Throughout history, the coast has spawned various architectural types of public infrastructure which enabled and enhanced the coastal experience. The British invention of the marine pier for instance was an architectural innovation that allowed the first coast tourists to walk on water, as it were, only without getting wet or seasick. The seafront promenade in turn was the public place to be for the well-to-do dawdler, but at the same time also an integral part of coastal defence as well as an efficient real-estate instrument along which the first prestigious ‘Grands Hotels’ could be erected. Lastly, the modern installations balnéaires in Ostend, Knokke, and Blankenberge integrated showers, changing rooms, luxury cabins, ticket sales, and steps leading to the beach.
Architecture Competitions
5 Teams Shortlisted to Redevelop St Luke's Area in Islington
The Islington Council has shortlisted five teams to redevelop the its St Luke's area. Aimed at alleviating Islington's housing needs, the project will deliver much needed new leisure and community facilities, affordable homes and improved public space, as well as "an exemplary civic building" on a site adjacent to St Luke's Church. According to the Brief, the new building will "bring together leisure, childcare, healthcare and local energy production under one roof."
The five teams will now develop proposals - all of which will be put on public display in early 2016. A winning scheme will be chosen in spring 2016. The five teams shortlisted, include:
Four Design Teams Shortlisted for Australia's State Library Vision 2020 Project
Four architectural design teams have been chosen to submit designs for the $83.1 million State Library Victoria Vision 2020 Redevelopment Project in Victoria, Australia.
The large-scale project includes the restoration of the historic Queen’s Hall, reopening of the library’s Russell Street entrance, an e-Town Hall, and new spaces for early learning, digital media, entrepreneurship, and exhibitions.
Call for Entries: European Prize for Urban Public Space
The Ninth European Prize for Urban Public Space (2016) has officially issued a call for entries. The biennial honorary award “has been offered since 2000 in order to recognize, encourage, and publicize examples of good practice in the ways in which the public spaces of European cities respond to the many challenges they presently face.”
The Prize seeks interventions that recover or improve the democratic quality of urban spaces that are endangered by “segregation, inequalities, unchecked urban construction, unsustainable squandering, and serious shortfalls in making effective the right to the city.”
Global Design Competition for a Nature Park & Pedestrian Bridge in Mumbai
UPDATE: The submission deadline has been changed to February 7th, 2016.
The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) is looking for multi-disciplinary design teams that are capable of designing and delivering a technically demanding and environmentally sensitive makeover in the heart of India’s Financial Capital, Mumbai. There are no competition fees to be paid and all submissions will be exclusively done through the competition portal. Five shortlisted entries from the first stage will each receive Rs. 5,00,000 and the eventual winner will receive Rs. 50,00,000 as part of a contract.
The Architectural League Prize 2016: (im)permanence
Young architects and designers are invited to submit work to the annual Architectural League Prize Competition. Projects of all types, either theoretical or real, and executed in any medium, are welcome. The jury will select work for presentation in lectures, digital media, and an exhibition in June 2016. Winners will receive a cash prize of $2,000. A catalogue of winning work will be published by The Architectural League.
4 Shortlisted to Revitalize Los Angeles’ Oldest Park
Update: The winner of the competition has now been announced!
Four teams have been chosen to move on to the second stage of the Pershing Square Renew competition. Aiming to transform downtown Los Angeles' oldest park, the finalists will now refine their schematic proposals in preparation of a second review in March 2016. The winning scheme will potentially be the five-acre park's sixth iteration, replacing Mexican architect Ricardo Legorreta and landscape architect Laurie Olin current design that first opened in 1994.
The four teams and their preliminary ideas, include:
Open Design Competition: New Aarhus School of Architecture – NEW AARCH
The Danish Building & Property Agency and the Aarhus School of Architecture welcome you to the open design competition for New Aarhus School of Architecture – NEW AARCH. In launching this competition we are inviting proposals for the design of the future School of Architecture in Aarhus.
NKA Foundation Announces Winners of Designing for the Arts Housing Competition in Ghana
NKA Foundation has announced the winners of the 3rd Earth Architecture Competition, Designing for the Arts, in Ghana. The competition called for recent graduates and students of architecture and design to design innovative, modest, and affordable housing for artists that could be built using earth and local materials in Ghana.
The design was required to be a mud house type of about 2,400 square feet for eight to ten users on a plot of 80 by 100 feet in the Abetenim Arts Village, near Kumasi in the Ashanti Region of Ghana. The overall design was designated for use by musicians, theater artists, potters, sculptors, painters, textile artists, designers, writers, or media arts practitioners. Total costs of construction were not to exceed $7,000 USD for materials and labor, not including the land value.
The winners of the competition are:
Call for Submissions: ArchDaily's 2015 Holiday Card Contest
It's that time of year again! At ArchDaily we clearly appreciate holiday cards with an architectural spin, and we want to see your card designs. Whether that involves a modernist menorah, a christmas tree cross-section or even a Mies van der Ho-Ho-Ho, you're invited to submit your own architectural holiday card to be hung above ArchDaily's impeccably postmodern mantle.
We thoroughly enjoy the creativity of our readers and look forward to viewing your submissions.
Call for Submissions: St Mary Redcliffe Design Competition
Described by Elizabeth I as ‘the fairest, goodliest and most famous parish church in England’, St Mary Redcliffe is both an ecclesiastical jewel and a dynamic, living church – a beacon of positivity, helping the least-advantaged and marginalised within the city of Bristol.
The church is ambitious to expand its outreach and mission activities. It is also determined to increase people’s enjoyment of the building by creating an outstanding visitor experience. The church’s development project, the focus of this design competition, will run concurrently with a wider regeneration project, The Redcliffe Neighbourhood Development Plan, which seeks to place the church – Grade I listed and the architectural equivalent of many European cathedrals – at the heart of a new urban village within the city centre.
Call for Entries: Flux Emerging Architects Competition
Today over 3 billion people live in urban areas, composing 50% of the world population. By 2050, it is estimated that the world population will grow to between 9 and 11 billion people, and over 70% will be living in urban areas. This means within 35 years, we will need to house an additional 3 billion people within cities by the most conservative estimates. Even if we could build large apartment complexes that house 500 people each, we would need to construct 500 buildings each day every day for the next 35 years to meet that demand.
Hadid and Safdie Among 6 Competing to Design Traffic Control Tower at Istanbul New Airport
iGA has shared a glimpse of 6 proposed designs competing to be the Istanbul New Airport's Traffic Control Tower. With designs by Zaha Hadid, Moshe Safdie, Grimsaw-Nordic, Massimiliano Fuksas, Pininfarina-Aecom, and RMJM Architects, the competition seeks to chose an innovative tower that is "inspired by the authentic symbols of Turkey."
“We are developing a unique project inspired by the local architecture. That is why we have organized this contest, hoping that Airport Traffic Control Tower design would symbolically contribute great deal to Istanbul New Airport and also will be the most important figure of Istanbul. We particularly asked contestants to get inspired from icons of Turkey. Currently we are evaluating the submitted projects and will be announcing the results as soon as possible,” said Yusuf Akçayoğlu, CEO of İGA.