Fall 2020
As newcomers to the Center for Architecture’s Archtober pumpkin carving competition last year, we were surprised and delighted to win the Pritzkerpumpkin prize as we felt that there were so many strong creative entries. At the event, we were asked “how did you come up with the idea?” And we didn’t have a good response. Thinking about it now, we realize that we used the same collaborative process we apply to many of our design projects. The answer doesn’t always come in an “aha” moment by one person, but through brainstorming ideas, testing concepts and taking the best of these to the next level – a fun but also bumpy process where we don’t always know what we will come up with in the end and just have to trust that working together, we will come up with something that we can all agree on and feel good about submitting.
Due to COVID-19, the 2020 competition moved to an online format which required a submission of 5 jpegs and a 10 second video. We used this same technique of creative collaboration this year and as proof of the value of our creative process, we won our second Pritzkerpumpkin prize! Our pumpkin submission titled “I’m fine thanks, how are you?” features live earthworms and an audio greeting. To view Archtober’s announcement featuring our full video submission, click here.