Lanzarote Dynamic Square Competition Sponsor: reTHINKING Competitions
Type: Open, international
Location: Lanzarote, Canary Islands (Spain)
Eligibility: All students and architects or related professions anywhere in the world can participate in the contest. Participation can be individual or in groups of up to 8 members. Team members can be from all disciplines (artists, philosophers, photographers, etc.), being mandatory, the presence of an architect. This competition is a pre-phase for the recruiting of the winner team for the realization of the project, therefore is IT IS INDISPENSABLE to have a qualified architect in the team. The architect must be Spanish or at least to be compromised to associate with a Spanish architect for the construction of the project.
Awards:
First prize € 6,000 + construction
Second prize € 4,000
Third prize € 2,000
Timeline:
8 February 2018 – Early Registration Deadline
1 March 2018 – Regular Registration Deadline
23 March 2018 – Late Registration Deadline
23 March 2018 – Submission Deadline
Fees:
Early Registration – 40 € + IVA
Regular Registration – 70 € + IVA
Late Registration – 90 € + IVA
(IVA: 21%)
Design Challenge:
The Cabildo of Lanzarote has been trying since 1989 to reactivate and enhance the cultural attractiveness of Arrecife. The main objective of this project is to convert the El Almacén plaza (Arrecife) into an urban point of culture and social meeting. And with this contest it is intended to take an important step for it since the proposal will be built. Objectives:
• Sustainability and energy efficiency. The square with an area of more than 1000 m² can be a source of solar use either for the activities that are going to be developed as a possible source of power for the El Almacen building.
• Environmental Protection. The intervention must be respectful with the Environment, proposing a sustainable use.
• Treatment of facades of the surrounding buildings. The dividing wall of the adjacent building will be used as a white screen of Video Mapping that of a changing aspect to the square.
• Shadow: Elements will be available to hang different elements that shade the square. In addition to the need to include vegetation.
• Accessibility: it must be accessible to all people with reduced mobility.
• Tours. Access must be provided for vehicles for loading and unloading at specific times. The rest of the time will be a pedestrian square (and environment).
• Polyvalence: the mixture and the different uses should be encouraged. The Cabildo of Lanzarote has a Budget for the execution of the same of 350,000 Euros For more information, go to:
http://rethinkingcompetitions.com/ |
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/ Hangang District Urban Design International Master Competition
1st place entry by Dominique Perrault Architecture (image ©Dominique Perrault Architect)
China’s planning priorities for their urban areas experienced a sharp turn after the post-Mao reforms took place. During the early post-WWII period, when Soviet influence in the early urbanization of China dominated, industrial development took precedence over all other issues, with heritage, conservation, residential planning, and the amenities associated with it, being almost entirely neglected. Read more…
Winning design by ©Moreau Kusunoki /Genton
Although one might normally assume that local firms participating in a competition might have a clear advantage over foreign competitors, this has seldom been the case: just see Sydney’s Opera House, won by a Danish architect, and Toronto’s City Hall, won by a Finn—as evidence that well devised competition briefs as adequate documentation can create a level playing field for potential competitors, regardless of their location.
Read more…
Jensen Architects – Winning entry (Honor Award) Beginning in 2011, Architecture at Zero, a collaboration between the Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) and the California chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIACA), was established to investigate the role architecture might play in reducing energy consumption in the built environment. Since then, every year has seen a new site and building type selected as a design challenge in what has become one of the world’s most interesting international competitions.
As a sign of its mounting popularity, the competition received 237 registrations from 49 countries and, according to the professional adviser, about 150 entries— all this during the Covid-19 virus pandemic, when all were compelled to work from home. Read more… An Ideas Competition in Opposition to a Concrete Design
Entry by TheeAe (Image © TheeAe)
In early 2020, a group advocating a new approach to the design of the Los Angeles Museum of Art (LACMA)—The Citizens’ Brigade to Save LACMA—organized a competition to counter an existing design by the Swiss Architect Peter Zumthor. Already commissioned by the LACMA administration, the project is slated to begin almost immediately with the demolition of four LACMA buildings—three existing and one new. Moreover, the existing plan to incorporate all of the existing collections under one roof isn’t covered by the Zumthor plan. This obvious lack of exhibit space was the focus of a query by the Ahmanson Foundation, a major donor of artworks to LACMA in the past. Upon not receiving assurances from LACMA that those donated works would be exhibited, but possibly held in storage and hidden from public view, the Foundation cut all ties with LACMA. Finally, the plan by Zumthor foresees the new structure not only occupying much of the new space created by demolition, but extends part of the new building over Wiltshire Boulevard. As one might anticipate from Zumthor, the construction of the structure is also primarily of concrete, thereby raising the cost per SF. So no matter how highly finished this material turns out to be, it does in essence represent a brutalist structure replacing an eclectic ensemble. Read more… National Railway Museum Central Hall (U.K.)
Winning entry by Feilden Fowles (image © Fielden Fowles)
If one were to search for a railway museum in the U.K., London would seem to be an obvious choice. But, as it happens, its location is in the northeastern city of York, far from the major cultural and economic centers of the country. But despite its distance from the major metropolitan areas to the south and west, York has managed to become the focal point of research into the history of rail in the U.K., supplemented by a major museum. Here we are not just talking about some posters, but sheds replete with a large collection of vintage trains. Read more… |
