An international ideas competition, open to architects and architecture students worldwide, was launched last February by the Foundation for Peace and Unification. This competition was for the conception of a peace park linking the two Diomede islands, situated in the middle of the Bering Strait, to unite the Eurasian and Americain continents through a pertinent architectural symbol. Projects were also required to propose an idea for the method and technique to be employed to connect the two continents in this particularly sensitive environment. The competiton offered a total prize fund of 200 000 euros.

135 projects (71 from professionals and 64 from students) were submitted to the international jury. Chaired by Sungjung Chough, architect (Republic of Korea) the jury was composed of Moongyu Choi, architect (Republic of Korea), Joel Sanders, architect (USA), Luciano Lazzari, architect, Italy, representing UIA and Andrei Kaftanov, architect (Russian Federation).

A growing ecological consciousness
Despite their diversity, the projects revealed the architectural profession’s growing consciousness of environmental issues. Two alternative proposals: visionary infrastructures and ephemeral structures wereidentified by the jury in reponse to the ecological and technological dilemma posed by the programme.

Julian Restrepo carried off the first prize
The team led by the Colombian architect Julian Restrepo was unanimously voted first prize by the jury for the project entitled “Diomede Archipelago“. It proposes a series of islands made of recycled material dredged from the sea that form two archipelagos extending the two continents. At their intersection, a tunnel links the two Diomede islands.

Professional category winners

1st prize
Julian Restrepo, (Colombia) with Pablo Forero, Manuela Mosquera, Tomas Jaramillo (Colombia), Susana Somoza (Venezuela)
2nd prizes
• Rachdi Manal ‘OFF Architecture’ (France)
• Jitaek Shim with Sung Hoon Chung, Seung Yup Lee, Seung Hwan Shim, Sung Gi Park (Republic of Korea)
• Jaeik Sim, Hyunwook Woo, Daekwon Park, Jonghyuk Lim, Dongjin Lee (Republic of Korea)
3rd prizes
• Evelyn Alonso, Sara Sarmiento, Manuel Perez (Espagne)
• Marek Rytych with Krzysztof Kryska, Malgorzata Piotrowska, Pasternak Karol, Radek Tabor (Poland)
Honorable Mentions
• Ben Addy (United Kingdom)
• Jacob Forsberg with Helen Hallberg (Sweden)
• Jessica Liew with Clare Kwok, Zi Yang Boon, Elissa Loh, Irene Ng (Australia)
• Laurent Troost (Brazil)

Students category winners

1st prize
Taegon Kim (Republic of Korea)
2nd prizes
• Hyunil Oh (Republic of Korea)
• Jannik Duellmann (Germany)
3rd prizes
• Hyungi Kim (Republic of Korea)
• Antoine Denieau (France)
• Julian Huang (United Kingdom)
Honorable Mentions
• Piotr Bialobrzeski (Poland)
• Sung Jun Bae (Republic of Korea)
• Joohyung Oh (Republic of Korea)
• HeuckJin Jung (Republic of Korea)
• DeokKi Hong (Republic of Korea)

Information
http://www.bering-competition.org
apa@bering-competition.org