Competitions :Current Architecture Competitions

565 PARTICIPANTS

178 PROPOSALS

FROM

6 CONTINENTS

40 COUNTRIES

JURY BRIEF PRESS

FIRST PLACE

PIERO LISSONI MIGUEL CASAL RIBEIRO MATTIA SUSANI JOAO SILVA
MILAN, ITALY

The project creates a dynamic system that interacts with its surroundings, offering multiple ways to experience the water world. The site is excavated to become a large and unique water basin, with the Aquarium and the Marine Centre a submerged island accessed via a pathway. A sloping beachfront covers the Parking area to form a panoramic public space, while a boardwalk surrounds the basin and becomes a floating ring connecting the two waterfronts and encompassing the Aquarium and its sliding roof, a green island that closes to become a planetarium protecting the arena and the biome domes within.

SECOND PLACE

VERS LA MER
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DOMINIK SIGG
BROOKLYN, NYC, UNITED STATES

In light of rising sea levels and flooding events threatening metropoles around the world, this proposal investigates a maritime urbanism where the built fabric of the city shifts from traditional solid ground to a floating existence in harmony with the ocean. ‘Vers la mer’ – ‘towards the sea’ utilizes the potential of the Queens riverfront and Anable basin for such an investigation. Rectilinear volumes based on the built fabric on land are coming loose and float, anchored in the enlarged Anable basin and are surrounded by a floating water garden in which the public can enjoy and experience life on the water.

THIRD PLACE

MERROIR
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ROB HOLMES LAUREL MCSHERRY FREDERICK STEINER DAVID BAYER
UNITED STATES

Merroir envisions the twenty-first century aquarium as a node within larger hydrological and ecological networks, an aquarium that is not a collection of animals behind glass but rather a series of experiences and encounters with an estuary as a dynamic living system. The aquarium site is at the center of a set of thirty diving bells distributed across the metropolitan region. Three distinct bell networks offer varied experiences for visitors to engage different, dynamic ecologies: mobile bells based on aquatic habitats, cadastral bells based on the built environment, and datum bells based on bathymetry and sea-level rise.

HONORABLE MENTIONS

L.A.N.T.E.R.N.A.
CLAUDIA CONSONNI MARIA VEGETO MATTIA INSELVINI CHIARA M. DONISI
MILAN, ITALY

Light And Nature for The East River New York Aquarium
Two landscapes appears in front of people coming to the area: on one side Manhattan, on the other side a system of lanterns, a new way to enjoy an aquarium: L.A.N.T.E.R.N.A. is a life and light experience! The aquarium becomes a new landscape for people, even if they won’t enter it. They are invited to have a walk along multi-layered paths in between the tanks which are linked with the surrounding environment and the urban context: while walking outside you are able to glimpse the inside whereas from the interior you can appreciate the park, the waterfront , the skyline.

NYC VIVARIUM - A LIVING SANCTUARY
CHARLES DE JAGER DEWAR VAN ANTWERPEN LILA GOUWS NIKITA EDWARDS
JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA

The proposal aims to reconnect and re-establish a natural environment and ecology where all living things coexist. The traditional private nature of aquariums is challenged by proposing a surface public park that coexists with and sustains a subterranean water park below. In the surface public park, seen as the realm of humans, ‘ocean animals’ are on display, thus an aquarium (a place to relate to water). In the subterranean water park, seen as the realm of the ocean, humans are immersed into the experience of the ocean, and is therefore referred to as a “aquamergo” (immersive experience into water).

VAW - VERTICAL AQUARIUM WATERFRONT
SARA ORTEGA LUCAS PERAITA JESUS RODRIGUEz FEDERICO RUBIO
SANTANDER, SPAIN

Water is the key element of the project and it is strongly introduced, flooding the site area to give continuity to the riverside park. The architectural intervention moves to the edges, in a set of different straight line pavement stripes, that follow the orthogonal urban fabric of New York. These landscape bands promote slow movement, permanence and contemplation of urban space. The intervention concludes with four water towers emerging from the East River itself, creating a sculptural image that will be the central element of the urban design proposal, in dialogue with the bottom iconic skyscraper view of Manhattan.

NYCEA - NEW-YORK CITY ESTUARY AQUARIUM
ALEXANDRE MARCEAU SARA LAPINSKA
MONTREAL, CANADA

NYCEA puts emphasis on the issue of pollution in the Hudson river and aim to give New Yorkers awareness of flora and fauna of their estuary. The industrial layer is raised releasing the nature original state. The fragmented aquarium is slightly and linearly filed on this nature to give a clean environment for the aquatic species. The exploration ends with a wake-up call where the New Yorker is face-to-face with the pollution in the East river. The future of NYCEA is an aquarium without any walls between the basins and the river, where all species live in a healthy environment.

THE QUEEN S FISHES
PHILIPPE JANS THERESE LEICK CHARLES RAUCHS WILHELM SCHERUBL
VIENNA, AUSTRIA

There is no proper way to build an Aquarium to the advantage of animals, as we are used to visit. The most spectacular Aquarium is the ocean itself in all its glory and its beings in their evolved habitat. Spreading pillars all over the site, offers the possibility of developing an uninterrupted undersea life. It certainly evolves by itself and induces the 'Natural Aquarium'. On site marine researches can be done by pedestrians on the waterfront get informed by surrounded points of information, while taking a look down under water, observing fishes and corals in their natural behavior.