Gimme Shelter: Sustainably Designed Structures in an Urban Woodland

Gimme Shelter will be a showcase of six semi-permanent, functional woodland shelters to enhance the experience of visitors to the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education, a 350-acre nature preserve in the Roxborough neighborhood of Philadelphia. The project is meant to build awareness of the applied possibilities and meaning of sustainability and its impact on our lives and our connection to the natural world. The competition encouraged collaboration between artists, designers and architects, in order to demonstrate and promote new, unique, and inspiring approaches to sustainable design and building techniques.

Twelve semi-finalist designs were recently chosen from more than 80 designs by 65 teams from around the world, by a panel of six distinguished jurors:

Mark Hughes, Philadelphia’s new Director of Sustainability
William W. Braham, PhD FAIA, Department of Architecture, University of Pennsylvania
Jeanne Jaffe, Professor and Chair of Fine Arts, University of the Arts
Laurie D. Olin, Olin Partnership
Libby Rosof, art critic, artblog
Roberta Fallon, art critic, Philadelphia Weekly and artblog

The twelve semi-finalist designs will be on display at the Philadelphia Center for Architecture for the month of February 2009, at their exhibit space at 1218 Arch St in Philadelphia.

The six finalist designs will be selected from the twelve semi-finalists, and will be announced at an Opening Reception at the Center for Architecture on Friday February 6th at 6 pm.

The six finalists will build their shelters at the Schuylkill Center in the spring, with an opening reception on Saturday May 9, 2009.

The Twelve Semi-Finalist Teams are:

Rebecca Popowsky & Riggs Skepnek - Philadelphia, PA
Julia Molloy and Taka Sarui - New York, NY
North Studio- Elijah Huge & Angus McCullough - Middletown, CT
Digsau & The Challenge Program - Philadelphia, PA and Wilmington, DE
Rashida Ng & Yami Namamoto- Philadelphia, PA
Tackett & Company- Philadelphia, PA
Alexa Bosse & Ari Miller- Philadelphia, PA
GCArchitects- Gabriela Sanz Rodrнguez & Carlos Martнnez Mediero- Madrid, Spain
Rob Corser- Seattle, WA
Tonic Design- David Hill & Vincent Petrarca- Raleigh, NC
FORM Design Collaborative- Philadelphia, PA
Ana Bismarck & Vera Almada- Lisbon, Portugal


Gimme Shelter is being coordinated by the Schuylkill Center’s Art Program Director Mary Salvante, and Art Program Manager Zoë Cohen.
Gimme Shelter is funded by the William Penn Foundation, and is presented in partnership with
The Center for Architecture and the American Institute of Architects- Philadelphia
The Engineering and Design Institute at Philadelphia University
Habitat for Humanity Philadelphia
The Delaware Valley Green Building Council