The seven-member jury selected 3 winning designs out of 38 student proposals from all over the world and decided to award other special prizes.

We announced the architectural competition for architecture students about the future of this area in June this year together with ITB Development. By the deadline of 29 October 2021, 38 teams and individuals from all over the world had entered the competition. A jury composed of architects working abroad – Dana Čupková, Miroslava Brooks and Lenka Petrákova, architects Imrich Vaško, Tomáš Šebo, and Igor Lichý, and the mayor of Devínská Nová Ves – the municipal district within whose jurisdiction the area falls – Dárius Krajčír, selected the 10 best proposals in the first round by anonymous voting. From this shortlist, the winning proposals were subsequently selected. The financial rewards worth 3000 € for the winning team, 2000 € for the runner-up and 1000 € for the team in 3rd place were awarded to:

1. KSENIA PANFEROVA AND POLINA MININA, RUSSIA

“The winning proposal best grasped the competition issues and created a unique and comprehensive scenario for the continuation of the history, topography, and program of the site for the present. The proposal offers a transformation of the site with the utmost respect for the existing site, nature, and flora with architectural interventions into the building fabric. The project proposes a system of new diverse cultural, social, touristic, and scientific activities such as a museum, a hotel for researchers and artists, art workshops, and an amphitheater, as well as a planetarium and an observatory on the ground plan of the Missile Base buildings due to the fact that it is the highest area of Bratislava. The architectural and visual design of the proposal best responds to the phenomenon and character of the area.” Imrich Vaško, architect and jury member, evaluated the winning design.

You can see the proposal portfolio HERE

2. DÁVID NOSKO, SLOVAKIA

“This proposal addresses the area as a problematic place that is diversified into “tamed” and “wild” spaces, with the controlled spaces at the entrances, around the observation tower, and inside the concrete bunkers being occupied by architectural programs and the other unmodified spaces being left to the natural process. Standard objects without spatial quality as well as existing asphalt surfaces and fences are demolished and recycled into new natural configurations of 5 different landscape types with distinguishable spatial and geometric character and habitat types for fauna and flora. Maps, diagrams, and collages convincingly document the transformative process of fragmentation and clustering,” adds Vaško.

You can see the proposal portfolio HERE

3. Tristan Dee, Ira Espina and Patricia Ong, Philippines

“The third-place prize-winning design is an architectonics story of an ascending journey through the territory of Devínská Kobyla, from the entrance of the military museum through the gallery, accessible military objects, monuments to war, the Iron Curtain and the Velvet Revolution to the exposition of contemporary Slovakia and the monument to democracy at the Lookout Tower. We appreciate the dramaturgy of the events of the country’s history, which the project monumentalizes with field interventions that combine existing military objects into an architectural scenario that corresponds to the topography of the territory. The monument of the Slovak liberation could be realized with various contemporary sustainable and less disturbing approaches,” concludes Vaško’s evaluation of the winners.

You can see the proposal portfolio HERE

At the same time, the jury also agreed to award other proposals with the title “Honorable mention”. “Honorable mention goes to the teams that brought to the competition radical ideas about the program and nature that may seem less feasible, but deserve recognition for not being afraid to push the boundaries of imagination and in a way challenge the status quo,” said Miroslava Brooks, a member of the jury and an architect. The €500 prize will be awarded to two teams of students from the University of Edinburgh – Michael Becker, Jaaziel Kajoba, and Terry Feng working together as the Lignum Vitae Team and Ching En Lin, Po Yen Huang, and Geon Yeong Kim.

The mayor of Devínska Nová Ves – Dárius Krajčír – decided to award a special prize to the team from the University of Edinburgh – Bingzhi Li, Hechcen Yuan, and Tubohao Yang.

“We believe that this ideation competition will provide a much-needed boost to the revitalization of the currently derelict and dilapidated missile base site. We find several inspiring realizations of a similar kind abroad, where remarkable architectural works have emerged from neglected military bunkers,” states architect Igor Lichý as one of the organizers of the competition, adding: “The announcement of the results is not the end of the discussion about the future of the Missile Base on Devínská Kobyla. As soon as the epidemiological situation allows us, we want to present the best designs to the wider public, to the inhabitants of the area as well as to the visitors of the Lookout on Devínská Kobyla or the Missile Base itself.”