Southbank Competition winner announced

A few weeks ago, I first mentioned a competition I was working on with Thread Collective. The competition was for a large development in South Africa put on by the Southbank Architectural Foundation. Thread and I slaved away for hours on the design and as the submission came closer to being finalized, I knew we had a pretty strong chance of winning. The Southbank Architectural Competition's website has a really awesome write-up on Thread's submission with some pretty sexy renderings and collages by yours truly. As you can tell by the article, Thread Collective placed first out of hundreds of submissions. Some of their designs will be constructed as early as December 2007! Here are some images and congrats to Thread Collective... From the Southbank's website: The winning scheme, Collage, is characterized by an original and innovative conceptual response to the requirements and aspirations of the Southbank Architecture Competition. The scheme is authored by threadcollective and normal design, a collaborative team of architects, landscape architects and public art practitioners based in New York City. They will develop the project in association with South African architects. The singular idea that differentiated this scheme was the integration of the Africa Centre and the residential community, achieved by the positioning of its key elements throughout the housing component of the scheme. It responded to the aspirations and spirit of the brief: that the Africa Centre gives a character and energy to the community, and that the community in turn contributes to the activities of the Centre. The authors propose to make a compact settlement that has some of the benefits of the urban rather than the suburban condition, while reconciling with its rural context. This is crucial for ecological sustainability as it preserves natural landscapes and minimizes the land area and the material used in development. It also helps to intensify energy demands and provision of services. The nature of the scheme acknowledges transformation as a generative principle. It Possesses a vitality that came through the overlay of the two major elements, the residential and Africa Centre areas. This will allow for both parts to be evolved in their design and use, and avoids the constraints that would arise from a rigid Master Plan. The scheme responded to the challenges of ensuring that the architecture continues to evolve. They propose to respond both to the rural context and to create innovative, contemporary architecture.