Competitions

Our Financial Consortium participated a competition ‘Seongnam Pankyo Mixed-use Development PF’.

A major goal of the Center is rehabilitation of the wetlands area. The building is both a physical base for stewardship of vulnerable ecosystems and a symbolic base, to demonstrate commitment to conservation. Given the unique goals of Calumet, the building is also a statement about the coexistence of nature and human industry. Can a building, shelter from nature, humankinds most intrusive creation, help teach us more about the natural environment? These suppositions and this question lead us to four principles to follow in designing the Center: 1. The building must be extroverted. It must guide us out of itself, to explore the surrounding preserve, while educating us about the preserve. 2. The building must engage directly, beneficially, the surrounding natural environment. It may not decrease the ability of other animals and plants to thrive in the preserve. 3. The building must be exemplary. It will demonstrate construction strategies and methods that minimize the harmful impact of human civilization on Earth. 4. We must balance science and art, conservation and experience. A building that does not touch the imagination cannot succeed scientifically. Conservation efforts will never get the opportunity to succeed without the promise of gratifying experience.

The High Line is an abandoned rail now being converted into a linear public space. For the first High Line ideas competition, MESH submitted a concept of expansive, raised public event spaces as attractors, connected by an information network. A year later a team of MESH and 3 other small firms, OpenMeshWork.Org, made it to the round of 7 in the competition to plan the High Line for real.

In the latter half of the 20th century, the hotel room has evolved from a place of respite, to one of work, to one of luxury. However, technology has evolved toward a seamless life/work ƒlow across all spaces and territories. The hotel room of the future will reƒlect versatility in the clever components and coordinated, functional continuity. We want to serve both comfort and eƒƒectiveness.  All modules can be interacted with digitally through both mobile phone and the main media wall screen. The notion of controls within the hotel room (thermostat, TV remote, phone) that the guest must ƒigure out upon checking in is obsolete. We propose a universal mobile app on the guest’s phone using a standard protocol to control everything. Not only does the guest have a room interface that he already knows, but preferences are stored so that upon entry all systems adjust to the new guest, not the other way around. You don’t check in to the room, you log into it. The mobile app serves as room key, controls lighting, temperature, minibar, and serves as interface to the multimedia wall and hotel services.  Individual component modules within the space can be upgraded and installed with ease. These components will consist of the meeting area, wet bar, sleeping area, bath area, etc. This allows for all other functions to be prefabricated oƒƒsite and plugged into the existing slab. Hotel components are easily upgraded to accommodate future technologies while aƒƒording a ƒlow in spatial functions.

There is a vigorous discussion on the future of work – what we will do, how and where we will do it. The cubicle office was discredited in favor of the open plan. Then open plan critics cried that we need more privacy. Currently MESH is behind the “micro-urban” model, where the workplace offers a varied topography of scales, sounds, light, and work modalities. The Quatrefoil table can occupy a large meeting room or an open space. It is intended for a small group – a team within a larger company or a startup or an ad hoc collaboration. The geometry enables the group to meet together around a table or to pivot away to work independently or to break out into smaller groups. Personal materials may be kept on the arms, leaving the center area free for collaborative materials. We imagine a projection from the ceiling down onto the center surface, which could be interactive as conceived by Potion (potiondesign.com).

Our entry for the 13,000m² Science Island Kaunas competition negotiates between its grounding in the park and its science and innovation programming. The building’s form is as simple as its program and content are complex: its kernel is the suspended gallery space, activated by rear video projection onto glass panels, which can also be retracted to create a full free plan. To each gallery (for learning, absorbing) we attach a lab (for making, experimenting), while a rooftop planetarium invites visitors to panoramic views of the city before stepping into the immersive dome. The extensive ground-floor public space uses cut-away corners to invite visitors in seamlessly from the park outside, while the four programmed pavilions at this floor exert cones of influence into the landscape outside.

This was a winning competition design. The building is currently under construction

Instead of trying to accommodate different programs into one single volume, the building is divided into different blocks that express the programs that they host: 1. studios, 2. public programs, 3. studio support, and 4. office space.

The different blocks also break down the scale of the building; adapt to setback regulations and propose a different typology for a tower, rather than the traditional tower + base.