Unique among architecture prizes with its focus on early-career architects, the Wheelwright Prize, recently launched by Harvard Graduate School of Design, is a $100,000 traveling fellowship awarded annually for exceptional itineraries in research and discovery. Recognizing the importance of field research to professional development, the prize reinforces the school’s dedication to fostering investigative approaches to contemporary design. Applications are currently being accepted until February 28. For more information, please visit here.
Assemblage has succeeded against a prestigious shortlist – which included Zaha Hadid Architects, Capita Symonds, Fevre Gaucher and ADPI – in an international competition for the new Iraqi parliament complex in Baghdad. The $1Bn USD project challenged contestants to design a new, large scale complex amidst the remnants of a partially built super mosque planned by Saddam Hussein (photos of the existing site here).
The London-based practice will be awarded $250,000 USD and asked to produce a master plan for the surrounding city, as well as additional government buildings, a new hotel and public parks. The anonymous jury plans to exhibit the submitted projects, along with the judging committee’s decision. However, a date has yet to be announced.
Continue after the break for more images and the architects’ description.
Harvard Graduate School of Design recently announced the launch of the Wheelwright Prize, a $100,000 traveling fellowship awarded annually to talented early-career architects worldwide proposing exceptional itineraries for research and discovery. With an open application process, the Wheelwright Prize recognizes the importance of field research to professional development, and reinforces Harvard GSD’s dedication to fostering investigative approaches to contemporary design. Online applications will be accepted starting January 10; deadline for submissions is February 28, 2013. For more information, please visit here.
Yazdani Studio of Cannon Design and Gruen Associates have shared with us their second place proposal for the highly anticipated design-build competition for the new United States courthouse in Los Angeles, California. Envisioned as an icon within the city skyline, the triangular monolith provides a sustainable, 21st century courthouse that embodies the democratic qualities of dignity, stature, transparency, openness and accessibility.
Located at a pivotal node connecting the Los Angeles Civic Center, the Broadway Historic District and Bunker Hill, the 550,000 square foot courthouse is surrounded by a lush civic space that plays an important role in the existing cityscape.
A shortlist of six international teams has been chosen to advance to the second stage of the architectural competition for the Museum and Educational Center of the Polytechnic Museum and Lomonosov Moscow State University.
The competition’s objective is to create a Museum and Educational Center that will compliment the historic Moscow Polytechnic Museum – one of the largest and oldest technical museums in the world – on the new territory of the Moscow State University (MSU). The new center is envisaged as a meeting point for the Russian and international scientific community. It will demonstrate the most recent scientific and technological discoveries using state-of-the-art multimedia technologies, for accommodating multiple displays and exhibitions as well as for conducing scientific educational programs for over 1.3 million annual visitors.
The University of Manitoba’s Visionary (re)Generation competition is inviting some of the world’s most accomplished urban thinkers to re-imagine the University of Manitoba’s Fort Garry campus. Focused on innovative and sustainable design, the two phase competition is a once-in-a-generation chance to transform their university into a place like no other that enriches the daily lives of all who learn here, work here, play here or call it home. Submissions for the first phase are due March 11. To register and for more information, please visit here.
The MAXXI Museum in Rome has announced the five young designers who will compete for the opportunity to design and build a space for live summer events in the large courtyard of the MoMA PS1 in NY, the MAXXI Plaza in Rome, and - for the first time - at Turkey's Istanbul Modern.
Each of the finalist's projects will also be displayed as exhibitions at the four institutions participating in the Young Architects Program (YAP): the MAXXI, the MoMA PS1, Constructo (a Chilean cultural institution), and Istanbul Modern.
The five finalists have until January 2013 to submit their proposals. The chosen project will be constructed and inaugurated in June.
More information of the five finalists, after the break...
Designed by Onat Öktem and Ziya Imren, the proposal for the Çanakkale Municipality “Green” Cultural Center & Municipality Building, which won an honorable mention, aims to create a new focal point located at the intersection of two busy pedestrian and vehicle axes, that strengthens the urban identity. The project intends to achieve a sharing/networking space that supports the everyday life of urban dwellers with social and cultural activities/facilities/uses, and a human-centered urban space that is also respectful to environmental values. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Inspired by Design Indaba, the Your Street Live Challenge aims to transform space and improve life at the street level in Africa through creative thought, one street at a time. Want to be part of something big? This is an opportunity to participate in a global movement that is working to ensure a better world through creativity. Your Street Live is open to anyone living anywhere in the world. Simply send your proposal for how the area where you live, work or play can be improved by harnessing the transformative power of creativity, design and innovation. The deadline for entries is January 28. In total, R1 million (Approx. $115,000 USD) will be awarded to the best ideas. For more information, please visit here.
Amidst the longstanding, heated battled to save Bertrand Goldberg’s iconic Prentice Woman’s Hospital, the results of the 2012 Chicago Prize Competition: Future Prentice have been announced! Presented by the Chicago Architecture Foundation, in collaboration with Chicago Architectural Club and the Chicago Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, the international competition intended to act as a platform for public debate about the future of the controversial Chicago landmark.
More information and the winning proposals after the break…
The ZEZEZE Architecture Gallery recently launched their open design competition for the design of a day care center for adults with developmental intellectual disabilities, to be established in the city of Beer Sheba. Held on behalf of the Beer Sheba municipality and the Shalem Fund, while managed by ZEZEZE Architecture Gallery, the winner of the two-stage competition will have the unique experience of entering into agreement with the city of Beer Sheba for the design of the center. The deadline for submissions is February 3rd, with the second stage following shorty after. To register and for more information, please visit here.
Tucson, Arizona firm Line and Space recently shared with us their competition proposal for the new National Museum of Afghanistan developed over the summer of 2012. Inspired by the basin and range geology of Kabul and incredible archaeology, the design features architecture that is derived from Afghan soil by means of stone clad conical elements rising from the landscape that are evocative of an atypical approach to the standard museum typology. Designed to provide a dramatic yet serene and secure place for visitors to learn about the country’s amazing and complex history, the various strategies employed by Line and Space offer up some interesting concepts that celebrate the incredible treasures housed within. More details after the break.
The Battery Conservancy Americas Design Competition 2012: Draw Up A Chair, which we published a couple months ago here, has received an impressive number of registrations to-date and continue to receive wonderful design submissions. Due to the impact of SuperStorm Sandy on many of their registered and would-be participants, they recently announced that they have extended the competition submission deadline to Monday, November 19. For more information, please visit here.
Beating out 10 other finalists (including Populous, a firm known for their sports architecture, as well as Japanese heavyweights, such as Toyo Ito and SANAA), Zaha Hadid Architects were chosen by Tadao Ando and the Japan Sports Council to design the new Japan National Stadium. As Ando described the decision-process: “Our wish is to see a stadium designed by someone who shares this earth, with wisdom and technology that looks to the future of out planet.”
The new 80,000-seat stadium will replace the existing Kasumigaoka National Stadium in Tokyo. It will host the 2019 Rugby World Cup and potentially be the main sporting venue for the 2020 Olympic Games (if Japan's bid is selected). It will also be offered to FIFA as a venue for World Cup football matches.
French practice bureau faceB has redefined the pedestrian bridge with their winning design concept that allows Paris residents to “flirt with the water” as they traverse across an intentionally unstable bridge. Dubbed “Water at-traction”, the atypical bridge embraces the potential of traction as it’s steel cables stretch across the Seine in Paris and reconnects the city to the water.
Twenty cities from across the U.S. are competing for nine million dollars in grant money that could fund their innovative solution to some of the major urban challenges that face our communities today. These Top 20 finalists were selected from 305 teams, formed by mayors, architects and local professionals, representing a city of 30,000 or more residents that responded to Mayor Bloomberg’s Mayors Challenge with a bold idea that could potentially make our government more efficient, solve a serious problem, or improve city life.
The five boldest ideas with the greatest potential for impact will win funding as well as national and local recognition. The winning city will receive a $5,000,000 grand prize and four other cities will receive $1,000,000 to help implement their ideas.
In April, Mayor Villaraigosa and City Council Member Huizar announced an international design competition to redesign the historic, 80-year-old Sixth Street Bridge in Los Angeles. The decision to launch the competition came after engineers warned that the bridge was at risk of failing during a major earthquake due to a degenerative structural problem known as “concrete cancer”. After careful consideration and entertaining the idea of constructing a replica of the 1932 icon, the city committed to moving forward with a major redesign. In mid-October, the national infrastructure firm HNTB, along with team members Michael Maltzan Architecture and AC Martin Partners, were announced as winners of the international competition.
Winners of the 2012 Land Art Generator Initiative Competition for Freshkills Park in Staten Island, NYC are out. With 4 placed winners and a long list of shortlisted projects, the range of ideas shows how designers are exploring many different options for sustainable energy infrastructure.
The Winners:
First: Scene-Sensor // Crossing Social and Ecological Flows byJames Murray and Shota Vashakmadze
Second: Fresh Hills by Matthew Rosenberg, Structural Engineering Consultant: Matt Melnyk, Production Assistants: Emmy Maruta, Robbie Eleazer
Third: Pivot by Yunxin Hu and Ben Smith
Fourth: 99 Red Balloons by Emeka Nnadi, Scott Rosin, Meaghan Hunter, Danielle Loeb, Kara McDowell, Indrajit Mitra, Narges Ayat and Denis Fleury
In partnership with Karuna Cambodia, Habitat for Humanity & the Cambodian Society of Architects (CSA), Building Trust International is looking for designs for the Cambodian Sustainable Housing competition. Proposals should be able to provide a sustainable future for housing in the South-east Asian country. Any proposal will have to stick to a very low budget and deal with the yearly flooding of Tonle Sap, which the majority of Cambodia’s 16 million inhabitants live in close proximity to. The final date for registration, which has been extended, is December 22nd at midnight (11:59 pm.GMT). Proposals are then due to be submitted on January 15th. For more information, please visit here.
RIBACompetitions recently announced their two-stage design ideas competition for the Great Fen Visitor Centre in Cambridgeshire. Great Fen is an internationally acclaimed vision, one of sweeping scale and ambition. Over the next 50-100 years, more than 3,000ha of largely arable land will be transformed into a mosaic of habitat: open water, lakes, ponds and ditches; reedbed; fen, bog and marsh; wet grassland; dry grassland; woodland and scrub. The competition seeks to to create around and between a restored fenland landscape which provides a living landscape for wildlife and people. Registrations will close on December 19. The deadline for Stage 1 design submissions is 2pm on January 10. To register, and for more information, please visit here.
Focused on ‘Cambodian Sustainable Housing’, the new Building Trust International Open International Design Competition looks into designing affordable, flood resistant housing in the South-east Asian country. In partnership with Karuna Cambodia, Habitat for Humanity & the Cambodian Society of Architects (CSA), proposals will have to keep below a budget of $2000 and deal with the yearly flooding that effects most residential areas. The winning design will be built by Habitat for Humanity Cambodia and will influence the way they build housing in the region. This competition is a real chance to make a difference to a large group of working Cambodians lives. Submissions are due January 15. To register, and for more information, please visit here.
Sou Fujimoto Architects have shared with us their first place proposal for the Beton Hala Waterfront Centre in Belgrade, Serbia. Contrasting the medieval fabric of the capital city, Sou Fujimoto’s “floating cloud” intertwines an array of social and transportation programs into an organized tangle of suspended ramps that emerge from the static platform of the Beton Hala. It was lauded by the jury to be a “brave proposal” that holds the “highest emblematic potential among all of Beton Hala entries”.
Michael Van Valkenburg Associates (MVVA) and Thomas Phifer & Partners have been announced as winners of an international competition set to transform 15 blocks of the neglected Waller Creek in downtown Austin, Texas, into a vibrant local attraction. Co-sponsored by the nonprofit Waller Creek Conservancy and the City of Austin, the ambitious project intends to spearhead redevelopment within the city’s central business district with the 1.5 mile urban scheme that represents approximately 11 percent of Austin’s downtown.
“Today, we glimpse a transformation of Austin through a new community gathering place. This design team selection illustrates our City’s desire for great civic space, unique culture and opportunity for interaction with nature,” Austin Mayor Pro Tem Sheryl Cole said during the City Hall announcement. “We look forward to each new milestone of this development.”
Named in tribute to Ken Roberts, a Dallas-based architect, the annual Ken Roberts Memorial Delineation Competition has grown from an event that recognized hand-drawn renderings of local area architects to a competition that encompasses architectural delineation made in a variety of media by students and professionals the world over. Organized by AIA Dallas, “KRob” is the longest-running architectural drawing competition anywhere. New to this year’s competition is a category dedicated to travel sketches, open to all students and professionals. Prize winners in all categories will receive a generous assortment of hardware from Doghouse and Wacom as well as software provided by Corel.
