Sponsor: University of California, Berkeley Type: International, Essay – Travel and Fellowship competitions Number of entries: 79 Topic: How do Civic Buildings Create Community? Awards: • For the eight Finalists, there is the “best of the best” First, Second and Third Prizes, and five Honorable Mentions totaling 35,000USD. • In addition, and in lieu Read more…
Sponsor: Kaizhou New City Management Committee of Deyang City Type: International, ideas, one-stage Location: Kaizhou New City, located east of Deyang City, Sichuan Province, covers two towns, Jisqing and Xinglong, with an administrative area of 200 sq. kilometers. The New City is 64 kilometers from the urban area of Chengdu and located within the Read more…
Sponsor: The Département of the Alpes-Maritimes, France Type: Open, international Eligibility: To professionals: – Landscape architects, landscapers, landscaping companies and landscape gardeners; – Architects, designers, artists, developers, scenographers, decorators. To students involved in the final year of the Landscape Architecture School. Languages: French and English Timetable: 10 July 2020 – Documents submission Read more…
Create a 2020 Vision for Sudbury’s Urban Core in 2050 Sponsor: McEwen School of Architecture (MSoA) in collaboration with the community Type: International, open, ideas Fee: none Language: English Location: Sudbury, Ontario Eligibility: (1) Design professionals and (2) students registered in a full-time program Timetable: 28 August 2020 Read more…
Submission extended to 1 July 2020 because of the COVID-19 Pandemic https://www.urbanconfluencesiliconvalley.org
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Photo courtesy Architects Newspaper The passing of Bill Menking represents the loss of one of our most important voices in the architecture world of publishing and criticism. Bill was interested in all facets of design, and regarded design competitions as an instrument to push the design envelope. My initial encounter with Bill occurred Read more…
Sponsor: Shenzhen Natural History Museum, Shenzhen, China Competition organizer: Engineering Design Management Center of Bureau of Public Works of Shenzhen Municipality Type: International, tender process (There are the Invitation Stage, Open Call and Pre-qualification Stage, Design Competition Stage and Final Evaluation Stage.) Fee: none Languages: English and Chinese Timetable: 22 April 2020 – Questions Read more…
Sponsor: Archdiocese of Vienna Competition organizer: ARGEWO, Vienna Type: EU, open, registered architects Fee: none Language: German Process: Open anonymous process for ideas and realization To register, please go to the organizer’s website below Timetable: 4/17/2020 – Competition registration begins 6/22/2020 – Submission deadline Awards: Total awards – €137,000 Design challenge: A campus intended Read more…
Sponsor: Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts Type: International, open, RfQ, tender process Fee: none Languages: English, Chinese Process: International firms must collaborate with a local Taiwan firm For details of this project, please download the tender document from the “Government E-Procurement System”. Timetable: 10 May 2020 – Submission of qualification documents Challenge: Kaohsiung Museum Read more… |
Countryside Dilemmas – New Rural Planning 
1st Place – ©Tianjin University Team
Planning used to be at the bottom of Chinese students’ lists of design priorities. One western architect, whose firm was at the forefront in the design and implementation of numerous planning projects in China, surmised that planning was an area that received little attention in the university curricula. So when planning for a major metropolitan area has occurred, the Chinese have almost always turned to outside international firms for ideas and implementation. 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/ The Chicago Architecture Club Shines the Spotlight on Another Endangered Landmark 
Public Pool Image: ©Perkins&Will
What do Bertrad Goldberg and Helmut Jahn have in common? Besides having high-profile buildings threatened by demolition, both served as subject matter for two competitions sponsored by the Chicago Architecture Club (CAC)—raising public consciousness about their impending fate. They both produced buildings in a city famous for its architecture that have been abandoned: Goldberg’s Future Prentice Women’s Hospital, demolished in 2014 after a valiant effort by preservationists to save it from the wrecking ball; and Jahn’s Thompson Center, now the object of a similar effort by the State of Illinois to sell it to a developer. Read more… An Ideas Competition in Berlin Seeks Answers 
Winning entry perspective Image: ©AllesWirdGut Architekten
Berlin developer HOWOGE recently staged what was regarded as a “planning Laboratory” competition for a model satellite in northwest Berlin. The brief for this invited competition noted that the urban sprawl, which had accompanied the reunification of Germany(and Berlin) in 1989, was low density in character, occupying wide swaths of suburban areas around the city. With previous high density, and now controversial Berlin projects in mind—the problems with Berlin’s high-density Gropius-Stadt as a warning signal—the sponsor here suggested that lessons learned from past mistakes could be avoided with a high-quality design strategy… Read more… Winner Announced for New Preston Mosque Competition 
LUCA POIAN FORMS Image courtesy RIBA
Facilitator: RIBA
Location: Preston, U.K.
Type: International, open
The competition attracted over 200 entries from 40 different countries.
Five finalists were chosen to participate in a second phase:
Winner
• LUCA POIAN FORMS, London, UK
Finalists - BLANKPAGE Architects, Lebanon
- Borough Architects + buchhandler-nelli + elca, Cambridge, UK
- Mcheileh Studio, New York (Highly Commended by the Evaluation Panel)
- TABE SHOURI, New York
RIBA competition website:
www.architecture.com/competitions Astrakhan Looks to Raise Its Quality of Life Index 
Aerial view of downtown Astrakhan
Planning competitions with a strong landscape component take many forms, including some for plazas and gateways to major town centers, city neighborhood sites with multi-story housing units, university campus plans and finally, comprehensive city plans—the latter either being for new towns, as in China, or strategies for the improvement of existing cities—as was here the case with Astrakhan, a major city on the Volga delta, and the Caspian Sea. Read more… |
