by: Daniel Fox
Event: DEWAR’S MASTER-DISASTER ARCH DL IV
Location: Music Hall, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, 01.29.08
Competitors: Representing KOnyk: Sean Bailey, David Ideri; Representing FXFowle Architects: James Adams, Paul Kim
Organizers: LVHRD
Team KOnyk sketched (left) then created a model (right) of its vision for a wildlife and research center in Alaska at the fourth annual architects duel.
B.A. Cook (left); Jessica Sheridan (right)
This year’s LVHRD Architects Duel was set in 2029, when oil is no longer used, and the Trans-Alaska Pipeline will be dismantled. The structure’s steel will be used for a wildlife and research center as a “monument to mankind’s commitment to preserving earth’s natural resources,” stated the Lumberjack hosting the event. In “Iron Chef”-like style, each team had 30 minutes to sketch followed by an hour to create their monument out of plastic drinking straws. James Adams and Paul Kim of Team FXFowle Architects created a low-profile space-frame structure formally resembling a smiley face. Sean Bailey and David Iseri of Team KOnyk constructed a Tatlinesque tower of straws. Both proposals integrated sustainability to some extent, but the overall light-hearted nature of the event kept proposals upbeat and fun. By the end of the night the crowd had to decide the winner. It came down to squat versus phallic, and in skyscraper-obsessed NYC, the tower from Team KOnyk won.