SHIFTboston Ideas Competition 2009Sponsor: SHIFT and The Boston Society of Architects /AIA Type: Open International Language: English Eligibility: This competition is open to all individuals and teams of all sizes. Registration fee: US$35.00 Awards:
The winning entry will receive a US$1,000.00 cash prize. The winner along with a select number of honorable mentions will be invited to attend the SHIFTboston Forum to present their work to the jury member and invited guests. The Forum will be held at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston on January 14, 2010. Honored projects may be featured in publications designed and used as promotional materials for SHIFTboston. It is expected that honored projects will appear on a billboard, bus shelters and subway cars in the Boston Metropolitan area as part of the SHIFTboston Exhibit. All eligible entries will be promoted on the SHIFTboston blog and website. Timetable:
December 11, 2009 – Submissions received no later than 4:00pm EST.
December 2009 – Jury will meet.
January 14, 2010 – SHIFTboston Forum held at The Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston. Jury:
Thom Mayne – Founder and Design Director of Morphosis Architects, Santa Monica, CA
Scott Burnham – Urban Strategist, London, UK
Ana Salinas Mata – Prinicipal of Wilk-Salinas Architekten, Berlin, Germany
Mitchell Joachim, PhD – Co-Founder of Terreform ONE and Terrefuge, New York, NY
Brian Healy, AIA – Principal Brian Healy Architects, Boston, MA
Audrey O’Hagan, AIA – Principal of O’Hagan Architects, Boston, MA
Sarah Whiting, PhD – Principal of WW Architecture, Dean of the Rice University School of Architecture (January 2010)
Design Challenge:
This competition calls on all visionaries to evaluate the current status of Boston’s urban environment and submit their ideal addition or augmentation to the existing context. Help uncover the most pressing issues concerning the future of Boston and respond to them in an imaginative manner. Avoid the stereotype and everything you have seen done before; imagine what deserves to be there! What do cities provide us with? What do you believe Boston should provide? Let your idea take shape and function, and enhance the everyday setting. Make Boston thrive! Topics to explore but not limited to:
Boston – the future
Governing bodies
Human scale
Materials and technology
Energy harvesting
Symbiosis
Ecological urbanism Please be aware that these should be inventive, innovative, visionary proposals. The broader and more diverse the subjects the better. You are not limited by the ideas in this brief. This competition is designed for multiple viewpoints – architect, artist, student, government official, and citizen. This is your opportunity to share your bold urban vision. Submission Requirements:
Entries must be formatted to fit a single 24″ x 36″ (60cm x 90cm) board (landscape orientation). The board may include any drawings and three-dimensional representation of the proposed concept along with any supporting text. Inventive and multi-graphical presentations are encouraged.
For information, please visit: www.shiftboston.org or get inspired at www.shiftboston.blogspot.com. |
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/
Aerial view of site – Courtesy National Finnish Museum
When major cultural institutions in Finland plan a new building project, one can almost always assume that an open competition will be the vehicle by which the client settles on the building’s design. The only question is, will this be organized in a format open to local, Scandinavian, or international architects. In the case of the National Museum of Finland annex competition, it was open to architects throughout the world — resulting in 185 entries. Read more…
The Opening of Taichung’s Central Park by Catherine Mosbach/Philippe Rahm
View from the south with downtown Taichung in the distance image: ©Mosbach/Rahm
The abandonment and closing of airports, including decommissioning those that were used for military purposes, has presented design communities with several opportunities to convert them entirely to civilian purposes. Notable among those which have been the result of competitions are Orange County Great Park, Irvine, California (Ken Smith Landscape Architects), The Estonian National Museum (Dan Dorell, Lina Ghotmeh and Tsuyoshi Tane), and Toronto’s less successful Downsview Park competition, whereby the winning design by OMA, with trees as the primary feature, has been basically ignored. Instead, the area has become the site of numerous commercial and residential projects.
Read more…
SMAR’s Winning Entry Gets the Green Light
Image: ©SMAR Architecture
The winning competition entry in the 2016 Science Island competition in Kaunas, Lithuania by SMAR Architects may only take five years to realize—from the date of the competition to completion. This is encouraging news, as the duration of such projects resulting from a competition can often take much longer—sometimes up to 8-10 years. Read more…
Night view of the memorial tapestry from Independence Avenue, with Gehry’s sketch of the Normandy cliffs.
Explaining the contributions of a World War II hero and later President of the United States on a very modest site on Independence Avenue just off the Washington Mall is tantamount to asking an author to describe the life of this person in no more than one paragraph. But on September 17th, after a long and bumpy journey, lasting almost 20 years and navigating a warren of the DC approval processes and public scrutiny, the Eisenhower Memorial finally was dedicated and opened to the public. Designed by Frank Gehry, it has received mixed reviews, the majority being more positive. But most have pointed out that the memorial is more impressive at night than in full daylight. This is due primarily to the illumination of an almost block-long metallic tapestry—featuring a sketch by Gehry, which depicts his interpretation of the cliffs of the Normandy coastline where the Americans landed on D-Day. Read more…
Professional winner: Brooklyn Bridge Forest (image © Pilot Projects Design Collective)
While looking for new adventures on a visit to New York City, friends suggested that I take time to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge—certainly a New York icon. For those intending to undertake this trek across the bridge for the first time, the bridge consists of layers, with a large platform for pedestrians on top of a lower level for cars and the metro system. Traversing this connection for the first time between Manhattan and Brooklyn is not just about getting from one place to another, but experiencing a great scenic view of both boroughs and occasionally interacting with other bridge crossers. As for the latter, they provide a flavor of the city’s demographics, as opposed to similar experiences one might have of the city’s inhabitants when riding the city’s subway system. Read more… |
