Critical Winners

The 2012 edition of Critical Halloween was hosted by Storefront for Art and Architecture last 27 October at Nuit Blanche's Autumn Bowl. Inviting guests to think and dress critically around the theme of "metaphor", the event attracted more than 300 costumes from minimal interventions as Smoking Mirrors by architect John Morrison to elaborated group pieces as Razzle Dazzle by Softlab. Photographed by architecture photographer Naho Kubota, costumes were judged by Saskia Bos (Dean of Cooper Union School of Art), dressed as herself; and Alejandro Zaera-Polo (Dean of Princeton School of Architecture), dressed as cosmonaut, alongside Storefront ambassadors Charles Renfro (Diller Scofidio + Renfro), president of the Board of Directors, dressed as a voter station; and Eva Franch i Gilabert, Storefront Director, dressed as Future Blind Architect. The event included an on-site installation curated by NBNY and music by dj n-ron and Jon Santos with a special performance by "The usual band": Hess is More.

During the evening, the jury awarded 6 of the 7 Door Awards. The Meta Door — awarded to the best metaphor of the night — went to Shades of White, a group costume by architecture firm SO-IL that included 11 costumes representing the names of 11 white tonalities that a common New York paint brand uses to communicate their shades of white. Costumes within this group included Marilyns Dress White (Jing Liu), Gray Owl White (Florian Idenburg), Mayonnaise White, Indian White, Antique Lace White, Man on the Moon White, Picket Fence White, American White, French Manicure Whiteand Cotton Balls White.

The Arch Door went to Architecture's Open Hand by Lisa and Ted Landrum. The Art Door went to Halloween 1978 + 1984 (On Kawara) by Shan Raoufi and Greta Hansen, which included a minimalistic costume paying homage to Japanese artist On Kawara.

The City Door was awarded to the best urban metaphor of the night: The Grid, a group costume by Snarkitecture that conveyed simultaneously a graphic and infrastructural representation of the city grid with a white pattern on black costumes, an electrified light grid complemented with a fog-vapor New York column. The Now Door was awarded to Architecture Blows by HWKN, a group costume in honor of Sandy's omnipresent ghost over Manhattan. The What? Door, went to Modulor Trio by Sofia Krimizi, Federica Vannucchi and José Aragüez.

The final door prize, the Common Door will be awarded by popular vote through the Domus online competition which runs from 31 October through 11 November 2012. The winner will receive a complimentary subscription to Domus magazine.