LONDON.- Tent London and The Lightbox announced the shortlist for The Art Fund Pavilion architecture competition.

The competition received an overwhelming level of interest with over 600 entries from 52 countries, including Columbia, Georgia and Iran.

Applicants were asked to design a semi-permanent pavilion, which will serve as additional gallery space for The Lightbox. The museum and gallery, which is already housed in a RIBA Award-winning building by Marks Barfield Architects, have decided to mark their award of the £100,000 Art Fund Prize by investing in architecture again by initiating and financing this competition.

The entries were reviewed by an elite panel of judges that included the Director of The Architecture Foundation, Sarah Ichioka and the Turner-Prize nominated artist, Richard Wilson.

The Shortlisted Entries are as follows:
�� AREA [Architecture Research Athens], Greece, www.areaoffice.gr
�� Feix & Merlin Architects with Martin Stockley Associates, UK, www.feixandmerlin.com
�� IN & EDIT Architecture, France
�� Karim Muallem, UK
�� Tina Manis Associates, USA, www.tinamanis.com

The shortlisted entries and other applications that demonstrate the range of work submitted to the competition will be exhibited at The Lightbox from 31 March - 12 April 2009 and the winner will be announced on the 6 April 2009.

The winning entry will be engineered and constructed by Facit and shown as part of Tent London during the London Design Festival 2009, before taking up residence at The Lightbox.

The Shortlisted
(In alphabetical order)

AREA, Greece
“We believe that good architecture operates within the given parameters to transform abstract building systems into specific material investigations. Projects acquire meaning when they relate to their site and their community, both through form and program. We see the Art Fund Pavilion as an important opportunity to offer its community a new place of exploration and social enjoyment.” AREA.

Feix&Merlin, UK
“The Lightbox have created a fantastic opportunity for a wonderful piece of micro architecture, and we hope to give them a pavilion that is high impact but low-cost, one that is sustainable and efficient in its use of materials, flexible in its architecture, and ultimately a pavilion that has a bit of magic about it, a bit of intrigue, and almost certainly some naughtiness.” Feix&Merlin Architects with Martin Stockley Associates.

IN & EDIT, France
“The Art Fund Pavilion competition has been a great opportunity for IN&EDIT to pursue our reflections on postindustrialized sustainable issues. By using continuous variations on a standard pattern, we propose to use the full possibilities of a computerized controlled process: optimized wood cutting allowing each piece to be different. The assembly of the pre-mounted elements like a 3D puzzle, will reveal a sustainable, ludic, inviting, segmented and yet a continuous structure.” IN & EDIT Architecture

Karim Muallem, UK
“Complexity in design need not be always in the complexity of the form but rather in the complexity of its responsiveness. Clever designs are not always about the elaborateness of the shape but rather in there adaptability. The idea was to start with a simple unassertive compact box, and through a process of responsive transformation triggered by crowd movement and function alterations end up with a highly adaptable and exiting form.” Karim Muallem

Tina Manis Associates, USA
“It’s difficult to ignore the global scale of financial crisis that engulfs us at this time. And in this particularly rich time of global economic shifts, architecture and creative thinking has the opportunity to be at its highest. Often, conflict coincides with true invention and in order to make the most of these moments, we should return to the elemental disciplines in life that make it wonderful; such as art.” Tina Manis Associates.