A Significant Addition to a Public Place: The Cadogan Café Competition, London

A Significant Addition to a Public Place

The Cadogan Café Competition, London

by Stanley Collyer

nex 3 view of duke of york square from the east

Winning entry by NEX (Illustration: NEX)

This place is missing something—probably a subliminal thought of many Londoners who frequented the Duke of York Square area in London, near the entrance to the Saatchi Gallery in Chelsea. The locals also decided the site needed a visual lift—but what kind? Settling on a café as the answer would always seems to meet at least one requirement: You can pick up a coffee on the way to work, or it can serve as a casual meeting place. In any case, it is not to be ignored.

Urban Design in a Remote Village: The Klaksvik Town Center Competition

Urban Design in a Remote Village:

The Klaksvik Town Center Competition

by Stanley Collyer

Winning entry by Henning Larsen Architects (Illustration: Henning Larsen Architects)

The Klaksvik Town Center competition revealed that even a fishing village in a remote north Atlantic island group can attract the notice of the global architectural community. Located on one of the Faroe group islands in the north Atlantic between Iceland and Norway, Klaksvik was a relatively isolated fishing village until the recent construction of a road linked it to the rest of the island. Before that, all commercial communication with the rest of the archipelago had to take place by boat.

Klaksvik has been dependent on fishing for centuries; but as recent economic uncertainties in the fishing industry have battered the local economy, the municipality is looking elsewhere for economic stability—such as technology. However, in order to stem the brain drain to the European mainland of their younger citizens, the city decided that an upgrade of the town center could be part of the answer. In this way, they could at least visually keep in step with their European neighbors. To increase its public visibility and lend the town a more urban character, the city fathers decided to stage an international competition on the Scandinavian model—the islands are linked politically to Denmark—for modernization of the town’s center.

Interview: Frederic Schwartz (Spring 2006)

“World Cultural Center” – World Trade Center Innovative Masterplan – Runnerup, Ground Zero, NY, 2003

By THINK Team: Shigeru Ban, Frederic Schwartz, Ken Smith, Rafael Vinoly

COMPETITIONS: When did you know that you wanted to become an architect?

Frederic Schwartz: I grew up just a couple of towns over from Levittown. When anybody got a washing machine or refrigerator, I would scour the neighborhood for the boxes and bring them home with the help of my dad. I would make things out of them, like tunnels or big buildings. Where I grew up, they were always building houses in the neighborhood, and I was always watching this construction.
When I went to Berkeley, I had my first course with Joe Escherick as my professor, who was such a great teacher. He was the only architect I knew who won both the gold Medal for Firm of the Year and the teaching award. We remained very close through the rest of my career. In fact his wife gave me his shirt when he passed away. So when I was a freshman in college, I was already sure I wanted to become an architect. It wasn’t just Escherick, there were all these other great teachers, i.e., Roger Montgomery, J. B. Jackson, Richard Bender, Russ Ellis, and Marc Treib at Berkeley, and Jerzy Soltan at Harvard.
This was already called the College of Environmental Design in the 60s; so you automatically approached architecture and urbanism recognizing those parameters. I agreed with their philosophy: the school was very much about the relationship of landscape to building.

COMPETITIONS: You have participated in many competitions, some entirely on your own—here I am thinking about the memorial competitions you have won more recently—and others where you were a team member. Santa Fe is an example of the latter. But early on you collaborated with Robert Venturi on two competitions here in New York City. From those, the Whitehall Ferry Terminal has been built. How do you decide with whom you may wish to collaborate?

Central Mosque of Prishtina

Client: Islamic Community of Kosovo

Type: open, one-stage, international

Location: Prishtina, Kosovo

Language: English

Fee: 100 EUROS

Eligibility: Architects licensed in their country of origin

Timetable:

28 December 2012 – Registration deadline

4 January 2013 – Q&A period ends

8 March 2013 – Submission deadline

Awards:

1st prize – EUR 25,000

2nd prize – EUR

2nd Street Design Challenge

Sponsor: 2nd Street Community Partners

Type: Open, student, one-stage

Eligibility: Graduate and undergraduate students majoring in architecture, engineering, interior design, or other design-related disciplines

Entry fee: none

Awards:

1st Place: $500 Cash Prize and Certificate

2nd Place: $250 Cash Prize and Certificate

3rd Place: $100 Cash Prize and Certificate

Timetable:

11 January 2013

Call for Design Proposals: CURTAINS

Sponsor: Center for American Architecture and Design, School of Architecture, The University of Texas at Austin

Type: Call for Proposals: open, international Location: Austin, Texas Eligibility: open to professionals and students Fees: Early Registration-US$35 Regular Registration-US$50 Timetable: 14 February 2013 – Registration deadline 14 March 2013 – Submission deadline Jury:

M+ Museum Competition (Hong Kong)

A shortlist of six design teams have been invited to submit proposals for the architectural design of M+, Hong Kong’s future museum for 20th and 21st century visual culture within the District, scheduled for completion in 2017. M+ is an ambitious project, the scale of the museum building alone, at around 62,000 square metres, will

VISIONARY (re)generation: University of Manitoba Fort Garry Campus Plan

Client: University of Manitoba

Type: open, two-stage, international

Location: Winnipeg, Manitoba

Language: English

Fee: none

Timetable:

11 March 2013 – Phase I entry submissions 29 July 2013 – Phase II entry submissions

Awards:

The promoter will provide the net amount of approx. 270,000 Canadian Dollars (CAD) for fees and prizes for services rendered. The total

German Federal Labor Ministry Building, Berlin

Sponsor: German Federal Government

Location: Berlin, Germany

Type: Open, one-stage, anonymous

Language: German

Fee: none

Eligibility: Architects licensed in their countries of origin: GPA/GATT Timetable: 13 December 2012 – Documents available 28 February 2013 – Submission deadline

Awards: 45,000 EUR total

To enter, go to:http://www.bbr.bund.de/cln_032/nn_22808/DE/WettbewerbeAusschreibungen/PlanungsWettbewerbe/Ablage__LaufWettbewerbe/Ablage__2012/bmas.html

Gold Coast Cultural Precinct Competition

Sponsor: City of Gold Coast, Australia

Type: open, international, two-stage, RfQ

Fee: none

Process:

Phase 1: Concept design competition (March-September 2013). This starts with an open invitation to participate and leads to the shortlisting of up to three teams, each of which will be asked to submit a detailed concept design. A winner will be

SO-IL Re-invents Place Mazas in Paris

In Paris, it’s no longer just about Grands Projets. Lately, the French have become more focused on areas bordering the Seine River, and how to turn them into more attractive destinations for locals and visitors alike. The most recent projet, and the subject of a competition, was Place Mazas, located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the 12^th District. Partially because of the bordering highway’s proximity to the river, the site is underused and hardly regarded as a high profile destination.

Now that may all change. The competition, won by the New York-based firm, SO-IL, has conceived a plan, which will create a series of park areas and structures relating to the current needs of the community. Sustainability is almost always on the front burner in these competitions, and this was no exception. SO-IL’s plan for the site’s only major building is a seven-story structure made primarily of wood. Although situated all by itself at the end of a street—bordering on the Seine—its shape and size serve to address the composition of the streetscape in a very logical, spatial manner. According to the intent of the winner, “This volume includes a housing program in co-living typology, with several interior and exterior shared spaces for the residents as well as a public restaurant on the ground floor.”

In Memoriam: William Bricken

It’s seldom that one finds a separate section in an obituary dedicated to architecture competitions. We shouldn’t have been surprised to find this in the case of Bill Bricken, a frequent participant in design competitions and one of our long-time subscribers. It was also a case where we had published articles on competitions that Bill had participated in, winning the Clemson Performing Arts Center competition with Sert Jackson, and coming in a very close second in the Williamsburg Courthouse competition, whereby his wife, Ida, was also on the team. During the latter we were fortunate enough to be present as an observer during the presentations. The following is the segment which appeared in his obituary.

Hannes Meyer’s German Workers’ Seminar in Berlin as UNESCO Heritage Site

When we recently learned that Hannes Meyer’s Bundesschule ADGB (German Workers’ Seminar in Berlin/Bernau) had been designated a World Heritage site by UNESCO, we felt it was an opportunity to toot our own horn. Back in 2007, when a renovation of the complex had just been completed, we were given a tour of the facility and subsequently did a feature article about it in our COMPETITIONS quarterly magazine (Vol. 17, #4). Hardly six months passed, and we learned that the site had received the initial award for the 2008 World Monuments Fund Modernism Prize. In most cases, we wouldn’t have made a case for any influence that may have resulted from our publication, except that a member of that jury happened to be on our distribution list. So when the UNESCO designation occurred, we also received congratulations from a member of the German committee responsible for the renovation for the small role we played in the matter.

Read article …

New Taoyuan City Main Public Library, Taiwan

Located in the Zhongzheng Arts District of Taoyuan, the new city public library, to be situated next door to the Taoyuan Arts Center, is the newest building block in what is intended to become a cultural center in the city. No longer just a book repository, libraries have embraced the digital age and are now providing additional activities for the community such as lectures, occupational therapy (OT) projects, theme restaurants, etc. In the case of the Taoyuan City Library, a cinema is also to be added.

Ph: (502) 451-3623; Fax: (502) 451-3623

Website: https://competitions.org

E: scollyer@competitions.org

IMPORTANT NOTICE : Unless otherwise indicated, photographs of buildings and projects are from professional or institutional archives. All reproduction is prohibited unless authorized by the architects, designers, office managers, consortia or archives centers concerned. The Competition Project, Inc. is not held responsible for any omissions or inaccuracies, but appreciate all comments and pertinent information that will permit necessary modifications during future updates.

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A Significant Addition to a Public Place: The Cadogan Café Competition, London

Urban Design in a Remote Village: The Klaksvik Town Center Competition

Interview: Frederic Schwartz (Spring 2006)

Central Mosque of Prishtina

2nd Street Design Challenge

Call for Design Proposals: CURTAINS

M+ Museum Competition (Hong Kong)

VISIONARY (re)generation: University of Manitoba Fort Garry Campus Plan

German Federal Labor Ministry Building, Berlin

Gold Coast Cultural Precinct Competition

Annuals Sale!

• Half price on 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014 Annuals.
• 2016 Annual now available in PDF format.

SO-IL Re-invents Place Mazas in Paris

In Memoriam: William Bricken

Syracuse National Veterans Resource Center

New Taoyuan City Main Public Library, Taiwan

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Annuals Sale!

• Half price on 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014 Annuals. • 2016 Annual now available in PDF format.

• Half price on 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014 Annuals.
• 2016 Annual now available in PDF format.