UN Studio and MVRDV (in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the span­ish office GRAS) have recently sent us their com­peti­ton entries for the Ciudad del Motor in Spain, which has been won by the widely pub­lished, but less inter­est­ing fish-​shaped design by Foster.

UN Studio’s design is a con­tin­u­ous dynamic form, a struc­ture duck­ing to the ground with a motor-​sport aes­thetic, remind­ing of the visual lan­guage of an BMW ad. MVRDV’s pro­posal is a group of build­ings – blocks break­ing from the ground in a sandy desert, cre­at­ing an ensem­ble of squares. Where UN Studio’s design is a new object in the land­scape, MVRDV’s design forms part of it. More of a place, less of an object. You can down­load MVRDV’s project PDF, com­plete with sec­tions and plans (Thank you, Oana!) here:

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UN Studio’s project description:

The build­ing is orga­nized as a con­tin­u­ous loop with two cross­ing points, offer­ing mul­ti­ple vis­i­tor expe­ri­ences all related to thetopic of speed and move­ment. Like a real city, the design for the Ciudad del Motor con­tains and facil­i­tates mul­ti­ple pro­gram­matic ele­ments, such as a shop­ping mall, expe­ri­ence centre, museum of move­ment, a mul­ti­func­tional hall, a hotel and hous­ing towers. The design of the build­ing is based on the gen­er­a­tion of a max­i­mum inter­ac­tion with the sur­round­ings, espe­cially the tracks, with the Grand Stand accessed via a pro­grammed bridge.

From MVRDV’s project description:

The com­bi­na­tion of the racing activ­i­ties and the dry, arid land­scape gives the new Alcaniz race track area a dis­tinct char­ac­ter. Its devel­op­ment can be easily com­pared with Las Vegas. But can we learn from Vegas again? More ecol­ogy? Less gam­bling? More leisure based on the powers of the land­scape?
Maybe instead of an arti­fi­cial new icon, that spe­cific con­tra­dic­tion, this spe­cific sit­u­a­tion itself can lead to an out­stand­ingly remark­able devel­op­ment and approach. Each of the dif­fer­ent pro­grams have there own timing, size and char­ac­ter. By posi­tion­ing them close to each other, they can share their park­ing, they can create a cli­matic pocket and they can share a col­lec­tive plaza. And the rest of the grounds can be used in the future… It gives a com­pact set­tle­ment that enlarges the pos­si­bil­ity for remark­a­bil­ity in the vast land­scape.
By cov­er­ing the unde­ni­ably huge roofs of the pro­gram with the found mate­r­ial (red sand, stones, small plants, veg­e­ta­tion), the build­ings can obtain a heavy roof that can act as tem­per­a­ture buffer for the pro­gram. The build­ings gain a more eco­log­i­cal and nat­ural char­ac­ter. They “blend” in with the landscape.

In related news, Ben van Berkel & Car­o­line Bos have been awarded the Charles Jencks Award, which is pre­sented annu­ally to the indi­vid­ual who has recently made a major con­tri­bu­tion both to the theory and prac­tice of archi­tec­ture. As the winner of this inter­na­tional award, Ben van Berkel will be giving a lec­ture at RIBA, in Jarvis Hall at 18:30 pm on 16th Octo­ber. Other recent projects of UN Studio include the Waldschlösschen bridge in Dres­den, which fea­tures the typ­i­cal flu­id­ity of the UN Studio’s project, but sur­prises with min­i­mal fragility in the elevation.

UN Studio about the bridge:

The design for the Waldschlösschen bridge in Dres­den cre­ates an infra­struc­tural con­nec­tion that spans a length of 800 meters accross the widest parts of the unique and beau­ti­ful Elb flood plain, form­ing an inte­gral part of this land­scape. From the banks of the sur­round­ing area, wide tran­si­tions taper to estab­lish an inter­con­nect­ing net­work for the con­tin­u­ous flows of the diverse users. The asym­met­ric and topo­graphic shape of the bridge evolves from its inher­ent con­di­tions, whilst simul­ta­ne­ously inte­grat­ing the bridge into the out­lines of the undu­lat­ing landscape.