Starting tomorrow, the five design teams selected to redesign the outdoor spaces of Chicago’s Navy Pier will begin to reveal their schemes to the public. Lead by AECOM, Aedas Architects, James Corner Field Operations, !melk and the Xavier Vendrell Studio, each team will be given thirty minutes to present their ideas, followed by a ten minute question and answer session. The presentations will take place on January 31st and February 1st at the Museum of Contemporary Art. Continue reading for the presentation schedules and more information on the competition.
The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) is pleased to announce a “Call for Proposals” for its 2012 International Research Seed Funding initiative – culminating with an award of US$20,000.
The Zagreb Society of Architects(DAZ), acting as Organizer and Manager on behalf of The City of Zagreb is launching an open, on-line, one-stage, anonymous, ideas Competition for the urban-architectural conceptual design for the Zagreb Badel Site redevelopment. More information find on the official web site of the Competition. The deadline for submission of competition entries is on Thursday, 5 April 2012 at 12.00 CET. Competitors may make inquiries until Wednesday, 22 February 2012. For more information, please visit their website here. Images of the site can be viewed after the break.
The Lens, designed by Michael Maltzan Architecture, has been selected as winner of the international competition to redesign the St. Petersburg Pier in Florida. After over a month of debate, a jury of three architects and two elected officials selected the proposal, believing it to be the most practical and cost-effective design. The jury’s decision was consistent with the public’s opinion, as 68% of the public comments supported The Lens, 42% liked The Wave, while only 17% backed the Eye. Next, the St. Petersburg City Council will vote on February 2nd to decide whether or not they will approve the design. If the concept is accepted, the next year will be dedicated to involve the public in the creation of the final design.
Weysen & De Baere Architects recently won a competition to design a multi-funcional hall with a daycare center and small library in Sint-Katelijne-Waver, at the outskirts of Antwerp (Belgium). The building measures around 2.100m2, and spreads over 2 stories. The program occupies a significant part of the intervention site and in order to guarantee a building as compact as possible, the multifunctional hall is centered on the site. More images and architects’ description after the break.
The Kimball Art Center design proposal by Will Bruder+PARTNERS focuses on the nature of “exhibition” in the context of history. Taking a cue from the “colorful prehistoric petroglyphs and pictographs” of Utah’s canyons along with its abundance of formally expressive Victorian architecture, the proposal takes on the role of expression and education through color and craft. This sensitivity to the history and propogation of exhibition is instantly understood with the facade walls of Main and Heber Streets.
The Kimball Art Center in Park City, Utah is hosting a competition for a transformation of the “non-profit center for the arts in the heart of Park City’s historic and vibrant art community”. The list of architects competing to transform this cultural space is selective. Among them is Sparano + Mooney Architecture, an internationally recognized firm with offices in Park City, Utah and Los Angeles, California. The competition submissions for Stage II will be presented on February 2nd, but until then here is a preview of Sporano + Mooney’s Proposal!
The Chamber of Architecture and spatial planning of Slovenia (ZAPS) is currently putting on a competition for public, project, open, anonymous, single-stage, architectural design for the selection of the most appropriate expert solution for the structure and external arrangement of the National and University Library NUK II.
The construction of NUK II on the location of the new building must implement the common objective of urban planning, cultural heritage protection and archaeology, and therefore provide a contemporary urban space of high quality, reflecting recognisable local and historical characteristics. The NUK II project is located in the southern part of Ljubljana city centre, between Slovenska, Zoisova and Emonska ulica and Rimska cesta. More information after the break.
The London-based firm Assemblage has won the United Nations HABITAT international architecture competition for the design of new housing in Iraq. The competition is part of a larger program by UN-HABITAT and the Iraq government to construct new housing across the country. After succeeding teams from the Netherlands, France and other Arab states, Assemblage plans to refine their proposal and prepare their design for construction sometime within this year. Continue reading for more details on the project.
With the theme of ‘No Precedent’ this year, the annual Architectural League Prize competition invited young architects and designers to submit their work. Projects of all types, either theoretical or real, and executed in any medium, are welcome. Driven by the desire to create, to be heard, to keep busy or to fulfill untapped and forbidden niches, young architects are a self-defining generation. They are unwilling to wait their turn or to follow in footsteps. It has become normative for young architects to cast aside unfit precedents, codes, rules, and primitives, restlessly defining their projects, their problems, their methodologies, their users, and their spaces of intervention. Their work becomes uncategorizable, suggestive, and speculative; it’s on the brink. It’s neither here nor there, but fodder for the future. The competition deadline is February 15th. For more information, please visit their website here.
Gwynne Pugh Urban Design Studio, in conjunction with garcia architecture + design, was recently selected from a pool of sixteen firms to design the new CAPSLO Homeless Services Center located in San Luis Obispo, California. Since 1997, there have been two shelters providing services to the homeless community. However, when the county offered a site, it was determined that a consolidated center would be able to operate much more efficiently, 24 hours a day. More details after the break.
Comeandcheck.it and InTech Ltd. are releasing an international competition for designing transport-packaging. The goal of the project is to create and realize conceptual, esthetical, functional and technically sufficient or innovative packaging for transport of a hardcover book. The competition is open to all full-aged designers, artists and architects (both professionals and students) with the registration deadline December 30th and submission deadline on January 23rd. Your solution must protect the book from damage during transport and weigh less than 200g. For more information, visit the competition website here.
The American Institute of Architects (AIA) Diversity Recognition Program seeks submissions featuring exemplary efforts to diversify the architecture profession. The jury will select up to 12 submissions as diversity best practices meriting the following recognition: AIA Diversity Recognition Program Award, Profiled in AIArchitect and on the AIA Diversity Web page, Acknowledgment at the AIA National Convention: Diversity Recognition Program Awards Presentation and Diversity Recognition Program Exhibit. The AIA must receive all submissions by March 1, 2012. For more information, please visit their website here.
Architectural firm 10 Design from Shanghai and Hong Kong is inviting anyone of all ages – architects, students artists, all who are interested – to take part at their recently started competition, Re-thinking Shanghai 2012.
Along with engineers G.O.C. and Cabanelas Castelo Architects, Foster + Partners have won an international competition to design a new high-speed rail station in the city of Ourense in Galicia, located in northwestern Spain. The winning proposal integrates transport infrastructure with a new urban park, providing a large public space that will open up a series of pedestrian links to connect the districts divided by the track.
National land charity the Land Trust and RIBA Competitions launched an international competition this week until the last week in March to find the most inspirational design and funding team to create a new visitor destination and public open space at the former Cronton Colliery in Knowsley. The competition is open to architects and architect-led multi-disciplinary design teams and will be in two stages, judged anonymously in the first stage. A shortlist will then be invited to enhance and present their designs and potential funding propositions at interview as part of the second stage. More information on the competition after the break.
Olympic Park Legacy Company has announced the winners of two competitions that will transform the north park and south plaza at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London. New York-based James Corner Field Operations’ proposal for a 50 acre urban landscape consisting of a tree-lined promenade connecting flexible event and cultural spaces was selected as the winning entry for the south plaza.
The north park winning proposal by London-based firm erect architecture consists of an imaginative community hub building that is integrated within the parkland and river valley. Along with community hub, the design proposes an interactive playground that inspires children to “climb trees, build dens and have everyday adventures in nature.”
Continue reading for the complete team list and their design proposal boards.
DesignByMany’s latest challenge: Electric Vehicle Charging Station sponsored by HP and media partners ArchDaily. Historically, the filling station was designed with the basic concept of sheltering those in need of filling up their tanks and nothing more. However, as consumers adopt an environmentally conscious lifestyle and hybrid technology advances, the functionality of the filling station is no longer what it used to be. This challenge is to design an electric vehicle charging station that will define a new era of electric mobility.
DesignByMany is a challenge based design technology community where users post challenges to the community along with their design source files. The community can then post responses with their own source files to solve the challenge. They can also comment on the challenge and interact with other designers throughout the process.
New Practices New York, a biennial competition since 2006, serves as the preeminent platform in New York City to recognize and promote new and innovative architecture and design firms. The juried portfolio competition is sponsored by the New Practices Committee of the AIA New York Chapter and honors firms that have utilized unique and innovative strategies, both for the projects they undertake and for the practices they have established. Participants must register by January 15th. To register and for more detailed information, please visit their website here.
Magda Mostafa, guest editor for the Open House International Journal and associate professor at the American University in Cairo announced a call for papers for their special issue on the topic of built environments for special populations. More information on the call for papers including important dates and deadlines after the break.
Since 2006, the International Art Consultants (IAC) has celebrated architects’ passion for photography through the Architect’s Eye Awards. Simon Kennedy won the Architecture and Place category this year with his image of the ‘Heygate Estate’, while Revti Halai’s photo of the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion received runner-up. The Architecture and People category was won by Neil Dusheiko’s photograph of ‘Unite d’Habitation’, and Chris Drummond’s ‘Ghosts of the Underground’ received runner-up.
View the four winning photographs after the break.
The final entries are in for the international redesign competition of the St. Petersburg Pier in Florida. The competition seeks to generate a new identity and iconic landmark that will honor the history and relevance of the Pier for the next generation. Michael Maltzan Architecture, BIG and West 8 Urbaban Design and Landscape Architecture are the three architectural firms selected from the list of nine semi finalists. Continue reading after the break to view the radically different design proposals.
Published by Analist Group and organized and curated by the Italian Association of Architecture and Criticism_presS/Tfactory, the OUTSIDE THE BOX competition is focused on identifying design ideas for resolving various problems in emergency situations. During recent years, numerous natural phenomena have upset the lives of many communities scattered across the globe. Examples include Fukushima in Japan, Haiti, L’Aquila and New Orleans. The Box is a small temporary structure capable of offering various services: a space that is simultaneously a workstation and information center open to public to allow people remain in touch with the rest of the world. A fundamental role in the elaboration of the design proposal must be entrusted to technology, whether low- or high-tech. The challenge launched by the competition is to combine sustainability and parametric design. The submission deadline is 15 January, 2012. More information on the competition after the break.
Conceived and promoted by the Ferrara Faculty of Architecture, Italy, with the financial support of the Fassa Bortolo company, the aim of the International Award for Sustainable Architecture, now in its ninth edition, is to contribute to the research of a system of development in the building sector. This represents one of the fields of human activity with the greatest impact on the environment, that is more sustainable than our current model, which has lead to a state of deterioration and pollution, bringing us to the verge of a global crisis of the Earth’s entire ecological system.
