Hvert halvår deler AHO ut Arkitektbedriftenes profesjonalitetspris blant studentene, på bakgrunn av deres oppgaver. Denne gangen gikk prisen på syv tusen kroner til studentene Silvia Diaconu og Alisha Baker for prosjektet «Claygrounds».
Juryens uttalelse: Excellence in professionalism
Studentene har levert et fremragende prosjekt som både er sterkt formgitt og presentert. Prosjektet undersøker produksjon basert på lokale ressurser i Colombia og hvordan dette kan gestaltes i landskapet. Keramikkverkstedets funksjoner er gitt svært vakre skulpturelle kvaliteter og prosjektet fremstår samlet svært profesjonelt.
Prisvinnerne selv om prosjektet
What was the driving force behind the project?
Our interest and love of clay as a medium, both raw and fired, was our main driving force. We started the research component of the course separately, however after being inspired by the way each other work and the sources found we decided we wanted to extend our own skillsets and methods of working by partnering together.
We arrived at the task with our varied academic and professional backgrounds - Silvia, an architect who was drawn to brick as a contextually-rich material and had a keen interest in the life and form of kilns, and Alisha, a ceramicist and landscape architect, who was eager to explore methods to create humid conditions through water holding clay vessels and dense tree planting.
What inspires you, architecturally, to create projects like Claygrounds?
There are many layers of what can trigger ideas when working on a project. For us, the site is usually the greatest inspiration. As is the element of time, particularly working with living matter and the role of human inhabitation. Claygrounds is a project developed in the rural context of El Carmen de Viboral, a village in Colombia with a rich tradition in ceramics. This tradition is not visible enough in the landscape or in the public space. The production is happening in the enclosed boundaries of the privately owned workshops and usually the tourists or the curious people are considered intrusive elements.
Therefore, we created a network of kilns that acted as public spaces. Throughout the process, we have been investigating the site quite thoroughly, within the limits set by the available data. When we reached these limits, we had to look some other place for spatial inspiration in order to understand the public space in a rural context. So we gathered a collection of old photographs showing various situations: the fountain at the crossroads, the social fence etc.
What does receiving the award mean for your future careers?
We were honoured to find out that we won the Professionalism Award. For both of us it is an amazing confirmation and a great opportunity for the future. The award made us reflect on certain principles that we acquired from our studies and influential mentors, and that we wish to follow throughout our careers: teamwork, collaboration between fields, attention and respect for the context and of course the desire to make a positive contribution to the places and communities where we intervene.
- Det er en glede og ære å kunne dele ut denne prisen. Det er viktig å gi hardtarbeidende og kreative studenter litt oppmuntring på veien, sier administrerende direktør i Arkitektbedriftene Egil Skavang.