Urban Revitalization of Mass Housing

Sponsor: United Nations (UN-Habitat)

Type: Open, student and recent graduates, one-stage

Language: English

Fee: None

Timetable:

• Registration starts September 15th, 2013

• Registration ends November 15th, 2013

• Submissions open December 15th, 2013

• Submissions close January 15th, 2013

• Announcement of winners March 15th, 2014

• Prizes delivered at the World Urban Forum, Medellin, Colombia 5-11 April 2014

Awards:

First prize: To be announced

Second and third prizes: Internships with academic and housing and planning institutions. We are crowdsourcing for prizes during the duration of the competition. As these become available we will announce them on the competition website.

Challenge:

The competition aims to render monolithic mass housing areas to become more sustainable socially, economically and environmentally this could be achieved, for example, by introducing mixed uses, improving densities and mobility to reduce the urban footprint. The approach also seeks to strengthen ties between academia, professionals, local and central authorities, the private sector and mass housing residents.

From 1 September 2013 till 15 January 2014, teams of university students and recent graduates are invited to innovate and compete within six regional groupings. Winners will be announced during the World Urban Forum in April 2014 in Medellin, Colombia. Schools of architecture, urban planning and other relevant academic and research institutions are encouraged to include this competition in their course work.

For more information, go to:

http://www.masshousingcompetition.org/guidelines

To register, go to:

http://www.urbangateway.org/content/international-competition-urban-revitalization-mass-housing

A New Meeting Place for Moscovites

SWA/Balsley Wins Paveletskaya Plaza Landscape Competition

Aerial view at night – courtesy SWA/Balsley 5+ Design

Of the nine railway stations in Moscow, Paveletskaya is the largest and one of the last of those that opened around the turn of the century. Compared to other Moscow stations, Paveletskaya, designed by Alexander Krasovsky and opened in 1900, represented a lower-key presence in its sprawling configuration, similar to palaces such as a Sans Souci without the ornamentation.

The original site for the recent competition included a small park facing the station, bordered on one side by the Ring Road. Post WWII, the site was bifurcated by a road, thus separating the front entrance of the station from the grassy area facing it.

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/

One Design to Fit All

Image Courtesy Network Rail

From Grand Central Station to King’s Cross in London, railway stations have often represented some of the major architectural accomplishments of our times. But those edifices have been primarily located in great cities. In the U.K. there are over 2,000 stations located in medium-sized, small, and rural communities. Most of those are ‘quick stop’ locations, and not the destination terminals where space requirements often result in state of the art design.

In July of last year, U.K.’s Network Rail, in collaboration with the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) launched a competition to identify a concept for a design that would be suitable for the medium to small-sized rail stations, at the same time updating the program to fit the modern needs of such a facility. The competition was open internationally and received 213 entries from 34 countries last September.

An Urban Icon Emerges

The Urban Confluence Silicon Valley Competition

Urban Confluence Silicon Valley winner: ©SMAR Architecture Studio

After several stops and starts over an extended period of time, the winner of the Urban Confluence Design Competition was named in early March, 2021. SMAR Architecture Studio’s The Breeze of Innovation, which prevailed over two other shortlisted finalists from the original 963 entries, won with a novel tower-like structure consisting primarily of hundreds of rods, generating energy while swaying in the wind.

A Barn by Herzog de Meuron in Berlin

A Flawed Plan Leads to Budget Issues

Competition rendering of project looking south to Mies museum ©Herzog de Meuron

Once considered on the forefront of modern architecture in post-WWII Europe, Berlin has had its share of questionable decisions concerning important urban projects in recent history. Beginning with the rebirth of the Berlin Palace (Humboldt Forum) on the Spree by Italian architect, Franco Stella, and now followed by Herzog de Meuron’s controversial addition to Mies’s 20^th Century Art Museum, the times when one could look to Berlin as a signpost of architectural innovation can only be viewed in the rear view mirror.

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