Foreword

One of the more interesting outcomes of an architectural competition lies in the prospect of imagination, to speculate both the fathomable and spectacular. The competition for a London Internet Museum stages such prospect, considering what seems at first rather tenable — the museum — merged with something historically profound and typologically unprecedented — the internet. The relationship is dichotomous: the museum historically posed to objectify and celebrate cultural and physical artifact, and the internet, a technological horizon perhaps as profound as fire and electricity, fueled by information and algorithm and existing almost entirely in the abstract.

The internet as a technology, has arguably occupied various typological precedents and forms: from the car garage where the internet startup was born, the ubiquitous cartesian data center, suburban office park campus, of historical renovations where the Googles, Facebooks, and Ubers call home, to the glass Apple stores and modern monuments to consumerism. As one might expect therefore, submissions to the competition varied quite dramatically. Many of the entries tended toward technological positivism, idealizing the internet without precaution. The jury showed preference to projects not bound by precedent or assumption — of conventional museum typologies, generalizations of what the internet is and isn’t, and contemporary architectural tropes. Selected projects demonstrate a certain tenacity and ambition, inherent in the internet’s advent — of social collectivism, network theory, and virtuality. While retrospective as a museum, submissions collectively project various architectural and tectonic trajectories, following the internet’s historic wake.

Competition results in media publications

COMPETITION ORGANISERS
London 
Internet Museum

1st Prize Winner

Project name

404: Not Found

We don't really ever stop. It's important for us to continue learning, with every competition or project, we always aim to develop our skills in something we have never done, or even with a new software have never used.

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2nd Prize Winner

Project name

Transistor

I enter about 1-2 architecture vision competitions each year to actively refine my skill sets. Often in our daily jobs we find our ways toward paths of increasing specialization. Competitions are a way to explore the breadth of the field. Especially in regard to teaching, I feel it is important to continue to push yourself and think critically, and the architectural competition is a framework to do that.

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Authors Ryan Anthony Ball, , ,
Country United States

3rd Prize Winner

Project name

Unlimited Possibilities

I take part in conceptual architectural contests because a “concept-related competition” can be an interesting challenge.

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Honorable Mentions

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Project name

Big Datas As A Lover

Authors Isabella Ong, , ,
Country Singapore
Project name

LIM (London Internet Museum)

Project name

Serve The Servers

Country Ireland
Project name

London Internet Museum

Country Armenia
Project name

Chat!

Authors Patryk Krol,
Country Poland
Project name

The Node

Company Pracownia Architektury Opalinski
Authors Witold Opalinski, Katarzyna Opalińska, Szymon Różański, Adrian Mieszczak
Country Poland