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UCLA cityLAB Announces Finalists for WPA 2.0 Competition
Proposals focus on water, energy, borders, green infrastructure designs

Algae pontoons capturing CO2 in automobile tunnels for alternative fuel production; rethinking border security infrastructure to address energy needs, wildlife migration and local commerce; and transforming unused, neglected rights-of-way into neighborhood parks responsive to the needs of surrounding residents are just a few of the approximately 200 proposals generated by UCLA’s cityLAB’s WPA 2.0: Working Public Architecture design competition.

The goal of WPA 2.0 is to refocus the national discussion about, and investment in, infrastructure on the big picture of urban – and architectural – transformation. Through a series of events, beginning with the design competition, WPA 2.0 seeks innovative, implementable proposals to place infrastructure at the heart of rebuilding our cities. The competition recalls the Depression-era Works Projects Administration that built public buildings, parks, bridges, and roads across the nation as an investment in the future – one that has, in turn, become a lasting legacy.

Competition finalists were selected by a jury of six world-renowned architects, landscape architects, engineers and educators – Stan Allen, Cecil Balmond, Elizabeth Diller, Walter Hood, Thom Mayne and Marilyn Jordan Taylor – based on the participants ability to explore the value of infrastructure not only as an engineering endeavor, but as a robust design opportunity to strengthen communities, revitalize cities, and redirect urban and public works policy.

Dana Cuff and Roger Sherman, director of cityLAB, a think tank in UCLA’s Department of Architecture and Urban Design, announced the six final proposals. On November 16, the finalists will present their work during a symposium and exposition at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C. Final proposals include:

    · Urban Algae: Speculation and Optimization –capturing mobile source CO2 emissions along New York City’s transportation arteries and employing them in bio-fuel production from PORT architects
    · Coupling Infrastructures: Water Economies/Ecologies – addressing America’s impending water resource crisis while creating new economic opportunities and restoring the ecological balance of places like California’s Salton Sea from Lateral Office and Infrent Lab
    · Border Wall as Infrastructure – rethinking of national security infrastructure along the U.S. – Mexico border from Rael San Fratello Architects
    · 1,000,000,000 Global Water Refugees –reviving rust-belt towns through new markets for water-related ecological services from Urban Lab
    · Hydro-genic City, 2020 – incorporating waterworks into public architecture from Darina Zlateva and Takuma Ono
    · Local Code: Healing the Interstitial Landscape –converting 1,600 unused, neglected San Francisco rights-of-way into locally responsive neighborhood parks through a technique of mass-customization from Nicholas de Monchaux

Finalists will attend an Expert Workshop September 26 at UCLA to discuss policy, market place, cost and economic impact with leaders in public works, civil engineering, land use and urban sustainability in order to further explore the proposals’ architectural and policy implications.

cityLAB is simultaneously sponsoring a competition on the same themes for design students. Registration closes October 16, with proposals due November 2. Awards will be made at the November 16 symposium and exposition in Washington, D.C.

Sponsors for WPA 2.0 include the Graham Foundation for the Arts, the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture, the Richard S. Ziman Center for Real Estate at UCLA, Sarah Jane Lind, The Architect’s Newspaper and the National Building Museum.

To learn more about the WPA 2.0 competition and related events, visit www.wpa2.aud.ucla.edu/info.

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