6th Advanced Architecture Competition

Sponsor: Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia; FabLab Barcelona

Type: Open, international, ideas

Location: Barcelona, Spain

Entrance Fee: None

Awards: A total of 60,000.00 EUR will be distributed at the discretion of the Jury

Languages: English

Eligiblity: The competition is opened to students and professionals. There is no age limit; the projects may be carried

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St Luke’s Area Design Competition – Islington

Sponsor: Islington Council

Type: RFQ, 2 stage

Location: Islington, UK

Design Challenge: The Council is launching a design competition to appoint an exemplary team of designers to redevelop the Finsbury Leisure Centre site. The winning team will go on to develop detailed designs and a full planning application for the site. Â

The

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The Huts Eastbourne

Sponsor: Eastbourne Borough Council

Type: RFQ, three stage

Location: Eastbourne, UK

Languages: English

Registration Deadline: 9 October 2015

Design Challenge: The Huts – Eastbourne is an exciting new initiative from Eastbourne Borough Council that invites submissions to their competition to find iconic designs for bespoke beach huts to be sited at intervals along the front

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Gallaudet University International Design Competition

Sponsor: Gallaudet University; The JBG Companies

Organizer: Malcolm Reading Consultants

Location: Washington, DC

Type: RFQ, 2-stage, international

Languages: English

Project Budget: $60 million

Awards: An honorarium of $50,000 U.S. dollars will be awarded to each of the shortlisted teams following selection of the winner.

RFQ Deadline: 1st October 2015

Design Challenge:

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Reinventing the Rustbelt: UD4U Urban Design Competition

by Stanley Collyer

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1st Place entry “High Res,” by Lasha brown, Sandra Arndt, Emilija Kaia Landsbergis, and Robert Hon

As a mid-sized rustbelt city in the Midwest, Kenosha, Wisconsin was especially hard hit by auto plant closings. First it was the American Motors plant in 1988. Then, to compound matters, the Chrysler Engine plant closed in 2010. Such closings not only resulted in the loss of high-paying jobs, but left a desolate void in the urban fabric. Some of these vacant spaces have recently become the object of design competitions, staged with the intention of generating ideas to reinvigorate abandoned areas. One of these was the Redesigning Detroit competition, focused on the previous site of Hudson’s Department Store in the city’s central business district (2013 COMPETITIONS Annual). ÂÂ ÂÂ

More recently, UD4U, a Chicago-based non-profit, staged a planning competition for the abandoned Chrysler engine plant in Kenosha, Wisconsin. The site, located in the city less than a mile from Lake Michigan and would seem to be an ideal location for housing and other similar projects. This was a large, open site—107 acres—surrounded mostly by detached residential housing. The location of eight schools within one-half mile attests to the residential density of the area surrounding the site. Since the plant closing, the structures have been demolished, and only the concrete slab surface remained from what at once was a productive industrial plant.

Chrysler Plant map
Crystler Plant Site

The competition was international and “open to professionals and students of all countries, with the requirement that they either be in, or previously graduated from, a professional/registered university with a degree in one of the following: architecture, urban design, urban planning, landscape architecture, or engineering. Participants of the competition were asked to create their vision of what the site should become. The program was completely open, so the use and function of the structures, open spaces, etc. was completely up to each team. However, every team was asked to address 4 aspects that are vital to the site being a success and beneficial for the community.” Those 4 aspects were: • history of the site and city • the site’s surrounding urban fabric • industries of Kenosha • transportation options. The problem with many of these abandoned manufacturing sites is their environmental history. They normally would require a massive cleanup, and, as “hot sites,” may never be regarded as a location for a viable project. In Kenosha, $10M has been set aside for a cleanup of the site, and, at this writing, the remediation process has already begun. As has occurred with other similar sites in Kenosha, it is assumed that local, state, and federal government entitities will contribute additional funds as needed until the cleanup process is complete. All that aside, the very nature of the size and location of the site made it ideal subject matter for an ideas competition. And, although this was just an ideas competition, it provided a number of workable ideas for the site and could give the city fathers some food for thought. The jury was made up of three outside experts and three members of UD4U:

• Andrew Moddrell, Director of PORT
• Christine Carlyle, Urban Planner
• Andrew Vesselinovitch, City Traffic Planner
• Elizabeth Fallon, UD4U, Architect
• Matthew Clapper, Planner, UD4U Principal and Founder
• Kaleb Quirin, UD4U Project Manager

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KYM Field Schools for Tropical Savanna Climate of Africa International Architectural Concept Project Competition

Sponsor: United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC)

Location: Africa

Type: Open, international, single stage

Eligiblity: The competition is open for architects and architecture students. Architect category; competitors who can prove that they are architects can participate individually or as a team, with multiple projects. A competitor must upload the scanned form of his/her diploma

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World War I Memorial Second Stage Finalists

• Plaza to the Forgotten War, by Andrew Cesarz and Johnsen Schmaling Architects of Milwaukee

• Heroes’ Green, by Counts Studios of New York City. • World War I Memorial, by Devin Kimmel and Kimmel Studio of Annapolis, Maryland • An American Family Portrait Wall in the Park, by Luis Collado, Jose Luis de la

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Black Rock City Planning Competition

Sponsor: Black Rock City Ministry of Urban Planning

Location: Block Rock City, Nevada, USA Type: Open, international, two stage Timeline: 31 December 2015 – stage one submission deadline Design Challenge: If you had a chance to design Black Rock City, what would you build? Participatory art is what makes Burning Man such a

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New England Town Meeting Hall

Sponsor: AIA Vermont Emerging Professionals Network.

Type: Open, one-stage (see “Eligibility”)

Eligibility: This competition is open to all emerging design professionals within 10 years of graduation or 5 years of licensure, living or working in New England. Entrants may either work individually or as part

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The Biennial Lakefront Kiosk Competition

by Stanley Collyer

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Winning entry by Ultramoderne

ÂÂÂÂÂ Ki-osk: 1. in Turkey and Persia an open pavilion; 2. a building of similar construction such as a newsstand, etc. What is a Biennial with architecture as the central theme without a competition?

The Chicago Biennial not only has invited a number of high profile architects from around the world to participate in various events stretching over several months, but looked for a suitable theme and site to showcase what modern architecture is all about. They settled on a Kiosk Competition on the city’s lakeshore next to Millennium Park, a high traffic area in all but the winter months. There are to be four kiosks—one to be the result of the competition—and all are to be permanent structures. It is no surprise that scores of kiosks are already commonplace on Chicago’s lakeshore, taking advantage of the streams of summer visitors who are drawn to the shore of Lake Michigan. Overseen by the Chicago Park District, over forty kiosks punctuate the shoreline, which during the summer offer food, retail, and recreational services—ranging from beverages to clothing to surf rentals.

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The shoreline of Lake Michigan has always played a central role in Chicago’s urban identity. During the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, architect Daniel Burnham sought to incorporate the lake into the fairgrounds, and his 1909 Plan for Chicago proposed to reclaim the entire length of the lakefront as a place of leisure for all inhabitants of the city—an idea realized during the 20th century. Today, the lakefront is a celebrated and heavily used public space that is a major destination for both visitors and local residents. It features over twenty miles of public parks and beaches, as well as pedestrian and cycling routes.

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The Competition

Organized in partnership with the Chicago Park District and the City of Chicago, The Lakefront Kiosk Competition issued a call for an inventive design of a new kiosk to be installed on the lakefront. The competition attracted wide interest, both domestically and internationally: 421 entries were received from 40 countries. The winning competition entry and the three commissioned kiosks are to be displayed in Millennium Park during the Chicago Architecture Biennial (October 2015 – January 2016). Instalation of all four kiosks on the lakefront is scheduled for the spring of 2016.

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The competition’s announced winner, Ultramoderne, received the BP Prize, which includes a $10,000 honorarium and a $75,000 budget to realize the design.

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The competition jury was comprised of:

David Adjaye, Adjaye Associates, London, U.K. Jeanne Gang, Studio Gang Architects, Chicago Joseph Grima, Chicago Architecture Biennial Sarah Herda, Chicago Architecture Biennial Sharon Johnston, Johnston Marklee and Associates, Los Angeles Michael J. O’Brien, BP, Chicago Rob Rejman, Chicago Park District

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