OMA and West 8 Team-up in The Search for The Student That Will Be Tomorrow's Architectural Influencer

Architecture and design students in the U.S. are challenged to rethink tradition by redesigning some of the world’s most iconic buildings. To participate, students need to create a variation of a well­ known iconic building and visualize it using Lumion. The software is free for U.S. students and is a unique option that allows architects themselves to create their own visualizations. 

Alongside $5000, the winner also gets the opportunity to go on a trip to Europe for a private architectural tour which includes a visit to the OMA office in Rotterdam. The winner will be selected by a jury including Tanner Merkeley from Rem Koolhaas’ OMA and Harm te Velde from West 8, together with the creators of Lumion.

See here for details on how you can participate.

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Meet The Judges: 

Tanner Merkeley has been an architect at OMA since 2005. During his career at OMA, Tanner has worked on a wide range of projects focusing on contemporary architectural production, influenced by themes such as culture, politics, business, energy infrastructure, urbanism, post­occupancy, product design, and teaching. Tanner has taught at TU Delft since 2011 and was an invited guest critic at the Berlage Institute in 2012 and 2013. Tanner holds degrees in architecture, obtained in both Canada and the Netherlands. 

Harm te Velde is a 3D animator and virtual botanist at West 8 Urban Design & Landscape Architecture. He was trained as a sculptor at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam and the St.Joost Art Academy in Den Bosch. His fascination for virtual landscapes was triggered by early 3D computer games like Tomb Raider, Need for Speed and Call of Duty. He teaches designers the power of low­poly modeling and real-time rendering in all stages of the design process. Harm has over 20 years experience with the use of 3D workflows in landscape, urban and architectural visualization. 

Lumion aspires to improve architecture by changing the relationship that architects have with software. The creators of Lumion feel it should bring joy to architects and empower them to design great things. The result is software that feels fast, elegant and natural. There is no reason for software to be a frustration ­as it often is! Apparently, this idea is catching on because 61 of the world’s top 100 architecture firms are already using Lumion.

For more details visit the competition website.