New Central Urban Waterfront Space and Main Library (MEDIASPACE)New Central Urban Waterfront Space and Main Library (MEDIASPACE) Open, international, RfP Aarhus, Denmark The contest including negotiated procedure is expected to run from March 2008 to November 2008 SPONSORS: The Municipality of Aarhus TYPE: Open, international, RfP LOCATION: Aarhus, Denmark LANGUAGE: English, Danish TIMETABLE: The contest including negotiated procedure is expected to run from March 2008 to November 2008, the planning stage running from January 2009 to June 2012, and the construction stage from March 2011 and until the opening of MEDIASPACE in December 2014. ELIGIBILITY: Architects, engineers, planners worldwide JURY: Not Announced AWARDS: 5 to 6 participants will be shortlisted. The construction costs of sections 1 + 2 are estimated at approx. EUR 180 million excl. VAT, but including various design costs, while the costs of section 3 are estimated at approx. EUR 20 million excl. VAT, but including various design costs. FEE: None THE COMPETITION: The Municipality of Aarhus launches an international architectural design contest for an integrated design solution for a new urban waterfront space and MEDIASPACE – the new main library of Aarhus, Citizens’ Services and more – a new icon communicating Aarhus as a city of knowledge. It is essential for the Municipality of Aarhus that the designer in all phases of the design process focuses on involvement processes, e.g. involvement of Aarhus City Council, client, citizens, users, employees, building authorities, business community and future tenants. The total overall project comprises three separate design sections: 1. Building design of an 18,000 sqm. MEDIASPACE – Aarhus’ new main library, citizens’ services etc. including 10,000 sqm. of optional area on a future harbour bastion. New urban spaces should be designed on the bastion around MEDIASPACE, while car parking, local trains, arrivals centre etc. should be established in the bastion or in connection hereto. 2. Uncovering of the last part of Aarhus River and modification of the Europaplads (existing town square) as an integrated solution with design of the bastion and MEDIASPACE. 3. Design of an approx. 500 m new urban waterfront that opens the city towards the sea and creates a new urban area for public activity and recreation. The design contest comprises all three project sections (sections 1 + 2, and section 3), however the jury reserves the right to award separate winners of sections 1 + 2 and section 3. The winner(s) will subsequently be invited to participate in a negotiated procedure without prior publication of a contract notice on the conditions stated in Article 31, para 3 of the Directive. If separate winners are awarded for sections 1+2 and section 3, a separate negotiated procedure will be carried out for sections 1+2 as well as for section 3. The entire project is subject to the Aarhus City Council approving the commencement of the contest, the contest result, and the costs of the project. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: http://www.multimediehuset.dk |
An Ideas Competition in Berlin Seeks Answers 
Winning entry perspective Image: ©AllesWirdGut Architekten
Berlin developer HOWOGE recently staged what was regarded as a “planning Laboratory” competition for a model satellite in northwest Berlin. The brief for this invited competition noted that the urban sprawl, which had accompanied the reunification of Germany(and Berlin) in 1989, was low density in character, occupying wide swaths of suburban areas around the city. With previous high density, and now controversial Berlin projects in mind—the problems with Berlin’s high-density Gropius-Stadt as a warning signal—the sponsor here suggested that lessons learned from past mistakes could be avoided with a high-quality design strategy… Read more… Winner Announced for New Preston Mosque Competition
LUCA POIAN FORMS Image courtesy RIBA
Facilitator: RIBA
Location: Preston, U.K.
Type: International, open
The competition attracted over 200 entries from 40 different countries.
Five finalists were chosen to participate in a second phase:
Winner
• LUCA POIAN FORMS, London, UK
Finalists - BLANKPAGE Architects, Lebanon
- Borough Architects + buchhandler-nelli + elca, Cambridge, UK
- Mcheileh Studio, New York (Highly Commended by the Evaluation Panel)
- TABE SHOURI, New York
RIBA competition website:
www.architecture.com/competitions Young Architects in Competitions When Competitions and a New Generation of Ideas Elevate Architectural Quality
by Jean-Pierre Chupin and G. Stanley Collyer
published by Potential Architecture Books, Montreal, Canada 2020
271 illustrations in color and black & white
Available in PDF and eBook formats
ISBN 9781988962047
What do the Vietnam Memorial, the St. Louis Arch, and the Sydney Opera House have in common? These world renowned landmarks were all designed by architects under the age of 40, and in each case they were selected through open competitions. At their best, design competitions can provide a singular opportunity for young and unknown architects to make their mark on the built environment and launch productive, fruitful careers. But what happens when design competitions are engineered to favor the established and experienced practitioners from the very outset? This comprehensive new book written by Jean-Pierre Chupin (Canadian Competitions Catalogue) and Stanley Collyer (COMPETITIONS) highlights for the crucial role competitions have played in fostering the careers of young architects, and makes an argument against the trend of invited competitions and RFQs. The authors take an in-depth look at past competitions won by young architects and planners, and survey the state of competitions through the world on a region by region basis. The end result is a compelling argument for an inclusive approach to conducting international design competitions. Download Young Architects in Competitions for free at the following link: https://crc.umontreal.ca/en/publications-libre-acces/ Astrakhan Looks to Raise Its Quality of Life Index
Aerial view of downtown Astrakhan
Planning competitions with a strong landscape component take many forms, including some for plazas and gateways to major town centers, city neighborhood sites with multi-story housing units, university campus plans and finally, comprehensive city plans—the latter either being for new towns, as in China, or strategies for the improvement of existing cities—as was here the case with Astrakhan, a major city on the Volga delta, and the Caspian Sea. Read more…
Image: ©wHY Architecture
Earlier this year, an article in the Architects’ Journal described what almost sounded like a death knell for wHY Architecture’s winning competition design for Edinburgh’s Ross Pavilion site. When the competition took place, some observers may have regarded wHY as a wild card, in the company of such high-profile firms as BIG and David Adjaye,* There can be no question that they understood the site and program better than their rivals, and it would have appeared that innovation had won the day. Their design could have served to rethink the way in which this site, with its replacement of an outdated bandstand by a contemporary structure, would serve as a destination for Scotland’s public—much as has been the case for Frank Gehry’s pavilion in Chicago’s Millennium Park. Read more… SWA/Balsley Wins Paveletskaya Plaza Landscape Competition
Aerial view at night – courtesy SWA/Balsley 5+ Design
Of the nine railway stations in Moscow, Paveletskaya is the largest and one of the last of those that opened around the turn of the century. Compared to other Moscow stations, Paveletskaya, designed by Alexander Krasovsky and opened in 1900, represented a lower-key presence in its sprawling configuration, similar to palaces such as a Sans Souci without the ornamentation. The original site for the recent competition included a small park facing the station, bordered on one side by the Ring Road. Post WWII, the site was bifurcated by a road, thus separating the front entrance of the station from the grassy area facing it. Read more… |
