The 72 Hour Urban Action project was an absolute breath of fresh air, that was full of buzz and excitement, I was truly grateful for the opportunity to take part in such a fantastic competition. An event that created a bombardment of ideas that acted as catalysts for future endeavors on the landscape of the city of Bat Yam in Israel and possibly the world!
I was part of the organisation team, it was my job to compile and sort out the preliminary information that is essential to perform a quality design for an urban public space. I got to work with a group of fantastic people who really made me feel welcome and gave me great insight into how a competition like this is put together. They gave me an invaluable experience that has inspired me to perform similar endeavors in the future.
The participants in the competition fell into three categories for me:
The people who tried to decorate their site
The people who created elements and fitted them into their site
The people who made an attempt at trying to create a spacial composition
From a landscape architects point of view, the people who fell into the third category should of won the competition. For me spacial composition is what quality public design is all about. Creating a space that defines the objects rather then creating objects that define a space.
The first group of people for me maybe missed the entire point of the competition however they were there and they made up the numbers and from what I seen they certainly gained some excellent experience and hopefully they enjoyed the event and can take something from it.
The winners of the competition I believe fell into the second category, they designed an element and lodged it into position. The object certainly defined the space. As for the piece, it was very well constructed and looks like it will last many years. As for the space they were designing there was much space left unchanged, left over space that had no use but to harbour whatever happens to fall into its cusp. Personally I’m not a fan but I can also see why it deserved to win and I think I’ll leave it at that.
There is really only so much criticism I can give such a wonderful competition, it brought over 100 people from 22 different countries all together and inspired people to use public space, getting them outside, encouraging them to be active and interested in their local environment. For me this is what really makes the project a huge success and I hope 72 Hour Urban Action is a recurring event that gets bigger and more successful each year.
I was certainly disappointed I was not accepted as one of the participants however this opened the door for me to work on the project on a much larger scale and in hindsight I wouldn’t change that for the world. I didn’t get a medal or a prize but I felt like a winner just been involved. I gained professional experience, happy memories and a lot of inspiration from some great ideas and some fantastic people.
So there you have it, my “72 second Urban Re-Action”.
Why would they not accept you as a participant?
ReplyDeleteWell it wasn't a personal thing there was a lot of people that had to be cut due to the amount of people wanting to enter. The architect had a particular entrant in mind and I guess I just didn't make the cut.
ReplyDeleteJudging from the people picked they either fell into two catergories either architects or people with a strong artistic influence.
But if you read the above artical you'll see that things worked out really well for me, you know the expression "one door closes, another door opens".
Dear Scott,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your post -- I was actually one of the participants in the competition, and found it a tough, difficulat but a much rewarding project. Hardships were mostly in the need to create common language -- culturally and professionally-- within a group of people each one of them coming from very different backgreound. That was the toughest part. In the end I found myself holding my tongue in the chick, collaborating in a project I did not support intellectually or conceptually, It was just on the very last lag that I had the chance to perform what I really thought was The thing to go for. I would, actually, add one more category to the criteria you suggested for the competition: I would think that the jury needs to examine how do projects have environmental effect, or change the social circumstances of those who will be using those spaces/ objects. For me, this would be one of the most inspiring options.
A
what about the other winners?
ReplyDeleteHow do you mean Albert?
ReplyDelete