A Significant Addition to a Public Place: The Cadogan Café Competition, Londonby Stanley Collyer
Winning entry by NEX (Illustration: NEX)
This place is missing something—probably a subliminal thought of many Londoners who frequented the Duke of York Square area in London, near the entrance to the Saatchi Gallery in Chelsea. The locals also decided the site needed a visual lift—but what kind? Settling on a café as the answer would always seems to meet at least one requirement: You can pick up a coffee on the way to work, or it can serve as a casual meeting place. In any case, it is not to be ignored.
In selecting an architect for the project, a normal client might just go out and pick any firm for the job. But this client was different. The architect selection process was to take place via a competition. According to the competition brief: “The Cadogan Estate is not seeking the already well-established architect, rather it is keen to identify and support emerging talent and, in doing so, act as a client patron in the classic sense. It is looking for a team with a fascination for innovative construction techniques and logistics, an interest in the art of place-making and an eye to keeping disruption to a minimum.” Still, although the RfQ process was open, the competition itself was to be preceded by a short-listing process, whereby 5-7 firms were to be chosen for the next stage.
The final short list ended up with six firms, NEX, Architecture 00, Carmody Groarke, Duggan Morris Architects, Pernilla Ohrstedt & Sarah Price Landscapes, and TaylorSnell. The process was administered by Malcolm Reading Consultants, a firm which has had broad experience in running design competitions in the U.K.
Winning entry by NEX (Illustrations: NEX – click to enlarge) In the end, NEX prevailed over the other competitors, proposing an “organic coiled form with a roof terrace and incorporating a glass wall that rises and falls depending on the weather. The jury thought that it would intrigue passers-by and become a mini-landmark on the King’s Road.
In a similar vein, the scheme by Carmody Groarke may have come closest to giving the winner some competition. It also was quite expressive, although not in the compact, free-standing, here-I-am manner of the winner. The other finalists were somewhat predictable, each in his/her own way. Architecture 00 proposed a rectangular box that spoke all about function, but obviously lacking in poetic aura. The entry by Duggan Morris looked rather cumbersome for the site, too large at the edges so as to even present a visible obstacle to passers-by. The imprint of a landscape architect was evident in the presentation by Pernilla Ohrstedt & Sarah Price Landscapes. But their whimsical botanical scheme, although a valid contradiction for this site, seemed somehow out of place on such a hard surface. Finally, the proposal by TaylorSnell attempted to turn the site into a kind of stage set. One only could wonder how it would work in the absence of lots of people to give a sense of activity to the site.
This project is proof that competitions are even useful for small projects, and often can make a world of difference. Oh that more clients could take a cue from this forward-looking foundation.
Entry by Carmody Groarke Entry by Architecture 00
Entry by Duggan Morris
Entry by Pernilla Ohrstedt & Sarah Price Landscapes
Entry by TaylorSnell |
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/ 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… National Railway Museum Central Hall (U.K.)
Winning entry by Feilden Fowles (image © Fielden Fowles)
If one were to search for a railway museum in the U.K., London would seem to be an obvious choice. But, as it happens, its location is in the northeastern city of York, far from the major cultural and economic centers of the country. But despite its distance from the major metropolitan areas to the south and west, York has managed to become the focal point of research into the history of rail in the U.K., supplemented by a major museum. Here we are not just talking about some posters, but sheds replete with a large collection of vintage trains. Read more…
View to winning entry ©KDA
Foundation non-profits are no strangers to good architecture. Ford Foundation’s forward-looking headquarters in New York City by Roche Dinkeloo was an early example of a non-profit using architecture as a vehicle for serving to brand it as a progressive institution. In 2001 the California Endowment went one step further, staging an invited competition for their new headquarters in Los Angeles. Read more… 
Winning entry by Cui Kai (© Cui Kai)
Master plans have been around for ages; but master plans for very large cities with all their support systems are relatively new. Milton Keynes (MK), located in Buckinghamshire in southern England, and begun in the late 1960s, is one of the most successful of the new cities, now having a population of almost 250,000. Its success lies mainly on the lessons learned from the establishment of the planning which generated the new towns in the U.K. during the 1940s and 50s, many of which have not fared well in the test of time. MK’s success was based primarily on the careful separation of high density from residential where the influence of the “garden city” could be seen. Here the idea of a live/work environment was even incorporated. Read more… The O’Hare International Airport Competition
Winning entry – Studio-ORD The updating and modernization of Chicago’s O’Hare Airport has been well overdue. Aside from occasional problems caused by Chicago’s winter storms, congestion at the airport has led air travelers to avoid the airport when catching a connecting flight is on the agenda. So Chicago, noted for its modern architecture and the home of several high-profile architecture firms, decided to turn to an invited competition for a solution to these issues. Competitions in Chicago in the recent past have been anything but encouraging, especially when transparency is an issue. During the competition for the Obama Center on the South Side, the Obama Foundation, which was responsible for the administration of that “competition,” was anything but a model of transparency; and to this day, none of the finalist designs, other than that of the winner, have seen the light of day. In the case of the O’Hare project, videos submitted by the five finalists teams were on public display, and the public was even asked to vote for their favorite. Read more… |
