International Architecture Competition

Hong Kong
Pixel Homes

Affordable Housing Series #2

Results

Foreword

Competition organisers

Hong Kong 
Pixel Homes

Official Partners

Hong Kong 
Pixel Homes Hong Kong 
Pixel Homes

The Hong Kong Pixel Home Competition calls into question the perennial typological challenge of multi-unit housing, prescient in consideration of expanding populations and parallel urban growth. The contemporary urban condition is distressed by housing shortages distinguished by inflationary markets and increased economic disparity. Residents are confronted by an increasingly ballooning compromise between capital and comfort. The Hong Kong Pixel Home Competition seeks solutions that would stem this trend through typological disruption, reconsidering entrenched structures and expectations of contemporary housing, with ambition of innovating or reinventing conventional forms of domesticity through the agency of architecture. Precedented by the ethic of Metabolism and New Brutalism of the last century, the competition invites anticipation of aggregatory formal, technological, and material strategies predicated on modularity and repetition in pursuit of challenging contemporary forms of urbanity. Successful projects explore the consequence of density, amenity, and public and private adjacency, with consideration of novel approaches to domestic propriety, culture, and tradition.


Results featured on CNN: Vertical limit: Architects reimagine Hong Kong's high-rise housing

 

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ideas COMPETITION
Los Angeles Affordable Housing Challenge
Affordable Housing Series #16

Design affordable housing solutions in Los Angeles

Prize: MONETARY AWARD
Eligibility: OPEN TO ALL

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Jun 07
Sep 07
Nov 01
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Hong Kong
Pixel Homes

Affordable Housing Series #2
1st Prize Winner

Project name

Towers within a Tower

Authors

Lap Chi Kwong
Alison Von Glinow
Kevin Lamyuktseung

United States

Why do you enter architecture
competitions?

We participate in architecture vision competitions when we find extra time in our office work. The value we find in participating in these competitions is that it builds our vision, challenges us to think of design issues that we do not work with everyday, and brings more and more ideas into our firm’s oeuvre. It is a great way for us to be inventive and to be engaged in what is relevant in the discipline.

Jury feedback summary

The first place proposal for the Hong Kong Pixel Home radically re-imagines the notion of vertical living, translating from the building scale to the individual unit typology. Rather than stack units floor to floor, each unit is layered and aggregated vertically, establishing a repetitive module, for adaptation to various sites in Hong Kong. By re-thinking the typical rental unit, the project re-postulates common urban housing, often internalized and tightly clustered per floor, left with little daylighting opportunity or exterior accessibility. As the unit progresses upward from floor to floor, the building envelope steps to maximize exterior exposure and increase availability of natural light. Organized in a nine square grid, the project takes full advantage of the perimeter, locating the public circulation at the core. Once aggregated, the receding volumes thread together varied perforations of outdoor space, providing both circulation and courtyard. The woven circulation offers opportunity for the chance encounter and shared narrative, re-imagining the idea of the street and neighborhood. The vertical stacking of individual units develops a new tower paradigm, taking advantage of amenities more commonly provided in the sprawling expanse of single family neighborhoods, while engaging the end user in direct dialogue with the scale of the city.

 

2nd Prize Winner

Project name

Vertical Village

Authors

François Chantier
Maria Fernandez

France

Why do you enter architecture
competitions?

We enjoy the research dimension of vision competitions because it is a field where we can experiment new ideas. It is finally a way to continue to express ourselves as young architects.

Jury feedback summary

The second place proposal for the Hong Kong Pixel Home was chosen for its reformulation of a domestic typology as a solution for the housing crisis in Hong Kong. Composed of a 100 square meter prefabricated housing units, the aggregation of modules creates a vertical village that rethinks domestic space at the scale of the city. Through the use of the vernacular form of the home - the gable - the sectional variation of each housing module produces a rich spatial variety amongst the units - creating terraces, pocket gardens, and lofts each with a unique lighting condition. The proposal seeks to reclaim the scale of the city by inserting these vertical neighborhoods into the fabric of Hong Kong, interconnected by exterior passageways, shared spaces, and common gardens for collective activities such as worship, markets, and leisure. The robust morphology allows the project to adapt to the various sites, scales, and densities of Hong Kong. The simplified post-and-beam construction with prefabricated housing units inserted into the structural armature creates a low-cost and flexible system of construction. Paradoxically, although the units appear to be homes, their internal morphology radically alters typical domestic space from a series of rooms into an adaptable set of flexible functions and zones. The inhabitants can reappropriate and change the use of each space, enabled by the generosity of the layouts. The spaces between each prefabricated unit allows for light into the spaces and offer an opportunity for vegetation to occupy these interstitial voids.

3rd Prize Winner +
BB STUDENT AWARD

Project name

Upside - Down Mechine

Authors

Yukang Yang
Jingwen Cui

University

Beijing university of technology
+126 points Buildner University Rankings!

China

Why do you enter architecture
competitions?

We had this idea before we participated in this competition and think our idea is suitable for this competition. During the project, we deepened and furthered our idea. Of course, we faced many challenges, but finally overcome them.


Jury feedback summary

The third place proposal for the Pixel Homes competition resuscitates the legacy of the Metabolist capsule tower, reimagining the micro-unit dwelling as a mechanized zone of spatial modification and efficiency while producing a marketable icon for the skyline of Hong Kong. The dwelling space occupies cylindrical drums set into a rigid structural frame, stackable and deployable in multiple height configurations. Through the mechanical rotation of the dwelling cylinder, the topology of the unit deprioritizes the ground as the space of primacy, allowing the tenant to gain access to different programmatic functions deployed on both the ground and ceiling. Circulation and bathroom facilities maintain a fixed position in the core, while the machinic dwelling space is constantly mutable, rhythmically rotating, and contorting to fit the needs of the body. The inhabitant views the city through the porthole of each cylinder while the city observes the inhabitant by means of a ring of neon illumination around the cylinder’s edge: a lurid beacon of color-coded activity within. The ultimate success of the proposal is its embedded critique of the dystopian future of the technological solution to the crisis of housing in the urban environment. The project offers less of a solution than an exacerbation of the already problematic tendencies of our urban domestic culture: the impossibility of privacy through digital media in an ever-shrinking dwelling footprint. The optimism of the proposal, however, relies on the idea that this existence has the potential to be fun, if we find comfort in relaying the activity of the private domestic sphere in a theater of spectacle for the public realm.

BB GREEN AWARD

Project name

Hong Kong Pixel Homes - Lantern of Lives

Authors

Danaiporn Pongamornprom
Thongchai Wongsrisuppakul
Veeramon Suwannasang

Thailand

Why do you enter architecture
competitions?

Nat saw the call for this competition one day, and it appeared to us all as a great opportunity to sharpen our innovation and designing skills. Besides, we always want to work together in some challenging project. Since everybody is now in Bangkok, so we knew this competition is a great chance for us to brainstorm and to do something stimulating.

Honorable mentions

VIEWclose HONOURABLE MENTIONS

Project Name

Owner-SHIFT

Country

Hong Kong

Project authors

Tsz Tuen Cherry Cheung
Renee Tsuen Yan Kwok
Wing Yin Winnie Lo

Project Name

Non-compromising Compact Living Proposal

Country

Hong Kong

Project authors

Wan Ting Tang

Project Name

sense

Country

United States

Project authors

Laura Gonzalez
Amir-Behan Jahanbin

Project Name

LiSC

University

Academy of art university
+72 points Buildner University Rankings!

Country

United States

Project authors

Tsz Wai Leung

Project Name

Socializer

University

Silesian university of technology
+72 points Buildner University Rankings!

Country

Poland

Project authors

Ksymena Borczyńska
Bartosz Kobylakiewicz

Project Name

HomeBox

Country

Chile

Project authors

Sebastián Mella
Lautaro Catrileo
Nicolás Vidal
Raimundo Maldonado

Shortlisted projects

VIEWclose Shortlisted projects

Chile

tania gebauer
eugenio ortuzar
tal sustiel

United States

joseph mills
ramon klaharn

Argentina

federico lerner
mercedes mena
victoria jones

Canada

University of Waterloo

+22 points Buildner University Rankings!
chi-hang jonathan sinn

Turkey

Gazi University

+22 points Buildner University Rankings!
kemal yeğin
burcu aypek

Turkey

ozan Özvatan
betül Çevik
ayşe dila demirgil
ekrem kaynar

Russian Federation

Moscow Institute of architecture - MARHI , Московский архитектурный институт - МАРХИ

+22 points Buildner University Rankings!
anastasia shulga

Malaysia

Ipm professional services sdn bhd

zhao wei kim
yann herng yeow
lin phuah

France

françois chantier
maria fernandez

Colombia

aldo sicilia
manuela dangond
felipe guerrero

United States

Academy of Art University, USA

+72 points Buildner University Rankings!
tsz wai leung

United States

laura gonzalez
amir-behan jahanbin

South Korea

Kookmin University

+22 points Buildner University Rankings!
geonwoo kim
eunji lee
juhyun jung

United Kingdom

University of Bath

+22 points Buildner University Rankings!
sung lim
sonya falkovskaia

Brazil

maria jocelei steck
thais de freitas
raissa gattera begiato
danilo maia

Hong Kong

desmond chang
tsz long chan
quoc an andy ly
kit yeung garrick chan

Poland

patryk krol
bartosz puchalski
anna zgadzaj

Malaysia

University of Wismar, Hochschule Wismar

+22 points Buildner University Rankings!
yi jun ooi
yi hui tan

China

China Academy of Art

+22 points Buildner University Rankings!
desmond delanty
辰瀚 (chenhan) 蒋 (jiang)
莹 (ying) 薛 (xue)

China

di zhan
chuyang zhou
aijie xiong

China

Beijing University of Technology

+126 points Buildner University Rankings!
yukang yang
jingwen cui

Lithuania

vilius bridikis
edvinas stašys

Thailand

danaiporn pongamornprom
thongchai wongsrisuppakul
veeramon suwannasang

South Korea

Kyonggi University KGU

+22 points Buildner University Rankings!
siye park

Hong Kong

tsz wai yvonne yuen
doi yee lau

Jordan

Jawad + partners

sama jabr
jawad hamdan
nour el qirem
lamis jalabneh

India

sujan umaraniya
jitesh mewada
shailaja patel

United States

christopher chan
christopher chan

United States

Santa Monica College

+22 points Buildner University Rankings!
berkay kars

Hong Kong

tsz tuen cherry cheung
renee tsuen yan kwok
wing yin winnie lo

United States

shruti shankar
helen cheuk
lynn azali
david nicholson

Mexico

Fl arquitectos

francisco liano lopez
victor manuel vicente gomez
carlos davis hernandez
diego antonio dominguez

Ukraine

Odessa State Academy of Civil Engineering and Architecture

+22 points Buildner University Rankings!
yuliia varharaki
viktoriia shlekhtenko
anastasiia tarasova

Chile

sebastián mella
lautaro catrileo
nicolás vidal
raimundo maldonado

United Kingdom

alice foreman
nicole langridge

Italy

cassano vittorio
saracino emanuele

Australia

Queensland University of Technology, QUT Gardens Point Campus

+22 points Buildner University Rankings!
siu san li

United States

lap chi kwong
alison von glinow
kevin lamyuktseung

Germany

Städelschule Architecture Class (SAC), Städelschule (Hochschule für Bildende Künste–Städelschule)

+22 points Buildner University Rankings!
rebecca nayagam
vamsi vemuri
roberto barbosa
cievanard nattabowonphal

Poland

Silesian University of Technology , Politechnika Śląska

+72 points Buildner University Rankings!
ksymena borczyńska
bartosz kobylakiewicz

Hong Kong

tim williams
max martin
jon martin
 

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Competition results

MICROHOME

MICROHOME

Small living, huge impact! Edition #4
Hong Kong 
Pixel Homes

Hong Kong Pixel Homes

Affordable Housing Series #2
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