Powell Street Festival Society is pleased to announce the winner of its design competition: “Macro Maki” invites festivalgoers to don pillow-sized sushi costumes and stage selfies on stage designed as an oversized wooden sushi tray. This quirky, interactive installation will be presented at the 41^th annual Powell Street Festival, August 5 and 6^th, 2017. The winning project was created by­ 1^st-year Master of Architecture and Master of Landscape Architecture students at UBC School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (SALA): Arkgo Chen, Yilang Kang, Jivan Khera, Alex Laos and Divine Ndemeye. The team has been awarded a $1000 prize, a production budget and mentorship from Bing Thom Architects (BTA) and Abaton Projects. An honorable mention was awarded to Jérémie Dussault-Lefebvre and Sebastien Roy for their entry “Bloom, Insens and Sun”. The architecture and landscape architecture students were challenged to design structures that create space for interaction at the Powell Street Festival. The entrants were asked to consider civic engagement, cultural relevance, environmental sustainability and practical design limitations in their proposals. “Thank you so much for selecting our project! We are all very thrilled!! – a member of the winning design team. The Design Competition for Powell Street Festival is a partnership between PSFS, BTA and Abaton Projects and is financially supported by PFS Studio and Hapa Collaborative as well as several private donors. The jury included landscape architect Kelty McKinnon of PFS Studio, architect Steve McFarlane of Office of McFarlane Biggar, architect Inge Roecker of ASIR architekten and UBC SALA, and representatives from PSFS, BTA and Abaton Projects. Their selection of “Macro Maki” was a unanimous decision.

Jury Comments:

“Macro Maki presents a playful and bold evaluation of the design brief responding with clarity to the intent to engage festival goers – this proposal will do this in a wonderfully memorable way.” – Gary Smith, Abaton Projects “Macro Maki is exuberantly participatory, and embodies the energy and youthful spirit of the Powell Street Festival. The play with scale and performance on a crafted sushi ‘block’ that doubles as a stage will no doubt become one of the highlights of the festival!” – Kelty McKinnon, PFS Studio “We reviewed some very thoughtful submissions, but Macro Maki really stood out for its playful re-purposing of a cultural touchstone to stimulate positive social interaction and create new memories of place.” – Steve McFarlane, omb The design is now in development and will be unveiled at the Opening Ceremony of the 41^th annual Powell Street Festival at Oppenheimer Park at 11:30 a.m. on Saturday, August 5, 2017. Follow @powellstfest on social media and posts tagged #powellstfest #macromaki to see the development process.