Museum of the 20th Century and its Urban Integration (Berlin)(Mies van der Rohe’s Museum des 20. Jahrhunderts) Sponsor: Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation Location: Berlin, Germany Type: Open, ideas Entrance Fee: None Awards: The total competition money available amounts to 260,000 euros plus VAT. 10-20 equivalent prizes of 13,000 to 26,000 euros each are planned to be awarded. Languages: English, German Eligiblity: The competition is held as an open ideas competition for bidding consortiums of architects with landscape architects in keeping with the guidelines for planning competitions (RPW 2013). Urban planners are eligible to take part in a bidding consortium with architects and landscape architects. Submission Deadline: 12 December, 2015 Design Challenge: A museum of international standing is to be created for the art of the 20th century at the behest of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation SPK. For the first time in decades, the newly created museum complex Neue Nationalgalerie – Museum of the 20th Century will enable the collection of the Nationalgalerie, so far only exhibited to the public in parts, to be presented in an adequate fashion. The internationally important holdings of the Nationalgalerie of 20th century art, the Marx and Pietsch collections, the Marzona archive and works from the Museum of Prints and Drawings will be permanently and jointly exhibited for the first time. The presentation of the holdings will embrace the lower level of the Neue Nationalgalerie and – first and foremost – the exhibition spaces of the new building. The new building will thus form a tightly circumscribed unity with the Neue Nationalgalerie in content and function. Both establishments – the Neue Nationalgalerie and the new building – are meanwhile to be understood as autonomous architectures with their own entrances, own functional areas (exhibition spaces, administrations, foyers, visitor services, etc.) and their respective own identities. The target set for the new building is a usable area of ca. 14,700 m² (UA 1 – 6), ca. 9,200 m² of which can be used as exhibition spaces. The construction field at Potsdamer Strasse has a buildable area of ca. 10,200 m². The gross floor area expected, depending on the concept, is ca. 27,700 m², while the clear room height in the exhibition areas needs to reach up to 9 m. The location of the new museum at the Kulturforum, in the direct vicinity of two of Germany‘s most important architectural icons of the 20th century (Neue Nationalgalerie, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, 1968 and Philharmonie, Hans Scharoun, 1963), as well as in the environs of further architectural monuments (St. Matthew‘s Church, Berlin State Library), calls for a particularly attentive architectural and development approach. This competition for ideas is meant to clarify how the new building for the Museum of the 20th Century and its immediate environment can be fashioned architecturally, in terms of urban planning, and in the design of the open spaces. The competition is aimed at gaining insights into the task formulation and framework conditions of the realisation competition to follow. Based on the results of the competition for ideas, its organiser will optionally define further parameters for the urban planning and the design of the open spaces. In addition to this, 10-20 competitors are meant to be qualified for the subsequent realisation competition as prize winners of the competition for ideas. The competition for ideas is thus designed to provide architects who have not yet planned or realised large museums or similar buildings with an opportunity to take part in the realisation competition. For more information, go to: www.wbw-m20.de |
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/  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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SMAR’s Winning Entry Gets the Green Light  Image: ©SMAR Architecture The winning competition entry in the 2016 Science Island competition in Kaunas, Lithuania by SMAR Architects may only take five years to realize—from the date of the competition to completion. This is encouraging news, as the duration of such projects resulting from a competition can often take much longer—sometimes up to 8-10 years. Read more…  Night view of the memorial tapestry from Independence Avenue, with Gehry’s sketch of the Normandy cliffs. Explaining the contributions of a World War II hero and later President of the United States on a very modest site on Independence Avenue just off the Washington Mall is tantamount to asking an author to describe the life of this person in no more than one paragraph. But on September 17th, after a long and bumpy journey, lasting almost 20 years and navigating a warren of the DC approval processes and public scrutiny, the Eisenhower Memorial finally was dedicated and opened to the public. Designed by Frank Gehry, it has received mixed reviews, the majority being more positive. But most have pointed out that the memorial is more impressive at night than in full daylight. This is due primarily to the illumination of an almost block-long metallic tapestry—featuring a sketch by Gehry, which depicts his interpretation of the cliffs of the Normandy coastline where the Americans landed on D-Day. Read more…  Professional winner: Brooklyn Bridge Forest (image © Pilot Projects Design Collective) While looking for new adventures on a visit to New York City, friends suggested that I take time to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge—certainly a New York icon. For those intending to undertake this trek across the bridge for the first time, the bridge consists of layers, with a large platform for pedestrians on top of a lower level for cars and the metro system. Traversing this connection for the first time between Manhattan and Brooklyn is not just about getting from one place to another, but experiencing a great scenic view of both boroughs and occasionally interacting with other bridge crossers. As for the latter, they provide a flavor of the city’s demographics, as opposed to similar experiences one might have of the city’s inhabitants when riding the city’s subway system. Read more… |