This design/build competition, sponsored by the Washington Architectural Foundation, features amazing structures made entirely of canned goods by local architecture and construction teams. Canstruction benefits the Capital Area Food Bank. See entries on display in the Great Hall from November 22–29 and watch De-Canstruction on November 30 as the teams disassemble their entries to donate the canned food used in their projects. Visit go.nbm.org/canstruction for more information.
The AIA|DC Emerging Architects Committee (AIA|DC EAC) has partnered with Price Modern, a national furniture solutions dealer, to announce its inaugural RE-Form Competition. RE-Form aims to bridge the boundaries of the design industry and promote a multidisciplinary dialogue towards design solutions. Through an industry-wide design competition, RE-Form helps widen the definition of design work creative professionals do throughout the country. The design competition launches nationally through AIA|DC EAC’s online platforms on August 31st 2015, with entries due on October 19th 2015. Award winners will be announced at a gala reception at Washington, D.C.’s District Architecture Center (DAC) on November 12, 2015. Winning entries will be showcased at DAC’s gallery space and online via Architect Magazine.
The AIA|DC Emerging Architects Committee (AIA|DC EAC) is excited to announce our presenters for the second-annual Thesis Showcase. Five recent B.Arch and M.Arch graduates from schools around the world will present their thesis projects to members of the AIA|DC and the public. The showcase event aims to bridge the gap between recent graduates and local practicing architects, by providing an opportunity for practitioners to view a sample of the work hailing from architecture schools around the country and abroad. The selected presenters will showcase their work at AIA|DC’s District Architecture Center (DAC) on August 27, 2015 at 6:00pm. Following the presentations a networking reception will occur at DAC’s gallery space in Penn Quarter.
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Earlier this month, after viewing the contenders in the US World War I Centennial Commission’s competition to redesign the National World War I Memorial in Washington DC, organizations like The Cultural Landscape Foundation began to began to voice their opinion regarding the reach of the competition. With the cultural importance of the site in mind, such organizations had hoped that the redesign would maintain the existing Pershing Park, but were disappointed to discover that the majority of the competition’s design proposals seek to demolish the existing landscape.
Although left off of the competition’s shortlist, KAMJZ Architects’ proposal for the World War I memorial addresses these concerns by leaving Pershing Park almost completely intact. Leaving alone the park’s seating areas, agora, and landscaping, the design proposal unifies the park by adding an outer ring of trees “along the borders of the site [to] provide an acoustic barrier from the noisy adjacent streets.”
Gallaudet University, the world’s only university for deaf and hard of hearing students, has launched an international competition to re-design its historic Washington DC campus. Participants will be challenged to "create a new campus gateway and redefine the University’s urban edge as a vibrant, mixed-use, creative and cultural district." Design proposals are not required during the competition's first stage; teams will be shortlisted based on their "understanding of the institution and project, team composition and past experience."
If you are interested in the nexus between health, design, and the urban setting, join researchers, policymakers, practitioners, designers and others for an evening of dynamic, diverse presentations, conversations, and drinks to celebrate the launch of this exciting new initiative.
On the heels of its summer blockbuster indoor maze, which attracted more than 50,000 visitors, the international design firm BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) returns to the National Building Museum this January with a behind-the-scenes look at its creative process. The exhibition, HOT TO COLD: an odyssey of architectural adaptation, takes visitors from the hottest to the coldest parts of our planet and explores how BIG´s design solutions are shaped by their cultural and climatic contexts. More than 60 three-dimensional models will be suspended at the second-floor balconies of the Museum’s historic Great Hall in an unprecedented use of this public space.
Nearly a year-and-a-half since the announcement of their selection, BIG has unveiled plans for a massive, 20-year-long overhaul for the Smithsonian’s southern campus in the center of Washington DC. With an overarching goal to unite the site by dissolving the notable impediments and discontinuous pathways that plague the area, BIG plans to also expand visitor, education and gallery spaces, while updating aging and inefficient building systems.
"Where today each museum is almost like a separate entity, in the future, it’s going to be a much more open, intuitive and inviting campus to meander around," Bjarke Ingels explained.
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