For all its majesty, the White House is basically the same knockoff neoclassical manse that John Adams relocated to in 1800. Sure, it's riddled with history—but shouldn't we just turn it into a museum and start fresh with something engineered for 21st-century challenges? That's the idea behind White House Redux, a competition to redesign the executive residence, organized by the Storefront for Art and Architecture and the Control Group. As the judges, including heavyweights like MacArthur Fellow architect Liz Diller and digital artist John Maeda, culled through the nearly 500 entries, distinct trends emerged. Highlight: numerous projects recasting the building as an ark—untethered and mobile. Lowlight: multiple entries in the shallowly dissident black-painted White House genre. Here are a few of our favorites.
1 // White House
Designers: Grant Gibson, Chris-Annmarie Spencer
This subterranean entry comprises an upside-down ziggurat with rooms organized in an inverted version of the executive branch's org chart. At ground level are the publicly accessible spaces you might see on a tour, while the most private areas—like the situation room and the Oval Office—are way down below.
2 // White Screen
Designers: Eric Howeler, Meredith Miller, Casey Renner, Meejin Yoon
The creators of White Screen think the executive branch's hijinks should unfold live on TV—like Big Brother, but without all the daiquiris. Here the executive mansion becomes a kind of panopticon, with each wing facing outward through a massive screen, like a TV set with just one channel.
3 // White Wing
Designers: Ralf Arno Schormann, Alex Schulz
With America's interests ever more far-flung, modern presidents have become essentially itinerant. So the designers of White Wing propose a zeppelin containing the commander- in-chief and his entire staff. It could touch down wherever needed—from Pennsylvania Avenue to Red Square.
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