2009-10 Leading Edge Student Design CompetitionSponsor: nbi, California Energy Commission, PG&E, Southern California Edison, SMUD, AIA Type: Student Language: English Eligibility: The competition is open to currently-enrolled undergraduate and graduate students of architecture, engineering, drafting, and environmental design entering as individuals or teams. The competition may be treated as a class project or a separate independent study. A faculty member must supervise all participants. Registration Fees: none Awards:
Student
First Place: $3,000
Second Place: $2,000 Sponsoring Institution
First Place: $1,500
Second Place: $1,000 Time Line:
26 March 2010 – Final Registration Deadline
09 April 2010 – Final Deadline for Submission of Questions
16 April 2010 – Final Posting of Questions and Answers on the Website
11 June 2010 – Deadline for Receipt of Entries
27 August 2010 – Winners notified and posted on the Website
10 September 2010 – Judges Comments Posted Jury:
Gregg D. Ander, FAIA
Vivian Loftness, FAIA
Nancy Clanton, PE, FIES, IALD, LC, LEEP AP Design Challenge: The 2009/2010 Leading Edge Student Design Competition seeks to support and enhance the study of sustainable and energy-efficient building practices in architectural education. Students and instructors of architecture and design are invited to use the competition as a framework to explore the use of new materials and strategies for building, and the integration of aesthetics and technology for highperformance, cutting-edge architecture that approaches the goal of zero-net energy use. A zero-net energy building generates enough on-site renewable energy to equal or exceed the amount of energy needed to operate the building. This is also known as netzero site energy. Since a significant proportion of the nation’s use of fossil fuels comes from heating and cooling buildings, creating zero-net buildings is an important way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and fight global warming. This year the competition focuses on the coastal city of Long Beach, California. Students entering Challenge 1 will design a zero-net energy Workforce Training Center; students entering Challenge 2 will design a zero-net energy Student Residence. The projects will be located on adjacent sites on Long Beach Boulevard. Submission Requirements: Entrants to challenge one may submit two or three 30”x40” boards arranged with the 40” edge vertical. Entrants to Challenge 2 should submit two 30”x40” boards arranged as above. Additionally, each entry must include a brief narrative of approximately 750 words, somewhere on the face of the board, discussing the overall energy efficiency and environmental sustainablility aspects of the design. For more information, go to: http://www.leadingedgecompetition.org/ |
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/ Another Competition for Moscow’s Expanding Subway Network
Image © Zaha Hadid Architects
Even under Stalin, Moscow subway stations represented the crown jewels of the city’s projects when it came to design. In more recent years, the emphasis placed on modern design in the city’s expanding metro rail network has resulted in some major new projects, and this year’s competitions for two stations was no exception: the Klenoviy Boulevard Station 2 won by Zaha Hadid Architects (London), and the Prospect Marshala Zhukova station, won by the ASADOV Architectural Bureau (Moscow). Read More… Hangang District Urban Design International Master Competition
1st place entry by Dominique Perrault Architecture (image ©Dominique Perrault Architect)
China’s planning priorities for their urban areas experienced a sharp turn after the post-Mao reforms took place. During the early post-WWII period, when Soviet influence in the early urbanization of China dominated, industrial development took precedence over all other issues, with heritage, conservation, residential planning, and the amenities associated with it, being almost entirely neglected. Read more…
Winning design by ©Moreau Kusunoki /Genton
Although one might normally assume that local firms participating in a competition might have a clear advantage over foreign competitors, this has seldom been the case: just see Sydney’s Opera House, won by a Danish architect, and Toronto’s City Hall, won by a Finn—as evidence that well devised competition briefs as adequate documentation can create a level playing field for potential competitors, regardless of their location.
Read more…
Jensen Architects – Winning entry (Honor Award) Beginning in 2011, Architecture at Zero, a collaboration between the Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) and the California chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIACA), was established to investigate the role architecture might play in reducing energy consumption in the built environment. Since then, every year has seen a new site and building type selected as a design challenge in what has become one of the world’s most interesting international competitions.
As a sign of its mounting popularity, the competition received 237 registrations from 49 countries and, according to the professional adviser, about 150 entries— all this during the Covid-19 virus pandemic, when all were compelled to work from home. Read more… An Ideas Competition in Opposition to a Concrete Design
Entry by TheeAe (Image © TheeAe)
In early 2020, a group advocating a new approach to the design of the Los Angeles Museum of Art (LACMA)—The Citizens’ Brigade to Save LACMA—organized a competition to counter an existing design by the Swiss Architect Peter Zumthor. Already commissioned by the LACMA administration, the project is slated to begin almost immediately with the demolition of four LACMA buildings—three existing and one new. Moreover, the existing plan to incorporate all of the existing collections under one roof isn’t covered by the Zumthor plan. This obvious lack of exhibit space was the focus of a query by the Ahmanson Foundation, a major donor of artworks to LACMA in the past. Upon not receiving assurances from LACMA that those donated works would be exhibited, but possibly held in storage and hidden from public view, the Foundation cut all ties with LACMA. Finally, the plan by Zumthor foresees the new structure not only occupying much of the new space created by demolition, but extends part of the new building over Wiltshire Boulevard. As one might anticipate from Zumthor, the construction of the structure is also primarily of concrete, thereby raising the cost per SF. So no matter how highly finished this material turns out to be, it does in essence represent a brutalist structure replacing an eclectic ensemble. Read more… |
