2022 Architectural League Prize for Young Architects + Designers | Grounding Sponsor: Architectural League, New York Type: Open, Portfolio Language: English Fee: $35 13 February 2022 – Portfolios submission deadline CALL FOR ENTRIES Young architects and designers are invited to submit work to the annual Architectural League Prize Competition. Projects of all types, either theoretical or real, and executed in any medium, are welcome. The jury will select work for presentation in lectures, digital media, and an exhibition in June 2022. These events will be either in-person, online, or hybrid, depending on local and national health guidelines this spring. Winners will receive a cash prize of $2,000. Established in 1981 to recognize visionary work by young practitioners, the Architectural League Prize is an annual competition, lecture series, and exhibition organized by The Architectural League and its Young Architects + Designers Committee. Learn more about past winners of The Architectural League Prize ELIGIBILITY The competition is open only to current, full-time residents (who need not be citizens) of the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Entrants must be ten years or less out of a bachelor’s or master’s degree program. Current students are ineligible. Entrants may submit individually or as a group. If the individual(s) is/are the sole principal(s) of a firm, the winning firm name will be listed as well. Entrants must submit work done independently; no work done as an employee of a firm, where the entrant is not a principal or partner, is eligible for submission. No student work completed for any academic program or degree is eligible for submission. Educators may not include work done in their studios or for their teaching. Past League Prize winners are ineligible. If only one partner of a firm is eligible, he, she, or they can enter as a single entrant. He, she, or they must include a signed document from all other partners describing the collaborative nature of the work and the firm will not be listed as a recipient of the Prize. Collaborative work will be considered within the context of an individual’s complete portfolio. Timetable All entries must be submitted through the League’s digital competition portal. JURY Chris T. Cornelius Carla Juaçaba Lola Sheppard Mabel O. Wilson THE YOUNG ARCHITECTS + DESIGNERS COMMITTEE Luis Beltrán del Río García Tei Carpenter Gabriel Cuéllar . THEME: GROUNDING Searching for grounding is a sticky, precarious, and stubborn pursuit of our time. In an unpredictable and hybrid world, more focus is needed on how architecture can respond to this condition and how young architects can situate themselves within it. Through grounding, designers come to terms with complex material realities, sociocultural contingencies, and more fundamental ways of being. Although grounding suggests locality, contemporary environments are invariably embedded in global systems that complicate architecture’s relationship with place. Grounding thus means, on one hand, making vital connections to what is already there—materially, socially, and otherwise—and, on the other, contending with placeless, pervasive processes. Navigating the remote and embodied, the nonlocal and local, architecture requires methods of retooling, reappropriation, and transformation to find its grounding. Engaging with what precedes and underlies, grounding is also about establishing productive contexts for action and bringing design into new orbits of collaboration. Such messy interdependencies pull architecture toward the ground, urging designers to consider contingencies as resources for practice. This year’s Architectural League Prize reflects on the substance of design’s foundations. How do young architects tether their work and practices to the grounds upon which they design? How can designers respond to both the particularities of location and the ubiquity of global forces? What are intentional approaches to and forms of grounding? SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS A single digital portfolio, which may include several projects, in PDF format, no larger than 35MB and no larger than 11×14”. It may not contain more than 15 spreads (or 30 pages) in total, excluding the cover page. Please note that the jury will review all portfolios digitally, not in print. The competition theme is given as a basis for young architects and designers to reflect upon and reevaluate their work. A written statement not to exceed 250 words is required, which defines and considers the work under the rubric of the competition theme. Significant weight is given to how an applicant’s work addresses the theme. The written statement must be on the first page of the portfolio. Additional texts, such as project descriptions and image captions, are permitted. Competition website: https://archleague.org/competition/league-prize-22-grounding/ |
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… |