Cities of the Future - Washington, D.C.
Maryland Urban Research Studio
IBM Innovation Award
History Channel's "Cities of the Future Competition - Cities Underground"
Washington, DC 2108
to catch up friends and family outside the walls of the metaphorical studio fortress,
i was on a team from umd for the history channel's "cities of the future" competition this past week. we had one week from the time we received the project brief (which was not brief) (last tuesday) to produce a concept for Washington DC in 2108. the representation of our entry had to come in the assembly of a physical exhibition/apparatus. juried by a group of lead by david childs, the competition was held in the main hall of union station.
our project was entitled "ground work/s", and the concept centered around creating an elevated Future Ground system that was composed of different layer conditions based on performance requirements (water, data, waste, structure, power, etc.). the Future Ground fluctuated where it was and how it was according to performance requirements as well as how it created or reinforced monumental and iconic moments within the capital. the concept also extended deep below ground, stretching districts vertically. in doing so, the 2008 ground level became a special sacred ground condition. the project was exhibited as a suspended two-sided table top, with a differently scaled city model on each of the two sides. one of the sides also hinged open to reveal more graphic illustrations. the whole thing rotated on a monster lazy-susan. the model was made mostly of steel and 1" think lexan (plexiglass), and the city was modeled with plexi as well.
for our efforts, the judged presentations went great. although the history channel's AV guys messed up our video (basically, a plug popped out and they never fixed it; result: gray, grainy, jittery, sound popping on and off), brooke and isaac presented extremely well, garth handled the q+a portion, and the model got some gasps and "aaahs" when it was rotated and opened.
of the three awards, we alas did not win grand prize. but we did win the IBM award for Innovation. i am extremely pumped about that. (further, the grand prize winning entry was extremely... lame. it was actually quite surprising, though architecture competitions are always vulnerable to ulterior agendas). i should mention that only eight teams were chosen to compete for this round, and we were up against five professional firms and two other school teams (UVA and VTech+Columbia). we were the only school to win an award. ha.
for the sake of repetition: a parameter of the competition: the 3'x3'x7' physical exhibition must be hand-operated mechanical; our rotated about two independent axis to demonstrate 1:80 and 1:25 scale site models, while one panel hinged open to present graphic illustrations of conditions from massing and street sections, to connection details of a hypothetical nanoskin-nanostructure, to the individual performative layers of the nano composition (.001 micrometers, typical layer) (yeah, hypothetical). anyways, our thing opened.
thank you to garth, michael, bd, and isaac for bringing this challenge to our great space.
IBM Innovation Award
History Channel's "Cities of the Future Competition - Cities Underground"
Washington, DC 2108
to catch up friends and family outside the walls of the metaphorical studio fortress,
i was on a team from umd for the history channel's "cities of the future" competition this past week. we had one week from the time we received the project brief (which was not brief) (last tuesday) to produce a concept for Washington DC in 2108. the representation of our entry had to come in the assembly of a physical exhibition/apparatus. juried by a group of lead by david childs, the competition was held in the main hall of union station.
our project was entitled "ground work/s", and the concept centered around creating an elevated Future Ground system that was composed of different layer conditions based on performance requirements (water, data, waste, structure, power, etc.). the Future Ground fluctuated where it was and how it was according to performance requirements as well as how it created or reinforced monumental and iconic moments within the capital. the concept also extended deep below ground, stretching districts vertically. in doing so, the 2008 ground level became a special sacred ground condition. the project was exhibited as a suspended two-sided table top, with a differently scaled city model on each of the two sides. one of the sides also hinged open to reveal more graphic illustrations. the whole thing rotated on a monster lazy-susan. the model was made mostly of steel and 1" think lexan (plexiglass), and the city was modeled with plexi as well.
for our efforts, the judged presentations went great. although the history channel's AV guys messed up our video (basically, a plug popped out and they never fixed it; result: gray, grainy, jittery, sound popping on and off), brooke and isaac presented extremely well, garth handled the q+a portion, and the model got some gasps and "aaahs" when it was rotated and opened.
of the three awards, we alas did not win grand prize. but we did win the IBM award for Innovation. i am extremely pumped about that. (further, the grand prize winning entry was extremely... lame. it was actually quite surprising, though architecture competitions are always vulnerable to ulterior agendas). i should mention that only eight teams were chosen to compete for this round, and we were up against five professional firms and two other school teams (UVA and VTech+Columbia). we were the only school to win an award. ha.
for the sake of repetition: a parameter of the competition: the 3'x3'x7' physical exhibition must be hand-operated mechanical; our rotated about two independent axis to demonstrate 1:80 and 1:25 scale site models, while one panel hinged open to present graphic illustrations of conditions from massing and street sections, to connection details of a hypothetical nanoskin-nanostructure, to the individual performative layers of the nano composition (.001 micrometers, typical layer) (yeah, hypothetical). anyways, our thing opened.
thank you to garth, michael, bd, and isaac for bringing this challenge to our great space.
posted by JTH at 21:33
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