Winners of Los Angeles Cleantech Corridor and Green District Competition Announced

SCI‐Arc, the Southern California Institute of Architecture, announced the winners of the Los Angeles Cleantech Corridor and Green District Competition. An open ideas competition sponsored by SCI‐Arc and The Architect’s Newspaper, entrants were challenged to use the competition as a forum for provocative, even revolutionary, reconceptualizations of L.A.’s urban fabric. A community celebration was held on Saturday, October 9 in downtown Los Angeles on the SCI‐Arc campus.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa predicts the Corridor will transform downtown’s industrial core into an incubator for green jobs and technology, promote the sustainable growth of Los Angeles’ economy, and place the city at the forefront of the Cleantech revolution.

According to the designers, the Professional category's winning entry, Project Umbrella, “…reinterprets LA’s existing infrastructure by implementing a point‐based renewal strategy that will gradually transform the city grid into a greener and more attractive public space. Mushroom‐like structures named solar evaporators tap into the city’s sewage, collecting and clarifying the black water originating from the surrounding blocks."

"The clear water is distributed and released into the streets through a process of evaporation and condensation triggering a transformation into a network of lush, cultivated landscapes. Green webs spreading out from the evaporators generate incentives for new, sustainable developments. The central urban plazas become focal points for a gradual process of transformation that will affect the way people will see, use, and experience their city.”

The student category winners were the young designers of MessyTECH, who describe their project this way:

“MessyTech recognizes the full life cycles involved in “clean” industries, which can be complex and not perfectly clean. In turn, messy processes can lead to cleaner ones. Designing and manufacturing are inherently messy, where error can lead to progress and where flexibility reigns. Creativity and artistry are fostered in environments of cross‐pollination and collaboration, where conflict and harmony co‐generate good ideas. The weaving of diverse infrastructures, people, and activities makes for a rich and dynamic urban fabric.”