Lagi 2020: Fly RanchDesign the Future of Fly Ranch Commentary
For anyone who recalls the Black Mountain project in North Carolina from the late 1930s and mid-1940s, the Lagi 2020 Fly Ranch project in many respects is almost a carbon copy of that famous progressive initiative. Besides Walter Gropius, the Black Mountain project, which focused on the arts, had its close connection to the German Bauhaus. Besides Gropius and Marcel Breuer, who drew up plans for the construction of new buildings there (never built), Bauhaus artists such as Josef and Anni Albers and Xanti Schawinsky were teaching there. As a result, the social content of the Black Mountain project lent more than local prominence to the project. The Lagi 2020 Fly Ranch project is a serious of competitions sponsored with the intent of raising public awareness about the environment and measures to preserve it, focusing on demonstration projects that deal in large part with energy regeneration. Because of the importance placed on the role of art in sending a strong message as to how this can be accomplished, the Lagi project in this sense does bear a resemblance to Black Mountain. Unfortunately, WWII interrupted fundraising for the construction of buildings by Gropius and Breuer, thus ending any high-profile outcome for the college. It will be interesting to see how the Fly Ranch project progresses, although located in a much less inviting environment than the location of the Black Mountain program in the mountains of North Carolina near Asheville.  View of the Lagi 2020 site ©Lagi 2020 Sponsors: Land Art Generator initiative/Burning Man Project
Type: open, one-stage
Location: Black Rock, Nevada
Fee: none
Language: English
Timeline:
31 October 2020 – Design submissions deadline
Awards: $150,000 set aside as stipends for implementation of 10 winning designs
History
Black Rock City is the oldest and largest Burning Man gathering in the world. Each August, Black Rock City is briefly home to 70,000 people in northern Nevada gathering to celebrate Burning Man. The gathering has been built in roughly the same spot every year but one since 1990. In 1997, Black Rock City moved to Fly Ranch, a 3,800 acre property just north of the normal event site. For twenty years after that event, people imagined building a permanent home for Burning Man’s temporary community at Fly Ranch. In 2016, Burning Man Project—the non-profit that organizes the city—became the steward of Fly Ranch.
As is, Fly Ranch is an agricultural site where the only residents are 150 cows. Over the past few years, passionate people have organized nature walks, hosted small camping trips, built art, and tested temporary infrastructure. To scale the site, more infrastructure will be needed. Everyone could bring generators, bottled water, prepared food, tents, and dispose of our waste off-site. This is how most gatherings occur. But there is a different approach, where people live in service to nature and give more to the land than they take from it. The Land Art Generator Initiative’s design challenge, LAGI 2020 Fly Ranch, aims to move Fly Ranch in that type of regenerative direction. The project invites people to propose and build infrastructure at Fly Ranch while supporting the goals in Burning Man’s environmental roadmap Selection criteria:
• Adherence to the Design Brief; • The integration of the work into the surrounding environment and landscape; • The sensitivity of the work to the environment, and to local, and regional ecosystems; • The utility of the support system(s) for Fly Ranch provided by the work (energy, water, shelter, food, and/or zero-waste). Please note, you do not need to tackle all five systems with your design; • The way in which the work addresses visitors to Fly Ranch; • The embodied energy required to construct the work; • The originality and social relevance of the concept. For more information, and to enter:
landartgenerator.org/lagi2020/LAGI2020-DesignGuidelines.pdf |
Chungji National Heritage Museum Competition

Image ©Ona Architects + Jongjin Lee architects + Laguillo Arquitectos
For those unfamiliar with Korean Heritage and its symbols, the choice of the jury for a new complex to house artifacts, now located at various scattered sites, would seem to beg more information, especially when one views the designs of the non-selected finalists—all quite modern. Some of this can certainly be explained by the subject matter of the new museum’s holdings, another by the site in broader terms. Some might say that emphasis placed on the heritage element in the design brief fostered an interpretation leading to the choice of the winning design: “The site chosen for the new Chungji National Museum is logical: Chungju, located in the central part of the Korean Peninsula, is the center of the so-called ‘Jungwon culture,’ which has played an important role geographically and historically since ancient time. Jungwon culture developed around the Namhan River, which runs through the central region from east to west, and the relics showing this are currently scattered and stored in various museums.”
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/ University of Florida’s College of Design Construction and Planning’s New Addition 
Development phase image courtesy ©Brooks + Scarpa
If architects have had one complaint concerning the planning and realization of a project, it has been with planners and especially construction managers, both of whom often display a lack of knowledge about architecture. The survival of a well-conceived design can hang in the balance when there is a knowledge gap at the planning and realization end.
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Houston Endowment’s New Headquarters on the Bayou  Southwest view Houston Endowment Headquarters – Photo Ivan Baan, courtesy Kevin Daly Following in the footsteps of other major non-profits—The Ford Foundation and LA’s California Endowment Center in particular—the Houston Endowment’s new headquarters, located on a grassy knoll just above the Buffalo Bayou in the city’s outskirts, has also made a strong architectural statement. Similar to the California Endowment, this project was also the result of a design competition, won by the California firm, Kevin Daly Architects. Read more…
The Makasiiniranta South Harbor Competition
Helsinki South Harbour and Tori Quarter Suomen Ilmakuva Helsinki. Image credit/ Tietoa Finland, Janne Hirvonen
As a prelude to a competition for the design of a new Architecture and Design Museum to be located in Helsinki’s South Harbor, the City of Finland staged an open competition to establish a roadmap for the future redevelopment of the Makasiiniranta harbor area, the last old harbor area to be transformed for public use in Helsinki. The competition for the museum is scheduled to take place later this year; but the entire surrounding area has come up with a plan to review improvements for the entire harbor environment.
Read more… Vltava Philharmonic Hall Design Competition  View to Concert Hall from bridge ©BIG Classical music is still part of a vibrant musical scene in Prague, with at least four principal venues hosting concerts, ballet and opera. As a modern European city, the only missing venue from these choices is a state of the art concert hall. Other European neighbors have also recently staged competitions for such projects: Munich, won by Cukrowicz Nachbaur Architekten of Bregenz, Austria; Belgrade, won by AL_A of London; and Vilnius, Lithuania, won by Arquivio Architects of Spain. It should be noted, however, that one of the most important competitions for a concert hall, not only in Europe, but the world, was the 1961 Berlin Philharmonic hall competition, won by Hans Scharoun (below). It was the interior of that building, in particular, that served as a model for many others that followed, one of the first being Los Angeles’ Disney Hall by Frank Gehry. Read more… |