AARP/AIAS Livable Communities Phase Two Design CompetitionSponsor: AARP / American Institute of Architecture Students Type: Student Location: Various Language: English
Fee: $10 / Free for AIAS Members Eligibility: All Current students and recent graduates Timetable: Registration Deadline: September 16 Submission Deadline: September 30 Winners announced by October 19 Awards: First Place $6,000 (AIAS Chapter: $1,000) Second Place $4,250 (AIAS Chapter: $500) Third Place $2,150 (AIAS Chapter: $300) Three Honorable Mentions: $500 each Four Merit Awards: $75 each Jury: To be Announced Design Challenge: Communities of all sizes across the United States are applying the concept of livability to holistically address a range of challenges, such as a growing population of older residents, rising housing costs, and limited transportation alternatives. AARP has defined a Livable Community to be “places where people of all ages and abilities have affordable and accessible housing choices, as well as public buildings, retail and services, parks, and streets that meet their needs to stay safe and comfortable in both their homes and neighborhoods.”
Utilizing the features present in the community master plans submitted to last year’s AARP competition, designers are challenged to further investigate the designs for ways to improve on and grow the ideas of the livable community. Pulling from the livable community designs, AIAS and AARP are looking to students to create attractive, flexible and user-friendly housing designs that utilize the basic ideas of sustainability, accessibility, livability and visitability. Addressing these needs in housing prior to construction ensures that both the housing development and the surrounding community will continue to be energetic and a desirable place to live for all. Submission Requirements:
Entries must be uploaded through this Web site by 5:00 pm, Eastern Time, on Friday, September, 30 2011. If the submission is from a team of students all student team members will have the ability to upload the digital files. Once the final submissions are uploaded no additional edits, uploads, or changes can be made.
A final Submission upload must contain the following files in a single (ZIP) folder not exceeding 20 MB:
- Completed submission information cover page including all team members and faculty sponsors
- Each of the four 20″X 20″ boards individually as high resolution Portable Document Format (PDF) files, or as 150 DPI Image (JPEG, TIFF or GIF) files
- A copy of the design essay as a high resolution Portable Document Format (PDF) file or Document (DOC) file
For more information, go to: http://aarp.aias.org/phase-two/
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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… |
