International Competition for Conceptual Planning & Design of Jizhou High-speed Railway Station Area Sponsors: People’s Government of Jizhou District; Jizhou District Planning Bureau; Tianjin Jizhou Newtown Construction Investment Co.,Ltd Organizers: CBC (China Building Centre); Urban Environment Design (UED) Magazine Type: Open, International Location: Jizhou, China Languages: Chinese, English Prequalification Requirements: The Competition is open to planning/design institutions and industry planning institutions around the world. The institutions can register independently or form an alliance with another institution in “1+1 model”. The participants must have the expertise in spatial planning and design and industry planning. To sign up, applicants are required to submit a portfolio of 3 to 5 reference projects that combine the urban design with the industry planning to the email box of the Organizing Committee. The submitted information should be true and valid, otherwise the Organizing Committee shall be entitled to disqualify the applicant from the Competition. Awards: First Prize (1 team): Honor certificate + Bonus 1,800,000RMB (USD $260,000) Second Prize (1 team): Honor certificate + Bonus 500,000RMB (USD $72,000) All shortlisted teams (including prize winners) will each receive a stipend of 1,500,000 RMB (USD $216,000) Timeline: Registration Deadline: 28 October 2018 Field-visit Date: 5 November 2018 Design Challenge: As one of the important urban micro-centers in the Capital Development Circle, Jizhou District is an important gathering area for the relocation of non-capital functions. The new area, which is developed upon the Jizhou Station transportation hub, will become an important node for Jizhou District’s integration into Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. The Competition intends to take Jizhou station as a media to break down urban barriers, integrate urban development, and implement the five concepts of innovation, coordination, green, openness and sharing in urban space. It will fully interpret the current conditions of Jizhou including ecological background, regional cultural characteristics, tourism resources, location and transportation advantages, and industrial resources, and study the status and role of Jizhou District in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei urban agglomeration. The submitted design proposal should take into accounts the characteristics of the project area and functions of the region, and define the development orientation, industry positioning and urban function of the project around its core function as a transportation hub. The design proposal should also promote city-industry integration in Jizhou District, and shape the urban space of Jizhou, promoting its coordination with the surrounding cities and making it an example for micro-center development in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. For more information, go to: http://jizhouplan.chinabuildingcentre.com/en_index.html |
The Urban Confluence Silicon Valley Competition  Image ©SMAR Architecture After several stops and starts, a decision to name the winner of the Urban Confluence Design Competition appears to be nearing its conclusion. In 2017, three founders of a local non-profit established The San Jose Light Tower Corporation (SJLTC). The founders of the non-profit, Restauranteur Steve Borkenhagen, construction company executive, Jon Ball and filmmaker Thomas Wohlmut, saw its primary mission in designing and building a new tower as a San Jose and Silicon Valley landmark. This idea was based on the memory of the original San Jose Electric Light Tower (1881-1915), a 22-story structure, located in downtown San Jose and came down as the victim of a gale, never to be rebuilt. Read more… 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… |