‘Smart School’ Educational Complex in Irkutsk, Russia

by Stanley Collyer

Winning entry by CEBRA (image © CEBRA, courtesy Strelka)

Can it be that pedagogues from all over the world will soon be traveling to the far reaches of Siberia to examine the workings of a school, which not only will be catering to average students, but also feature a live-in community offering an optimal educational environment for disadvantaged children. A competition for this ‘model’ school occurred in 2015, and the winning entry came from a team led by the Danish firm, CEBRA.

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Rise in the City: An Affordable Housing Competition in Lesotho

Wining entry “Creating Spaces” by Tanmoy Dey (all images courtesy RISE)

The Rise in the City Housing Competition in the African country of Lesotho presented many similarities with student competitions that have occurred over the past decades, the main link being the presence of mentors as advisers to the team(s) who were designing the entries. One of the most famous examples of this was the winning design for the Vietnam Memorial Competition by Maya Lin, who was enrolled at the time in a studio course at Yale University. In that case it was also a case of students competing against professionals. Lin’s design just happened to find favor with the jury.

OFFICE 52 at Carnegie Mellon

Form and Dichroic Light
Scott Hall at Carnegie Mellon University
Michelle LaFoe and Isaac Campbell
OFFICE 52 Architecture
Forward by Cesar Pelli, FAIA
Introduction by Michael J. Crosbie, FAIA
Leete”s Island Books, Maine USA
Hard cover; 96 pages in color
ISBN 9780918172709

In his introduction to Form and Dichroic LIght, Michael Crosbie never mentions the term, “wild card,” to describe Office 52’s participation in the invited competition for the Carnegie Mellon Engineering Building. The four finalists, picked from a list of 17 firms, also included three household names: ZGF, Wilson, and BCJ (Bohlin Cywinski, Jackson). So what possible chance could a firm, which had just recently opened a small office in Portland, Oregon, have against a competition lineup of this magnitude? But as OFFICE 52 Principal, Isaac Campbell explained, as a small firm, “we were quite nimble,” and the $50,000 stipend the firms all received to produce a design could allow OFFICE 52 more time to undertake the research involved than might be the case with a larger office, where a cost controller is constantly focusing on the operation.

SMÍCHOV ELEMENTARY SCHOOL:
An International competition in Prague

Winning project by Office Ou (image © Office Ou)

The features of a truly international competition were quite in evidence in Prague’s SMÍCHOV School search for an ideal elementary school design: the event attracted 66 entries from around the world, and the winners were a team from Canada and Poland. The sponsors went so far as to even estimate the number of hours spent by all of the architects who submitted entries for the competition (58,800). One can only imagine what that number might have been for the Helsinki Guggenheim competition, which attracted 1,715 entries.

Movies in the Park: Garage Screen Summer Cinema Competition in Moscow

Garage Screen, a program of film screenings on contemporary art and culture, was launched in 2012 and introduces viewers to notable examples of Russian and foreign feature films, documentaries, and experimental films. Since its inception, the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art has selected and shown films and videos examining issues of contemporary art and culture in all their manifestations, rare documentary films on the lives and lifestyles of prominent and little-known artists, musicians, architects, and performing artists, as well as films about the creation of exhibitions and works of art.

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IMPORTANT NOTICE : Unless otherwise indicated, photographs of buildings and projects are from professional or institutional archives. All reproduction is prohibited unless authorized by the architects, designers, office managers, consortia or archives centers concerned. The Competition Project, Inc. is not held responsible for any omissions or inaccuracies, but appreciate all comments and pertinent information that will permit necessary modifications during future updates.

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‘Smart School’ Educational Complex in Irkutsk, Russia

Winning entry by CEBRA (image © CEBRA, courtesy Strelka)

2017 Annual is here!

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Recent Competitions

Rise in the City: An Affordable Housing Competition in Lesotho

OFFICE 52 at Carnegie Mellon

SMÍCHOV ELEMENTARY SCHOOL:
An International competition in Prague

Chengdu’s Natural History Museum Competition

Movies in the Park: Garage Screen Summer Cinema Competition in Moscow

Login

‘Smart School’ Educational Complex in Irkutsk, Russia

2017 Annual is here!

Recent Competitions

Rise in the City: An Affordable Housing Competition in Lesotho

OFFICE 52 at Carnegie Mellon

SMÍCHOV ELEMENTARY SCHOOL: An International competition in Prague

Chengdu’s Natural History Museum Competition

Movies in the Park: Garage Screen Summer Cinema Competition in Moscow

SMÍCHOV ELEMENTARY SCHOOL:
An International competition in Prague