Dining in the Urban

Congratulations to Benoît Marcou (MSc Architecture, BK) who received an honourable mention for his thought-provoking entry into the international competition, Dining in the Urban. Benoît’s proposed design questions the ephemerality of the urban picnic, through a fragile intervention made of wooden planks woven into the complex stone patterns of Skopje’s public ground.

49 international teams consisting of both professionals and students from a range of multidisciplinary backgrounds entered the design competition. The research challenges uniformity in cities and proposes an alternative 'open' architectural approach that encourages intimate personal narratives to flourish.

The international competition was organised by Holly Dale as a way to explore ‘Open architecture’ approaches in the design process as part of her MSc Architecture graduation project, The Intimate City, Skopje. The collective research investigates moving habits into a wider context and encouraging inhabitation and the sharing of social and cultural knowledge; through dialogue between people and their environment; a design brief for Skopje was created with the aim of making domestic rituals part of the city’s urban fabric. Utilising collaborative knowledge the research is underpinned by a broad and deep set of values, strong enough to support the city’s multitude of everyday intimate narratives.

For more information on the competition and entries, please visit www.theintimatecity.com.