Imperial War Museum North External Spaces Design CompetitionSponsors: Imperial War Museum North and RIBA
Type: Open, international, RfQ
Timetable:
23 October 2008 – Expression of Interest deadline :
Assessment of EOI’s : w/c 3rd November
Brief issued to shortlist : w/c 10th November
Deadline for concept designs : 15th January 2009
Final judging (including interviews) : w/c 26th January
Eligibility: Open To Multi-disciplinary teams led by an architect or landscape architect
Fee: None
Awards:
£12,000 Total (between 5 finalists) and Design Commission
Jury:
The Jury Panel will include the Museum Director and other senior IWM representation, a Quays stakeholder representative and the RIBA architectural adviser, Maggie Mullan of Austin Smith Lord Architect
Design Challenge:
Imperial War Museum North is a hub for learning in the region with many innovative outreach programmes such as its award-winning volunteer scheme in addition to its exhibition and events programme. It also has a growing business development focus. All of these elements will benefit from the development of the external spaces.
The various spaces around the museum have very different characters, largely dictated by the weather, sun and other external factors such as the road, fencing, and the relationship between the building and the space around it. The site area is 20,000 sqm of which 5,000 sqm is the footprint of the museum itself.
At this stage the intention is not to be prescriptive, rather to give an outline of the hopes and ambitions of those closely associated with the museum.
Key objectives can be summarised as follows:
• To clarify and introduce the content and message of the building in order to complement and balance the iconic architecture and nature of the building.
• Responding to the clear message inherent in the architecture of the building, reinforcing and possibly explaining or further exploring the ideas of the world shattered by war.
• Enhancing the accessibility and the welcoming nature of IWM North.
• Exploiting the waterfront location. This could include the possibility of a landing stage for water taxis. There are plans for a new pedestrian bridge from MediaCity:uk and the potential for development on the neighbouring plot of land will need to be taken into account.
• Developing the relationships with other organisations, through partnership working and openness.
• Accommodating the full range of visitors to the museum, all of whom should have the possibility of having their visit enhanced by the development of the external spaces. Of particular importance to the museum are school groups and veterans and the families of both groups.
• Offering a space for personal and emotional responses to the museum; the content and message of the museum are uncompromising, emotionally challenging and deal with a difficult subject. The building itself is disorienting and reflects the challenging.
Information and submissions:
RIBA Competitions Office
6 Melbourne Street
Leeds LS2 7PS
Email: riba.competitions@inst.riba.org
Website: www.architecture.com/competitions
Ph: 44 (0) 113 2341335
Fax: 44 (0) 113 2460744 |
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… 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/
Image Courtesy Network Rail
From Grand Central Station to King’s Cross in London, railway stations have often represented some of the major architectural accomplishments of our times. But those edifices have been primarily located in great cities. In the U.K. there are over 2,000 stations located in medium-sized, small, and rural communities. Most of those are ‘quick stop’ locations, and not the destination terminals where space requirements often result in state of the art design. In July of last year, U.K.’s Network Rail, in collaboration with the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) launched a competition to identify a concept for a design that would be suitable for the medium to small-sized rail stations, at the same time updating the program to fit the modern needs of such a facility. The competition was open internationally and received 213 entries from 34 countries last September. Read more… The Urban Confluence Silicon Valley Competition
Urban Confluence Silicon Valley winner: ©SMAR Architecture Studio
After several stops and starts over an extended period of time, the winner of the Urban Confluence Design Competition was named in early March, 2021. SMAR Architecture Studio’s The Breeze of Innovation, which prevailed over two other shortlisted finalists from the original 963 entries, won with a novel tower-like structure consisting primarily of hundreds of rods, generating energy while swaying in the wind. Read More…
Pedestrian perspective
The result of an effort from a professor at the TUM (Technische Universität München) to restore the Budludzha Monument in Bulgaria, located in a remote location on a mountain top in that country, we discovered that it originally was the result of a 1959 design competition won by the young Bulgarian architect, Georgi Stoilov. Read more… A Flawed Plan Leads to Budget Issues
Competition rendering of project looking south to Mies museum ©Herzog de Meuron
Once considered on the forefront of modern architecture in post-WWII Europe, Berlin has had its share of questionable decisions concerning important urban projects in recent history. Beginning with the rebirth of the Berlin Palace (Humboldt Forum) on the Spree by Italian architect, Franco Stella, and now followed by Herzog de Meuron’s controversial addition to Mies’s 20th Century Art Museum, the times when one could look to Berlin as a signpost of architectural innovation can only be viewed in the rear view mirror.
Read more… |
