New Ocean Platform Prison Architecture Competition, Maritime Design Contest, Building

New Ocean Platform Prison : Pacific Design Contest

Pacific Architectural Competition – Oil Platform Structure

New Ocean Platform Prison Design Contest

[AC-CA] Architecture Competition

[PACIFIC 06]

12 Mar 2013

New Ocean Platform Prison Competition

WINNER

Ramón Martínez
Jorge Sobejano

pictures from competition organisers

picture from competition organisers

Organisation: Taller de Casquería
Country: Spain
Team Type: Student

SECOND

Kristijonas Skirmantas
Povilas Zakauskas
Tomas Vaiciulis

pictures from competition organisers

picture from competition organisers

Country: Lithuania Team
Type: Architect

THIRD

Ariel Hakel
Tomas Sanchez
Miguel Minond

pictures from competition organisers

Country: Argentina Team
Type: Architect

HONORABLES MENTIONS

Tomasz Janus, Pawel Józefowski, Elzbieta Pietraszko, Karolina Studencka

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Country: Poland
Team Type: Student

Lea Girault, David Dottelonde, Stéphane Bauche, Wandrille Marchais

picture from competition organisers
Country: France Team
Type: Architect

Sang Hoon Oh, Joohoon Kim, Heeyoun Kim, Jung Soo Kim

picture from competition organisers
Country: South Korea
Team Type: Architect

Michael Gloudeman, Michael Kafassis

picture from competition organisers
Country: France
Team Type: Architect
In response to the typical prison system, in that with ‘Galene I’ the prisoners themselves construct the tower, only with the success of their rehabilitation will the tower continue to grow and become increasingly self sustaining which is radically different from any prison on the planet.

Dmitriy Lewicki, Michael Hromek, Jordan Soriot

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Country: Australia
Team Type: Student

Chloé Meurillon, Guillaume Ros, Stella Buisan

picture from competition organisers
Country: France
Team Type: Architect

Humberto Conde, Filipe Ramalho, Joana Alvarez, Sofia Pacheco

picture from competition organisers
Country: Portugal
Team Type: Architect

JUDGES’S REPORT

1st Place

An exceptionally well composed and sophisticated project, combining the priorities of rigorous prison programme/planning into an elegant formal solution that both inverts or reverses traditional and ‘idealised’ relationships of the panopticon into variable relationships of interiority (internal to each tower/finger) and exteriority (between each tower and their visual connections).

Strong central focus created around the vegetation between the blocks/ towers which contrast with the harder/ more regular appearance of the towers adding an organic softness to the project. This important move gives the scheme the appearance of an uplifted island or haven punctuated by the vertical elements. The scheme is well supported by a strong choice of simple materials (concrete) that appear to give the mass of the building a robustness and solidity. The monolithic nature of the project gives the feel of an anchoring into the site that draws from its formal transition between the literal fluidity of the ocean context and its formal expression.

The project itself represents a vertical typology which clear states it’s concept and well connects to the context. The bottom-up approach through the program, functionality, and structure formulate the composition itself. By layering the information, the infrastructure would start to shape the space within the disciplines. The participant(s) statement on the prison itself has been elaborated with the given play. The inside out prison architecture has been conveyed via the materiality, which generates its unique personality in the middle of the ocean. The weakest formal appearance has been transformed to a specific architectonic perspective.

This project stands out for it’s consistency, for the attitude towards the context and for the interpretation of the Sea Platform typology. It doesn’t protect the exterior from the inmates it encloses, it protects the inmates from the sea as a harsh element and from the utter isolation that it’s vastness creates. This introversion is particularly well developed in several key aspects: the boat access, the peripheral vertical circulation in the towers and in the visual relation between inmates established by opposing cells. This “social introversion” of the prison community is balanced by the background presence of the sea and horizon – an interesting choice, considering the standards: closed towards inside, no visual relations between cells and the sea and sky as single outside references. Judges believe this proposal deserves the 1st prize not only because it gives the best answer, but also because it asks the right ones back.

2nd Place

A very compelling project that creates a tension between what is expressed as a dynamic watery context and the inherent complexity of the prison typology. Clever use of the vertical rams to ‘veil’ and create depth and at the same time enclose and protect or ‘contain’ through a veiling and dissolution of the perimeter into the forest of vertical elements. The use of the vertical elements to provide energy (hydraulic rams) is conceptually expressive in many ways and provides a strong self sufficient theme for the project. The proposal has a clever irony in the use of the traditional figure of the typical barrier or ‘bars’ as having a critical role (sustenance) in an environment that may contradict their use at all.

The proposal is visually precarious in the use of a top hung support system for the prison enclosure. Its appeal lies in its permeability and appearance of openness and transparency that communicates a ‘lightness’ in character, a strong move away from the solid wall/object. The project however maintains an important monolithic quality, while extending out from the central core in a variable organic configuration that is poetically evocative of the growth/branching metaphor of the tree. An explicit reference to structure and the tectonic language of the cage/filigree which supports the idea of the veil/leaf canopy which strategically exposes and conceals.

A clear message be sent via an aggressive infrastructure layout which represents the lightness and heaviness of the program. The engineering approach compensates the statement itself, and informs the audience the way how the prison in an extreme condition should be. Debatable space configuration has been surrounded by a clear energy solution, which reflects and reminds the other side apart from the negative part of the original program.

It proposes a clear and very interesting idea for a motto. The approach is adequately rational and beautifully simple: a central structural point of vertical access and a radial horizontal structural grid distributing the program. This huge horizontal surface establishes the static reference against which the sea surface will work and generate energy. It’s a beautiful idea and the proposal only fails to take it as far as it could. What should have been the most important feature of the structure as a whole, ends up existing only in the residual available spaces. By placing the program in the same surface layer as the buoys, it creates a conflict of space -one takes over the place for the other. The poetic effort of creating this vast static reference in such a rational way, is only stained by the lack of rationality in it’s use. This proposal remains as a great inspiration and example for the answers given to the main competition challenges.

3rd Place

An interesting project that appears to disrupt and disperse semi‐discrete elements across a watery field. The potency of its arrangement/configuration lies in its proliferation and departure from more traditional concentration of the plan. In this case it has a relaxed/calm and informal feel, contrasting the cell densities that are open both to the interior (introspection) and exterior (projection) which exploit the contextual features of the open sea.

The theme of the atoll is consistent with the use of the hoop geometry to internalise the ocean context into the interior forms in various ways; through the inner circle areas of the cell blocks and the subsequent subtraction in the forming of the sunken void which inverts the relationships of material wall and solid ground within this particular contextual siting. This poetic of inversion of the atoll (from notion of the island) is fairly consistent throughout the project and is further alluded to in the lilly pad and water/droplet/ripple images that support its conceptual drivers.

The flatness of the project itself suggests another way of seeing how the contextual relationship with the site would be. The unique approach towards below sea level, which allow the next step conversation on the prison configuration in operational concern. Both dependent and independent elements have been strung together well and inform a very straight forward layout. Clean geometrical composition makes simple statement which strengthens the feasibility and sustainability.

The proposal is representative of a different conceptual approach to the term Platform. It assumes the sea as a tensioned surface and uses both its beauty and its extension. The more established “prison organizational layouts” are revised, favoring a closer relation of the inmates with the fairness of the water. The project plays with this surface tension by pushing the program above and below it. These being the strongest qualities, they also prove to be some of the more questionable ones.

Note

The jury would like to point it out the project N :06746 (honorable mention) with a conceptual design who investgate new directions and functionality of incarceration including methods of confinement. Is a cell really needs 4 brick wallswhen the prison is in the middle of sea ? This ambitious project generate the discussion of ideas regarding the ambiguous role of architecture in relation to the punishment of imprisonment.

9 Nov 2012

New Ocean Platform Prison Architectural Competition

New Ocean Platform Prison Design Contest

[AC-CA] Architecture Competition

[PACIFIC 06]

INTRODUCTION
The imprisonment of people is probably one of the bigger taboos within our modern society. A Prison is a place in which people are physically confined and usually deprived of a range of personal freedoms.
Imprisonment or incarceration is a legal penalty that may be imposed by the state for the commission of a crime.

picture from competition organisers

The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth’s oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.

AIM OF THIS COMPETITION
The aim of this International Competition is to design a New Prison afloat the Pacific Ocean, using an oil Platform as a reference structure. The design of this new Platform will include all the facilities a prison may need including cells, exercise yard, etc.. with a design that still facilitates human rights within the deemed confinement.

The architecture of this new building should reflect contemporary design tendencies, standing out for its uniqueness as a prison.

This competition hopes to achieve the following:
– To investgate new direction and functionality of incarceration including methods of confinement.
– To generate the discussion of ideas regarding the ambiguous role of architecture in relation to the punishment of imprisonment.
– Research, respond to and highlight the unique aspects of designing a highly functional piece of architecture with an economic and safety advantages for all.
– Encourage and reward design excellence on a large scale, which integrates function, structure, details, etc within an Ocean environment.
– Encourage the employment of sustainable design in all aspects of the proposal.

pictures from competition organisers

Schedule

Early Bird Registration deadline – 20 Dec 2012
Late Competition Registration deadline – 18 Feb 2013
Deadline for Questions – 31 Jan 2013
Closing Date for Submissions – 22 Feb 2013
Jury Evaluation – 27 Feb – 6 Mar 2013
Announcement of Winners and Publication at www.ac-ca.org – 8 Mar 2013 Note: All deadlines are 11:59 pm – 00:00 GMT (London).

COMPETITION STRUCTURE

This is a single stage Competition with the aim of identifing the most appropriate proposal, which best satisfies the general and specific objectives of the contest.

THOSE ELIGIBLE TO PARTICIPATE

Architects, Architecture Graduated, Engineers and Students. Interdisciplinary teams are also encouraged to enter the Competition.
Submissions can be the work of an individual or a group up to 4 members and there is no age limit. However, entrants under 18 years of age must be lead or entered by someone over the age of 18.

AWARDS

Winning participants will receive prizes totaling US$ 6,000 with the distribution as follows:

1st PRIZE: US$ 3,500
2nd PRIZE: US$ 1,700
3rd PRIZE: US$ 800

There will also be 7 honorable mentions.

For more information visit the Competition Website: www.ac-ca.org

This is an open International Competition hosted by [AC-CA]™ to generate progressive contemporary design ideas. There are no plans for the Platform Prison to be built.

New Ocean Platform Prison Architectural Competition images / information from [AC-CA]

Location: Fiji

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Design: Snøhetta

image : MIR
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Samundra Institute of Maritime Studies, India
Architects: CCBA
Samundra Institute of Maritime Studies

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