Soar Island International Ideas CompetitionSponsor: RIBA Location: Leicester, UK Type: Open, international, ideas, two stage Languages: English Eligibility: The competition is open internationally to registered architects and landscape architects only. Architects should be registered with the Architects Registration Board (ARB) in the UK, or an equivalent, recognised overseas regulatory authority. Fee: £50+VAT Awards: Each shortlisted designer will receive an honorarium of £5,000 + VAT and be invited to present their designs to the judging panel in June 2015. The selected winner will receive an additional £5,000 prize money. Process: The competition will follow the Open Ideas format and will be organised in the following stages: - Stage 1 – Submission of concept designs which will be assessed anonymously.
- Stage 2 – A shortlist of up to five designs will be selected and invited to submit and present their enhanced ideas to the judging panel.
Timeline: 17 March 2015 – Stage One submission deadline 25 May 2015 – Stage Two submission deadline Design Challenge: Architects and Landscape Architects are invited to take part in a competition which seeks ideas for the future use of Soar Island, located in the middle of the River Soar in Leicester. This architectural competition focuses on one site within Waterside-a unique piece of land which is expected to be brought forward in one of the first phases of Waterside development. Soar Island is, as the name suggests, an island within the River Soar and Grand Union Canal. Rally Park-an area of recently improved open space sits immediately to the west across the water. Connected with a network of bridges-both vehicle and footbridges, the site is just 10 minutes’ walk from the city centre. At 2.15 acres (0.87 ha) the site is currently a mixture of industrial works, open space and woodland, but Leicester City Council believe it offers unrealised potential in the form of a mixed-use (housing, commercial, community or leisure) that includes high quality open space and public realm and, enables public access to the island. It requires a special approach with a design that enhances the contribution Soar Island makes to the biodiversity of the area. Soar Island is at one of the most interesting parts of the river. It needs to include a use which creates an attractive destination that draws people to it, where they can enjoy being by the river. It is a distinctive and highly visible site and is well connected. The competition is being launched to raise the profile of Leicester Waterside ahead of major regeneration in the area. It is important to note that Leicester City Council is unlikely to be the developer of the site, instead; the outcome of this competition will provide a guide for the future use of the site. Whilst the Council is already a significant land owner in the area and has acquired a number of sites to help facilitate large-scale development, it is currently considering options for its role in bringing forward development. The council will be preparing an outline planning application for submission in July 2015. The outline application will include this site and the competition’s winning entry may be used to inform the final content of this application masterplan. The winner will be guaranteed publicity as part of the final announcement however; it will be at the discretion of the ‘developer’ as to whether they chose to take forward the winning design through to development. For more info, go to: http://www.ribacompetitions.com/soarisland/ |
Art Gallery of Nova Scotia Competition 
Image: ©KPMB Architects
Not to be outdone by other Canadian provincial capitals, Halifax has chosen to make its own ambitious museum statement on the city’s waterfront. New museums in Vancouver, BC, Calgary and Fredericton, New Brunswick, the latter two by KPMB Architects, are either in development or already under construction. Saskatoon’s Remai Modern by KPMB and OMA’s Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec in Montréal were more recently completed, and Vancouver’s new Art Museum by Herzog & de Meuron is still under development. 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/ Urban Adaptation Competition
Image ©Francesco Allaixand Julio Orduña
Recently we are beginning to see a resurgence of wood as a primary building material, not only for detached residential housing, but also for multi-family and commercial urban structures. Masonry, steel, and composite materials are still the bread and butter of the construction industry; but wood may be making serious inroads into the future of commercial buildings. Yes, we have seen the use of wood in interiors of large buildings: one of the more impressive projects being that of the Christ the Light Cathedral by SOM in Oakland, California. Read more…
Aerial view of site – Courtesy National Finnish Museum
When major cultural institutions in Finland plan a new building project, one can almost always assume that an open competition will be the vehicle by which the client settles on the building’s design. The only question is, will this be organized in a format open to local, Scandinavian, or international architects. In the case of the National Museum of Finland annex competition, it was open to architects throughout the world — resulting in 185 entries. Read more…
The Opening of Taichung’s Central Park by Catherine Mosbach/Philippe Rahm
View from the south with downtown Taichung in the distance image: ©Mosbach/Rahm
The abandonment and closing of airports, including decommissioning those that were used for military purposes, has presented design communities with several opportunities to convert them entirely to civilian purposes. Notable among those which have been the result of competitions are Orange County Great Park, Irvine, California (Ken Smith Landscape Architects), The Estonian National Museum (Dan Dorell, Lina Ghotmeh and Tsuyoshi Tane), and Toronto’s less successful Downsview Park competition, whereby the winning design by OMA, with trees as the primary feature, has been basically ignored. Instead, the area has become the site of numerous commercial and residential projects.
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