Disruptive Design Challenge: Making Homeownership Affordable in Chicago Sponsors: Neighborhood Housing Services of Chicago, LISC Chicago, AIA Chicago, Northern Trust, and Chicago Neighborhood Initiatives Type: Open, three-stage, anonymous The competition will be organized in three stages: Ideas (Stage I), Design (Stage II) and Realization (Stage III) Locations: West Humboldt Park and Bronzeville, Chicago (Specific sites will be announced at the beginning of phase 2) Language: English Fees: None Eligibility: This Design Competition is open to all with the following exclusions: - Entries shall not hav e been previously published in any competition publication, w hether printed, online or otherwise
- Entriesshallnothavebeenselectedasfinalists,winner,honorablemention,etc.inany other competition
- It is strongly recommended that each team include a licensed architect in Phase 1. Those selected to continue on to Phase 2 will be required to include a licensed architect. The winning project must include or engage an architect licensed in the state of I llinois
- Current employees of Disruptive Design funders, jurors, sponsors, or task force organizations are not eligible to enter. Teams submitting to Phase 1 will be required to sign a disclosure of non-affiliation prior to jurying
Timetable: Phase 1: ENDS JANUARY 31, 2019. One submission per entrant, please! Submission requirements: See link to competition brief below Awards: Each of five finalists, selected to participate in Stage 3, will receive $10,000 each. The winner will receive an additional $20,000 and the right to negotiate for the commission. Design Challenge: Architects must innovate for affordability, utilizing new construction materials and methods, and providing single-family homes with opportunities for live-work situations, growing families, aging in place, accessibility for people with disabilities, and a new focus on the “gig” economy. The cost of a single family home should not exceed $250,000. For more information, go to: https://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/ae31c4_4897de4b2d414cb39bd5b37c4ce120ef.pdf Contact: Sarah Brune, NHS Chicago | sbrune@nhschicago.org | 773-329-4150 |
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… |