The Ruins is a photography competition organized by artuminate in association with archiol, this competition received 133 entries from around the world.

 

Top 3 winners:

1st Prize: Charlotte Collins (Germany)

2nd Prize: Megan Ortinau (US)

3rd Prize: Zindagi M Mavani (US)

Honorable Mention

  • Hanwen Zhang & Cai Yang (China)
  • Yang Ruan (China)
  • Vignesh Ramachandram & Lavanya A (India)

Shortlisted

  • Wenchao MA (China)
  • Zoe Socratous (Cyprus)
  • Kongphat Phaiboonnukulkij & Kolatat Phaiboonnukulkij (UK)
  • Khandokar Mahfuz Alam (Bangladesh)

 

First Prize Winner: Tokyo’s Nakagin Tower

The epitome of a modern ruin, Tokyo’s Nakagin Tower stands as a decaying yet defiant island in arguably the world’s most futuristic metropolis. While its future hangs in the balance and deconstruction its likely fate, the cubic agglomeration stands tall despite the rusting façade and netting to catch falling debris. It encapsulates a utopian design ethic, a zeitgeist, and projection of a 1970s vision of what the future of urban architecture could look like. 50 years later and many of those principles still hold true – single unit dwellings, compact living, and functional, minimalist interiors are key characteristics of modern day urban housing design.
In whatever form Nakagin lives on, it leaves behind not a failed ruin but a nostalgic and ambitious icon that dared to be radical, playful, and functional at the same time. Captured here in 35mm film, the photograph presents a ‘ruin in progress’, a building that is buckling under the weight of time but will undoubtedly be preserved in the architectural imagination as a symbol of pioneering Japanese metabolist design. The two faces of the tower presented in this photograph, one in the shadows and the other illuminated by sunlight, acts as a metaphor of a crossroads – a building facing a disassembling of its current form but leaving behind a legacy as a cult design masterpiece.

 

Second Prize Winner: Pompeii

Frozen. Purely stopped in a moment in time. I should keep running, but the fear of what I see took over. In this moment, the past, present, and future of this view flashed in my mind. Yesterday, I saw this image while going to get food for my family. It was a happy sight and a beautifully calm day in Pompeii. Now, the volcano is shaking, and the world is on fire. How could an entire town change in a day? The tomorrow, in a month, or thousands of years from now version will be less calm. In the future, there will not be much left. The remains of homes and a town so lively. It will be just stone, ash, and dust. All three versions of my home continue playing in my mind as people scream at me to move. I hope people who find the remains of Pompeii know the three versions, as well.

 

Third Prize Winner: Amer Fort

Ruins: A single word that has an ability to take one on a 100s of years old journey in a single moment. These architectural ruin sact as a bridge of tangible and intangible heritage and a window into the lives of people of the past.
To me they are each a time capsule, taking us to the past glory of its lively years and teaching us to stand with dignity no matter what or however many years pass.Ruins are not just one single built structure rather a series of memories, lives and moments that are preserved within this one visually damaged yet mesmerizing vessel. Ruins are silent storytellers with the loudest effect on one’s soul.
This photograph is of Amer Fort (Rajasthan, India), which still stands at the top of the forested hill overlooking Lake Maota. Built over the span of centuries, it is a breathtaking example of amalgamation of Indic and Mughal styles of architecture.
Here, the journey is captured and given importance rather than the destination itself. One can visualize their journey even before starting and the element of surprise is only when they start climbing up and taking in the entire surrounding. These levels of up and down, steps and ramps leading people to the fort while unfolding a new layer of surrounding with every upward step gives one a sense of being one with nature while also guiding them towards their destination.
Thus, defining the journey by capturing the path itself by looking back at how far I had come and how satisfying that journey looked from above.

 

Honorable Mention: Sing Lei Hap Gei Lime Kiln Factory

Peng Chau island in Hong Kong is rich in ocean resources such as oysters, clams and corals, and the shells are good materials to produce lime, which can be used to build houses, ships, and can also be used as fertilizer. From the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century, Peng Chau was the largest lime production area in Hong Kong with 11 lime factories, providing many employment opportunities for the islanders. The lime industry was one of the three major export industries at that time, as well as match industry and cowhide industry.
However, the emerging cement industry in HongKong and lime commercial competition from mainland China give a huge crash to lime industry in Peng Chau. Today, match factories has been demolished, and cowhide factories has only a dilapidated house. The past prosperous lime industry is only left with a unused factory site called “Sing Lei Hap Gei”.
Sing Lei Hap Gei Lime Kiln Factory was once one of the three major lime factories in Peng Chau. The word “Sing Lei” in Chinese means glory and success. Even during the Japanese occupation period (1941–1945), lime production has never been interrupted. After World War II, mainland China and Japan has became the main lime exporter and lime material is also replaced by concrete for building construction, resulting in the permanent closure of Sing Lei Hap Gei Lime Kiln Factory in the 1970s. The two-storey masonry building in this picture was built by the Chiang family in the 1920s for offices and canteens in Sing Lei Hap Gei Lime Kiln Factory. This building has witnessed the rise and fall of the lime industry and now belongs to the third-class historical and cultural protection building in Hong Kong. However,it lacks some proper repairs. We can see peeling walls and rusting iron windows from this picture. What a real pity that its former glory and history is gradually fading away in people’s memory.

 

Honorable Mention: “Jilin Songyuan brewery”

Located in Songyuan City, Jilin Province, China, this brewery was built in the last century and was once the most famous brewery in the surrounding area. As times changed, the brewery moved to a new location, but the old abandoned factory area remained. The photo shows the interior of one of the breweries’ plants. Due to the needs of product processing, the building uses a huge skylight for lighting, which was a bold and avant-garde design in China a few decades ago, especially for a small town that was underdeveloped at that time. It’s not out of date even now. To this day, the delicate balance between the erosion of time on the building, the plants growing in the ruins, and the original unique design of the building form the stunning images in the photo.

 

Honorable Mention: Hampi’s enthralling monument – Balakrishna Temple (Karnataka, India)

Hampi has both historical and sacred value, as evidenced by centuries of inscriptions. The site’s remnants are magnificent souvenirs from the big medieval Hindu civilization. The Krishna Temple, which was established in 1531 by Vijayanagara Empire King Krishnadevaraya, has towering gopurams (entry gateways) at the north, south, and east sides that lead to a shrine dedicated to the deity Balakrishna. The temple was constructed to commemorate the conquering of Udayagiri, an eastern kingdom. It is presently placed on UNESCO’s list of World Heritage Monuments.
Vijayanagara enjoyed an unprecedented renaissance of Hindu religion, art, and architecture during King Krishnadevaraya’s reign, before succumbing to the onslaught of invading Muslim forces.
The structure is encircled by two concentric walls with granite colonnades, stone sculptures, stucco details, and towering shikharas. Elegant architectural patterns, magnificent carvings, and massive entrances distinguish the Dravidian-style temple. With various sculptures, the main tower to the east is an outstanding sight. The photograph taken at the north entrance shows the tower where only a portion of the gopura’s superstructure exists, but it still exhibits exquisite stucco motifs of warriors with shields, apsaras standing on mythical animals.
This temple was erected in the Panchayathana style. The main shrine contains a sanctuary, maha-mandapa, Ardha-mandapa, a pillared pavilion, a Devi shrine, and numerous sub-shrines and is located in the complex’s core. Invading Muslim armies from the Deccan Sultanates plunder the main sanctuary. The carvings on the pillars and the entrances to the temple hall are stunning, with Yalis on the pillars and impressive carvings of elephant riders. This is one of the rare temples with epic stories engraved into the tower’s walls. This is fairly an intact specimen of a Vijayanagara era temple.