120 HOURS Competition Winners Announced

First Prize: Architecture / Antariksh Tandon, Jennifer Tu Anh Phan. Image Courtesy of 120 HOURS

Written by Andrew Gipe
Published on March 15, 2014

This year’s 120 HOURS competition challenged young architects from around the world to design a communicative icon of sustainability for the festival grounds of the Norwegian Øya Music Festival. With 2989 participants from 83 countries, it claims this year’s title for the world’s biggest architecture competition, for and by students. Enough drum-rolling, let’s take a look at the winning designs after the break…

First Prize: Architecture / Antariksh Tandon, Jennifer Tu Anh Phan

A reprieve from the hyperstimulation of the senses, a scaffolding of hammocks emboldens the ambitions of the music festival by offering visitors a place to rest and explores the meaning of "sustainable design" by emblematizing how people, at first, sustain themselves.

Second Prize: Music Stars / Marco Ferrari

An elevated platform invites a new perspective on the city but also envisions the cyclic harmony inherent in sustainable design; by converting sound energy from the music festival into energy to illuminate an artificial starry sky, the canopy represents man’s aspirations to find his place amongst the tumultuous transformations of nature.

Third Prize: The Greenest Red Festival / Pawel Bussold, Lola Conte, Horia Spirescu

Third Prize: The Greenest Red Festival / Pawel Bussold, Lola Conte, Horia Soirescu. Image Courtesy of 120 HOURS

A red-painted landscape questions the connection of sustainability with the color green and imposes a lasting apprehension on festival-goers and the city’s inhabitants as it slowly fades in the days and weeks following the transient musical experience of Øya.

Honorable Mention: Room continuum / Tuomas Martinsaari, Paul Thynell, Matti Wäre