The shortlisted students in an international contest for a series of three landmark new architectural installations at the Carrières du Boulonnais quarry in northern France have been named The PRIMA competition, organised by Paris-based Atelier 37.2 on behalf of French minerals company Groupe CB, invited individuals or pairs of students to propose a permanent ‘micro-architectural work’ for the enormous industrial site located around 15km south of Calais. A total of 135 participants representing 26 universities put forward proposals. A total of 15 concepts have been shortlisted (full list below) including ‘REST’ by Eseniya Gershman and Gayatri Sinai Salkar of London’s Architectural Association and ‘QUARRY LAKE’ by Jaemo Lee from HEAD in Geneva. Now in its sixth edition, this year’s competition invited participants to explore ecological interaction and the potential of creating environments for both ‘humans and non-human living organisms.’ Concepts were free to use stone, concrete and steel along with locally available natural elements ‘such as soil, water, plants, seeds, fungi, or bacteria.’ 2023 winner: Memento by Solena Citerne from Ecole de Condé Nice Credit: Image by Nicolas Guiraud The annual call for proposals is free and open to all architecture schools in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Switzerland, Spain and the United Kingdom. Each school may submit a maximum of five paired student projects. Three overall winners will be constructed in 2025. On the fringes of Ferques, the 500-hectare Carrières du Boulonnais quarry was created in the late nineteenth century and is now the largest single open-pit quarry in the country – producing around six million tonnes of limestone aggregates every year. The PRIMA project aims to forge new links between emerging design talents and the aggregates industry through an ‘unprecedented art model built on the merging of clear artistic goals with an entrepreneurial strategy’. It is organised by Atelier 37.2, an emerging Paris-based practice which has constructed a variety of unique architectural installations in culturally-significant landscapes across Europe and two pavilions on the PRIMA site. Participants are required to harness recycled or low-carbon materials in their proposal and consider how their structure can be occupied as a form of ‘micro-architecture’ while also responding to important environmental issues raised by the anthropocene – the present geological era in which human activity has fundamentally changed life on earth. 2023 winner: Gravité by Margaux Croixmarie of ENSAP Bordeaux The first edition of the competition, launched in late 2019, received 114 entries from 202 students representing 41 schools of architecture and design from six countries – France, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, and the United Kingdom. Winners of the 2024 call for concepts included Second Souffle by Emilie Marzougui from Idées HOUSE in Lausanne, Switzerland; and Fragment by Ho Chun Au-Jeung and Weathering Pavilion by Tim Formgren – both from the AA School of Architecture in London. The competition is planned to be held every year for several years resulting in around 20–25 permanent installations being created on the site. Winning students, to be announced in March or April, will receive technical assistance from Atelier 37.2 and be invited to attend a residency on site to deliver their schemes in September. The shortlist HOLY WATER, Sofia Andrew and Eva Habtezion, KTH Royal Institute of Technology Stockholm, Sweden LE CHANT DES CIMES, Dorine Arrigoni, EDC Paris, France LA HAIE, Florian Caro and Pierre Saffroy, ESA Ecole Spéciale d'architecture, France AQUA-PAVILION, Loucas Chabot, Eindhoven Design Academy, Netherlands LA PROMENADE, Laura Delalande, Idées HOUSE Lausanne, Switzerland PASSAGE OUBLIE, Tiziano Gargano, HEAD - GENEVA, Switzerland REST, Eseniya Gershman and Gayatri Sinai Salkar, AA-ARCHITECTURAL ASSOCIATION, UK QUARRY LAKE, Jaemo Lee, HEAD - Geneva, Switzerland A STAGE FOR WHO, Kristofer Gullard Lindgren and Petter Eurenius, KTH, Stockholm, Sweden DIRTY DANCING, Samuel Löfgren and Edvin Sandberg, KTH, Stockholm, Sweden INTERSTICE, Rebecca Maria Lucatello, EDC Paris, France TERRE BATTANTE, Alysson Penchenat, ESDAC - Aix en provence, France LATENT MONUMENT, Leo Schapiro, AA-ARCHITECTURAL ASSOCIATION, UK INCONFORT, Dania Shawket, ESDAC Marseille, France DISPLACEMENT, Lei Zhang and Cem Dilekci, AA-ARCHITECTURAL ASSOCIATION, UK