A building made of bottles: Inflatable market hall winning idea in architecture competition

Rodrigo García Gonzales, student at Umeå Institute of Design, Umeå University, receives first prize in the European student competition in sustainable architecture, Gau:di.  The winning concept is a market hall made out of empty plastic bottles and paper. It will be constructed in full scale as a 1:1 prototype and presented at the opening of the Biennale of Architecture in Venice, Italy on August 28. 

 It is the third year in a row that Gau:di, a European student competetion in sustainable architecture, is arranged. The task this year was to design a market hall providing flexible space for market vendors, exhibitions and street theatre – an interactive meeting place in an urban environment.

130 entries had been submittes, out of which the jury selected ten winning projects. The first prize was awarded Rodrigo García Gonzáles, student at Umeå Institute of Design, together with Maciej Siuda, student at the Warszaw Technical University, Poland.

Their project, Devebere, is an inflatable market hall constructed out of plastic bottles, bags and other waste. The building can alter its form based on the needs of the users, and be moved between different locations to be placed either on land or on water. 

In its motivation, the jury states that Devebere is awarded first prize due to the “political urgency of the topic – garbage and recycling – the coherence of the process – total and holistic – for the constructive intelligence and innovation, the human engagement, the true and humbly demonstrated talent, the profound humour and the subtle capacity of communication.”

The competition task included suggesting a geographic location for the market hall. The team behind Devebere chose to place their inflatable construction in Venice. There, the winning entry will be constructed during this summer, in order to be presented at the Architecture Biennale in September. In the coming months, the team will be testing and trying out different techniques and prototypes in France, Spain and Italy. The process of prototyping and building Devebere will be carried out in cooperation with other competition participants, the Venice municipal recycling company and market hall neighbours in Venice, with the support of the Institut Francais de l’Architecture. The process can be followed on www.devebere.com.

Read more about Gau:di: http://studentcompetition.citechaillot.fr/index.html

Read more about the winning project: http://cargocollective.com/devebere

Picture of Rodrigo Garcia

For more information, please contact:

Rodrigo García, student at Design Connections, Umeå Institute of Design
Phone: +46-(0)70 5714395, +34 679 165 898
E-post: roga0009@student.umu.se, rgarcia@zipizip.com

Tapio Alakörkkö, Head of Department, Umeå Institute of Design
Phone: +46-90-786 9835
E-post: tapio.alakorkko@dh.umu.se