Montello Foundation Competition

Montello Foundation Architecture Competition, Desert Waypoint Architectural Contest

Montello Foundation Competition

Architectural Contest – A Desert Waypoint for Contemplation and Exhibitions

3 Jan 2018

Montello Foundation Architecture Competition

Montello Foundation Design Competition

A Desert Waypoint for Contemplation and Exhibitions

Montello Foundation is a foundation dedicated to support artists who foster our understanding of nature, its fragility and our need to protect it.

Montello Foundation Architecture Competition 2018

The Montello Foundation intends to build a waypoint, so artists’ interpretations of nature and our interactions with nature may be the starting point for travelers’ contemplations.

When we travel, it is in our nature to seek points of rest, to reorient ourselves. We want to understand the place we are traversing; but we also want to focus our mind on the original purpose of our journey rather than just on the logistics and technicalities of our transportation. Historically these waypoints were of course often created in a spiritual or religious context, recognizing the need to provide a focus for hope. This waypoint should center around the focus on nature, both the wide vistas as well as delicate details.

The main focus of the Foundation to date has been to provide an artist residency in a remote valley near Montello, NV. This retreat is located on 80 acres of desert land and can only be reached by driving approximately 15 miles on dirt roads. It is also meant to be a solitary retreat, a hermitage, so to reach directly to a wider audience, Montello Foundation has decided to create a presence at a much easier to reach and thus a public location.

The design competition is for a structure providing space for contemplation and exhibitions near the village of Montello in Nevada. The competition is open to undergraduate and graduate students enrolled during the 2017-2018 academic year.

The site may also be seen as part of a circle of art-sites that include Salt Lake City, the Tree of Utah next to Interstate 80 on the Salt Flats, the Center for Land Use Interpretation (CLUI) in Wendover, the Sun Tunnels by Nancy Holt near Lucin, UT, and the Spiral Jetty by Robert Smithson near Promotory Point at the Great Salt Lake.

Montello Foundation Competition

The purpose of the structure is threefold: 1) House temporary exhibitions, 2) Create a place of rest and contemplation for travelers and the local community, 3) Provide a place to meet and exchange views and perceptions.

The exhibition space will be an enclosed area, approximately 250 sq ft (23 sq m), with natural light and sufficient wall space suitable for mounting flat artworks. As with the mission of the foundation, the proposed structure will convey a conceptual and physical focus on the fragility of nature through exhibited works of art, as well as through its architecture.

The place of rest and contemplation can be either part of the exhibition space, or a separate structure. In either case, it will have a critical relation with the exterior environment, engaging one both physically and intellectually towards the sagebrush and the mountains. Here, as elsewhere in the structure, visitors are engaged in the conceptual theme of nature’s fragility.

Although relatively small in comparison to the expanse of land and sky, the structure will address the relationship of the individual to this landscape, as well as with other visitors. The architecture will attempt to engage the individual with these spaces (both interior and exterior) and as a meeting point in fostering exchanges that may be self-conscious or quite incidental, with other people (present or not) in the thematic concept of nature’s fragility.

The projects must be new and original, and the result of intellectual activity of the participants. If the documents uploaded are not the work of the participants and/or the participants are not the owner(s) of all rights of use, including the right to participate in the contest in the terms provided here, Montello Foundation will not be held responsible in any way.

Montello Foundation Competition Jury

Jury members:

Benjamin Aranda of Aranda\Lasch New York,

Ali Hocek of ACHA New York

Susanne Wagner of Bauereignis Sütterlin Wagner Berlin

Registration (regular fee $50.00) deadline: February 11, 2018

Registration (late fee $90.00) deadline: March 4, 2018

Deadline for proposals submission: March 18, 2018

Announcement of results and final jury report: April 30, 2018

The competition and construction is funded in part by the Union Pacific Foundation.

Competition Web Site: Montello Foundation

Montello Foundation Architecture Competition information / image received 030118

Location:Tree of Utah, Utah, USA

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Montello Foundation Competition