Tours & Saint-Pierre-des-CorpsSponsor: l’Institut pour la ville en mouvement
Location: Tours, France
Type: Open, two stage, international
Languages: French, English
Eligibility: The competition is intended for teams of at least two people, at least one of whom is qualified in urban design (architect, urban planner, landscape architect…). All the members of the team must be aged under 40 at the deadline for the submission of entries (March 20, 2015). Teams should be as multidisciplinary as possible (urban planners, landscape architects, researchers, artists, etc.).
Process: This is a two stage competition. 7 teams shortlisted at the end of the first stage will be invited to take part in an on-site workshop in order to develop their ideas and projects in relation to the context and in interaction with local actors (municipalities, conurbation, experts, inhabitants, shopping and business centres). At the end of the workshop, each project is presented at a feedback session during which the teams will seek to explain the objectives and methods of their passages proposal.
During the three weeks following the workshop, the teams will put their project together and send a final version consisting of an explanatory booklet (maximum 15 pages), two A0 format panels and a summary (maximum 4000 characters) to the following address: passagestours@atu37.org A nine member international jury will meet to analyse the 7 final projects and choose the winning project.
Awards: Each team chosen to take part in the workshop and which has submitted the required materials, will receive a payment of €1500 including VAT, and the cost of their travel, meals and accommodation will be covered by the organisers.
The competition winning team will receive a prize of €10,000, sufficient to complete all the project design tasks. The costs of implementation of its project on the identified site may not exceed €100,000 including VAT in 2016.
Timetable: 20 March 2015 – deadline for applications 10 April 2015 – announcement of the seven finalists 28 May-1 June 2015 – workshop in situ 22 June 2015 – final submissions Design Challenge:
The city of Tours is crossed by the A10 highway partly on elevated sections, a railway line, to waterways and a secondary street network.
The challenge: how to revitalise the connections at the metropolitan scale and between Tours and Saint-Pierre-des-Corps while keeping the A10 motorway in service?
The competition “what if the A10 motorway opened up (an) urban passage(s)?” is a call for urban and architectural project ideas on the topic of passages. “Zoning-based planning and big mono-functional infrastructures have helped to create new barriers, sometimes uncrossable, particularly for the most vulnerable (pedestrians, children, the elderly, the poor, foreigners). What types of new passages can be designed as shortcuts, transition spaces, to facilitate access to different centres of urban life, at a time when citydwellers are asking for more quality, more attention to individual needs, open space with more character, faster and more comfortable access to the city, particularly on foot.”
For more info, go to: http://passages-ivm.com/en/edition/tours-saint-pierre-des-corps-competition-open |
The Makasiiniranta South Harbor Competition
Helsinki South Harbour and Tori Quarter Suomen Ilmakuva Helsinki. Image credit/ Tietoa Finland, Janne Hirvonen
As a prelude to a competition for the design of a new Architecture and Design Museum to be located in Helsinki’s South Harbor, the City of Finland staged an open competition to establish a roadmap for the future redevelopment of the Makasiiniranta harbor area, the last old harbor area to be transformed for public use in Helsinki. The competition for the museum is scheduled to take place later this year; but the entire surrounding area has come up with a plan to review improvements for the entire harbor environment.
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/ Vltava Philharmonic Hall Design Competition  View to Concert Hall from bridge ©BIG Classical music is still part of a vibrant musical scene in Prague, with at least four principal venues hosting concerts, ballet and opera. As a modern European city, the only missing venue from these choices is a state of the art concert hall. Other European neighbors have also recently staged competitions for such projects: Munich, won by Cukrowicz Nachbaur Architekten of Bregenz, Austria; Belgrade, won by AL_A of London; and Vilnius, Lithuania, won by Arquivio Architects of Spain. It should be noted, however, that one of the most important competitions for a concert hall, not only in Europe, but the world, was the 1961 Berlin Philharmonic hall competition, won by Hans Scharoun (below). It was the interior of that building, in particular, that served as a model for many others that followed, one of the first being Los Angeles’ Disney Hall by Frank Gehry. Read more… Budapest’s Nyugati Rail Station Competition  Image courtesy Budapest Development Agency ©Grimshaw Completed in 1877, Budapest’s Nyugati Railway Station has witnessed many of the twists and turns of Hungarian history: the Austro-Hungarian Empire, revolutions of post-World War I and 1956, and various shades of expansion and shrinkage in their territory. Its important location in Europe’s history as a contested land in southeastern Europe has not only served as a path for armies of conquest, but as a matter of great interest for major powers. Amid all the changes it has experienced, Hungary, and Budapest in particular, has retained a fascination for outsiders, making it one of Europe’s high profile tourist attractions. Read more… A Quest for that Elusive Connective Formula  First Place: Pedestrian perspective from Parliament – Zeidler Architecture in association with David Chipperfield Architects How do you find a common thread that can connect an eclectic collection of buildings, visually as well as physically, all located within a one-block site, located just across from Canada’s Parliament building in Ottawa. To identify this common thread that could tie everything together, the client turned to a design competition for answers. With the aid of consultants, [phase eins] from Berlin and experts from Canada’s’ own Université de Montréal’s School of Architecture, the client turned to an invited international format to finally settle on six teams that could rethink the site. Read more… Vilnius Railway Station and Public Square Competition  Vilnius Station competition Image: ©Zaha Hadid Architects In European cities, recent history has seen their central railway stations become the subject of upgrades, or totally new projects, many of them springing up in Eastern Europe. In most cases, the focus on this phenomena occurred several decades after earth-shaking political events. In Germany it was the construction of a new main central station (Hauptbahnhof) shortly after the reunification of Germany and Berlin. in Estonia, and now Lithuania, it has occurred after the independence of those countries in conjunction with the dissolution of the Soviet Union. And in Hungary, it was the subject of a recent competition encompassing a large area surrounding the station. Read More… |