Agustín Piña, Mauro Morgades, and Javier Nadal, students in Architecture Project 9, won second place in the #WIENCALL international design competition, organized by the digital platform Star for Talents.
The students developed their proposal in two stages. The first was an internal competition among students in the Project 9 course, in which they won first place. This result motivated them to refine the project and enter the second stage—the international competition—where they took second place.
The project is located in Vienna, Austria, and involved designing an installation in Am Hof Square dedicated to an art school. The winning project will be part of the urban redevelopment taking place in central Vienna, which will house an arts district.
The architectural proposal is accompanied by the following text, which describes the design strategies used by the team.
“Art has been redefined countless times throughout its history. Designing an art school requires an understanding of how artistic languages will evolve in order to translate this vision into a built form. The building was conceived in a very open manner. The formal design is a neutral artifact: the volume is a cube elevated on a transparent base that reflects the context, as Vienna is a place steeped in history and meaning, ready to be enhanced. The latticework structure forming the upper part of the building is an avant-garde gesture, a contemporary mark on the historic city that continues the spirit of progress with which artistic movements have served as harbingers over the centuries. The golden crown symbolizes cultural prosperity, a true wealth that humanity must never relinquish.”
