ezine body template

©Adjaye Associates (UK) with AB3D Images courtesy Malcolm Reading Consultants.
Poland and the Baltic states have been playing cultural catch-up with the rest of the world ever since the former gained their independence after the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1989. These have included several high-profile competitions for museums in Poland, but also interesting projects in Estonia. Now Latvia and Lithuania are saying that they too should also have modern art museums on par with those in western Europe and Scandinavia. In Latvia, a movement to establish a modern art museum dates back to the early decade of the 21st century. It was then in 2005 that the ABLV Charitable Foundation, established by a local bank, provided endowment funds for purchasing modern art for a museum. They were joined in the museum project by The Boris and Inara Teterev Foundation, which was founded with the purpose of promoting culture.
Finland has always had close times culturally to the Baltic States, especially to Estonia, and the recent Guggenheim competition there could hardly have gone unnoticed by its southern neighbors. So it should come as no surprise that the Latvian sponsors engaged Malcolm Reading Consultants, the Guggenheim competition adviser, to organize their competition for the Latvian Museum of Contemporary Art in the nation’s capital, Riga. Contrary to the Guggenheim competition, this time the finalists were the result of a closed shortlisting process.
They were:
- Adjaye Associates (UK) with AB3D
- Architects Lahdelma & Mahlamäki (Finland) with MADE Arhitekti
- Caruso St John Architects (UK) with Jaunromāns un Ābele
- Henning Larsen Architects (Denmark) with MARK Arhitekti
- Neutelings Riedijk Architects (Netherlands)
- Sauerbruch Hutton (Germany) with Arhitekts Ingurds Lazdiņš
- wHY Architecture (US) with Outofbox and ALPS
All of the shortlisted teams had at least some museum experience, and those having somewhat less exposure in this area could point to their expertise in a number of projects relating to the arts. Some had made their mark lately, most notably wHY architecture (US) and Lahdelma & Mahlamäki (Finnland), the latter having won the prestigious open competition for the Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw. With the exception of Neutelings Riedijk Architects, all of the finalists included at least one local Latvian firm on their team. The ultimate competition winner, Adjaye Associates (UK), could bask in the huge amount of publicity generated by the September 2016 opening of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture on the Mall in Washington D.C.
The competition in many ways resembled a linear exercise, mainly dictated by the site and program. In the end, Adjaye Associates very straightforward, logical approach to the program won the day for the London firm. Although there were not enough jury comments to suggest how the other finalist team(s) were ranked, only one, Sauerbruch Hutton, was given a “mention’, although it was not to be considered as a ranking.
The museum will be built as part of New Hanza City, a new district at a former railway goods station in a northern district of Riga. Comprising 24.5 hectares, the development also will inclulde offices, apartments, a hotel, a nursery school and a public garden.
Read more… |
|
Open Competitions |
United Kingdom Holocaust Memorial Competition

Sponsors: Dept. for Communities and Local Government; UK Holocaust Memorial Foundation
Professional Adviser: Malcolm Reading Consultants
Type: Open, EOI, international, two-stage (No design is required for the first (EOI) stage.)
Eligibility: Seasoned practices are encouraged to combine with emerging talent. The teams should be structured under a lead consultant, who is an architect, identified within the submission.
Budget: £40M
Location: Adjacent to the Palace of Westminster in Victoria Tower Gardens, London
Fee: none
Timetable:
- 17 October (14:00 BST) EOI Deadline
- Early November Shortlist Announced
- Mid-January Tender Deadline
- Late January Exhibition Opens
- Spring 2017 Jury Interviews
- Summer 2017 Winner announced
Jury: TBD
Design Challenge
The design challenge is to create an outstanding and sensitively-designed Memorial and Learning Centre that is emotionally powerful while offering visitors an opportunity to deepen their understanding of humanity’s darkest hour. For some survivors – and those whose lives were affected by the Holocaust – survival stories can reveal glimmers of hope about human nature; for others, to perceive this moment in history as anything but unbearable is to compromise the Holocaust’s implacability.
For more information, go to:
https://competitions.malcolmreading.co.uk/holocaustmemorial/
All enquiries should be addressed to:
Jayne Broomhall
[email protected]
+ 44 (0)20 7831 2998
Lamborghini Road Monuments
Sponsor: Automobili Lamborghini S.p.A.
Organizer: Young Architects Competitions (YAC)
Type: Open, one-stage, international
Timetable/Fees:
75€ +22% VAT – by 2 October 2016 (Standard Registration)
150€ +22% VAT – 3 to 31 October 2016 (Late Registration)
2 November 2016 – Deadline for Submissions
Prizes:
1st prize – 12,000€ + Construction
2nd prize – 4,000€
3rd prize – 2,000€
Hon Mentions (2) – 1,000€
Jury
• Patrik Schumacher – Zaha Hadid Architects
• Fabio Novembre – Studio Novembre
• Yama Karim – Studio Libeskind
• Nicola Scaranaro – Foster + Partners
• Giuseppe Cappochin – C.N.A.P.P.C
• Annalisa Trentin – UNIBO
• Stefano Domenicali – Automobili Lamborghini
• Franceco Dal Co – Casabella
Design Challenge
How to reflect the character and the values of one of the most renowned and valued brand of the international scenario in an architectonic installation?This is about designing two architectonic landmarks aimed at marking the entrances of Sant’Agata Bolognese and its plant. The two landmarks are to celebrate the legend and sculpt in form the history of speed, power and innovation. Aimed at creating an internationally known intervention, Lamborghini Road Monument will soon mark contemporary architecture significantly. Moreover, it will give the opportunity to value the talent of the designers working for the House of the Bull, which is one of the most prestigious and renowned brands in the world.
For more information, go to:
http://www.youngarchitectscompetitions.com/competition
New Cyprus Museum Competition
Sponsor: Government of Cyprus
Type: International, restricted (EOI), two-stage
Fee: none
Language: English
Eligibility: Licensed architects
Contract value: 410,000€
Timetable:
9 January 2017 – RfQ deadline
23 January 2017 – Deadline for dispatch of invitations
Jury:
• Mr. Alecos Michaelides
• Dr. Marina Solomidou-Ieronymidou
• Sir Peter Cook
• Mr. Elias Zenghelis
• Mr. Michael Papageorgiou
• Ms. Elena Sofianou
• Ms. Athina Papadopoulou
• Mr. Angelos Ktorides
• Mr. Gregoris Patsalosavvis
For more information:
Public Works Department
165 Strovolos Avenue
For the attention of: Elena Kyriakou Georgiou
2048 Nicosia
Cyprus
Telephone: +357 22806715
E-mail: [email protected]
Fax: +357 22498937
Website: https://www.eprocurement.gov.cy/ceproc/cft/prepareViewCfTWS.do?resourceId=1707321
Tenders or requests to participate must be sent to:
Building of the Audit Office of the Republic of Cyprus
6 Deligiorgis Street
1406 Nicosia
Cyprus
|
|
|
San Jose’s Urban Confluence Winner Cancelled  This week we received the news that the winning design for San Jose’s Urban Confluence competition by SMAR Architecture Studio has been cancelled. This comes after the original competition site was abandoned in favor of one more centrally located in downtown San Jose, Plaza de César Chávez. We can only assume that even this wasn’t enough to generate enough interest from major donors. From the very beginning of the competition, it appeared that the enthusiasm of those sponsoring the competition might be lacking links to potential donors with deep pockets—the hi-tech firms in Silicon Valley. After the competition resulted in a design that certainly entailed a major budget, the project had to be in trouble. The competition did produce a remarkable design; but this turned out to be another case where a competition, intended to generate enough public interest to fund a major project, came up short. -Ed “A Museum for All”  Winning entry by Weiss/Manfredi Landscape Architecture and Urbanism Background The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art’s slogan “Creating a Museum for All” certainly reflects the efforts of many art museums to counter the notion that art museums exist primarily to cater to an elitist few. But one should note that this competition for an expansion of the museum’s capacity to serve a wider audience saw an initial step in this direction with the 1999 competition resulting in the Steven Holl addition, a series of pavilions stretching down one side of the large lawn area..
Read more… Preparation and Organization of Design Competitions  [phase 1] Benjamin Hossbach / Christian Lehmhaus / Christine Eichelmann 210 × 230 mm, 192 pp. over 600 images softcover ISBN 978-3-86922-316-2 (English) ISBN 978-3-86922-240-0 (German) Dom Publishers €48 in EU (For price abroad, see below) Founded in 1998 in Berlin, Phase 1 has been a principal player in the organization and facilitation of design competitions, not only in Germany, but abroad as well. The accomplishments of the firm have been well documented in three volumes—The Architecture of Competitions—beginning in 2i006. Whereas these books mainly focused on the results of the competitions they have administered, the present work, Fundamentals of Competition Management, takes one from the very beginnings of the competition process to its conclusion. The authors envisioned the publication as “three three books in one: one „blue book“ with example projects, one „yellow book“ with statements and the „white book“ with the actual guideline to competition management.” Although there have been a number of handbooks covering the administration of designcompetitions a study covering the entire process in such detail is a welcome addition to the the literature in this field. As a contribution to this important democratic process that has yielded exceptional design for decades, this volume is not only valid for Europe, but a current overview of the process for those globally who wish to raise the level of design by virtue of a design competition. -Ed Foreign institutions wishing to obtain a copy of the book will recieve a discount to cover the cost of foreign shipping. To obtain a copy for that offer, go to: [email protected] Since the recent realization of SMAR Architecture’s winning design we have now received images from a professional photo shoot. As an open competition for one of the more important projects in Europe at the time, we feel that full documentation of the process from start to finish was an important page in the history of architecture in the early 21st century. Documentation by us during the 2017 competition, with images from all finalists from the 144 entries is available at: https://competitions.org/2020/11/science-island-design-competition-finalists/  See more images…  Completed IMEX by Tuck Hinton Architects. Photo courtesy Anecdote It is not often that we look back to a competition that occurred three decades ago that was also covered in detail by COMPETITIONS (Vol. 4, #4; pp. 14-27). What made the Chattanooga IMAX different back in 1994 was that the article covering that competition was authored by Prof. Marleen Davis, then Dean of the University of Tennessee’s School of Architecture and a member of the jury panel. This was not just a short article, covering the high points of the competition with a few talking points about the winning design. This 4,000+ word document also described in detail the jury’s observations about all the finalists, including the honorable mentions—one of the few times we have gained such a detailed glimpse in this country from the inside of the competition process. Read more… Winning entry by Luca Poian Forms Image ©Filippo Bolognese images Good design seldom happens in a vacuum. And so it was with an international competition for a new mosque in Preston, U.K. A mid-sized city of 95,000, and located in Lancashire near the west coast and almost equally distant from London and Glasgow, Preston has a storied past, going all the way back to the Romans and the late Middle Ages, where it was the site of significant battles. During the Industrial Revolution, the city prospered, and it was not until after World War II that Preston experienced the British version of the U.S. Rust Belt. In the meantime, the city has experienced an upswing in economic activity, with an unemployment rate of only 3%. Aside from the appearance of new industries, the city has benefitted from the establishment of Central Lancashire University (CLU), which employs over 3,000 faculty and staff, and, as such, is one of the regions major employers. Any new university requires new facilities, and one of the most outstanding examples of this at CLU was the new Student Centre and Plaza, a result of a 2016 RIBA-sponsored competition won by Hawkins/Brown Read More
Changdong Station winner – image ©D & B Partners Architects
Whereas international competitions for real projects have become a rarity lately, Korea is a welcome exception. Among the plethora of competition announcements we receive almost weekly, several have ended with foreign firms as winners. But the history of welcoming international participants does go back several years. One notable early example was the Incheon Airport competition, won by Fentress Bradburn Architects (1962-70).
Among the more recent successes of foreign firms was the Busan Opera House competition, won by Snøhetta (2013-) and the Sejong Museum Gardens competition, won by Office OU, Toronto (2016-2023).
Read more…  1st Place: Zaha Hadid Architects – night view from river – Render by Negativ Arriving to board a ferry boat or cruise ship used to be a rather mundane experience. If you had luggage, you might be able to drop it off upon boarding, assuming that the boarding operation was sophisticated enough. In any case, the arrival experience was nothing to look forward to. I recall boarding the SS United States for a trip to Europe in the late 1950s. Arriving at the pier in New York, the only thought any traveler had was to board that ocean liner as soon as possible, find one’s cabin, and start exploring. If you were in New York City and arriving early, a nearby restaurant or cafe would be your best bet while passing time before boarding. Read more… |