2013-2014 City of Dreams Pavilion

FIGMENT has once again teamed with the Emerging New York Architects Committee (ENYA) of the American Institute of Architects NY Chapter (AIANY) and the Structural Engineers Association of New York (SEAoNY) to host a competition to design and construct an architectural pavilion on Governors Island, the City of Dreams Pavilion.

http://figmentproject.org/2014pavilion

Since Governors Island first opened to the public in 2004, the attention and interest that this new public place has received has increased exponentially. In 2012, over 300,000 people visited the island through its summer season to engage in a variety of arts and cultural programs, as well as to enjoy summertime activities like picnicking and bike riding on the island. 

Entries are encouraged from individuals or teams of architects and non-architects of any age or experience level, provided they are prepared to carry out the project. 

Instead of a typical design competition, the City of Dreams Pavilion asks entrants to consider how they will construct this temporary structure in the most efficient and sustainable way possible. Entrants are being asked to consider using “borrowed” materials—from existing construction sites and from places where the materials can be returned after the season is over and the temporary structure is disassembled. In the end, the goal is to create a pavilion that has net zero impact and that serves as a prototype for a new, truly sustainable, way of thinking about design and construction. 

The 2013-2014 competition will be the fourth City of Dreams Pavilion Design Competition. The third pavilion, Head in the Clouds (http://figmentproject.org/pavilion), is currently being designed by StudioKCA, and will be constructed this summer for the 2013 season. The winner of the 2013-2014 City of Dreams Pavilion competition will be installed and open to the public on New York City’s Governors Island throughout the entire 2014 summer season on Saturdays and Sundays while Governors Island is open from June 8 until September 22, 2013. 

The City of Dreams Pavilion at a glance
The City of Dreams Pavilion will be a gathering place for people to meet, learn about the arts programs on the island, be able to enjoy a performance or lecture, and experience the interaction of art and the historic context of Governors Island. Our theme for the pavilion, the City of Dreams, points toward the future. If we imagine a future New York City where anything is possible, what would it look like? In our wildest and most optimistic dreams, what is the future of the city? 

The current state of the world is such that both economic and natural resources are limited in ways we have never experienced in our lifetimes. A new way of thinking is necessary to solve the problems that the world faces. Inevitably, the result will be a change in the basic practices that have driven the world to its current state. One place to start to activate and energize these changes in within the architecture and design community, where the movement toward sustainable design has only scratched the surface of what is possible and necessary. 

The Competition Jury
The City of Dreams 2013-2014 Pavilion Design Competition will be a two-stage process, in which a jury of leading architects and other industry professionals will review initial submissions and select a number of finalists. These finalists will receive comments and will have the opportunity to revise their proposals. The jury will meet again and select the competition winner in September 2013. 

The confirmed jurors for the 2013-2014 City of Dreams Pavilion competition are as follows:

• John Czarnecki, Assoc. AIA, Editor-in-Chief, Contract
• Susannah C. Drake, ASLA, AIA, Principal, dlandstudio
• Mark L. Gardner, AIA, NOMA, Principal, Jaklitsch/Gardner Architects
• Marc Leff, AIA, LEED AP, Partner, Deborah Berke Partners
• Scott Lomax, Vice President, Thornton Tomasetti
• Kate Raudenbush, Sculptor, Photographer, Designer, Kate Raudenbush Experiments
• Aleksey Lukyanov-Cherny, Partner, Situ Studio, will serve as a design mentor to the finalists and winning design team