Giuseppe Mecca, 2009
Three
architects – Richard Carbonnier (Canada), Giuseppe Mecca (Italy), and Catherine
Rannou (France)
– have
been selected as the joint winners of the Arctic Perspective Initiative open
architecture competition. The
challenge of this international competition was to design a zero-footprint
mobile research unit for use by local populations in the Arctic. The unit is intended to facilitate a diverse range of technological research opportunities, such as remote sensing, environmental monitoring, video editing and streaming, and communications
systems.
The three winning
entries, each awarded €1500, were selected by an expert jury from 103
submissions from architects and engineers in more than 30 countries. The
competition was the first phase of a design process, the next phase of which
will involve working with the winning submissions through a collaborative
design effort with local community members from Nunavut, Canada. A prototype
unit will be tested in the field next year in Igloolik, Nunavut, by local media
workers, hunters, youth and elders of the community.
API is committed
to the empowerment and sustainable development of Northern communities through
the collaboration and combination of science, arts, engineering and culture.
The unit aims to serve as a model for mobile research in the north,
incorporating proven local expertise, sustainable resources, and high tech
solutions, while promoting open source data sharing strategies and management.
All required power will come from green sources.
The
Arctic Perspective Initiative (API) is a transnational art, science, and culture work group composed of HMKV (Germany), The Arts Catalyst (UK), Projekt Atol (Slovenia), Lorna (Iceland) and C-TASC (Canada), API is the brainchild of Marko Peljhan and Matthew Biederman, who met and worked together for the first time as crewmembers of the Makrolab in Blair Atholl, Scotland in 2002, a project produced by The Arts Catalyst.
For more information:
Download PRESS RELEASE of full announcement of the winners
Nicola Triscott, Director
Catherine
Rannou, 2009
Richard Carbonnier, 2009

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