paris FRANCE

1ST PLACE – $1200

suckerPUNCH: describe your project.

tetsuya KAWANO + karolina FIDOR: The project site touching the seashore, the juxtaposed natural area of beach, dunes and maritime forest, the Marine Rockaway Bridge, nearby habitation areas…

The analysis of the project area cutting transversely the peninsula into two brought us to draw few sharp lines to bind together the site and the context in a coherent entity.

The park today cut sharply, extends and penetrates into the sport center area. The project’s backbone – an earth berm inspired by the abandoned military installations, and the secondary linear elements – “runways” – intersect to “play the LOOP”.

The project is conceived as the integration of 4 organizational strategies into one new sport institution :
_ the system of continuous paths through the landscape
_ the panoptic core containing main programs and distributing radially the sport fields
_ the interconnected loops of the public spaces and the programs
_ the fixed use of the sport fields and the spontaneous one of the lifted decks
The curious tourist, the sportsman, the nature lover, the citizen pilgrim will all find an institution that meets their needs.

sP: what or who influenced this project?

tK + kF: Luigi Snozzi and our weekly sport activity [basket ball]

sP: what were you reading/listening to/watching while developing this project?

tK + kF: General Elektriks, Bonobo, Chico Man, Gorillaz, Wax Tailor/Yes is More

sP: whose work is on your radar?

tK + kF: BIG, 3XN, Cebra, Snohetta…

Juror Comments

Richard Garber: The building and site section is well conceived and supported by the diagrams of access, connecting, loop core, programming and landscaping. While the “panoptic core” forms a central hub for the loops of space and program, this organization almost feels unnatural for the field house and landscape programming. The scheme, however, is carefully executed and worth mention.

Michael Szivos: I really like how this proposal connects the whole site through a central knot. To a certain degree there is not a distinct building, but a place where the defined axes of the site overlap and become enclosed using program to frame a central venue. This project is great because it is the manifestation of a simple strategy that does not seem to draw from any architectural predeterminations, but through the realization of a logical and performative strategy it has produced a very nice architectural proposal that could be considered fairly radical.

Ted Ngai: The Loop is an architectural knot that unlocks tremendous spatial potential while addressing the complex relationship between programs, ecology, access, connectivity, and views. The formal strategy is direct and clear, yet it allows for complexity to arise out of the intricacies of the organizations. Although the resulting imageries are intriguing, the desire to not reduce vastly complex problems and the ability to identify architectural potential within such difficult terrain shows tremendous constrained creativity.

Jose Gonzalez: This is a very clear and simple organizational strategy. Every surface is performative carrying and containing the program. This works very well at multiple levels. It gradates the program as it moves outwards, from dense to sparse, connecting it to the landscape and allowing for very rich and varied experiences. The project has a levity and a fluidity that make it almost invisible within the landscape, despite of it’s dense program. Volumetrically, the proposal is a clear result of the organizational strategy. It is also beautifully presented.