Design Selection by an Honored Finnish Formula

The Finnish Museum of Architecture and Design Finalists

 

Finnish Museum of Architecture and Design competition site

 

Dating back to the 18th century, the history of architectural competitions in Finland has become an established process on the way to achieving exceptional design in its public realm.

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Ambitious Plans for the New Belgrade: The Centre for the Promotion of Science

Ambitious Plans for the New Belgrade

The Centre for the Promotion of Science

by Ted Sandstra

title

In the process of reinventing itself, the Serbian capital of Belgrade, once the political center of Yugoslavia before its dissolution into a number of smaller nation states, is steering away from its obsession with its nationalist past, and, with its application for entry into the European Community, is promoting cultural as well as economic progress as its top priorities. As part of this new direction, the City staged recent competitions for two city projects, bringing attention to the needs of Belgrade as a large city that not only continues to grow, but is soliciting ideas that speak to a civic and national identity that is intended to redefine significant historical locales within its geography. Thus, in the tradition of the Grande Projets, the Serbian administration announced competitions for a Center for the Promotion of Science; and also the Hala Beton Waterfront Centre 2011 and Kalemegdan Park on the Danube, the former located in Block 39 of the New Belgrade plan, the latter located just across the Sava River from it.

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Science Island in Recent Photos

Since the recent realization of SMAR Architecture’s winning design we have now received images from a professional photo shoot. As an open competition for one of the more important projects in Europe at the time, we feel that full documentation of the process from start to finish was an important page in the history of

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Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art Competition

 

“A Museum for All”

 

Winning entry by Weiss/Manfredi Landscape Architecture and Urbanism

 

Background The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art’s slogan “Creating a Museum for All” certainly reflects the efforts of many art museums to counter the notion that art museums exist primarily to cater to an elitist few. But one should

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A Final Word

How did COMPETITIONS get started? Whether from architects or chance encounters with laypersons, hardly a week would pass without being questioned about its origin. Actually, it was quite simple. While studying for another degree in Berlin, I became friends with two young architects, both not yet in their thirties, and at the

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2023/04 Architecture at Zero Competitions

 

2023 Teaching and Innovation Farm Lab Graduate Student Honor Award University of Southern California (USC)

 

Architecture at Zero competitions, which focus on the themes, 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

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The Future of Architecture with a New Administration

If history tells us anything, the advent of a new Trump administration could have serious implications for the future of architecture in this country. Trump’s previous tenure in office saw several appointments to D.C. agencies that foretold a significant attitude change toward modern architecture. First, we might expect a repeat of

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Tennessee Aquarium IMAX Competition

Completed IMEX by Tuck Hinton Architects. Photo courtesy Anecdote

 

It is not often that we look back to a competition that occurred three decades ago that was also covered in detail by COMPETITIONS (Vol. 4, #4; pp. 14-27). What made the Chattanooga IMAX different back in 1994 was that

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Preston Mosque Competition

 

A City Follows in the Footsteps of an Honored Tradition

 

Winning entry by Luca Poian Forms Image ©Filippo Bolognese images

 

Good design seldom happens in a vacuum. And so it was with an international competition for a new mosque in Preston, U.K. A mid-sized city of 95,000, and located in Lancashire

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Changdong Station Transit Center, Seoul

 

Changdong Station winner – image ©D & B Partners Architects

 

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

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