by Center for Architecture
The Center for Architecture hosted its third-annual Pumpkitecture! Architectural Pumpkin Carving Competition, kicking off Halloween weekend in NYC. Twenty New York City-based firms (and the Center for Architecture home team) went gourd to gourd to compete for the Pritzkerpumpkin on Friday, October 26.
Summoning the sinister specters of architects past, firm acolytes conjured their creative spirits to awaken their eerie eyeholes for design. Beyond the standard pumpkin-carving tool set, supplied by the Center for Architecture, firms were encouraged to bring their own tools and materials; SITU upped the ante by bringing not one but two microwaves.
After an hour and 15 minutes of carving, our dreaded jury—comprised of Laila Gohar, chef and conceptual artist; Jing Liu, principal and co-founder at SO-IL; Harry Parr, principal and c0-founder at Bompas & Parr Studio; and Omar Sosa, founder of Apartamento Magazine—selected the recipient of the precious Pritzkerpumpkin and recognized additional firms with a number of Pathetic Consolations (Honorable Mentions). Our purulent, profane public also cast their ballots to nominate the People’s Pumpkin.
Awards
Pritzkerpumpkin – Alloy (Allium), for their smoking jack-0-lantern-in-the-box
People’s Pumpkin – SITU (SitooOooOoOooOoo), for their dehydrated pumpkin strands inspired by Newton’s Cenotaph
Pathetic Consolations (Honorable Mentions)
Hell Tech – Ennead Architects (Jack-o-Tects), for their hellish, hellraiser-esque drawing machine
Miserable Mess – Rafael Viñoly Architects (rough-hell sin-ñoly architects), for A Risk in Resin, their incomplete attempt at casting a resin pumpkin
Most Poetic – Practice for Architecture and Urbanism | PAU (Practice for Anarchy and Upheaval | OW), for Di-vine, an ode to the life-giving vine
Most Profound – Davis Brody Bond (Demons, Bones, and Blood), for Atlas Hugged, a humble call, in pumpkin form, for tolerance
Pretentioulicious – SITU (SitooOooOoOooOoo), for their dehydrated pumpkin strands inspired by Newton’s Cenotaph
The Totem – WEISS/MANFREDI (frights/manfreaky), for their Inception-inspired pumpkin-within-a-pumpkin-within-a-pumpkin
Other teams who showed off their pumpkin carving skills included:
Architecture Research Office (Pumpkin Research Office), with a curvy pumpkin pavilion
Center for Architecture (Lina Boo Bardis), with a jack-o-lantern-headed sculpture of the Brazilian architect, inspired by this year’s Archtober brand identity
Dattner Architects (Datt-s My Pumpkin Part-ner), with a pumpkin brick tower
Henning Larsen (Spooky Larsen), with a pumpkin version of the Hangzhou Opera House
HWKN (sHocKN’), with their inverted pumpkin turned interior space
Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates (KPF Carvers), with a Hudson Yards-inspired pumpkin skyscraper
P.R.O. – Peterson Rich Office (P.R.O. – Pestilent Rich Ogres), with their minimalist pumpkin
REX (t-REX), with their budget-constrained, value-engineered jack-o-lantern
ROGERS PARTNERS (Roguish Phantoms), with pumpkins inspired by Denise Scott Brown and Robert Venturi’s ducks and decorated sheds
SCAPE (hellSCAPE), with their collapsing pumpkin portrait, exploring the ephemerality of life
Small Stuff (small indeterminate matter), with a video experiment in pumpkin empathy
SOFTlab (SOFThead labORATORIUM), with a reflective optical illusion pumpkin
TEN Arquitectos (Teninites), with Discotecture, proving that architects like to party
We congratulate our winners and thank all participating firms for a wonderful evening!