Fifteen finalists for the ML:IDEAS competition were chosen by an international jury of architects, artists and critics. The jury was comprised of: Dr. Samuel Alberti (UK), lecturer in Museology, University of Manchester; Trevor Boddy (Canada), architectural critic/writer; Mark Dion (USA), visual artist; Professor Grahame MacDougall (UK), Manchester School of Architecture; J. Morgan Puett (USA), designer/visual artist; and Peter Yeadon (Canada), Architect and Assistant Professor or Architecture, Rhode Island School of Design.
The goal was to solicit designs for a new Letherium, a storage facility for unwanted artifacts in Manchester, England. From the finalists, the jury chose to honour six projects for their particularly innovative and/or astute interpretations of the ML:IDEAS competition brief. One submission from Toronto’s MoiMoi Design was awarded an overall commendation. Three of the 15 finalists in this international competition are Canadian: MoiMoi Design (Toronto), Liminal Solutions (Toronto), and Mark Soo (Vancouver).
MoiMoi Design is the recipient of the Henry Withecombe Prize for Design Innovation and Excellence for their Vitrine Letherium. MoiMoi’s members include Angela Iarocci, Steffanie Adams, Darlene Montgomery, Rob Shortt, Sarah Bonsall, Kim Heppler and Claire Ironside. According to jury member J. Morgan Puett: “This is the most original concept in all ways, a powerful gesture that is architecturally innovative, sensitive, visually bold.”
Liminal Solutions is the recipient of the A.J. Samuels Prize for the Most Beguiling Presentation for their Hydrological Letherium. Liminal Solutions’ members include Panya Clark Espinal and Crystal Mowry. According to jury member Trevor Boddy: “I am personally much in awe of the aesthetic convictions of this entry.”
Of finalist Mark Soo’s Blackhole Letherium project, jury member Peter Yeadon states: “This proposition boldly eschews grandiloquence and prolixity, arriving at a clear declarationits appeal lies in its arrival at a dense, binary mass of nothing and everything.”
For more information on the competition, finalists, and submissions, please visit www.letherium.org/finalists.