Changdong Station Transit Center, Seoul

    Whereas international competitions for real projects have become a rarity lately, Korea is a welcome exception. Among the plethora of competition announcements we receive almost weekly, several have ended with foreign firms as winners. But the history of welcoming international participants does go back several years. One notable early example was the Incheon Airport competition, ...
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Ropax Ferry Terminal Competition in Riga

  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 ...
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The Covington Gateway Competition – A Visit with the Winning Architect and Covington’s City Planner

  One thing about competitions, and having the fortunate experience I’ve had, I’ve really learned that being ambitious for your client and society is hugely important.  – James Cheng     This is Thursday, April 11, 2024, and I am in the office of emersion DESIGN with architect James Cheng and J.T. Spence, the latter the former planner of ...
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Architecture at Zero 2021/22 and 2023 Winners

    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 ...
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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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