New Kaohsiung Port and Cruise Terminal, Taiwan

  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 ...
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Architecture  Competitions as the Victim of American Exceptionalism

  Winning Stage 2 design for the WWll Memorial Competition ©Friedrich St. Florian   The guidelines for the administration a design competition are not a closely held state secret. Still, leading up to the announcement of a design competition for the World War II Memorial, some in the military seemed to think otherwise. In early 1993, an AIA ...
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35 years of COMPETITIONS – Recalling Some of the Most Memorable, Both Built and Unbuilt

    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 ...
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Holocaust Memorials Under Siege?

  New England Holocaust Memorial, by Stanley Saitowitz   The New England Holocaust Memorial, the result of a competition won by Stanley Saitowitz (above), appeared to be an easy target with its glass panel design for teenagers on two separate occasions. Just focusing on competitions, an attack against any building that was the result of a competition raises ...
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Seoripul Open Storage Museum in Seoul

  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 ...
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Alster Swimming Pool Restoration, Hamburg

  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 ...
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International Competition for a conceptual architectural design of a primary school in City Kvart in Podgorica

  Winning entry ©Mirko Popović, Žaklina Nježić, Zoltán Schrammel   Americans became quite aware of the Montenegrin educational system during their 2016 presidential election. It was then that students interviewed by western reporters revealed to the press the nature of their their lucrative, part-time, after school jobs—creating social bots to influence the outcome of the U.S. election. Based ...
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Berlin’s Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church Competition

  A Church Ruin as Reconciliation Memorial   View of winning design from south ©Heninghan Peng Architects     For those tourists visiting Berlin today, the sudden approach to the ruins of a 1895 church building located on the city’s downtown Breitscheidplatz would certainly arouse their curiosity. One of the few remaining relics of World War II in the city, the ...
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Düsseldorf “New Heart” Tower Competition

  Architecture as a Unifying Concept   1st Place – UNStudio  Image: ©Aerial image: ©die developer Projektentwicklung GmbH     As attractive as some of our most famous towers might appear, they do have a serious downside according to some observers: ‘they suck the life out of the street.’ This has not gone unnoticed, as some cities have required setbacks as ...
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Take Back the City Competition

  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 ...
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