Competition on public space
This competition will focus on story designing as a tool for spacemaking.
We remember places because of the stories we tell about them. The sunset was amazing over the Grand Canyon one afternoon in 1992. The riots almost burned down Syntagma Square in Athens in 2008, and even if we only saw it on TV, we still remember the square like that. In Hong Kong we saw Filipino nannies having Sunday tea in cardboard boxes in a space that was was never meant to be public, but then suddenly it was. When stories shape our perception of public space we might assume that the spaces themselves generate the stories that we will later remember them by.
Something in their design might trigger events that lead to human interaction or forces of nature joining to make a memorable moment.
But could we imagine reversing that process?
Could we begin thinking about public space by designing stories that could potentially take place there, and therefore design our memories or even the physical reality of the place before that space exists?
The competition
This competition explores the potential of stories in architecture to open up unexpected paths and ideas in the design of public space.
From linear narratives to multiple narratives that overlap, to the reinvention of our past, and new descriptions of the present, there is a great potential for storytelling in architecture. Stories are embedded in public space, from the history, to the day and life cycle of a space, as they change throughout the day and are altered and perceived radically different in its lifetime.
A story also has the ability to create a collective framework for the public to agree and disagree in public discourse.
Submit an imaginary story that takes place on Kvarnbacken, the hill close to the Jakobsberg train station that has become the site for a two year process called Kalejdohill.
The stories could involve elements from the history of the site such as the ancient viking burial sites, or the mill that sat on the highest point and burned down several times over the last decades. They could involve the lives of future inhabitants, the reality of living in a suburb of Stockholm, or the fantasy of chasing that elusive Pokemon in the newly formed public space of Kalejdohill. The stories could be personal, walking your dog one morning and seeing the strangest bird, or they could be communal, a massive concert where you fell in love or a force of nature that lead you there.
Illustrate your story on one A2 page, describing where it takes place and and what went on. Show us how you imagine that place in the future, the buildings and the people that inhabit it.
Perhaps by collecting these stories we can begin to accumulate ideas for this space that soon will be public.
Jury
The submissions will be evaluated by Nick Axel (Deputy Editor, e-flux Architecture), Eva Franch (Architect and Director, Storefront for Art and Architecture, New York), and Jimenez Lai (Architect, Bureau Spectacular and UCLA faculty, Los Angeles). The winning entries will be announced during a conference on public narrative space on April 28, 2017, in Stockholm.
Prize
First place: SEK 30,000
Second place: SEK 15,000
Runner-up: SEK 5,000
The winners as well as a selection of the submitted proposals will be included in the second publication of the Kalejdohill series.
Send your submission to designastoryjarfalla [at] gmail.com
About Kalejdohill
Kalejdohill is an ongoing experiment into the making of place. Commissioned to Urban Sociologist Mia Lundstrom by HSB Norra Stor-Stockholm, Veidekke and Einar Mattson housing cooperatives, Kalejdohill is a research on how to involve the community of Jarfalla into the decision making for a new development in the area of Kvarnbacken.
Kalejdohill closely collaborates with the municipality of Jarfalla on a dual strategy of site-specific interventions combined with knowledge production on the making of cities and public spaces.
Competition director: Espen Vatn, Oslo
Publication and media design: Sotiris Vasiliou, Athens
Creative director Kalejdohill: Andreas Angelidakis, Athens
Kalejdohill director: Mia Lundstrom, Stockholm/Athens
