Turning a Wasteland into a Community
The Gowanus Lowline Ideas Competition
by Dan Madryga
The landscape of waste: it is a common feature in any big city. Left in the wake of decentralized cities and waning industry, the neglected postindustrial terrain is an unavoidable blemish on the built environment. The desolate, ugly, contaminated vestiges of abandoned factories, overstuffed trash dumps and discontinued mills were pushed out of site and out of mind for decades as Americans sought refuge in suburbia. Yet as urban centers are gradually redeveloped and society expresses increased concern about environmental crises, these harmful, marginalized sites are becoming more difficult to ignore. On Brooklyn’s doorstep lies one such wastescape: the dormant and noxious Gowanus Canal. With help from the recent Gowanus Lowline ideas competition, locals are beginning to seriously contemplate a restorative future for this type of ailing urban environment.
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Anticipating a Second Stage
The New Taipei City Museum of Art Design Competition
by Stanley Collyer
Finalist entry by Kengo Kuma and Associates
To arrive at a design for a new art museum in Taipei, the organizers decided to allow the participants more flexibility than usual in devising their planning concepts for the new institution. According to the design brief, “the planning and design guidelines in this program are for reference only. The designer must propose…new possibilities for modern art museums, define the exhibition method, and propose new space requirement, then proceed (in) the planning and design based on the new required spaces and design guidelines.”
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Kaiser Permanente has announced three finalists in its “Small Hospital, Big Idea” design competitio: Aditazz, Palo-Alto: Gresham, Smith and Partners: Mazzetti Nash Lipsey Burch, San Francisco: The three finalists were selected from a shortlist of nine firms. To see the submissions of all nine teams, go to: http://design.kpnfs.com/shortlisted_proposals.html Each of the three finalists will receive
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Sponsor: Lakeland Arts Trust, RIBA Type: Expressions of Interest, two-stage Location: Lake District National Park, UK Language: English Fee: £50 Eligibility: Expressions of Interest are invited from architect-led teams which should also include the services of a structural engineer, M&E engineer and landscape designer. Practising architects must be registered with the Architects Registration Board
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Sponsor: Keihlla Residential Programme Type: Open, international Location: Toronto Language: English Fee: Free Eligibility: Open to architects, students, artists, builders and allied design professionals Timetable: 31 August 2011 – Q&A 31 August 2011 – Submission deadline 6 September 2011 – Finalists notified 4-10 October – Construction period 11-12 October – Sukkahs will be on
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Sponsor: Fentress Architects Type: Open, student, international, ideas Language: English Fee: Free Eligibility: Open to graduate and undergraduate students actively enrolled and pursuing an architecture or engineering degree, as well as 2011 graduates. Timetable: 31 October 2011 – Registration deadline 7 November 2011 – Question submission deadline 31 December 2011 – Design submission deadline
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Sponsor: Olympic Park Legacy Company, Malcolm Reading Consultants Type: expressions of interest, international, two stage Location: London Language: English Fee: None Eligibility: Open to multi-disciplinary teams which should include, but are not limited to, landscape architects, architects, engineers, and quantity surveyors. Teams should propose a lead consultant. A creative and artistic exploration of the project
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Bucolic Site as Museum Context
The Serlachius Museum Competition in Finland
by William Morgan
In Finland, a land where architectural competitions are a way of life, a design contest for an addition to a small art museum drew the greatest number of entries in Finnish competition history.
That the Serlachius Museum in an out-of-the way city could attract 579 entrants from 41 countries may say something about the flat world economy. But it is more likely a measure of the attractiveness of the project, the reputation of the client, and the above-board way competitions are run in Finland.
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Sponsor: Building Trust International Type: Open, international, single stage Location: Burma Languages: English Fees: Professional Registration: £95.00Student Registration: £25.00 Eligibility: Architects, architecture graduates or architecture students. Timetable: October 1, 2011 – Registration deadline (registration fees due) October 22, 2011 – Submissions deadline Awards: * Professional Category:1st prize: Design will be used to construct planned school
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Sponsor: Pruitt Igoe Now Type: Open, ideas, one stage Location: St. Louis Languages: English Fees: $20 Eligibility: Open to anyone, individually or in teams Timetable:
16 March 2012 – Registration and submission deadline
Awards: First place – $1000 Second Place – $750 Third Place – $500 Jury: To be announced Design Challenge: Create
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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/
Winning entry ©Herzog de Meuron
In visiting any museum, one might wonder what important works of art are out of view in storage, possibly not considered high profile enough to see the light of day? In Korea, an answer to this question is in the making.
It can come as no surprise that museums are running out of storage space. This is not just the case with long established “western” museums, but elsewhere throughout the world as well. In Seoul, South Korea, such an issue has been addressed by planning for a new kind of storage facility, the Seouipul Open Storage Museum. The new institution will house artworks and artifacts of three major museums in Seoul: the Seoul Museum of Modern Art, the Seoul Museum of History, and the Seoul Museum of Craft Art.
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Belfast Looks Toward an Equitable and Sustainable Housing Model
Birdseye view of Mackie site ©Matthew Lloyd Architects
If one were to look for a theme that is common to most affordable housing models, public access has been based primarily on income, or to be more precise, the very lack of it. Here it is no different, with Belfast’s homeless problem posing a major concern. But the competition also hopes to address another of Belfast’s decades-long issues—its religious divide. There is an underlying assumption here that religion will play no part in a selection process. The competition’s local sponsor was “Take Back the City,” its membership consisting mainly of social advocates. In setting priorities for the housing model, the group interviewed potential future dwellers as well as stakeholders to determine the nature of this model. Among those actions taken was the “photo- mapping of available land in Belfast, which could be used to tackle the housing crisis. Since 2020, (the group) hosted seminars that brought together international experts and homeless people with the goal of finding solutions. Surveys and workshops involving local people, housing associations and council duty-bearers have explored the potential of the Mackie’s site.” This research was the basis for the competition launched in 2022.
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Alster Swimming Pool after restoration (2023)
Linking Two Competitions with Three Modernist Projects
Hardly a week goes by without the news of another architectural icon being threatened with demolition. A modernist swimming pool in Hamburg, Germany belonged in this category, even though the concrete shell roof had been placed under landmark status. When the possibility of being replaced by a high-rise building, it came to the notice of architects at von Gerkan Marg Partners (gmp), who in collaboration with schlaich bergermann partner (sbp), developed a feasibility study that became the basis for the decision to retain and refurbish the building.
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A Church Ruin as Reconciliation Memorial
View of winning design from south ©Heninghan Peng Architects
For those tourists visiting Berlin today, the sudden approach to the ruins of a 1895 church building located on the city’s downtown Breitscheidplatz would certainly arouse their curiosity. One of the few remaining relics of World War II in the city, the church has now been the subject of a competition: Redesign and renovation of the Old Tower of the Friedrich Wilhelm Memorial Church (Umgestaltung des Alten Turms der Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächnis-Kirche).
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