INTERNATIONAL ARCHITECTURE COMPETITION | Call for Submissions

IMAGINE YOUR FUTURE, BUILD YOUR DREAMS!

To provide young generations with the means to act so that they could, tomorrow, build a living environment that takes into account and values the wealth of the planet.

Description

I. PRESENTATION OF COMPETITION

Celebrating the 10th edition of the competition in 2020, Jacques Rougerie Foundation invites you to imagine bold, visionary projects, in accordance to the major issues of humanity. The human being must be at the center of your project which will be based on bio-mimicry, an infinite source of inspiration. Since ever, nature has designed and manufactured the most elegant curves, the most beautiful shapes, and produces the best materials. In addition, your work will be all the more appreciated if carried out in a transversal and in multidisciplinary way.

Architects, engineers, designers, seize, the opportunity to create tomorrow's ways of life, to promote the richness of the sea and space, respecting them!

Today more than ever, we must find new forms of habitat and mobility, new ways of life that have to be inventive and efficient for the 10 billion people who will be living on earth in 2050, 75% of whom will live near coastlines and will be therefore particularly concerned by the challenges of the sea level rise. Prospective work on living in space has never been so ambitious. We must act to preserve and build the future of humanity in a sustainable way. To succeed in it, we must dare! In 1869 Jules Verne published "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea". He was deeply convinced that 

“Anything one man can imagine, other men can make real”.

II. PRESENTATION OF PRIZES 2018

« Innovation and Architecture for the Sea » award

• Grand Prix – € 7 500
• Focus : Underwater Village € 2 500

The underwater Village

The underwater Village will host a community of women and men, the Meriens , aquanauts living in osmosis with an extreme environment for long term stays. It places the human beings at the center of this submarine world and carries values of solidarity. It can be located at different depths and will accommodate a community of 150 to 250 people or more.

The village must be self-sufficient and fully autonomous running on renewable marine energy (tidal power, wave sensor, ocean thermal energy...). The daily life of its inhabitants will cause a minimal impact on its environment (waste...) There will be a general reflection on the submarine mobility. What kind of submarine vehicles to reach the earth?

There will be taken into account the specific way of life related to the underwater and the multiple constraints due to this environment, among others equi-pressure, buoyancy, etc. The inhabitants will live in equi-pressure and in saturation. The different architectural structures will allow the Merien aquanauts to go out easily under the sea as often as they wish in the third dimension of this submarine space.

It will not only respect the marine biodiversity but will also promote it. All infrastructures must have a minimal environmental footprint on the underwater environment. The materials used must have a maximum level of recyclability.

It may include at the candidate’s choice various programs as far as a scientific research center on biodiversity, aquaculture and algal farms, a hotel, leisure facilities, a wellness center, sports and cultural zones, an underwater museum, a cultural and artistic center, etc.