FAIRY TALES 2017: 5 HONOURABLE MENTIONS [1/2]

The results of the Fairy Tales 2017 competition launched in the National Building Museum, competition were made public recently, a contest that encourages storytelling through architecture. We presented the first prizes, here we bring you some of the honourable mentions [1/2].

The entries are sorted in no particular criteria, it does not represent any order of results. All of them are accompanied with the first part of the text that each participant had to present, in both English and translated to Spanish.

First part of the story of each participant.-

AISHA’S ASYLUM. Chong Yan Chuah, Nathan Su y Bethany Edgoose

Father says; “this is the story of Princess Aisha”. We’re crouched in the basement, hands over our ears. “She is very brave in the face of danger”. There are loud noises overhead and the lights go out. “Aisha’s castle is besieged by dragons and she must escape.” “They set the sky on fire”, I whisper, finding his hand in the dark. Father says, “Get your bag, its nearly time”.  It’s already on my back, the straps dig into my shoulders. 

Princess Aisha speaks an enchantment, to make her bag as light as a feather. 

A shout from outside. “Come on - your uncle’s here”.  

As they step into the sun, Princess Aisha looks behind at her kingdom. The charred remains of the royal chambers crumble into pools of toxic mercury, seeping up through cracks in the earth”.  

“It looks like the sewers have burst” says Uncle, “we’d better get to higher ground”. “How far to the border?” Father asks. “Eight hours if we can find someone to drive us”. .../...

AMAZONIA PIER. Julien Nolin

Manufacturing an Architecture of Pleasure

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The wonders of our world aren’t always what we’d expect them to be, lads. And sometimes, fact and fiction are closer than they are apart. This much is as true as it could ever be right in the heart of the Amazon Rainforest. Where you might may assume one of the great natural wonders of the world, a quite a different one awaits.
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And so we find ourselves thundering down the mighty Amazon River, it’s whipping tongues and torrents thrashing at the hulls of precarious ships, braving its power. Enveloped by lush shades of green, alive with the eerie howls and cries of crazed beasts within, the River falls only second to the mass of its surrounding rainforest, engulfing anyone mad enough to venture within…

Or at least that is what Téo, the hero of our short tale, had dreamed about making his way up the massive river on a Brazilian passenger ship, as so may do. It hadn’t quite been a week ago when Téo first felt compelled to travel to the middle of the Amazon Jungle on bright summer’s day. .../...

Call For Submissions The Great Wall Of America. Carly Dean & Richard Nelson-Chow

Introduction: November 8, 2016 was a profound day for all Americans. When Donald Trump lost the popular vote yet won the electoral vote, the divisiveness of the country was more apparent than ever. Democratic voters, clustered in urban centers, and Republican voters, spread across industrial and rural areas, represented two Americas with vastly different expectations of the incoming president. Today in 2019, it is a different story. The past three years have been filled with economic and political disasters stemming from trade wars, the defunding of social programs, and a decreasing trust in the press and the political establishment. Desperate citizens, believing less and less of what they read in the news, look for guidance from the only man who can save them: their president. Policies and ideologies which once were considered controversial at best and dangerously authoritarian at worst are now part of the ordinary political lexicon due to repeated and sustained exposure. Trump’s proposal to build a wall along the Mexican border is gaining mainstream support.  .../...

Course of Empire. Aidan Doyle and Sarah Wan

What could lead a guy to be so devoted to ancient edifices, to a world long gone? What was it about the pull of that far-away time that he couldn’t stop thinking about? It’s 1743, you’re 23 years old and your name is Giovanni Battista Piranesi. By any other standard we’d consider what you’re doing to be completely and utterly mad. It’s obsessed, you’re obsessed Giovanni. We never see you, you’re hunkered in this room all day long.. you’re a grown man and you’re obsessed with the past. What about the present, the world outside, your family?!

That's what we imagine his brother saying to him, or maybe a friend or parent. You’re nuts dude, you gotta look outside every now and then.. there’s an actual world out there just as exciting, just as challenging as these imaginary marvel's you undertake. The house is filling up with etchings. They’re everywhere! We cannot walk in a straight line in the hallway upstairs. What are we gonna do with all these plates? They’re beautiful, but we need to find them a home somewhere. And those acids, you really must open a window. It stinks in here Gio! .../...

iDentity: Virtual Reality Therapy for Cultural Identity Crises. Minh Tran, Alan Ma, Yi Ning Lui

The following report on “iDentity”, investigates a new Virtual reality therapy treatment for patients suffering from a cultural identity crisis. Computers have generated 3-dimensional labyrinths that relate to patient X’s childhood, teenage, and adult years, as she moves between Konghai City and Londsfield. A supervising therapist will monitor patient X, and the simulated experience will consist of an Oculus (visual immersion) and a sensory plug connected to the patient’s spinal cord (recreating kinaesthetic, olfactory and auditory effects.) Finally, the patient will be asked to rebuild her virtual world, so she can destroy certain memories and reconstruct others. The treatment aims to empower her with a sense of creation and control towards her own iDentity. .../...