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Today over 3 billion people live in urban areas, composing 50% of the world population. By 2050, it is estimated that the world population will grow to between 9 and 11 billion people, and over 70% will be living in urban areas. This means within 35 years, we will need to house an additional 3 billion people within cities by the most conservative estimates. Even if we could build large apartment complexes that house 500 people each, we would need to construct 500 buildings each day every day for the next 35 years to meet that demand.

Videos

ArtHouse Artistic Director Theaster Gates and project leadership seek qualifications from artists and designers interested in creating temporary, original, site-responsive public artwork(s) for ArtHouse, an underutilized 15,000 square foot facility undergoing renovations in downtown Gary, Indiana. The re-imagined space will be ushered by two public art commissions, Illumination and Surface, each appealing to the catalytic power of art.

Socrates Sculpture Park and The Architectural League invite designers and architects to help shape the physical setting in which the park fulfills its mission as an environment for art, creative expression, social programming, and education. Socrates, located in Long Island City, Queens, is distinctive for its combination of waterfront setting, accessibility, and community-driven programs.

In previous years the Folly program investigated the intersection between sculpture and architecture with temporary structures that intentionally served no utilitarian purpose. This year, marking the program’s 5th and the park’s 30th anniversaries, the competition instead asks entrants to fuse form with utility, creating designs that explore the intersection of art and architecture while durably addressing and improving the conditions of the park.

Update: The deadline has been extended to January 4, 2016. 

The creation of the Erie Canal was a paradigm shift for American progress in the 19th century, leveraging hundreds of miles of canal networks capable of generating cities out of swamps and ushering in a new era of exchange. Over a century later, what was the Erie Canal through Central New York has been capped over with urban development and sprawl. We are now presented with the opportunity to reposition Erie as the vehicle for a globally relevant, ecologically turbocharged urban corridor. The Elevating Erie ideas competition seeks proposals that consider our current global biodiversity challenges in urbanized regions by developing solutions specific to the Erie Canalway Trail along Erie Boulevard East connecting DeWitt to Syracuse.

Presented by StorefrontMB and The Forks, Cool Gardens is an exhibit of contemporary garden and art installations that offers a shift of sensation for the summer—cooling—as a general theme for public projects in Winnipeg and Brandon. The 2016 Competition seeks creative proposals from designers, architects, landscape architects, and / or artists who are interested in challenging and celebrating the interface between urbanism, landscape, and design. Engage the urban design culture of Winnipeg or Brandon! Register today!

CANactions School, the first school for urban studies in Ukraine, has launched an international call for applicants for
STUDIO #2: “Tackling the Future of Ukrainian (Post)industrial Cities." The seminar will take place from February to May 2016.

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.

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 25, so sign up now by emailing platform@form.net.au for more information or to attend a briefing.

The Tainan City Government in Taiwan has launched an international design competition for its Tainan Public Library Project, a key factor in the cultural development of Tainan.

Since the merge of Tainan County and Tainan City, the current Tainan Municipal Library is no longer satisfying the needs of the local population, thus necessitating the new Tainan Public Library, which will be constructed at the site of the old Yongkang Artillery School. The site, at 15,000 square meters, will house about 35,000 square meters of floor space.

What does it mean to build? Traditionally, building has been defined as the assembly of parts or materials toward the creation of a whole. While to build is often perceived as an Apollonian pursuit, to destroy appears to be its Dionysian counterpart. Understanding that our built environment is the product of many forces, it can dialectically be reduced to the tensions between creation and destruction, addition and subtraction, and erection and demolition.

Al-Kindi Society for Engineers will be holding its annual engineering forum in London, titled “Iraq Architecture and Planning 2016”.

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.

Community Lighting for the Urban Environment has set itself the goal of encouraging and challenging young designers such as students (University & Colleges) and emerging Professionals (<5 years in their profession) to develop innovative lighting concepts for interior and exterior spaces, stimulate challenging ideas and recognize the individuals creating those ideas.

Update: The deadline has been extended to January 4, 2016. 

LOCALIZING COORDINATES

Florim has launched a competition to design a temporary architectural installation that showcases images from relevant architectural works built with ceramics. This event will take place during the International Furnishing Accessories Exhibition in the very centre of Milan and the competition is open to designers, architects and creative communities worldwide. Learn more about the competition after the break.

At its 2017 Annual International Conference in Glasgow, Scotland, SAH will offer a total of 36 paper sessions. The Society invites its members, including graduate students and independent scholars, representatives of SAH chapters, and partner organizations, to chair a session at the conference. As SAH membership is required to chair or present research at the Annual International Conference, non-members who wish to chair a session will be required to join SAH at the time of submitting a session proposal.

LE:NOTRE Landscape Forum: Cyprus 2016 International Student Competition

Imagine future cities full of gardens with flower carpets, full of playing children, humming bees and fluttering butterflies. Gardens that help to create a healthy environment, cool cities, collect rainwater and are adapted to the local climate.