When my dad married his brother’s ex-wife, my cousins become my brothers in law. Co-bros or brosins, whatever tickles your fancy more. My entire life I have been a distant relative to my European family as I was living in southern California. But my brosins hold a special spot in my heart and they need help. Please read on to learn more.
My brosins are in the middle of a design competition in Bristol, England, where they both live. There is a corner in their neighborhood that is currently a big wasted space. The local government has asked for design submissions proposing the renewal of this space. Above you can see a brief outline of the proposal that my brosins have created.
This design competition already went to vote and Eudaimon, my brosins company, flattened the competition with an overwhelming turn out at the polls. However, after the vote, it seemed there was some foul play and through the miracles of bureaucracy, there has been another call for a vote/opinion from the community. The first vote was the voice of the community that lives in the area that this corner resides. The voice that matters. Now the vote can be done electronically which is where I hope you, the reader, can participate. Please visit the opinion survey link here and review the projects and then vote at the end.
The survey process is a bunch of rubbish in my opinion and forces you down this tedious path to finally vote. Do not let this deter you. You will get a chance to view all three of the projects that are currently on the voting block. Afterwards you will be asked to put in your contact information. The fields will be England specific but PLEASE put in your address wherever in the world you may reside. The text at the top of the page says they will use this information to verify that the votes are sincere so I hope these politicians do not use American addresses as an excuse to throw out votes. Ultimately, the design proposals that they have you view should be sufficient to make an opinion. Here is my opinion of the three projects:
- Dallas Pierce Quintero. This group wants to create what they are calling a shadow house. A structure that will be above the corner that looks to be covered in plant life on the outside. It is constructed of a metal frame and seems to not provide much more than shade and light at night. In my opinion this will be an eye sore from a distance and worse up close. The open space of that corner will be taken away and replaced with a building like structure, which there are plenty of in that zone, made of plants. What you do when you are walking underneath? I do not know.
- Eudaimon. The design is elegant and utilizes soft natural curves to reduce the impact that a new structure will have in the area. There seems to be a lot of imagination and utilization of the space that this corner offers. Although not much, Eudaimon are packing a lot of useful features. Furthermore they are encouraging the participation of the cultural community that surrounds this part of the world. Giving the people pride in their community will help protect and embrace this design and concept. The submitted designs for this project are phenomenal and obviously a lot of work was put in especially when you make the comparison to the other two projects.
- Gitta Gschwendtner. Gitta has proposed a terraced garden and not much more. To be honest this design seems very weak and it makes me wonder what the other submissions to this contest were to allow this one to make the top three. What happens if the plant life should die or is damaged? Their proposal will not look much different than the space that is there currently.
So please, spend the five minutes and please vote! The voting link can be found here. Also, please spread the word to your friends and family and repost this on Twitter and facebook and all your other social media sites. Even if you do not vote, at least reshare this post for the rest of the world to make their decision. Even if I did not tell you which project was the one of my brosins, I think the best design will still emerge as theirs in the end.