Kid's Factory: Call for Submissions

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Kid's Factory

YAC – Young Architects Competitions – and Urban Up l Unipol launched “Kid’s Factory,” an architectural competition to transform the former pottery of Laveno Mombello into the largest and most innovative campus for children in the world. A cash prize of €20,000 will be awarded to winners selected by a renowned jury comprised of Ben van Berkel (UNstudio), Keiichiro Sako (Sako Architects), Peter Wilson (Bolles+Wilson), Arne Emerson (Morphosis), Emmanuelle Moureaux, Mario Cucinella, Stefano Boeri, among the others.

Brief

“All grown-ups were once children, although few of them remember it.”- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince

Barrie’s Peter Pan and Saint-Exupéry’s Little Prince are two examples of the countless attempts to catch the shy handful of years that childhood comprises. Childhood is a time when reality is complementary to imagination. It is a crucial time that defines the deepest rock on which the corals of adulthood sediment.

Childhood is a fascinating challenge for designers. Adults perceive architecture according to a functional logic: every space has its own use; every element has its own purpose. However, this is not how children think. For them, space is exploration, an ongoing and limitless opportunity, a background for their extraordinary adventures. Every space can be something else; every place can be somewhere else.

Consequently, when a place is no longer functional for adults, it can still be suitable for children. As a battered, empty box can become a house or a castle, an industrial archeology, or more, it can become the perfect score to sol-fa the notes of childhood.

The former pottery of Laveno Mombello is a mastodon that fell asleep on the banks of Lake Maggiore. It is a 27,000 square meter titan. Unipol, who owns the building, entrusted to YAC the opening of such a majestic architectural complex to childhood. By doing so, it will transform one of the most impressive industrial architectures of Europe into the largest kindergarten in the world.

Can fairies live in the majestic remains of industrial architecture?

Unipol thinks so. Unipol’s “Urban Up” project invites designers to transform the former pottery of Laveno Mombello into the largest and most innovative campus for childhood in the world. At the Italian borders, just a step away from Switzerland, France and Germany, future generations will find their “Neverland” in the abandoned architectures of a former industrial plant. It will be renovated and innovated to forge and shelter the society of tomorrow.

Jury 

• Ben van Berkel (UNstudio)
• Keiichiro Sako (Sako Architects)
• Peter Wilson (Bolles+Wilson)
• Arne Emerson (Morphosis)
• Emmanuelle Moureaux
• Mario Cucinella
• Stefano Boeri
• Giuseppe Lobalsamo (Gruppo Unipol)
• Luca Varesi (Wip srl)

Prizes

• 1st Prize: €10.000
• 2nd Prize: € 4.000
• 3rd Prize: € 2.000 
• 4 Gold Mentions: €1.000 
• 10 Honorable Mentions
• 30 Finalists

Calendar

24/09/2018: Early bird registration begins 
28/10/2018: “Early bird” registration ends (11:59 p.m. GMT)

29/10/2018: Standard registration begins
25/11/2018: Standard registration ends (11:59 p.m. GMT) 

26/11/2018: Late registration begins
20/12/2018: Late registration ends (11:59 p.m. GMT) 

02/01/2019: Material submission deadline (12:00 p.m. GMT – midday) 

More information: www.youngarchitectscompetitions.com
Contact us: yac@yac-ltd.com

• Title

  Kid's Factory: Call for Submissions

• Type

  Call for Submissions

• Organizers

  YAC srl

• Registration Deadline

  December 20, 2018 11:59 PM

• Submission Deadline

  January 02, 2019 12:00 PM

• Venue

  Laveno Mombello, Lake Maggiore

• Price

  €50