According to the organizers, 600 architects, artists, designers and engineers from all over the world submitted more than 250 projects to the competition. Of these, the jury (which included Oddil Decq, Lorenzo Fernandez-Ordoñez, Daniel Dendra, see details here) selected six projects. The winner will be announced on April 15th. He will receive the right to implement his project in the city of Vyksa by the opening of the Art-Ovrag festival, that is, by May 31.
Recall that in order to participate in the competition, it was necessary to submit a project of a transformable, collapsible, possibly mobile object with one or several support points, which can be installed in various parts of the city.
The organizers of the competition are the OMK-Uchastiya Charitable Foundation, the Art-Residence international cultural project, the State Museum of Architecture named after A. V. Shchuseva (MUAR), National Center for Contemporary Art (NCCA), Project Russia magazine.
Below we publish all six projects of the shortlist and retell the author's comments to them. The names of the authors remain unknown until the winner is announced.
1. The sky is the ceiling
The wood-paneled rounded volume is raised on two-meter mirrored supports. The lower tier is protected from rain by the ceiling, but is permeable and open to the surrounding space; it is intended for lectures and master classes. Its ceiling bends towards the spiral staircase leading to the second tier: before getting up, you will have to bend down a little.
The upper part is intended for exhibitions. It, in contrast to the first tier, is surrounded by blank walls, but lacks a ceiling. Its ceiling is the sky. Here we find ourselves excluded from the environment and, in a metaphorical sense, from everyday life, which will allow the visitor to focus on contemplating the objects of art on display. Which will be protected from rain, as it is proposed to display them on shelves arranged in the thickness of wooden walls: in a kind of "obscura chambers" that form the basis of the construction of curved wooden walls.
2. Yellow box
In this project, the authors presented a pavilion in the form of an old bus, placed in a parallelogram made of transparent polycarbonate. According to the authors of the project, in this way they "draw people's attention to the recycling of raw materials and environmental friendliness in design and architecture." The interior space is a multifunctional gallery, also suitable for lectures, master classes and film screenings.
3. Haptic Pavilion
Inspired by the structural and spatial complexity of the works of Vladimir Shukhov, the authors proposed to fix on a steel frame walls made of vertically welded polycarbonate pipes, which in this case serve as a metaphor for metal pipes of the Vyksa plant. At first glance, the translucent walls of the pavilion should seem immaterial and floating above the ground. They will let in soft light and create unusual light and shadow effects, blurring the boundaries between "inside" and "outside".
4. Garden City Rings
On April 16, this project was named the winner of the competition. It will be completed by the opening of the festival. The name of the author also became known: it is the Spanish architect Javier Ponce (JAPA Architects).
Simple mobile construction: a flat, openwork roof circle made of aluminum rings is supported by four V-shaped supports on wheels. Outside, a bicycle is attached on both sides: the authors do not emphasize this too much, but it seems that the pavilion should move with their help. Exhibition materials are attached to the edge of the aluminum ring of the roof on cables, and stools made of recycled PVC can be hung around the circumference. The authors were inspired by the products of the Vyksa Metallurgical Plant (producing pipes), the nature and designs of Vladimir Shukhov.
5. ON FIREWOOD / FIREWOOD
The authors propose to fold the walls of the pavilion in the form of a woodpile of trees in the park, damaged by the bark beetle and therefore intended for firewood. Two parallel woodpiles expand upward, forming inside a semblance of an open vault ajar along the line of "key stones". For constructive rigidity, the firewood is tied together with metal rods. The wood-burning pavilion should, according to the authors, draw attention to the problems of the green fund of our planet, which are topical for Vyksa as well.
6. Visual silicone filter (Silicone blur)
The structure of the pavilion consists of a thin shiny metal frame and a plurality of silicone tubes of three diameters suspended from it: 24, 16 and 9 millimeters, suspended vertically so that their lower ends do not reach 10 centimeters to the floor of the pavilion. Tubes can be used to make seats, swings, or even a hammock. The pavilion, according to the authors, "is absolutely transparent to contact with the outside world … wind, light and rain affect the pavilion not only from the inner surface, but also from the outside."
