Atelier Big City and the New Silk Road
The New Silk Road Competition winners were announced not long ago. This project aims to bring together cultures in the world in Xian, one of the six Great Ancient capital of China. The Silk Road was a nexus of cultural exchange, relations and trades between Asia and Europe.
The New Silk Road will have nine cultural areas. Seven projects have been selected leaving two areas with no assigned winners:
- Mediterranean Europe destination: Massimiliano Fuksas architects, Italy.
- Scandinavian destination: Snohetta architects, Norway.
- Western Europe destination: Nox and Okra, Netherlands.
- Eastern Europe destination: 3LHD, Croatia.
- Western Turkish Cultural area: Work AC, USA/Lebanon/Turkey.
- Arabic Cultural area: Antoine Predock, USA/U.E.A.
- Jewish Cultural area: Atelier Big City, Canada/Israel
- Persian area: No projects rewarded.
- Western Turkish Cultural area: No projects rewarded.
My interest in this project is the fact that Atelier Big City, a collective of architectural practitioners, is one of the winners. Randy Cohen, one of the founders of Big City, used to be my teacher. His implication in this project is not surprising since everything he does is about public spaces and the collective’s catchphrase is “Make architecture a public policy”.
More details on the winners’ propositions can be found here.
