Designers who participated in arch out loud‘s “Human Trafficking Tenancingo Square Mediascape” ideas competition were tasked with envisioning architectural interventions that could positively reinvent the town square of Tenancingo in Mexico, in response to the human and sex trafficking issues that persist in the area.

Competition entrants had to create a new kind of “Mediascape”, which combines a public landscape and connective media technologies, according to arch out loud. The submissions presented various approaches to such a highly sensitive topic. Altogether, they brought up the question: “How might a modified square reshape communal mindset and motivation, reconstituting the image of a town where exploitation has become normalized?”

The competition concluded with one prize-winning team from Poland and three runner-up teams from Slovenia, Mexico, and South Korea. Have a look at their projects below.

1st place: “Parallel Realities”
Participants: Paweł Kuczyński, Mikołaj Cierlak, Wojciech Losa
School: Politechnika Śląska
Location: Gliwice, Silesia, Poland

1st place: Parallel Realities. Participants: Paweł Kuczyński, Mikołaj Cierlak, Wojciech Losa. School: Politechnika Śląska. Location: Gliwice, Silesia, Poland
1st place: Parallel Realities. Participants: Paweł Kuczyński, Mikołaj Cierlak, Wojciech Losa. School: Politechnika Śląska. Location: Gliwice, Silesia, Poland

Project summary: “Human rights are being violated every day all around the world and many of those violations are driven by market’s demand and supply rule. We build interaction and awareness between those two parallel realities. Mutual contact broadens mind of young people giving them knowledge of alternative reality.”

Runner Up: “Under Construction”
Participants: Nikolaj Salaj, Tin Troha, Žan Šabeder
School: Fakulteta Za Arhitekturo Ljubljana
Location: Ljubljana, Slovenia

Runner up: Under Construction. Participants: Nikolaj Salaj, Tin Troha, Žan Šabeder. School: Fakulteta Za Arhitekturo Ljubljana. Location: Ljubljana, Slovenia
Runner up: Under Construction. Participants: Nikolaj Salaj, Tin Troha, Žan Šabeder. School: Fakulteta Za Arhitekturo Ljubljana. Location: Ljubljana, Slovenia

Project summary: “Why erect a static structure when the building process is far more transformative and engaging in itself ? A continuously changing environment induces an equally constant transformation in its society as well. A minimal addition creates countless new scenarios in a space left mostly untouched, preserving its familiarity. This superposition of ready-mades integrates into its new context by housing and complementing its existing programmes but remains subversive and transformative through its omnipresent mediascape elements. The constant presence is extended to the entire city by the crane itself, functioning as a symbolic marker. Always present, far and near. Always active.”

Runner up: “Seeing Voices”
Participants: Roberto Rosales, Barbara González Miranda
Location: Mexico City, Mexico

Runner up: “Seeing Voices”. Participants: Roberto Rosales, Barbara González Miranda. Location: Mexico City, Mexico​
Runner up: “Seeing Voices”. Participants: Roberto Rosales, Barbara González Miranda. Location: Mexico City, Mexico​

Project summary: “Sex trafficking is based in human objectification. We believe that in order to stop this abuse we need to engage both victims and felons and confront them in a way that celebrates the human aspects of the survivors by empowering them and starting a healing process. We created a program that reactivates community life with green and recreational areas. The lampposts that cover the entirety of the plaza serve also as sensors that capture the surrounding noise and regulate messages displaying in the pavilion’s façade. This phrases are delivered by those affected by exploitation giving them back their humanity.”

Runner up: “You Are Everywhere”
Participants: Soohyoun Nam, Hyejin Lee, Kyungjo Choi
Location: Gyeonggi, South Korea

Runner up: You Are Everywhere. Participants: Soohyoun Nam, Hyejin Lee, Kyungjo Choi. Location: Gyeonggi, South Korea
Runner up: You Are Everywhere. Participants: Soohyoun Nam, Hyejin Lee, Kyungjo Choi. Location: Gyeonggi, South Korea

Project summary: “An Apparatus to integrate Place of Trafficking, and that of Community In a sad region where acceptance and commitment of human trafficking prevails, restoring sense of community in every space is the key. The breaking of everydayness of vice begins with subversion of ‘business’ area where the unfortunate events occur, and the safe space of community and family. By forming a coexisting condition of the two separate places, one will realize the irrationality of respecting family on one hand, and violating others with the other. To undermine the boundary, we propose a media-wall that works in tandem with surveillance cameras.”

You can check out the entries in full detail here.