WASTE JURY
GENERAL COMMENTS
Like many large idea competitions, Waste may turn out to make its biggest contribution to the field by bringing together a set of documents that reveal how architecture is being shaped by and is responding to ecological thinking at the present moment. A preference for infrastructure over typology, land form over building form and systems over objects was evident throughout. Many projects also reflect a broad reconceptualization of building materials in relation to resources as opposed only to structural attributes.
SYLVIA LAVIN |
Architectural design practices face the need to be reformulated in order to address the need to intervene critical geographies, such as the former site of Olusosun Landfill. A few proposals could operate in different time scales; characterize architectural action as a process and not as a fixed form; and draft strategies to enroll existing actors. Those were the proposals that were not only most convincing as responses to Olusosun's specificity; but also the ones that could envision ways for architecture to evolve in order to gain relevance in facing the world's growing toxicity and its intersectional relationship with inequality.
ANDRES JAQUE |
The Olusosun Landfill redevelopment as an urban green space and public park is an important and exciting opportunity for Lagos, as a city, and for the world as a precedent and example of sustainable and conscientious development of a former landfill.
Soccer is not only an element of national pride, but also a tool for social change and it plays a huge role in the psyche of developing countries. On the other hand the integration of such a large scale project with the day-to-day needs of a bustling city like Lagos represents a considerable challenge. I particularly appreciate the entires that tackled this dichotomy headfirst, and proposed both a sense of identity to the stadium, but also a temporal aspect of multi use or phased integration in the site. A basic requirement was also a minimal understanding of the local culture, a core responsibility for any architect. OANA STANESCU |
There were many thoughtful and beautifully designed entries. Most took the challenge very seriously and designed earnest solutions to a very difficult problem. That said, I was a bit dismayed by the similarity of ideas. Power generation , recycling and housing seemed to dominate the proposals, and nearly all of them proposed some sort of green space or public park or market as part of their program. For that reason, the entries that really stood out to me took a clearer position on aesthetics and experience. Many of these were not polite and did not try to "greenwash" the complex issue of landfills. Instead, the entries that most impressed me grappled with the image of waste and its political and cultural issues.
THOM MORAN |