The Serpentine Galleries in collaboration with Google Arts & Culture, together with the internationally acclaimed architect Sir David Adjaye, OBE have today launched Serpentine Augmented Architecture: a global open call for creative practitioners to design ground-breaking architectural structures to be developed and experienced in augmented reality on site at the Serpentine Galleries.
Without the constraints of a physical location, entrants are invited to dream new architectures and propose complex or unbuildable structures which imagine new futures of the city and the urban environment, imagining new possibilities for the urban landscape.
Building on the success of the annual Serpentine Pavilion commission, Serpentine Augmented Architecture brings together the Serpentine’s expertise in commissioning new architecture with its developing work in the field of advanced technologies. Combined with resource and expertise from Google Arts & Culture, the commission is boldly interdisciplinary, cutting across art, engineering, technology and design to reimagine the definition of architecture, the utility of AR and the future of the urban landscape.
A two-stage process, a shortlist of projects will receive mentorship from experts in architecture, engineering and immersive technology to test the feasibility of their proposals. One applicant will then be commissioned to realise their full design in augmented reality which the public will be able to experience in Summer 2019 installed alongside the internationally celebrated Serpentine Pavilion 2019.
Proposals should explore how AR can be used to develop, transform and enact new ideas about how our cities and public spaces are designed.
World class advisors will guide the process, with a selection committee that includes: Virgil Abloh, Artist & Designer; Sir David Adjaye OBE, Architect and Trustee of the Serpentine Galleries; Amira Gad, Curator, Exhibitions & Architecture, Serpentine Galleries; Freya Murray, Creative Lead, Google Arts & Culture Lab; Hans Ulrich Obrist, Artistic Director, Serpentine Galleries; Yana Peel, CEO, Serpentine Galleries; Amit Sood, Director, Google Arts & Culture; Ben Vickers, Chief Technology Officer, Serpentine Galleries; Kay Watson, Digital Curator, Serpentine Galleries; Greg Williams, Editor-in-Chief, WIRED UK
Mentorship will be guided by Ivaylo Getov, Augmented Architecture Technical Director.
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Brief
The reality of the city today is a complex layering of topologies where our physical and digital worlds collide. The digital has mechanised the architecture of the city to create an increasingly elaborate relationship between the built environment, networked technologies and human experience. Augmented reality presents a significant moment within architectural practice; one that radically challenges our understanding of city spaces and the environment by creating a highly visible interface between the physical and digital (infra)structures that surround us.
We invite you to consider the role and utility of AR within this complex topography of the city; as a digital layer that offers new opportunities for design, visualisation and experience. Proposals should explore how AR can be used to develop, transform and enact new ideas about how our cities and public spaces are designed.
We’re looking for ideas that respond to each of these three key provocations.
i. How does your proposal Reinvent the City?
Our urban environment is an expression of human needs and desires, situated within complex ecosystems. We want you to take the opportunity to consider how the city can be reinvented to produce new realities through AR. Speculations could play out through buildings, objects, games or interactions.
ii. How does your proposal Rethink Spatiality?
AR challenges many of the constraints that have helped shape the way our cities look and function. In AR, ideas no longer need to be binded by space, time or even gravity. Your proposal should be driven by a reconsideration of these conditions in an environment that is non-physical.
iii. How does your proposal Reactivate the Site?
The Serpentine is situated in a park filled with natural life and over 12 million visitors each year, in a global city: how you augment this context is important. Your project should have a degree of site-specificity within it.
Finally, we want to highlight that the rules of augmented reality have not yet been defined.
We’re particularly excited to see concepts that embrace social interaction, collective experience and the unknown.
For more information and to apply visit: augmentedarchitecture.org
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