The City of Portland, Maine is seeking proposals from qualified Design Teams for the schematic phase re-design of Congress Square, a 1.3 acre public open space and traffic intersection in the heart of the city’s Arts District in downtown Portland, Maine. The project includes the Congress Square Redesign and the commissioning of works of Public Art, presenting a unique opportunity for collaborative urban design and public art; the redesign concept will be developed in tandem and integrated with the public artwork. 

The students of the MA Architecture + Urbanism invite contributors to participate in their forthcoming symposium FRONTIERS OF RESPONSIVE ARCHITECTURE to be held in summer 2016. If you feel that your Research / Practice responds to the mission statement outlined in previous posts in English / Italian / French / Chinese / Turkish / Arabic we would love to hear about it from you.

Confindustria Ceramica (the Italian Association of Ceramics) and the Italian Trade Commission are proud to announce the 2016 Ceramics of Italy Tile Competition Call for Entries. Now in its 23rd year, the contest is open to North American architects and designers who use Italian ceramic tiles in their institutional, residential and commercial/hospitality spaces. From corporate headquarters with ventilated porcelain facades and hospitals utilizing antibacterial ceramic floors to summer homes using decorative ceramics, Ceramics of Italy is looking for all types of inspiring projects featuring Italian ceramics.

Prizes:
Winners in each category will receive a cash prize of $4,000 and a

In 2016 PUBLIC ideas go into action with FORM’s PUBLIC Platform taking creativity for the common good out into the streets and laneways. PUBLIC Platform invites you – the diverse creative minds from all parts of our community – to create installations and activation prototypes to enliven Claremont town centre during PUBLIC’s annual takeover on 2 & 3 April. Prototypes for citizens and by citizens will reimagine our public spaces and activities, and engage the public to participate, explore and play in their own city. Your big idea could bring our streets to life. Entries are due by January

Individuals or groups of people are invited to submit a poster to be presented at the 2016 LE:NOTRE Landscape Forum in Paphos, Cyprus 16th - 20th of March 2016, hosted by Neapolis University. The call is addressed to Forum participants. The project presented on your poster may relate to Practice, Research or Education. Contributions from a variety of disciplines are welcome as well as student projects.

Euclid understood lines as ‘breadthless lengths,’ defined by two points and stretching on into infinity. But delineations can also be as small and simple as a flick of the wrist; the mind moving out of the hand into a gesture. Vassily Kandinsky believed lines to be ‘created by movement – specifically through the destruction of the intense self-contained repose of the point.’ Process is suggested; moments emerge from the continuity to form a rhythm. When the abstract becomes physical, delineations unite and exclude. Sociologist T.K. Oommen sees ‘the very story of human civilization’ in shifting and overlapping boundaries of all kinds. Whether blurred or accentuated, instantaneous or permanent, representational or manifest, intentional or happenstance, DELINEATIONS in the landscape are consequential. They have a story to tell.

Digifest explores the future of design—how is technology changing the way we create, and what this means for our future.

We invite proposals on topics for discussion on the themes:

Design | Technology | Entrepreneurship

15-minute presentations followed by 5 minutes Q&A.

Please provide a 250-word abstract summarizing your talk. Indicate if you are presenting case studies, theory, personal experiences, etc.

Examples of topics for discussion:

- How does art, design, architecture, fashion, food or music and technology intersect and improve our lives?
- Examples of creative leadership.
- Projects that think creatively and strategically in the digital age.
- Examples of social design impacting business, society, government

The topic proposed for the second edition of Critic all is the autonomy of architecture, recollecting and reframing the reflections that over architecture’s specificity have been produced within the discipline itself. If there is an approach that argues that architecture cannot be an isolated medium, that is, autonomous – not only in regard to social culture but above all, the worldly social, political and economic environment in which it is immersed, – we also have to face those visions that, conversely, consider that architecture is strictly a self-referential discipline, and therefore, it employs a self-sufficient language whose verification is determined

The Global Irish Design Challenge (a global competition) as part of Irish Design 2015 (ID2015), invites designers of Irish lineage, or those with a strong affiliation to Ireland, to present products, projects and concepts that have the potential to revolutionise the way we live. The challenge aims to celebrate and provide a platform for game-changing Irish design innovation, while activating and connecting a broad global network of design talent. It offers a unique opportunity to bring visibility to the exceptional levels of design and innovation taking place across the globe.

Online entry for the Global Irish Design Challenge is