Absolute Competition: The designs that didn't win

[wyliepoon]

The Universite de Montreal's Canadian Competitions Catalogue (a web project that seeks to put online every submission to all Canadian architectural competitions) has put up a section for the Absolute tower design competition... you know, the one which Yansong Ma won. 91 submissions have been posted in the section so far...which takes quite some time to browse through.

www.ccc.umontreal.ca/fiche_concours.php?lang=en&cId=161

To save you some browsing time, I've posted below some highlights from the designs that didn't win the Absolute competition (those that didn't even make it past the first round). I've divided the highlights into different categories...

THE NOT-SO-SPECIAL

Claudio Nardi

Allied Architects

Mysko Micha

SFArchitects

Edgardo Gottfried

Antinozzi Associates

numbered submission

numbered submission

CLOSE, BUT NO CIGAR (designs similar to Ma's tower)

Mangera Yvars architects

Bertaux + Partners

Bernard Idrovo, Esteban Ochoa

numbered submission

NEW BRUTALISTS?

Arquitecturas Torres Nadal

PROJECT Ltd.

Kalyan Chakraborty, Arindam Ghosh

Alexandr Lysogor, Daria Lysogor

Won Jin Park

POTENTIAL LANDMARKS?

Cyrlab

Cusimano architect inc.

Dominic Ferreira

Valentin Oleynik architectural workshop

Perini, Capellini, architects

GMM Arquitectos

Ivanchenko Mikhail

Casanova + Hernandez architects

Boldwing Continuum Architects

AIA, HTDSTUDIO Architects + Designers

Alejandro Gaona, Miquel Adriá

Jeyson Torres

numbered submission

TALL AND GREEN

Jan Kalinowski, Anna Dropiewska

Juan Hurtado, Enrique Browne y asociados arquitectos

TA Architecture

Babeev Kirill

Jay Polding

MODULAR LIVING

Joseph Cory Architecture

Guillermo Valdés-Loyola, Alejandro Velázquez-Sánchez

ASA jsc

FINALLY... a bold design, but I don't know how on earth you can build this...

Radoslaw Zubrycki (one of the design presentation boards say that this is an 80 storey tower)

 

[alklay]

Thanks for that post.

Yes, the last apppears to be impossible to build.

And most designs look pretty damn ugly (am I being harsh?).

 

[cdl42]

Thanks for posting these, Wylie. Absolutely fascinating.

There is a lot of ugliness, and a lot of dullness as well. I would guess that the submissions not posted here must be even more blandness (I get the feeling that many people never suspected that a creative design would end up winning and purposely aimed low). Why on earth are some people trying to revive brutalism? WHY?!?!

There's certainly some really interesting designs there as well. I would love to see the Joseph Cory modular design get built somewhere. The lovechild of Habitat67 and a Rubik's Cube.

 

[Canuck 36]

You're not too harsh, I dislike most of them as well.

 

[building babel]

The last one reminds me of a photograph I once saw of a grinning Jayne Mansfield and Mickey Hargitay in their matching leopardskin swimwear. He's leaning back, holding her as she stands balanced on his knees and leans forward like a car hood ornament.

 

[ganjavih]

Why on earth are some people trying to revive brutalism? WHY?!?!

Ah, neo-brutalism. Let's all take a moment to pray that day never comes.

 

[adma]

Somehow, I'd rather look at the Joseph Cory as one more tributary of neo-brutalism (or at least, neo-60s/70s) And honestly, if you got to be neo-brutal, pay tribute to the best (Paul Rudolph, JL Sert, et al). It isn't like we're talking about Harbour Square Redux, after all.

Ah, and that Mikhail Ivanchenko design truly takes the hallucinogenic cake...

 

[Archivistower]

I love the PROJECT LTD. proposal, which I suppose is new-brutalist. Don't hate me.

 

[thenay]

Some of these look really cool, but the one that won is alright.

 

[Bogtrotter]

Wow- some terrific designs there. That Alejandro Gaona/ Miquel Adriá design is marvelous- very sculptural. I do like the chosen design however- it is among the better ones.

 

[esplanade guy]

My version of HELL!

The best thing about these pictures is the perspective it gives you of Mississauga. I have never spent much time there, just passing through every now and then. From what I can see in theses pictures, the whole layout, I just can't imagine Mississauga being a people friendly place. It just looks so inhospitable and impossible to fix. God, I hope I'm wrong but from the air, suburbia looks even uglier then I thought.

 

[building babel]

Re: My version of HELL!

Forty years ago it was just fields, so anything is possible.

 

[ganjavih]

Re: My version of HELL!

Anything can be done with a field... but it's hard to reverse suburban development.

 

[geotectura]

hi Adma,
Check out my website to see other projects I did:
www.geotectura.com
I think neo-brutalism is the right term only if you look at the form of this high-rise, but architecture has evolved far from that. The project has sustainable values (Social, Ecological, Technological and Economical): neo-modernist would be more appropriate...
Best
Architect Joseph Cory

 

[bizorky]

neo-modenist

What's that? Maybe "neo-modernist?"