A proposal by Nancy Hou MArch ’08 and Josh de Sousa MArch ’08 of the design studio Hou de Sousa, in collaboration with Craig Cook of Archotus, has been awarded Second Prize in the National Museum of World Writing International Design Competition. Organized by the South Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism, the international blind competition sought designs for a 230,000 sq ft museum and community center that would explore the history of global writing systems. A total of 126 teams from 40 countries submitted proposals.

The Hou de Sousa design, entitled “Cuneiformed,” reads as an unearthed village where visitors can circulate on open-air plazas that connect museum components. “Rather than employ stereotypical historic architectural forms, we looked for the places where the fundamentals of writing and architecture overlap – solid to void relationships, the trace of gesture on surface, the meaning in the depth of a mark, penetration, or extrusion,” states the project description.

Read coverage from designboom and Archinect.

Images courtesy of Hou and de Sousa. 

Cuneiformed - Diagrams and Study Models

Cuneiformed -Perspective Roof Top

Cuneiformed - Perspective Exhibit Permanent 2