Butrint National Park Visitor Center (Albania) ![](https://competitions1.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/26112506/Screen-Shot-2022-09-26-at-10.37.05-AM-300x199.jpg) Sponsor: The Ministry of Culture of Albania, the Butrint Management Foundation (BMF) Facilitator: Malcolm Reading Consultants (London) Type: International, open (RfQ), 2-stage Fees: None Language: English Timetable: 11 October 2022 – Deadline for questions 24 October 2022 – Deadline for stage-one responses Process (stage 1) The client seeks a dedicated and gifted design team that will connect with the project values and create charismatic yet practical architecture that perfectly relates to the extraordinary cultural and natural setting. The competition encourages participation from new and emerging studios as well as seasoned practices. Competitor teams should include (as a minimum) the following disciplines: • Architect (and Lead Designer) • Landscape Architect • Masterplanner • Exhibition and Interpretation Designer • Archaeologist • Engineering Disciplines, including Sustainability • Cost Consultant • Wayfinding Consultant The disciplines noted above may be provided by individual companies forming a design team, or by one (multidisciplinary) company. In addition, competitors may include other disciplines central to the design approach. The winning team will be required to include an architect licensed in Albania as part of the design team for the project. This firm’s license must cover design works related to archaeological sites. A shortlist of four design teams will be selected to participate in the second stage of the competition. The four teams will receive compensation in the amount of USD $10,000 for completion of their designs in stage 2. Jury Elva Margariti – Minister of Culture, Albania Martin Mata, Co-CEO, AADF Aleksandër Sarapuli, Co-CEO, AADF Róisin Heneghan, Heneghan Peng Architects, Dublin, Ireland Mónica Luengo, ATP Architecture, Madrid, Spain Suzanne Ogge, studioMilou, Singapore Emily Freeman-Attwood, Chair, Butrint Foundation Background Located in the south of the country, approximately 20 kilometers from the modern city of Sarandë and overlooking the Straits of Corfu, Butrint is the most significant archaeological site in Albania, and its chief cultural attraction. Butrint has an exceptional sense of place, cultural resonance and visual appeal, which comes from its rare combination of monuments within an unspoilt and spectacular natural setting. The wider National Park is endowed with hills, lakes, wetlands, salt marshes, plains, reed beds and coastal islands. Recognized for millennia as an inspirational place, Butrint was celebrated in Virgil’s Aeneid and in Cicero’s Letters to Atticus. The site’s highlights include an ancient Epirot Theater, Roman Forum and an early Byzantine Baptistery with a well-preserved mosaic pavement, along with other monuments dating from the Hellenic, Roman, Byzantine, Angevin, Venetian and Ottoman periods. The area is triply inscribed as a WHS, a National Park, and a Ramsar site*. Crucially, the new visitor center, expected to be carbon neutral, is intended to help the site better manage rising visitor numbers, projected to reach an annual 400,000 by 2030. The new center, of up to 1,000 sqm, must receive, welcome and orient visitors, interpret the site, convey the Outstanding Universal Values of the WHS, and be a gateway to the wider National Park and a regional hub for other nearby natural and cultural visitor attractions. The center will be located approximately 1.5 kilometers from the entrance to the ancient city, in a spectacular location with panoramic views overlooking the Vivari Channel and the Mediterranean For more information and to enter: https://competitions.malcolmreading.com/butrint |
![](https://competitions1.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/08112019/01_ZHA_Ropax-Ferry-Terminal_River-Facade_Render-by-Negativ-1024x512.jpg) 1st Place: Zaha Hadid Architects – night view from river – Render by Negativ Arriving to board a ferry boat or cruise ship used to be a rather mundane experience. If you had luggage, you might be able to drop it off upon boarding, assuming that the boarding operation was sophisticated enough. In any case, the arrival experience was nothing to look forward to. I recall boarding the SS United States for a trip to Europe in the late 1950s. Arriving at the pier in New York, the only thought any traveler had was to board that ocean liner as soon as possible, find one’s cabin, and start exploring. If you were in New York City and arriving early, a nearby restaurant or cafe would be your best bet while passing time before boarding. Read more… Young Architects in Competitions When Competitions and a New Generation of Ideas Elevate Architectural Quality ![](https://competitions.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Young-Architects-cover-scaled2.jpg) 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 Wwhat 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/ ![](https://competitions1.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/15131723/Oodi-4-1024x460.jpg) 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. Read More… ![](https://competitions1.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/14085026/USC-1-1024x577.jpg) 2023 Teaching and Innovation Farm Lab Graduate Student Honor Award by USC (aerial view) Architecture at Zero competitions, which focus on the theme, Design Competition for Decarbonization, Equity and Resilience in California, have been supported by numerous California utilities such as Southern California Edison, PG&E, SoCAl Gas, etc., who have recognized the need for better climate solutions in that state as well as globally. Until recently, most of these competitions were based on an ideas only format, with few expectations that any of the winning designs would actually be realized. The anticipated realization of the 2022 and 2023 competitions suggests that some clients are taking these ideas seriously enough to go ahead with realization. Read more… ![](https://competitions1.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/06155406/RUR-8-model-1024x680.jpg) 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 Read more… ![](https://competitions1.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/16131404/H-M-1-1024x672.jpg) 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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