We’d like to take the opportunity to introduce you to one of our Honorable mention winners for our "Memorial for Witches" competition – Gemma Annear and Paolo Kirsten from Belgium!
Honorable mention winners from Belgium
We are both originally from South Africa. After our architectural studies, during the COVID-19 pandemic we relocated to Belgium for Gemma to pursue a Masters in Human Settlements at KU Leuven. We are now both working in Flanders and are immersed in the challenge of experiencing and integrating ourselves into a completely different architectural heritage, language and context than the one that we were educated in.
We have both had exposure to urban scale projects, social housing, cohousing and public projects in the professional realm but have also previously participated in ideas competitions in the academic environment.
The role of the architect is to use the tools of creative and critical thinking whilst bound by the physical constraints of reality to positively contribute to the built fabric of the place they work in. The architect makes manifest the ambitions and values of a society, curates experience of place and aims to produce a beautiful physical thing.
The conceptual freedom offered when studying architecture stands in stark contrast to the pragmatism required in the professional practice of architecture. For this reason participating in competitions is important because it offers an opportunity for challenges to one’s creativity, an opportunity to play experiment and ultimately strengthen your design capacity as a young architect. We believe that it is important to participate in competitions as a working professional, because they keep you tethered to the importance of design and narrative so that as you grow, you understand how pragmatic reality and conceptual design come together to help make you a more powerful thinker and competent maker as an architect.
The architecture competition will only be as beneficial for you as you allow it to be. Use the constraints offered by the brief as the framework for experimentation or to hone a skill that’s needs improvement. The established premise laid out by the competition can help ease creative pressure and allow you to focus on a specific thing that you wanted to explore.
Take a seat and make a statement!
Reimagine senior living spaces
Design an iconic tower for De Smet, South Dakota, USA
Design a beer spa in Iceland's captivating landscape
Use architecture to create different emotional states
Design a memorial that speaks to the cause of ending all nuclear weapons programs
Redefine the future of workspaces
Design affordable housing solutions in Los Angeles
