As part of the Quito Biennale, the Social Habitat and Development competition is oriented to identify and promote architectural practices and built projects that demonstrate having a positive and tangible impact in the improvements of the living conditions of low income families and the improvement of a built environment of society. The category is open for built projects or programs of new or renovated social habitat, built in the American continent during the period between 2008-2012 and that have not participated in previous BAQ editions. Emphasis will be given to projects or programs that consider the importance of: neighborhood and public space improvement, revitalization of urban environment, participation and management strategies in design, implementation and maintenance, cultural and aesthetic inputs that reinforce a community’s identity, building safety and climatic comfort. Entries are due no later than October 26. For more information, please visit here.

Foster + Partners is about to break the mold of New York’s static Park Avenue skyline, as they have been announced as winner of the highly publicized competition to replace the aging tower of 425 Park Avenue with a new world-class, sustainable office tower.

Lord Foster said: “I have a personal connection with New York, which has been a source of inspiration since my time at Yale, when the new towers on Park Avenue and its neighborhoods were a magnet for every young architect. Seeing first-hand the works of Mies van der Rohe, Gordon Bunshaft, Eero Saarinen and Philip Johnson was tremendously exciting then – I am delighted to have this very special opportunity to design a contemporary tower to stand alongside them. Our aim is to create an exceptional building, both of its time and timeless, as well as being respectful of this context – a tower that is for the City and for the people that will work in it, setting a new standard for office design and providing an enduring landmark that befits its world-famous location.”

Continue after the break to learn more about Foster’s winning proposal and to review the existing condition of 425 Park Ave.

Design Museum Boston recently announced the call for entries for Street Seats Design Challenge — an international outdoor furniture design challenge that will culminate in new waterfront seating, an outdoor design exhibition, and a walking tour around the channel. The Fort Point Channel links the waterfronts of downtown and South Boston – the seam between the Financial District and the emerging Boston Innovation District. o=Open to local and international artists, designers, and enthusiasts, Street Seats falls into the stated goals for the Fort Point Channel Watersheet Activation Plan, a 2002 vision to establish the Fort Point Channel as the next great (public) place in the City of Boston. Submissions are due no later than February 1. For more information, please visit here.

Open to everyone, OUTR (Office of Urban Transformations Research), along with RMIT University School of Architecture and Design, just announced the release of Transiting Cities International Open Design Ideas Competition. How can we rethink, regenerate, rebrand, rework, reactivate cities dominated by singular economies for a vibrant and innovative future? Designing Possible Futures for growth and adaptation of rehabilitated mines, associated infrastructures and the townships that are dependent on their futures. Integrated social, economic, environmental and infrastructural design outcomes. Produce intelligent innovative short and long-term transition strategies for an adaptive and vibrant regional center. Submissions are due November 30. More information on the competition after the break.

The Battery Conservancy Americas Design Competition 2012: Draw Up A Chair is a unique open call to design students and design professionals living in the North America, Central America, South America and the Caribbean. Design an iconic, movable outdoor seating element for NYC’s 25-acre historic Battery Park, AKA The Battery. The winning design will be fabricated for use in The Battery, which annually welcomes six million visitors. They are offering an earlybird registration rate for all who register by this Sunday, Sept. 30. All design entries are due October 30. To register and for more information, please visit here.

UP Projects and The Architecture Foundation has announced Duggan Morris Architects as winner of the Open Architecture Challenge to design the next phase of the acclaimed Floating Cinema project. This project has been commissioned by the Legacy List with corporate partner Bloomberg as part of the Bloomberg East series of artist-led programs to animate the waterways in East London working in partnership with the Canal and River Trust.

Continue after the break to learn more.

DawnTown, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting architecture in Miami, is announcing an open call for portfolios for their Design Build competition. Now in its fifth year, Dawntown seeks the talents of a designer or design team to create a low cost, innovative, and temporary installation in Miami. The competition is open to architects, artists, and all creative professionals. Designers can work individually or collaboratively in teams, with the requirement that at least one team member is located in the United States. Dawntown Design Build is made possible by the generous grant of the John S and James L Knight Foundation and The Miami Downtown Development Authority. Don’t miss out on a chance to be a part of this inaugural architectural event for Miami! Entries will be collected from September 17th 2012 to October 31st 2012, with finalists being announced on November 15th 2012. To register and for more details, please visit here.

Yesterday, we announced that Los Angeles based Neil M. Denari Architects (NMDA), in collaboration with Taiwanese architectural firm Fei and Cheng Associates, have been selected as winner of a highly publicized, international competition for the new Keelung Harbor Service Building in Taiwan’s largest port city. As promised, we now present to you the winning proposal.

Serving as a “Gateway to the Nation”, the project site consists of a new cruise ship port terminal, a 250 meter long, three level building that will accommodate the largest ships in Asia; a 53,000 square meter Harbor Authority office complex; parking for 1000 cars; and a third phase 23,000 square meter speculative office building. The NT$6.2 billion (US$211.5 million) renewal project will be completed in phases. Construction will commence next year on the three-floor terminal, which is planned for completion by 2015. Work on the complex’s office building is expected to come to a conclusion in 2017. Learn more after the break, with the architects’ complete project statement.

The City of York Council recently launched a competition seeking nationally and internationally renowned architects to submit their design proposals which clearly demonstrate potential future uses for York’s historic Guildhall and riverside complex. Registered architects are invited to develop their ideas for the Guildhall, the associated office accommodation, river frontage and boat yard, as part of an ‘Open Ideas’ competition, run by The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA). Entries will be sought from architects putting forward innovative ideas on how the potential of the Guildhall site and riverside could be maximized for the benefit of the city and its residents. The competition submission deadline is November 6th and the results will be announced early December. For more information, please visit here.

The Research and Documentation Centre in Technology, Architecture and City in Developing Countries (CRD-PVS) at the Politecnico di Torino (Italy) has launched an international Student Design Competition tur(i)ntogreen – Farms in A Town. Sponsored by the UN-HABITAT within the “I’m a City Changer” campaign, participants are invited to apply their creative talents in developing new multidisciplinary solutions for a sustainable and inclusive city reflecting new forms of urban management and regeneration through agro-housing and urban-farming models.

An international jury has selected Capital Cities Planning Group (CCPG), an Anglo-American team including Gillespies, John Thompson & Partners and Buro Happold, as winners for the design and planning of the new Federal District in Moscow.

Earlier this year, the Russian Federal Government announced that it was doubling the territory of Moscow to enable it to grow into a competitive 21st century world capital. In response, Genplan, Moscow’s city planner, earmarked an area of 155km2 to the south-west of the city for a new Federal Government Centre, aiming to relieve inner-city congestion through the relocation of the capital’s major employer. Ten international teams were invited to develop strategies and designs for the region during a six month, three stage competition. Continue reading to learn more.

The 2012 IIDA Best Interiors of Latin America Competition was created to recognize, honor and celebrate outstanding Interior Design/Architecture projects that represent the highest level of creativity, originality and design excellence in the following countries: Argentina, Aruba, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Falkland Islands, French Guiana, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela. The design project(s) must have been completed between January 1, 2010 and June 31, 2012. The deadline for submission is September 14. For more information, please visit here.

The Chicago Architectural Club, along with its partner, the Chicago chapter of the American Institute of Architects, just announced the 2012 Chicago Prize Competition: Future Prentice. The competition is intended to act as a platform for public debate about the future of one of Chicago’s most architecturally significant Modern buildings, Bertrand Goldberg’s Prentice Women’s Hospital. Located in the downtown Chicago neighborhood of Streeterville, this concrete, clover leaf-shaped structure is considered an iconic piece of architecture for the city by some and an eyesore by others. Today the building is in imminent danger of being torn down by its owner, Northwestern University, but it’s fate ultimately lies in the hands of the city’s administration. The submission deadline is October 15. To register and for more information, please visit here.

With the theme of “Rediscover the Future,” the 2013 Mock Firms International Skyscraper Competition is calling aspiring young design professionals to produce an iconic super-tall for Amman, Jordan (collegiate) and Chicago, IL (high school). The programmatic target is a design solution for a diverse and comprehensive vertical healthcare community. The 5th installment of the Mock Firms Competitions hopes to establish a platform for aspiring young professionals to “re-discover” the ideas, designs and technologies which helped to introduce past communities to their “future” work, leisure and domestic environments. The finalist will share in the unique experience of interacting with leading design professionals as their ideas are evaluated by the same. Registration deadline is March 1. For more information, please visit here.

As previously announced, the Portuguese architects behind “OCO – Ocean & Coastline Observatory” have won Habitat for Humanity’s Open Architecture Challenge: RESTRICTED ACCESS 2011. Over 500 teams from 74 countries submitted innovative solutions for the recovery and reuse of disabled and abandoned military sites. These submissions were filtered down to 13 finalists by a jury of 33 esteemed professionals. The Lisbon-based architects of OCO claimed grand prized with their vision to redevelop a desolate military site, that once defended the coast of Trafaria in Portugal, into a civic space that promotes coastal preservation.

Continue after the break for more. 

Design Corps, the Social Economic Environmental Design® (SEED) Network, and their 2013 partner, the University of Minnesota College of Design, are pleased to announce the Third Annual SEED Awards for Excellence in Public Interest Design.

The organizers of Trimo Urban Crash, a biannual international competition for students of architecture and industrial design, just launched this year’s summer challenge, which is a relatively simple task. All are being asked, not just students, to present their thoughts on ‘Sustainable urban commuting’. You can send you thoughts/work in either visual form (photography, video, visual art and illustration, poster, etc.) or in textual form (no longer than 150 words); or you can create a combination of both. Submissions are on-line only. The deadline for the Summer Warm-up Challenge is August 20, 2012 and this challenge is only a warm-up for the 4th Trimo Urban Crash Competition which will get started this autumn, October 2012. For more information, please visit here.

The Think Space Past Forward Programme just launched its very first Call for Papers, dedicating itself to writing and publishing critically about architecture. Known for using design competitions, exhibitions, symposiums and publications as its tools, they are leaning on historical discourse which normally takes the form of reflection through writing for the very first time. The deadline for abstracts is September 10 with the final paper due no later than October 10. More information after the break.

The New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) is inviting developers to submit proposals for a new construction project in Kips Bay, Manhattan. Developing housing that meets the needs of how New Yorkers live today is critical to the City’s future economic success. Currently, the City’s housing stock is misaligned with the changing demographics of its population. There are 1.8 million one- and two-person households (more than 60 percent of New York City households) and only one million studios and one-bedrooms to meet this housing demand. According to the 2010 Census, the growth rates of the one- and two-person household populations exceed the growth rate of households with three or more people. adAPT NYC seeks to create additional choice within New York City’s housing market. Submissions are due no later than September 14 with a pre-submission conference to be held on July 31. To register and for more information, please visit here.

The international competition for a new service building in Taiwan’s major port city Keelung called for the design of a modern passenger and cargo terminal transfer station and maritime gateway art plaza. The objective is to improve the quality of the services for passengers and cargo, accelerate the development of surrounding areas, and ultimately promote local prosperity of the region. The new service building design is to be a new “Gateway to the Nation” – one that could become a form of Landmark Architecture of Keelung. The site of the new building should be integrated with the other commercial buildings in an effort to develop the entire area. The diverse programs cover an area of 82,615 m2 and include car and coach parking.

The two-stage competition was announced in early May 2012 and recieved thirty one submissions from twelve countries in the first stage. On July 19th the jury unveiled five nominated groups to continue to the second stage whose deadline is in September.

Follow us after the break for details on the five shortlisted firms.

[AC-CA] just launched their next competition which aims at designing a New Sustainable Market Square in Casablanca, Morocco. A market square is a public open area where market stalls are traditionally set out for trading, commonly on particular days. It is usually situated in the center of the town, surrounded by buildings and streets. To create a sustainable market, environmentally conscious design techniques will be implemented. The architecture of this new structure should reflect contemporary design tendencies. The proposal must not only attend to the specific function but the design should also take into consideration the urban insertion and its impact. Early bird registration ends July 31 with the submission deadline November 5. To register and for more information, please visit here.

With this year’s theme being “Big Tree Paradigm” Akihisa Hirata, Shelter Corporation of Japan is inviting under-graduate or post-graduate students at universities or at tertiary institutions (including: junior colleges, colleges of technology, and other relevant vocational schools) as of November 17, 2012, to participate in their annual Student Architectural design Competition. Participants are challenged to design a house that has an attractive quality that is somehow similar to the attractiveness of big trees. It is not necessary that the house imitates the shape of trees. Rather, it is good if the idea starts from the attractiveness of big trees and develops into an unpredictable outcome – the form does not need to look like a tree at all. Submissions are due no later than September 28. To register and for more information, please visit here.

Public voting started this past week and will go on until July 22 for the inaugural George Matsumoto Prize for North Carolina Modernist residential design, a unique architecture competition sponsored by nonprofit Triangle Modernist Houses (TMH).

This year the Cleveland Design Competition is calling for a re-imagining of the Detroit Superior Bridge – a 19th century bridge rich with history and value to Cleveland’s downtown area and industrial zones. Professional, students, firms and designers are all invited to propose a dynamic public space, performance venue and pedestrian experience along the abandoned lower streetcar level of the bridge. Registration for this competition closes on September 24th. The competition deadline is October 5th. This is an awarded competition for first, second and third prize winners. A free public reception and exhibition will takes place on October 26th to announce the winners. To register, visit the official competition website.

For a brief on the competition, join us after the break.