Low-Tech Solutions for Developing Countries: The Moving School Project in Burma

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.

Low-tech as High Value: De-Materializing Seattle Center

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?

New National Stadium Japan

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

Enlightening Libraries — AIAS Student Competition

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

Generation Kingspan: 2012 Student Design Competition

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

2013 Ed Bacon Student Design Competition

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

Draw up a Chair in Battery Park Competition

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

Alzheimer’s Center (Centro Alzheimer)

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,

Water_Works

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

2012 AIAS/AARP Student Competition Winners:

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

Designing Aljada’s Central Hub

Zaha Hadid Architects Wins UAE Masterplan Competition

Following the international competition, ARADA has appointed Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA) to design the Central Hub, the centerpiece of Aljada, the developer’s masterplan in Sharjah, UAE. The other competitors in the invited competition were HOK (U.S.) and RMJM (London).

Developed with environmental considerations integrated throughout the masterplan to minimize the consumption of resources, the proposal conceptualizes the moment a water droplet strikes the earth’s surface, captured in an array of elliptical buildings designed to channel prevailing winds into civic spaces and courtyards to facilitate cooling during the summer months. The central observation tower is surrounded by vibrant public squares with water features irrigated by recovered and recycled water. Tensile canopies sustain a microclimate at ground level for verdant gardens of species native to the region.

Review: A Rift in the Earth

Art, Memory, and the fight for a Vietnam War Memorial

by James Reston, Jr.
Arcade Publishing
New York (2017)
Hardcover, 267 pages
ISBN 9781628728569

View from the memorial to the Washington Monument
Photo: Paul Spreiregen

Having an idea is one thing. Realization of that idea is another. Maybe this should have been the main thrust of a new book on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC. Instead, the author of this book, whose interest in this topic dates back to his military service during the Vietnam conflict, chose to sensationalize the the cultural and political themes familiar to the project, rather than treat its progress in contrast to the evolution of other recent memorial competitions located on or near the Mall, the political and emotional components of the various memorials notwithstanding. The World War II Memorial and Eisenhower Memorial also were fraught with controversy by the public and in the press, whereby one hardly resembled the original design, and the other has not yet made it beyond the drawing board. Projects on or near the Mall run into similar obstacles in navigating their way through the DC approval process unscathed, regardless of the subject matter.\

K2K Planning Competition (Kensington / Kingsford)

Finetuning a Sydney Suburb’s Future

Competitions in Australia have become more commonplace than could have become anticipated two decades ago. It was in the early 1990s that Sydney’s mayor, Frank Sartore, decided that competitions could improve on the rather mediocre architecture so prevalent in the city at that time. As a result, major government projects became the subject of design competitions, and a number of notable projects ensued, especially in higher education.

Taichung Tower 2 Competition

Everyone is well aware of the measures one encounters when entering almost any tower, residential or office, in this era of high security. We are not just talking about protecting the occupants of a residential highrise, but rather the separation of workers from the street and the community at large. The Taichung Tower is intended as the antithesis to this concept of isolation, encouraging interaction at different levels, within the workplace, as well as access, though limited, to the community at large.

Taichung, certainly one of Taiwan’s most forward-looking cities, has just completed a final competition to complete the ambitious Taichung Cultural Center complex—a tower to replaced Sou Fujimoto’s abandoned winner of the initial Taichung Tower Competition (below). The Fujimoto scheme was shelved based on the high construction estimates for his revolutionary scheme—by some accounts doubling the anticipated budget.

Aarhus New School of Architecture

After surmounting two formidable obstacles, an open international competition with over 260 entries and a second stage limited to four other finalists—two of which were high-profile invitees*—the young Copenhagen firm of Vargo, Nielsen & Palle was declared the winner of the Aarhus School of Architecture Competition. As is often the case when a competitor from a small firm advances to a final stage, the winner teamed up with ADEPT, which had placed in the top six as an honorable mention in the open stage and Rolvung & Brøndsted Arkitekter, Tri-consult and Steensen Varming.

Login

Low-Tech Solutions for Developing Countries: The Moving School Project in Burma

Low-tech as High Value: De-Materializing Seattle Center

New National Stadium Japan

Enlightening Libraries — AIAS Student Competition

Generation Kingspan: 2012 Student Design Competition

2013 Ed Bacon Student Design Competition

Draw up a Chair in Battery Park Competition

Alzheimer’s Center (Centro Alzheimer)

Water_Works

2012 AIAS/AARP Student Competition Winners:

Annuals Sale!

• Half price on 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014 Annuals.
• 2016 Annual now available in PDF format.

Recent Competitions

Designing Aljada’s Central Hub

Zaha Hadid Architects Wins UAE Masterplan Competition

Review: A Rift in the Earth

K2K Planning Competition (Kensington / Kingsford)

Taichung Tower 2 Competition

Aarhus New School of Architecture

Login

Annuals Sale!

• Half price on 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014 Annuals. • 2016 Annual now available in PDF format.

Recent Competitions

Zaha Hadid Architects Wins UAE Masterplan Competition

• Half price on 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014 Annuals.
• 2016 Annual now available in PDF format.