2017 Best of Design Award for Representation – Analog: Cosmic Metropolis
Designer: Van Dusen Architects
Location: Conceptual
Cosmic Metropolis began as a single 18-by-24-inch improvised cityscape riff, rendered freehand in ink and marker. The composition grew organically in axonometric format from the first panel and expanded to many others. When complete, 18 panels arranged six wide by three tall make up the nine-by-six-foot mural, which repeats horizontally. The black, white, and gray tones create an illusion of depth in the total absence of shadows.
“A wonderfully wild energy here.” —Irene Sunwoo, Director of Exhibitions, GSAPP (juror)
Artist: Ben Van Dusen
Digital Fabricator: Ellen Van Dusen
Honorable Mention
Project: Trash Peaks
Designer: Design Earth
Location: 2017 Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism
Trash Peaks proposes six projects on geographies of waste in Seoul, represented by a carpet, a screen, and ceramics. The carpet is an infographic for each project. The ceramic models function as tea ceremony tableware. The folding screen appropriates the Korean irworobongdo, which portrays a stylized landscape of peaks, to critique the relationship between technology and threatened ecologies.
