KURANDZA – A Learning Center in Mozambique
Sponsor: Kurandza non-profit NGO, San Francisco
Administrator: archstorming
Type: open, international, one-stage
Languages: English, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese
Eligibility:
Architects and students of architecture, regardless of location;
Teams may consist of 1 to 4 persons
Fees: See timetable
Timetable:
29 June 2022 – End of early registration (€60/team)
27 July2022 – End of regular registration (€80/team)
24 August 2022 – End of advanced registration (€100)
14 September 2022 – Submission deadline
11 October 2022 – Winners announced
Awards:
1st Prize – €6,000 + Construction
2nd Prize – €2,000
3rd Prize – €1,000
10 Honorable mentions
(All of the above will receive certificates of achievement and the official competition book.)
Jury:
– Yasaman Esmaili, Studio Chahar, Tehran (Iran)
– Joao Boto, ROOTSTUDIO, Lisbon (Portugal)
– Shrutihi Ramakrishna, Made in Earth, Bangalore (India)
– Samista Jugwanth, Zutari, Durban (South Africa)
– Elisabetta Colavbianchi, Kurandza (San Francisco, CA)
(More to be added)
Design Challenge:
This Sub-Saharan Africa country is ranked 139th out of 159 countries on the UNDP’s Gender Inequality Index. Women are exposed to threats of diseases, discrimination and violence.
Around 94% of girls in Mozambique enroll in primary school, but despite this high number, only 11% of girls continue to study in secondary schools. As girls grow older, they are met by an increasing domestic workload and more responsibilities. Many girls have no choice but to stay at home to do chores or work to help their families. Teen pregnancies prove to be a major reason for girls dropping out of school early. 30 to 40 percent of girls are pregnant before they turn 18 years old. Taking care of a child, working and performing household chores can be overbearing and leave these girls no time for school.
This competition is calling for proposals to design a new learning center for the NGO Kurandza. Kurandza is focused on making sure that girls and women in their community are able to finish their studies and don’t have to drop out of school early. To accomplish that mission, they are building a new learning center where girls can feel safe and comfortable, a place where they can learn, play, run and discover.
Architecture should bring them a dynamic place where they can interact with each other and the surrounding environment. The projects will have to use locally sourced materials, easy to build constructive systems and be self-sufficient in terms of energy. They will have to be respectful with the local traditions and nature.
The program of the new learning center will be similar to that of a regular school. The goal of this competition is to create spaces that are flexible and can change their function if necessary.
The new learning center will have three classrooms, a kitchen, a multipurpose room, a childcare room, an office, a storage room and a bathroom. Outside, the learning center will contain an area for sports and outdoor activities, a space for a playground for the girls to play, which will encourage them to engage in physical activities.
For more information:
https://www.archstorming.com/info.html
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Helsinki Central Library, by ALA Architects (2012-2018)
The world has experienced a limited number of open competitions over the past three decades, but even with diminishing numbers, some stand out among projects in their categories that can’t be ignored for the high quality and degree of creativity they revealed. Included among those are several invited competitions that were extraordinary in their efforts to explore new avenues of institutional and museum design. Some might ask why the Vietnam Memorial is not mentioned here. Only included in our list are competitions that were covered by us, beginning in 1990 with COMPETITIONS magazine to the present day. As for what category a project under construction (Science Island), might belong to or fundraising still in progress (San Jose’s Urban Confluence or the Cold War Memorial competition, Wisconsin), we would classify the former as “built” and wait and see what happens with the latter—keeping our fingers crossed for a positive outcome.
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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/
RUR model perspective – ©RUR
New Kaohsiung Port and Cruise Terminal, Taiwan (2011-2020)
Reiser+Umemoto RUR Architecture PC/ Jesse Reiser – U.S.A.
with
Fei & Cheng Associates/Philip T.C. Fei –R.O.C. (Tendener)
This was probably the last international open competition result that was built in Taiwan. A later competition for the Keelung Harbor Service Building Competition, won by Neil Denari of the U.S., the result of a shortlisting procedure, was not built. The fact that the project by RUR was eventually completed—the result of the RUR/Fei & Cheng’s winning entry there—certainly goes back to the collaborative role of those to firms in winning the 2008 Taipei Pop Music Center competition, a collaboration that should not be underestimated in setting the stage for this competition.
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Winning entry ©Herzog de Meuron
In visiting any museum, one might wonder what important works of art are out of view in storage, possibly not considered high profile enough to see the light of day? In Korea, an answer to this question is in the making.
It can come as no surprise that museums are running out of storage space. This is not just the case with long established “western” museums, but elsewhere throughout the world as well. In Seoul, South Korea, such an issue has been addressed by planning for a new kind of storage facility, the Seouipul Open Storage Museum. The new institution will house artworks and artifacts of three major museums in Seoul: the Seoul Museum of Modern Art, the Seoul Museum of History, and the Seoul Museum of Craft Art.
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Belfast Looks Toward an Equitable and Sustainable Housing Model
Birdseye view of Mackie site ©Matthew Lloyd Architects
If one were to look for a theme that is common to most affordable housing models, public access has been based primarily on income, or to be more precise, the very lack of it. Here it is no different, with Belfast’s homeless problem posing a major concern. But the competition also hopes to address another of Belfast’s decades-long issues—its religious divide. There is an underlying assumption here that religion will play no part in a selection process. The competition’s local sponsor was “Take Back the City,” its membership consisting mainly of social advocates. In setting priorities for the housing model, the group interviewed potential future dwellers as well as stakeholders to determine the nature of this model. Among those actions taken was the “photo- mapping of available land in Belfast, which could be used to tackle the housing crisis. Since 2020, (the group) hosted seminars that brought together international experts and homeless people with the goal of finding solutions. Surveys and workshops involving local people, housing associations and council duty-bearers have explored the potential of the Mackie’s site.” This research was the basis for the competition launched in 2022.
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Alster Swimming Pool after restoration (2023)
Linking Two Competitions with Three Modernist Projects
Hardly a week goes by without the news of another architectural icon being threatened with demolition. A modernist swimming pool in Hamburg, Germany belonged in this category, even though the concrete shell roof had been placed under landmark status. When the possibility of being replaced by a high-rise building, it came to the notice of architects at von Gerkan Marg Partners (gmp), who in collaboration with schlaich bergermann partner (sbp), developed a feasibility study that became the basis for the decision to retain and refurbish the building.
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