River Champagne Bar Competition Results

John Hill

14. August 2014

Winner: Pedro Manuel Araújo & Michael Oliveira. Image courtesy of [AC-CA]

Results for [AC-CA]'s [PARIS] River Champagne Bar competition have been announced. Here we highlight the three winners.

The competition brief, which launched in March 2014, asked participants to "design a Champagne Bar along the Paris river 'Seine' and by the romantic 'Pont des Arts'." Located on the Right Bank near the Louvre, the competition aimed to achieve four points:

1. Encourage and reward design excellence at a medium scale which integrates function, structure and detail,
2. Research and investigate the various combination possibilities to create a social space within the city,
3. Generate the discussion of ideas regarding the relation between architecture and water,
4. Encourage the employment of sustainable design in all aspects of the proposal.

Jurors André Espinho (architect), Romain Braida (architect/urbanist) and Gemma Barton (designer/curator/lecturer/critic) examined the 245 proposals based on these criteria, selecting a first-place winner, second- and third-place winners, and seven honorable mentions. The three winners are highlighted below with the judge's comments, and the honorable mentions can be found on [AC-CA]'s website.

First Place
Pedro Manuel Araújo & Michael Oliveira
Portugal

"This is a sophisticated proposal both in it's design as well as communication. A hybrid and elegant object of cross between jewellery and transcript of Parisian architecture that fits elegantly with the context. Its signal indicating its use and the architecture reflecting its function as champagne bar. The use of golden yellow color on both project and board added to the sense of luxury and aspiration."

Second Place
Tomas Ghisellini, Andrea Andreotti & Nicola Cataldo
Italy

"The proposal provided a very poetic and minimalist solution suggesting an elegant mirror in front of the river. It is a projet that uses the constraints of the site as part of the scheme and revealing more features of the site by making the most of the physical landscape and functionally at ground level as well as maximising the impressive views at street level."

Third Place
Joon Bom Shim
Australia

"A cleverly executed proposal projecting the notion of almost an invisible architecture and an extension of the bank side. It seeks to reaffirm an architecture of infrastructure. The panel liked the idea of use defined by the appropriation of the people."

[AC-CA]'s current competition, [MILAN] World Expo Pavilion, can be foud here; registration deadline is September 12 and submission deadline is November 5.