or strangers are constantly grappling with domestic decisions. The proposal celebrates the political nature of domestic environments. Rather than mere objects for use, household elements such as partitions, furniture and objects become active agents that invite discussion and debate, use and misuse. Banality of the home becomes significant and invites new appropriations for the function and use of domestic settings."
SHORTLISTED:
URBAN SYMBIOSIS
BY MUELLER
"The design for the Urban Symbiosis Pavilion was born of the idea how urban densification within London and other cities with high pressure on housing demands can be achieved to the benefits of all inhabitants. The rooftops of industrial structures like those on the given site, or of any other buildings, be it residential or commercial, were singled out as the most underused areas with a great potential.
This pavilion was developed to build a symbiosis with its host structure, a ‘mutually beneficial relationship between two different organisms in close physical association’. It benefits from the existing infrastructure, including circulation and services as well as access to sunlight and great views."
THE JURY
Russel Gray (Shiva Ltd); James Binning (Co-founder of Turner Prize-wining Architecture and Art collective Assemble); Ana Genovés (Director of the Architecture Foundation); Ellis Woodman (Curator and co-director of Open School East) and Anna Colin