Berlin’s 20th Century Art Museum Competition: Ten Designs Advanceby Stanley Collyer 
©FAZ Aerial view of site Adding on to Mies van der Rohe’s famous Museum of the 20th Century is no small challenge for any architect participating in this competition. If symbolism wasn’t enough, the site is surrounded by distinctive structures, including Hans Sharoun’s Philharmonic Hall and National Library, the latter located just across the street, and the Matthias Church. Although the selected site next to the current museum was a controversial call, the sponsors of this international competition decided against moving it to another location. One of the unintended consequences of that decision would have to be the size and appearance of the addition. To what extent would it be competing with the existing Mies museum, not only in its siting, but also its architectural expression? This recently concluded ideas competition attracted 460 entries from around the world. Of those, ten submissions were awarded €26,000 to proceed to the next competition round, where a number of firms will be added to the mix—40-60 is the most recent estimate by the client—for the €200M commission. Why add an ideas competition to this process when the normal procedure has been to shortlist high profile firms for EU competitions? One may only speculate that the uproar caused by a lawsuit coming from a substantial segment of the architecture profession in Germany, complaining about the exclusion of smaller firms from the process, had its effect on the sponsor’s decision to pursue this two-tier process. Although probably well intentioned, this process could have some interesting, unintended consequences. One could only imagine what might occur if a young employee of a large firm, which subsequently was selected to participate in the second-stage competition for the commission, had already entered the invited competition and been selected as one of the ten finalists in the ideas competition to participate in the next stage. Would that firm be represented twice in the second stage? Thomas Hoffmann-Kuhnt, long-time editor of the German architectural publication, Wettbewerbe Aktuell, said, “in my 50 years as an observer in this business I have never seen a competition organized in this fashion.” One may assume that the Association of German Architects (BdA) didn’t have a guiding hand in this. The ideas competition did turn out to be international in scope, as half of the ten finalists were non-German. As the anonymity will be adhered to throughout the second stage, those first-stage entries—identified here by number only—may still have an outside chance for the commission. In the meantime, there will be a lot of debate about the several strategies pursued by those teams who advanced to the second stage. Entry # 1361: Entry # 1358: Entry # 1300: Entry # 1281: Entry # 1155: Entry # 1151: Entry # 1144: Entry # 1115: Entry # 1031: Entry # 1006: |
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… |
