Architecture Competitions

Pubblicazione realizzata a supporto del concorso internazionale “Edifici mondo: concorso per il recupero del centro antico di Salerno” (Comune di Salerno, Salerno 1997), a cura di Andrea Morpurgo, Bernardo Secchi, Paola Viganò, Laura Mascino, Ufficio di Piano del Comune di Salerno.

La parte collinare del centro storico è caratterizzata da forti pendenze e dalla presenza di numerosi conventi eretti a partire dall'XI secolo, destinati nel tempo ad altri usi e oggi in gran parte abbandonati, definiti "Edifici Mondo" per la loro dimensione e complessità. L'are è inoltre ricca di punti panoramici e frammenti di giardini, tra cui il restaurato giardino della Minerva. Nel 1997 il Comune di Salerno ha bandito un concorso internazionale di idee con tre obiettivi:
1. Formulare ipotesi di restauro e di trasformazione d'uso dei grandi edifici abbandonati, denominati "Edifici Mondo" per la loro dimensione e complessità;
2. Spezzare l'isolamento di questa parte del centro storico e migliorarne l'accessibilità con nuovi impianti di risalita e parcheggi d'interscambio;
3. Ridisegnare lo spazio pubblico, recuperare piazze e punti d'osservazione, aprire percorsi alternativi attraverso cortili e giardini, creare le condizioni per il risanamento del tessuto edilizio minore.

Il Concorso fu vinto dal progetto degli architetti giapponesi Sejima-Nishizawa, con riconoscimenti ai progetti degli architetti Monestiroli e De Las Casas, relativo alla sistemazione della parte alta del Centro Storico con particolare riferimento ad alcuni antichi complessi edilizi (Palazzo S. Massimo, ex Conventi di S. Francesco, S. Pietro a Maiella e S. Giacomo, e Santa Maria della Consolazione, a lungo adibiti a carceri ed in seguito dismessi).

Bien que la durabilité soit aujourd’hui devenue un impératif et un concept clef motivant les réorientations que connaissent les pratiques et théories de la conception, peu de recherches se consacrent à la compréhension de son impact sur le « design thinking » et sur la culture. Cet article enquête sur le design durable entendu comme culture visuelle émergente en architecture. Nous explorons la façon dont les concepteurs vont au-delà des normes environnementales afin de conserver dans leurs projets un équilibre créatif entre forme et contenu, entre éthique et esthétique. Nous analysons un corpus de concours organisés récemment dans les champs de l’architecture, du paysage et de l’urbanisme et avançons que les concours sont à la fois des « laboratoires » pour les concepteurs et des dispositifs épistémologiques pour les chercheurs, à même de révéler les transformations majeures des pratiques et valeurs de design.

According to Rudolf Wittkower, Andrea Palladio had develop a generative project system that allowed him to design his villas based on a nine square grid . The homogeneous space that resulted from Palladio´s project system was not revolutionary, but the way of producing family variations was something completely new. Thus, Palladio was inaugurating the single family home topic in the discipline and also he was inventing the heuristic project. This is, a project able to become different shapes and forms according to a variety of needs and programs.

Competition, as a comparison of skills, talents and mastery by striving to surpass others and achieve better results, exists in all fields. In architecture, one of the forms of such contest is the practice of competitions. The role of architecture competitions as a democratic tool of design gains increasing significance in the everyday practice of professional architects. The complicated history of the Republic of Latvia with its various periods of political regimes and economic development has influenced the complex procedure of the organising of competitions. In the context of Latvian architecture history, competitions are a part of the theory of architecture and the common intellectual heritage, which is an important indicator of social and economic processes, as well as a policy instrument.
A sizeable database on architecture competition practice in Latvia from the middle of the 19th century to the second decade of the 21st century has been created with a chronological and typological view, compiling competition types, stakeholders and results, as well as objects constructed based on competition projects. Over 1080 competition projects have been researched in total. Competition practice-related risks that justify or delay the realisation of competition projects have been identified. Consequences have been identified that are related to: 1) the achievement of defined goals, preparation of the brief and program and their contents in Latvian architecture competitions; 2) evaluation criteria for the proposals and the decisions of evaluators; 3) professionalism of evaluators; 4) requirements for the participants, incl. the selection of a competent cooperation partner; 5) reasons for disqualification; 6) regulation of anonymity and copyrights of participants and observation of this regulation; 7) submission deadlines of the proposals; 8) costs of competitions, incl. the amount of prizes, the cost price for the participants, the fiscal situation of clients and their ability to attract funding; 9) publicity of competitions and the dialogue with the general public; 10) the impact of competitions. Regularities in the development of architecture competition regulation practice have been determined, and terms used in competition practice have been explained.  The scientific research of Latvian architecture competition practice offers new factual material and theoretical insights. The research can serve as the basis for the creation of general education materials for field professionals and any interested persons involved in the general process of architecture promotion. The results of the work have already been used in publications available to the broader society. Through their work at the Latvian Association of Architects, the author has directly promoted and developed the guidelines for architecture competition practice outlined in the PhD thesis.

Architectural competitions are traditionally considered
as a method of research and innovation in order to create esthetical and technical solutions, define social values and develop critical approach to the implementation of architectural projects. These competitions initiate debates on the balance between artistic quality and market demand, individual work and cooperation, creative solutions and legislation – tradition. During the last 150 years Latvia has seen more than 700 competitions dedicated to architecture and urban planning. The aim of this article is to provide an overview of architectural competitions in Latvia from their historical beginning in 1860 until 2013.

While sustainability has become an imperative today and a key idea underlying contemporary reorientations of design practices and theories, most research endeavours have been devoted to improving efficiency or performance related to material resources or emissions and few to understanding the impacts of these on society—and fewer yet on design thinking and culture. In this paper I investigate sustainable design’s reorientation of the visual expression of architecture. I explore the ways in which designers go beyond the current requirements of environmental norms in order to maintain a creative balance between form and content, and the extent to which this has become a practice in Canada. In order to describe a new set of design responses and their visual language, I analyze a corpus of design competitions from the fields of architecture, landscape, and urban design in Canada. My methodological hypothesis considers competitions as both “laboratories” for designers and epistemological devices that reveal changing design practices and values to researchers.



Bien que la durabilité soit aujourd’hui devenue un impératif et un concept clef motivant les réorientations contemporaines que connaissent les pratiques et théories de la conception, la majorité des recherches se consacrent à l’amélioration de l’efficacité ou de la performance liée aux ressources matérielles ou aux émissions, alors que peu d’entre elles s’attachent à la compréhension de leurs impacts sur la société, et encore moins au « design thinking » et à la culture. Cet article enquête sur le design durable entendu comme culture visuelle émergente en architecture. Nous explorons la façon dont les concepteurs vont au-delà des normes environnementales actuelles afin de conserver dans leurs projets un équilibre créatif entre forme et contenu, entre éthique et esthétique. Nous analysons un corpus de concours organisés récemment dans les champs de l’architecture, du paysage et de l’urbanisme au Canada. Notre hypothèse méthodologique avance que les concours sont à la fois des « laboratoires » pour les concepteurs et des dispositifs épistémologiques pour les chercheurs, à même de révéler les transformations majeures des pratiques et valeurs de design.

Conference presentation at the University of Latvia "74th conference of spatial planning and development" on February 4th, 2016. Presentation based on a research conducted on March-October 2015, ordered by Riga City Architect's Office. Full research available: http://ej.uz/rigaskonkursi_petijums

The work presented below is part of the results of a research project developed at Polytechnic University of Madrid. The Architecture Competitions reveal the aspirations of the participants to present the most attractive proposal that will gain the attention of the jury, in addition to responding to the problems and motivations that originate the call.The graphic communication becomes the link between the viewer and the foreshadowing of something that could become a constructed project. By analysing the graphic instruments used in several calls for architectural competitions supervised by the COAM, the aim of this paper is to show the role of visual communication in reading and evaluating a proposal. The tool of the diagram allows to visualize and find the graphic variables most used by the competitors, as well as to specify which of them are drawn on the awarded projects.

KEYWORDS: COMPETITION, PANEL, COAM, GRAPHIC REPRESENTATION, DATA VISUALIZATION

El Concurso Público Internacional de Anteproyecto Arquitectónico para el diseño del Museo Nacional de la Memoria, proyecto del Centro Nacional de Memoria Histórica, logró reunir en 2015 a más de 700 profesionales de la arquitectura y del urbanismo para crear, junto con las iniciativas de memoria de las víctimas de diferentes regiones del país, un nuevo espacio para dignificar, dialogar y no olvidar. La memoria edifica nuevos escenarios para la paz.

Project Office, Leeds Beckett University's in-house staff and student led architectural practice launched an alumni ideas competition for the Sustainable Technologies and Landscape Research Centre (STaLRC). The winning entry established the design and the winning team were engaged in a design consultancy role for further development of the work. This case study describes an exploration of the architectural competition format through experimenting with alumni pedagogy. The institution's association with its students is almost severed once they become alumni. By extending pedagogy, through a competition, new possibilities have arisen between this School of Architecture and its recent former students, and for academia and practice. The case study explains a procedural exploration through the STaLRC competition, starting with defining the competition through a Design Guide 'brief' produced by second year undergraduate students of architecture. The role of Project Office as the educational and practice choreographer sets the distinctive anchoring of the project. The competition process, managed by the writers, deals with the duality of providing a 'winning' design that meets client's complex requirements e.g. affordability, and the setting of an equally important educational purpose. This paper considers how an architectural competition, used as a pedagogic tool, is harnessed in a post formal educational setting. An output for example is that alumni competitions can be legitimately situated in the (Continuing Professional Development) CPD framework, viably enabling UK schools of architecture to participate, fulfilling a professional developmental remit. In conclusion, as the STaLRC competition is framed in an educational setting, the learning outcomes of participants are of equal importance to the quality of entries. This methodology ensures continued pedagogical value in the transition between education and profession. Recent alumni are vital and unencumbered, fledgling professionals and through the setting of this competition have been provided with their space to fledge.

ΑΡΧΙΤΕΚΤΟΝΙΚΕΣ ΑΓΩΝΙΕΣ. Ο τρούλος του Brunelleschi. Ο Rem Koolhaas και γιατί να μην συμμετέχεις σε ένα αρχιτεκτονικό διαγωνισμό. Ο Frank Lloyd Wright και γιατί να συμμετέχεις σε ένα αρχιτεκτονικό διαγωνισμό. Πώς να κερδίσεις έναν αρχιτεκτονικό διαγωνισμό. Τι μπορείς να κάνεις αντί να συμμετέχεις σε ένα αρχιτεκτονικό διαγωνισμό. Αρχιτεκτονικοί διαγωνισμοί μια σχέση αγάπης και μίσους…

Συζήτηση - Στρογγυλή Τράπεζα με θέμα:
«Νέα αρχιτεκτονική σε περίοδο κρίσης: από την παιδεία στην εφαρμογή»
στα πλαίσια της έκθεσης «8η Μπιενάλε Νέων Ελλήνων Αρχιτεκτόνων» του ΕΙΑ
Τμήμα Αρχιτεκτόνων ΑΠΘ, αιθ. 301, Γ΄ όροφος Πτέρυγας Αρχιτεκτόνων.
Συμμετέχοντες: Μ. Δούση, Κ. Ιωαννίδης, Δ. Κονταξάκης, Σ. Παπαδημητρίου, Κ. Σακαντάμης, Α.Τέλλιος, Χ. Χριστοδούλου

متن زیر پس از شرکت در مراسم اهداء جایزه‌ی مجله‌ی معمار در پاییز سال ۹۲ و مشاهده‌ی مشکلات برگزاری آن شکل گرفته است. در این نوشته سعی کرده‌ام، نشان دهم، فقدان‌های معماری معاصر ایران چگونه با کاستی‌های روند برگزاری این مراسم در تناظر معناداری قرار دارند. بدون اینکه قصدی برای مغالطه‌ی تعمیم جزء به کل در کار باشد.
این نوشته پیش از این در جای دیگری منتشر نشده است.

The competition for the Palazzo del Littorio of 1934 was held in Rome in the middle of the fascist period. The competition call requested the project for the grandiose Fascist Party Headquarters and permanent Exhibition of the Fascist Revolution. The palace was supposed to be located on Via dell’Impero which had been inaugurated in 1932. Mario Ridolfi, together with other Roman architects, including Ernesto La Padula, Vittorio Cafiero and Ettore Rossi, presents a building with a strong rationalist look but with an unusual rounded part. The panorama offered by the 1934 competition in Rome allows us to get to know interesting documents to understand Italian architecture and also the groups of associated professionals and institutions involved in that precise historical moment. The reasons for a captivating rounded shape, probably inspired also by the apse of the Basilica di Massenzio and the curvatures of the Colosseum, are to be found, no doubt, in the projectual stresses that oscillated between the needs of a dynamic modern metropolis and the monumentality of the ancient city. There are numerous drawings for the competition by Ridolfi’s group from which it is possible to interpret and, perhaps, understand the thoughts behind the design of the building, with particular attention and respect to the architectural and cultural debate that took place in those years. The study focuses on the analysis of the project drawings made for the architectural competition and on the interpretation of the lexicon in the various representation methods.

A través del reciente concurso de la Fundación Guggenheim para un museo en Helsinki, este texto analiza las lógicas de los concursos de arquitectura. Al entenderlos como instancias paradójicas que institucionalizan la búsqueda de proyectos excepcionales, surge la pregunta: ¿dónde queda lo excepcional cuando el concurso ya se transforma en una fábrica? ¿Es la arquitectura contemporánea una industria de la excepción?

A través del reciente concurso de la Fundación Guggenheim para un museo en Helsinki, este texto analiza las lógicas de los concursos de arquitectura. Al entenderlos como instancias paradójicas que institucionalizan la búsqueda de proyectos excepcionales, surge la pregunta: ¿dónde queda lo excepcional cuando el concurso ya se transforma en una fábrica? ¿Es la arquitectura contemporánea una industria de la excepción?

Conference presentation at the second international Reinhold Schmeling’s conference (October 30, 2014) in Riga.

Conference presentation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxKCT7C3mX4&x-yt-ts=1422579428&x-yt-cl=85114404

More details: http://arhitekts.riga.lv/index.php?option=com_content&view=featured&Itemid=213

In this Dr. Art. dissertation Sauge discusses how different analytical perspectives can shed light on the understanding of architectural drawings. The case study is the architecture competition from 1930 for a new office building for the Norwegian Shipowners´ Association in Oslo, Norway. The dissertation presents different views on the status of architectural drawings and their potential in their original, practical contexts and in secondary contexts, such as a museum collections and exhibitions.

Forty years after inaugurating their now eminently successful architectural practice, John and Patricia Patkau are “beginning again.” So they happily declare in their new book Material Operations. This unique survey features eleven experimental works, from their 2010-11 Skating Shelters for Winnipeg’s frozen Red River, to the nearly complete Temple of Light overlooking BC’s Kootenay Bay. Each work is presented more as...

SPANISH: La experiencia aquí descrita aborda el aprendizaje del proyecto arquitectónico de la vivienda colectiva utilizando estrategias docentes combinadas para superar ciertas limitaciones de los estudiantes de arquitectura de segundo curso. Se parte del seguimiento de la problemática derivada de la salida masiva de refugiados de Siria como argumento “in itinere” que permite abordar distintos conceptos relacionados con el hábitat colectivo, desde la instalación temporal en un acampamento a través de arquitecturas de emergencia a la reflexión sobre la vivienda social experimental en entornos de acogida. El final del camino se produce de vuelta a Siria, un país devastado por los conflictos bélicos que demanda una oportunidad para su reconstrucción. A lo largo de este recorrido, formalizado en tres propuestas, se combina la estrategia docente del viaje virtual y la incorporación del concurso de arquitectura no como elementos centrales, sino como técnicas de apoyo a un relato de intenso carácter socio-político.
ENGLISH: The experience described here addresses the learning of the architectural design of collective housing using combined teaching strategies to overcome certain limitations of second year architecture students. It starts from the monitoring of the problems derived from the massive departure of refugees from Syria as an “in itinere” argument that allows addressing different concepts related to the collective habitat, from the temporary camp through emergency architectures to the reflection on experimental social-housing in refugee reception settings. The end of the road takes place back to Syria, a country devastated by armed conflicts that demands an opportunity for its reconstruction. Throughout this journey, formalized in three proposals, the teaching strategy of the virtual journey and the incorporation of the architecture competition are combined not as central elements, but as support techniques for a narrative of an intense socio-political nature.

PhD research by the author sustained that the two Pritzker prized architects from Portugal use international competitions as research opportunities. Despite all negative (e.g. extensive allocation of time, resources and waste) and positive (e.g. talent discovery, high quality solutions, marketing opportunities) they follow a path of development and innovation. This path served as an example of other generations of architects. From all the 1,715 anonymous submissions received for Stage One of the Guggenheim Helsinki Design Competition, the jury selected six finalists and 15 honourable mentions. 12 Portuguese teams are known to have participated at stage one and Nuno Brandão Costa got an honourable mention. In this paper we intend to analyse the entries by these Portuguese architects/firms that participated in the Helsinki competition. We want to know their strategies, aims and competences. We intend to inquire their views on the procedure and their opinions about the ability to develop, innovate and research in, with and on competitions.

PhD research by the author sustained that the two Pritzker prized architects from Portugal use international competitions as research opportunities. Despite all negative (e.g. extensive allocation of time, resources and waste) and positive (e.g. talent discovery, high quality solutions, marketing opportunities) they follow a path of development and innovation. This path served as an example of other generations of architects. From all the 1,715 anonymous submissions received for Stage One of the Guggenheim Helsinki Design Competition, the jury selected six finalists and 15 honourable mentions. 12 Portuguese teams are known to have participated at stage one and Nuno Brandão Costa got an honourable mention. In this paper we intend to analyse the entries by these Portuguese architects/firms that participated in the Helsinki competition. We want to know their strategies, aims and competences. We intend to inquire their views on the procedure and their opinions about the ability to develop, innovate and research in, with and on competitions.

The competition for the Palazzo del Littorio of 1934 was held in Rome in the middle of the fascist period. The competition call requested the project for the grandiose Fascist Party Headquarters and permanent Exhibition of the Fascist Revolution. The palace was supposed to be located on Via dell’Impero which had been inaugurated in 1932. Mario Ridolfi, together with other Roman architects, including Ernesto La Padula, Vittorio Cafiero and Ettore Rossi, presents a building with a strong rationalist look but with an unusual rounded part. The panorama offered by the 1934 competition in Rome allows us to get to know interesting documents to understand Italian architecture and also the groups of associated professionals and institutions involved in that precise historical moment. The reasons for a captivating rounded shape, probably inspired also by the apse of the Basilica di Massenzio and the curvatures of the Colosseum, are to be found, no doubt, in the projectual stresses that oscillated between the needs of a dynamic modern metropolis and the monumentality of the ancient city. There are numerous drawings for the competition by Ridolfi’s group from which it is possible to interpret and, perhaps, understand the thoughts behind the design of the building, with particular attention and respect to the architectural and cultural debate that took place in those years. The study focuses on the analysis of the project drawings made for the architectural competition and on the interpretation of the lexicon in the various representation methods.