by Brianna Crandall — November 9, 2016 — The People’s Choice Award for the American Institute of Architects (AIA) I Look Up Film Challenge is ARCH 335: Rebuilding Medcamps, which was also the selection for the juried portion of the film challenge. The short film, which garnered 46,339 votes and was submitted by Brad Deal, Robert Brooks and Michael Tolar, explores the important work of the Design Build Studios of Louisiana Tech University to provide Medcamps of Louisiana, a nonprofit organization that offers free summer camp to children with chronic illnesses and disabilities, with spaces for gathering, learning, and adventure.
The second film with the highest number of votes, Timeless Innovation, received 40,701 votes. This film, submitted by Minji Kim, Seth F. Johnson, and Shawn Griffin, looks at the importance of General James Oglethorpe’s original design of Savannah, GA, and how it is blending with modern elements. Savannah is considered the first planned city in the United States and largely retains the original town plan Oglethorpe developed.
The film with the third highest number of votes, Renewal: The Sunset Park Material Recovery Facility, was submitted by Brandon Brown. This film received 11,062 votes and focuses on the largest commingled recycling facility in the USA. The Sims Municipal Recycling facility, designed by Selldorf Architects, not only employs sustainable design concepts but serves as an educational facility to groups interested in learning more about how recycling works.
The remaining list of the top ten voted-on films:
- Scale – In Austin, TX, affordability and accessibility are an essential component to a thriving entrepreneurial environment. By rethinking the office typology to better accommodate a start-up friendly landscape, architects are stimulating innovation.
- A Home – Tells the story of how an ambitious project transformed the lives of the residents of East Harlem, by creating Harlem RBI, a multi-purpose building that includes Harlem RBI’s offices, DREAM Charter School, a new community center, 89 affordable housing units, and a beautiful public park.
- HOME – The Dr. Davis Senior Center in the Bayview neighborhood outside of San Francisco provides housing for low-income seniors, but more importantly provides a thriving community for its residents.
- Precipitating Change – By integrating an air-to-water technology called ‘Skysource’, up to 300 gallons of water can be produced per day. The water is offered free to the public in the Venice neighborhood of Los Angeles, as well as to Community Healing Gardens.
- Urban Frontier House – High Plains Architects had a vision to create a comfortable, affordable, and low-maintenance house that just happens to be almost entirely self-sustaining.
- Intervention Whispers – Renovation of a series of adjacent modest historic structures in downtown San Antonio has had a large cultural community impact. Architects discuss their process and challenges where interior historical documentation is minimal in this adaptive reuse.
- ALBIZIA – An invasive tree specimen in the state of Hawaii that has caused damage to the both the built and natural environment is now being repurposed as a building material to address housing for the homeless.
Juried competition winners
Following the Grand Prize winner ARCH 335: Rebuilding Medcamps, on accessibility for those with disabilities mentioned above, the Second Prize in the juried competition went to 20×10, a film about a radical approach to creating a community for the chronically homeless in Austin, Texas, and submitted by filmmakers Patrick Higgins and Kurt Hanley. It looks at how a micro-home design provides spaces for homeless individuals to personalize and establish roots.
Third Prize in the juried competition went to Build Back Better, filmed in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and submitted by OPN Architects and filmmaker Sam Fathallah, which captures the Cedar Rapids community’s recovery process after the destructive flood that swept through the town in June 2008. Civic leaders turned to OPN Architects to help with the analysis of the flooded spaces and to conduct a city-wide public participation process to rebuild.
For more information about the I Look Up program or the I Look Up Film Challenge, videos of the three juried competition winners, or videos of all the film submissions, visit the I Look Up Web site.
