EFL Design Challenge 2021: Affordable Community Design in Smart City KalasatamaSponsor: The European Federation for Living (EFL) Location: Helsinki, Finland Type: Student, international Languages: English and Finnish Eligibility: Students and start-up professionals (leader must be a student) There is no age limit to participation, as long as a minimum of 2 team members are actively students at the time of the competition. Fee: none Timetable: 21 May 2021 – Registration deadline 21 June 2021 – Submission deadline Awards: 1st prize €4000 2nd prize €2000 Innovative thinking award €500 Undergraduate award €500 Jury: The Jury will be chaired by Anni Sinnemäki, Deputy Mayor for Urban Environment, City of Helsinki, and a preparatory committee will be selected from amongst its members. Site: The site lies in the middle of Helsinki, in the Kalasatama neighbourhood, 6 minutes from the city centre. It is located by the sea with 6 km of seaside promenade, parks, playgrounds, and sports fields, and is equipped with AAL and smart technologies, such as innovative waste and urban-level energy management. Kalasatama is a 175-hectare city wherein a total of 1.200.000 m2 residential and 400.000 m2 commercial spaces have been planned. By 2030, living spaces for 25.000 residents and 10.000 jobs are to be provided. Design Challenge: The year 2020, notably the COVID-19 pandemic, brought challenges that are already provoking new thinking about how urban communities live, work, and congregate. We invite designs that speak to our current and future challenges. We want to see: - Dwellings that can accommodate diverse types of households across their life cycles, while supporting their well-being, privacy, and social and economic inclusion.
- Community facilities that will help residents help each other, and buildings that will complement and improve the surrounding neighbourhood.
- Design that addresses the urgent need to mitigate climate change, and to adapt our built environments to its impacts.
- Design that incorporates sharing, learning, working, co-living, and other support scenarios, as and where needed.
Teams will not only design a building – the hardware – but also envision local networks, services, and value streams – the software and the blockchains – that will support affordable community living on and around the site. To meet this multifaceted challenge, we encourage teams to include interdisciplinary expertise where possible, and to think across disciplinary boundaries within their design process. The chosen concept will form the basis for a real-life development on the actual site that will be inhabited by a real co-living community. For more information and to register: https://ef-l.eu/helsinki-village-co-living-competition-2021/ |
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… 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/ 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… Budapest’s Nyugati Rail Station Competition  Image courtesy Budapest Development Agency ©Grimshaw Completed in 1877, Budapest’s Nyugati Railway Station has witnessed many of the twists and turns of Hungarian history: the Austro-Hungarian Empire, revolutions of post-World War I and 1956, and various shades of expansion and shrinkage in their territory. Its important location in Europe’s history as a contested land in southeastern Europe has not only served as a path for armies of conquest, but as a matter of great interest for major powers. Amid all the changes it has experienced, Hungary, and Budapest in particular, has retained a fascination for outsiders, making it one of Europe’s high profile tourist attractions. Read more… A Quest for that Elusive Connective Formula  First Place: Pedestrian perspective from Parliament – Zeidler Architecture in association with David Chipperfield Architects How do you find a common thread that can connect an eclectic collection of buildings, visually as well as physically, all located within a one-block site, located just across from Canada’s Parliament building in Ottawa. To identify this common thread that could tie everything together, the client turned to a design competition for answers. With the aid of consultants, [phase eins] from Berlin and experts from Canada’s’ own Université de Montréal’s School of Architecture, the client turned to an invited international format to finally settle on six teams that could rethink the site. Read more… Vilnius Railway Station and Public Square Competition  Vilnius Station competition Image: ©Zaha Hadid Architects In European cities, recent history has seen their central railway stations become the subject of upgrades, or totally new projects, many of them springing up in Eastern Europe. In most cases, the focus on this phenomena occurred several decades after earth-shaking political events. In Germany it was the construction of a new main central station (Hauptbahnhof) shortly after the reunification of Germany and Berlin. in Estonia, and now Lithuania, it has occurred after the independence of those countries in conjunction with the dissolution of the Soviet Union. And in Hungary, it was the subject of a recent competition encompassing a large area surrounding the station. Read More… |