The international student competition IVA 2018 is being held for the eighth time. This year, participants worked with daylight, "rethinking its meaning in architecture as a source of energy and life."
There were two nominations in the competition: "Daylight in buildings" and "Daylight studies". For each, regional winners were selected: five and four, respectively. In November, they will present their projects at the World Architecture Festival in Amsterdam, where two grand prizes will be awarded.
In total, 600 applications from 250 architectural schools from 58 countries took part in the competition. The jury noted that instead of the spectacular wow projects that came in previous years, current students offer quite real solutions to global and not very modern problems: poverty, climate change, health, quality of life.
In the region of Eastern Europe and the Middle East, participants from Russia won in both nominations. Both projects are from students of the Kazan State University of Architecture and Construction, which provided a winner last time. ***
Nomination "Daylight in buildings"
Eastern Europe and the Middle East
"Tricks with forms of light"
Anastasia Maslova, teacher Ilnar Akhtyamov
Kazan State University of Architecture and Construction
In her project-manifesto, Anastasia Maslova argues: there is so much sunlight, but the buildings are still not sufficiently lit, how to build in order to get the maximum daylight? She suggests changing the traditional rectangular building shapes to more rounded ones. The project presents alternative typologies that increase the penetration of natural light, and also explores the shadows cast by buildings. The jury hopes that this project will inspire other students not to be afraid of their ambitions, to be a bit rebellious and ask questions, even if there are no immediate answers to them.
Western Europe
"Getting to the Light"
Joana Robalo, João Umbelino, Ana Ázar, António Lopes, Miguel Pedro
University of Evora, Portugal
The Portuguese region of Alentejo has cold winters and especially hot summers. Because of this, a special architecture was formed: narrow streets, thick walls, enclosed spaces and small windows. Over time, chimneys were blocked in houses as unnecessary. And so the dark rooms were left without ventilation and a sufficient level of humidity. In order to bring more air and natural light into the houses, the authors of the project suggest a simple but effective solution - to give the chimneys the function of light channels.
North and Latin America
Light Dilution
Ziqi Chen, Shuaizhong Wang and Zeyu Liu
Virginia State University, USA
Coober Pedy, located in southern Australia, is often referred to as the opal capital of the world. Due to extreme summer temperatures and very low humidity, its inhabitants spend most of their time in "dugouts": even restaurants and churches are located in "dungeons". This helps to cope with the heat, but the problem remains with the lack of water and poor lighting. The authors of the project propose to make in the ceilings of the premises a semblance of a pipe with glass balls, which are closed by an acrylic cover. At night it opens, water vapor condenses and forms droplets. During the day, the lid is closed, light passes through glass spheres and water and is refracted into multi-colored rays that brighten up the dungeon. The authors borrowed this technology from the nature of the opal itself.
Asian-Pacific area
"My deceased relative in a ray of light"
Qi Wang, Jingkai Chen and Peilin Yin
Qingdao University of Science and Technology, China
In China, there is a cult of ancestors: people worship them during various holidays and on Memorial Day. To preserve this tradition in modern metropolitan areas where there is not even a piece of free land, the authors propose to build brick columbar walls at the bottom of tall public buildings. Sunlight, passing through holes in the outer walls, illuminates each cell at a certain time of the day of death of the buried - based on calculations of the angle of incidence of the sun during the day and season.
Africa
"Pavilion of Light"
Fatai Osundiji and Emmanuel Ayo-Loto
Obafemi Awolovo University, Nigeria
In Africa, people who have lost their homes number in the millions, many are forced to live in special camps. The project offers an easy-to-build pavilion made from cheap local materials: bamboo, used tires and earth. The Pavilion of Light is essentially a simple shelter from the sun that can serve as a meeting point, classroom, or playground. The bamboo roof is painted with photoluminescent light paint, which is "charged" by sunlight during the day and glows beautifully at night.
Nomination "Study of Daylight"
Eastern Europe and the Middle East
"A cloud of polar light"
Anna Borisova, Kamilla Akhmetova, teachers Ilnar and Reseda Akhtyamov
Kazan State University of Architecture and Construction
In cities with a polar night, most of the time immersed in darkness, about a million people live. It's hard to get used to such everyday life: the lack of sunlight has an extremely negative effect on health and quality of life. During the polar night, immunity decreases, meteosensitivity increases, chronic diseases become aggravated, biorhythms are disrupted - and this is not a complete list of consequences. The existing urban lighting system helps little: the lanterns give an unnatural orange light at a height of five meters.
The authors' idea is quite bold: using a system of mirrors installed on various aircraft, direct the sun's rays from space into the clouds above the city to create an almost realistic dawn and soft light during the day.
Western Europe
"Cover up to discover"
Brice Lemaire, Xiaolan Vandendries and Julien Obedia
Leuven Catholic University, Belgium
Desertification affects 25% of the continental surface. The region of Almeria in Spain also suffers from this problem. To transform these frightening and abandoned territories, students create something of a technological art object. A special mesh-veil is held at a height of several meters by huge helium balloons. The mesh collects moisture from fog, dew and rain, allowing the soil and ecosystem to gradually regenerate. In addition, this whole setup creates a spectacular "scenography" of the light and shadow landscape, which changes during the day.
North and Latin America
"Daylight for water"
Stepehn Baik, Abubakr Bajaman and John Nguyen
University of Toronto, Canada
Canadian students also suggest using the heat of sunlight to extract moisture from their air and turn it into usable water. This can be done thanks to carbon-rich nanorods tightly connected into cluster cells. At low humidity levels, water is retained in the cells and gradually accumulates. If the humidity rises, the rods displace the water, turning it into mist. The downward tapering shape allows water droplets to flow downward and accumulate more quickly. Such a system would help revitalize arid regions where rain evaporates before it reaches the ground. Further development of technology can help purify water.
Asian-Pacific area
"Path to Light"
Yuhan Luo, Di Lan, and Yusong Liu
Tianjin University, China
Due to the lack of roads and electricity in the mountainous villages of China, getting to and from school is not an easy and even dangerous task for children, especially if they have to return in the dark. But the picture is completely changed by a little cheap fluorite, which is found in all provinces of China. When embedded in paths, the bright stones will glow for several hours at night after being saturated with light during the day, creating a truly magical landscape. The stone can be almost not processed - this will reduce the cost of technology, which will be economically justified for poor rural areas.
