What constitutes a belvedere? What functions should the form address? What dictates should the form follow? These are but a few of the questions addressed in the work Sousveillance: Under Big Brother’s Skirt by Royce Mar Nicdao, the design director of WTA Architecture + Design Studio. The proposal, which revisits the constraints of typology, won the international design competition at the Archstoyanie Festival in Nikola-Lenivets Park in Russia dubbed “Nikola’s Belvedere.”
The competition called for the design and construction of an observation deck or belvedere which will bridge the composition of the two existing belvederes – Rotunda by Alexander Brodsky and Arch by Boris Bernaskoni.
Sousveillance came on top of 227 entries from 35 different countries. Another entry from WTA, A Belvedere for the Self, also made it to the competition’s initial shortlist where entries were selected primarily for the ideas. Subsequently, the second stage trimmed down the entries to 10 based solely on feasibility.
On the evaluation process, Juror Boris Bernaskoni said that “It was very important to choose good examples of objects which could appear in Nikola-Lenivets.”
The jurors noted that the “soaring mirror,” which is a design component of Sousveillance, is a unique design solution which requires simple execution within the site.
