Summary: The challenge is to design a rejuvenation centre which resurrects a youthful appearance to the Vladimir Ilyich Lenin Nuclear Power Plant instalment in Chernobyl (currently within Ukraine).
Description: After its’ inception in 1972 and commission in 1977 – On April 26, 1986, a sudden surge of power during a reactor systems test destroyed Unit 4 of the nuclear power station at Chernobyl (near Pripyat), Ukraine, in the former Soviet Union. The accident and the fire that followed released massive amounts of radioactive material into the environment.
The Chernobyl accident’s severe radiation effects killed 28 of the site’s 600 workers in the first four months after the event. Another 106 workers received high enough doses to cause acute radiation sickness. Two workers died within hours of the reactor explosion from non-radiological causes. Another 200,000 cleanup workers in 1986 and 1987 received doses of between 1 and 100 rem (The average annual radiation dose for a U.S. citizen is about .6 rem). Chernobyl cleanup activities eventually required about 600,000 workers, although only a small fraction of these workers were exposed to elevated levels of radiation. Government agencies continue to monitor cleanup and recovery workers’ health. Since then, the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone has been one of the scariest spots on earth – with ghost residences, settlements and instalments all around – but the question is, till when will it last and is there a way architecture could make this radioactive region safe again?
Find further information on the website of the competition.