Perspektive fund 2023 architecture ideas competition

The PERSPEKTIVE fund 2023 and the Bureau des arts plastiques of the Institut français Deutschland are pleased to announce the winning projects of the architecture ideas competition “GROWING VILLAGES—The future is not metropolitan.”

The ideas competition set out to imagine the village of today and of the future. The climate-energy crisis and the end of the global pandemic have heightened the appeal of rural areas and small towns. If the much-heralded urban exodus were to become a reality, the evolution of villages would have to be reexamined in relation to their environment and current events. The subject was therefore very focused; the only limit was the imagination and creativity of participants.

Between June and August 2023, the organizers received thirty-three entries from Germany and France from applicants with a wide range of professional qualifications and social backgrounds. The Franco-German jury was made up of Olivier Gaudin (professor at the Ecole de la Nature et du Paysage in Blois), Antje Stokman (landscape architect and professor of architecture and regional planning at Hafen City University in Hambourg), Djamel Klouche (founder and senior partner of l’AUC architectural practice, Paris, and professor at ENSAV Versailles), and Jan Liesegang (architect and co-founder of raumlabor Berlin, and professor at the Bergen School of Architecture).

The jury commended the applicants’ novel approach to this highly topical theme as well as the diversity of their proposals. Environmental, economic, and mobility issues were widely addressed, while the most relevant projects focused on vernacular traditions and practices at the heart of a village’s identity. The selection criteria also included the quality of the writing and the care taken with the illustrations.

First prize went to The caretakers—An exploration on a traumatized landscapes, submitted by Cécile Gaudard, a recent graduate of ENSA Paris-Malaquais. Comprising six black-and-white felt-tip and ink drawings, the application was selected for its aesthetic and narrative qualities. Gaudard’s project, set in the Forez mountains in France, proposes reappropriating a mountain landscape altered by the Anthropocene era by transforming a ski resort into a site for cheese production. Focusing on the detrimental effects of the forestry industry on landscapes, the proposal raises the question of how to strike a balance between preserving the environment and maintaining current economies and lifestyles.

Second prize went to the project Transhumance: a model for growing villages, envisioned by Kim Tzarowsky, a graduate of the École d’architecture de la ville & des territoires Paris-Est and Maria José Landeta Valencia, a graduate of the Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Ecuador Quito. The “manifesto” concept focuses on the temporal and social aspects of a universal village. It ascribes a unique identity to the notion of village, drawing inspiration from the transhumance movement as a form of environmentally integrated human mobility and solidarity. On this basis, this village of the future advocates interconnection and reciprocal sharing between different communities as a solution to ecological, energy, and social challenges.

Third prize went to the Cooperative Hinterland project by Sarah Pens, a student at Leipniz University in Hannover. The realistic and concrete proposal is set in the environment of Usedom, a socio-economically underdeveloped island on the Baltic Sea lacking sufficient resources to meet ecological and demographic challenges. Pens envisions reusing the “Plattenbauen” (large-scale housing estates) as a communal place for living and intergenerational support.

In addition, the jury decided to award special mentions to the projects Das Unbequeme Dorf by Benedikt Hartl for its creativity drawn from personal experience, and Make Ines stay? by Johanna Bendlin, Laura Villeret, and Falma Fshazi for its poetic dimension.

The awards ceremony and exhibition will take place on Thursday, November 23 2023 at AIT-ArchitekturSalon Hambourg from 7 to 10pm, in the company of the winners, the jury, and the competition organizers. The ten best projects shortlisted for their quality will be presented in an exhibition. The ceremony will be accompanied by a lecture by Olivier Gaudin reflecting on the theme “The future is not metropolitan.”