The winners, and letter from Christian Hubert, Jury Chair:

The winning entries to this year’s ONE Prize competition addressed our call for a new teaching facility through a broad spectrum of functional, spatial, and symbolic strategies. We are pleased to announce the winners, each of which took a distinct and consistent approach to the project. ! ! 

The two first prize projects represent two poles of conceiving ONE Lab that complement each other. One of them, THE LUCENT CUBE, is elegant, straightforward, and functional. It occupies the open space of Building 128, along with the “eave” space assigned to ONE Lab. Like the functional spaces proposed by the developer, it is a simple box. The multi-story structure distributes the program areas in a clear and intelligent manner, with more public functions at the lower floors, new vertical circulation, more private uses above, and a roof garden at the top (interior) level. Although some jurors found the project somewhat unadventurous, its simple luminescence and polycarbonate materials provided a clear identity and believable material vocabulary.

The other winning project, SELF GROWING LAB was unabashedly assertive in its formal language and technological optimism. The project seemed poised to take over the whole building, and even to burst out of it. The self-growing lab evokes many of the technologies and growth forms associated with Terreform ONE’s body of work. The project’s strength is primarily metaphorical, and its biotechnologies are unproven but innovative. Some jurors found it too resolutely formal and its functional spaces insufficiently defined.!

The third place project, COL-LAB, mediates between the ONE Lab facility and a new public space for the Navy Yard. The designers suggested using the roof on the courtyard side as a public area for seating and display - an idea that transforms the scope of the project from a purely interior space into a public outdoor roofscape. The functional spaces for ONE Lab are at the upper levels, with a new raised roof structure. While such construction might well desirable, it is not feasible in reality because of regulatory constraints. This, however, did not affect the judging, but the project would suffer if the roof could not be raised, since the programmatic spaces for ONE Lab would be reduced.!

Honorable mention went to SKOOL HAUS, a project that starts from a metaphorical evocation of hand-made wooden boat construction, which may seem strangely at odds with a building whose function was to assemble giant engines for modern warships. The project presentation was highly evocative, and its finesse appealed to many jury members, even if at times it strained their credulity. Nonetheless, it underscored the relation of ONE Lab to the water, even suggesting that large parts of the program could be launched onto the water, and that overturned boat-like forms could provide unexpected opportunities for functional use. ! !

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the jury for their efforts and insights into these exciting projects. Of course, there would be nothing to judge without the imaginative projects of the contestants. Congratulations to the winners!!

One Prize Winner
$3500 Prize

The Lucent Cube – Yun Wan, Silvia Lopez, Balazs Fekete
London, United Kingdom.

One Prize Winner
$3500 Prize

Self Growing Lab – Victor Diaz, Ariel Santiago, Carlos Garcia, Danniely Staback, Nestor Lebron
San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Third Place
$1000 Prize

Col-Lab – Jaehun Woo, Youra Cho, Sang Hoon Park, Hwang Dong Eun
Seoul, South Korea.

Honorable Mention

Skool Haus– Nikole Bouchard, Vanessa Moon
Milwaukee, USA.

> via oneprize.org