Low Tech Solutions for Developing Countries:
The Moving School Project in Burma
by Stanley Collyer
Winning entry by Amadeo Benneta and Daniel LaRossa
Children are often the ones suffering most when they become refugees. Not only do they undergo the physical deprivations common to many of the most serious scenarios affecting refugees, they often miss out on the intellectual stimulation provided in their previous educational environment. Because of the relatively recent flow of those Burmese refugees over the Thai border fleeing persecution in their native Burma, the situation of the children has become increasingly precarious. After visiting the Mae Sot refugee camp on the Tai/Burmese border, Louise McKillop and David Cole of the U.K. non-profit, Building Trust International, decided to make an attempt to rectify this, even though if only on a modest scale: they decided to stage a competition for the design of a low-tech, sustainable school module that could be easily dismantled and moved back to Burma when conditions dictated it was safe to do so.
Read more…
Low-tech as High Value
De-Materializing Seattle Center: The Triumph of the Idea
by Clair Enlow
Winning entry by ABF
The most ambitious urban plans often don’t materialize beyond the drawing board. Usually, it’s a funding issue, or local politics, or simply the lack of will on the part of those who are calling the shots to take up a brand new idea. Seattle, no stranger to grand urban schemes, seems to be one of those rare exceptions—the sweeping Olympic Sculpture Park by Weiss/Manfredi being a recent example. A new plan by Field Operations (James Corner) for the Seattle waterfront could well turn out to be a worthy addition. So staging an ideas competition for an underused site near Seattle’s urban core—Seattle Center—would seem like an attention-getter and harbinger of great things. As was the case with this competition, initiating a discussion about a site without imposing strict programmatic limitations can sometimes get the ball rolling. Wasn’t this how New York’s High Line got started, first raising the bar with an ideas competition until it developed into a real project?
Read more…
Sponsor: Japan Sport Council
Type: RfQ, open, international
Languages: English, Japanese
Location: Tokyo, Japan
Eligibility requirements:
Laureates for any of the following: Pritzker Prize, AIA Gold Medal, RIBA Gold Medal, UIA Gold Medal, Honor of Prince Takamatsu and
Architects who have shown the ability to design and complete a
Read more…
Sponsor: AIAS Students
Type: Open, architecture students
Timetable:
14 October 2012 – Registration deadline
29 November 2012 – Submission deadline
Total Awards: $7,725.00
Challenge:
With the steady advent of new technologies, libraries are becoming more urbanized, collaborative community spaces as well as massive repositories of online data
Read more…
Sponsor: Kingspan
Type: Student, open
Fee: None
Language: English
Eligibility: Students presently enrolled in an accredited university program in the U.S. or Canada
Timetable:
31 October 2012 – Submission deadline online
7 November 2012 – Online voting deadline
Awards:
• Judged Winner – selected by the
Read more…
Sponsor: Philadelphia Center for Architecture
Type: Open, International
Fee: None for pre-registration; $50 for final entry
Language: English
Eligibility: Open to all college and university students who are matriculating during the competition period. Students may enter as teams or individuals.
Timetable:
Pre-Registration Deadline: 11:59PM, October 4, 2012
Read more…
Sponsor: The Battery Conservancy, New York City
Type: Open, but restricted to professionals and students residing in the Americas
Eligibility: Professional designers and students residing in North and South America
Language: English
Fees and timetable:
Early registration – US$50 (individuals); US$75 (teams) to October 1, 2012
Late registration
Read more…
Type: Open, international
Location: Armilla (Granada), Spain
Language: Spanish
Fee: None
Eligibility: Licensed architects
Jury: TBD
Timetable:
4 September 2012 – Submission deadline
Design Challenge:
Se pretende la construcción del Centro Granadino del Alzheimer, cuyo objetivo es ser un lugar de referencia asistencial y social,
Read more…
Sponsor: Gowanus by Design
Type: Open, ideas, one-stage
Language: English
Location: New York City
Eligibility requirements:
Professionals and students of architecture/landscape architecture
Fees:
$50 for students; $75 for professionals
Timetable:
19 October 2012 – Registration deadline
16 November 2012 – Q & A deadline
Read more…
Aging in Place—Kitchens
First Place Preservation through Creation Tony Zhang, Daniel Gehr, Richard May Advisor: Erica Cochran 2nd year students, Carnegie Mellon University
Second Place Staying Young in Old City: Securing Independence through Adaptable Design Jason Klinker, Madeline LaPlante Recent Graduates, Ball State University
Third Place
Read more…
|
Helsinki Central Library, by ALA Architects (2012-2018)
The world has experienced a limited number of open competitions over the past three decades, but even with diminishing numbers, some stand out among projects in their categories that can’t be ignored for the high quality and degree of creativity they revealed. Included among those are several invited competitions that were extraordinary in their efforts to explore new avenues of institutional and museum design. Some might ask why the Vietnam Memorial is not mentioned here. Only included in our list are competitions that were covered by us, beginning in 1990 with COMPETITIONS magazine to the present day. As for what category a project under construction (Science Island), might belong to or fundraising still in progress (San Jose’s Urban Confluence or the Cold War Memorial competition, Wisconsin), we would classify the former as “built” and wait and see what happens with the latter—keeping our fingers crossed for a positive outcome.
Read More…
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/
RUR model perspective – ©RUR
New Kaohsiung Port and Cruise Terminal, Taiwan (2011-2020)
Reiser+Umemoto RUR Architecture PC/ Jesse Reiser – U.S.A.
with
Fei & Cheng Associates/Philip T.C. Fei –R.O.C. (Tendener)
This was probably the last international open competition result that was built in Taiwan. A later competition for the Keelung Harbor Service Building Competition, won by Neil Denari of the U.S., the result of a shortlisting procedure, was not built. The fact that the project by RUR was eventually completed—the result of the RUR/Fei & Cheng’s winning entry there—certainly goes back to the collaborative role of those to firms in winning the 2008 Taipei Pop Music Center competition, a collaboration that should not be underestimated in setting the stage for this competition.
Read more…
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.
Read more…
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.
Read more…
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.
Read more…
|
