Bird College – Dance, Music & Theatre PerformanceSponsor: RIBA
Type: Expressions of interest
Location: London
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 quantity surveyor. Other specialists including landscape architects, acousticians and theatre consultants may also be proposed at this stage. Timetable:
7 October 2011 – Registration deadline to obtain specification documents
12 October 2011 – Deadline for receipt of PQQs & Expressions of Interest
17 October 2011 – Appraisal of Pre‐Qualification Questionnaires and Expression of Interest documents
10 November 2011 – Short‐listing assessment meeting
14 November 2011 – Shortlist notified
16 November 2011 – Stage 2 Design Brief issued to shortlist
21 November 2011 – Group site visit & open briefing session for shortlist
28 November 2011 – Deadline to raise questions on the Brief
7 December 2011 – Memo issued in response to questions
11 January 2012 – Submission of design concepts
16 January 2012 – Review of design proposals
27 January 2012 – Final assessment (interviews)
30 January 2012 – Result, preferred team identified Awards: 6 Shortlisted teams – £5,000 each Winning team awarded the commission Jury: Geoff Pine – Chairman & Trustee of the Doreen Bird Foundation
Patrick Deuchar – Trustee of the Doreen Bird Foundation
Professor Anthony Bowne – Principal, Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance
Shirley Coen – Principal and Chief Executive, Bird College
June Denton – Founder, VThree ltd.
Laura Lee – Chief Executive, Maggie’s Centres
Greg Penoyre – Senior Partner, Penoyre & Prasad LLP [acting as the RIBA Architect Adviser]
Design Challenge: Expressions of Interest are sought from architect-led design teams with exceptional design skills for the redevelopment of the facilities of Bird College, Sidcup. The College is currently based in buildings over three sites in residential Sidcup which are owned or leased by the Doreen Bird Foundation, and in order to accommodate increased student numbers, additional space is rented in other nearby facilities. This provides a total of ~4,500m2 of accommodation and results in the College operating from six different places on a daily basis. The College wishes to improve its facilities to match the best in the sector and create an exciting new teaching and learning resource for the benefit of students, staff and the wider community of Bexley. |
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… |
