The Arquia Foundation signs an agreement with Architect-US to expand its program to the United States and adds 2 scholarships in New York to their XXI Arquia Scholarships 2020 Call.

2018 marked the 28th anniversary of the fall of the inner German border wall and the point at which the Wall had been gone for exactly as long as it had existed. GRAFT and Marianne Birthler, the curators of the German Pavilion at the 16th Architecture Biennale in Venice, took this parallel as an opportunity to explore the topic of “UNBUILDING WALLS”. Following on from the exhibition and the issues it raised, the curators announced two Travel Grants with a value of 3000 € each.

OfficeNext announced the launch of its 11th annual international competition for best corporate interior projects.

Best Office Awards has been held since 2010 and it is the main Russian professional award in the field of corporate interiors design. Russian and foreign office projects are denoted with this award and the prize is given to the office architect and customer tandem.

The Fundamental Design Build Initiative invites 10 early-career architects, designers, and engineers from around the world to San Jose, Costa Rica for a three-month summer residency. Over the duration of the program, participants will be exposed to all aspects of a built work of design including: site analysis, brainstorming, fundraising, project management, sourcing materials, pre-fabrication, onsite construction, public relations, and preparing publicity materials. Participants will be chosen through a competitive selection process and are invited to attend and participate at no cost to themselves beyond travel and per diem expenses. Accommodations are provided in the cultural center of downtown San Jose, Costa Rica.

The brick in the picture is being preserved as part of the archival holdings of the Canadian Centre for Architecture on the work of the Minimum Cost Housing Group (MCHG). Founded at the McGill University School of Architecture in the early 1970s with the goal of analysing “How the other half builds,” the MCHG focused on practices of building and dwelling in developing countries. The group’s research and project work, including experiments with sulphur concrete, were part of a paradigm shift in the discourse on the housing crises of the global South. Measures such as slum clearances and resettlement, often financed by the World Bank or other international organisations to counter the hardships of the “urban poor,” were mere expressions of the functionalist logics propagated by the construction industries in capitalist societies. Many architects and planners criticised the destruction of existing structures and practices of communal dwelling that went along with these measures, and shifted their focus to informal and vernacular building practices. The notion of Habitat, already discussed in the 1953 CIAM meeting, shaped the approaches to the human settlement problems of the poor from the 1970s onwards.

The Center for Architecture is now accepting applications for the 2020 Arnold W. Brunner Grant. This grant is awarded to mid-career architects for advanced study in any area of architectural investigation that will contribute to the knowledge, teaching, or practice of the art and science of architecture. The proposed investigation is to result in a publicly available written work, design project, research paper, or other form of presentation to be offered at the Center for Architecture. Previous topics of research have ranged from the impact of American architects on Cuba’s historic built environment to the importance of public restrooms in creating greater social equity. Projects are judged based on their engagement with contemporary local and global architectural issues and the usefulness of the research’s product.

A3/Archives of African Architecture and the Aga Khan Documentation Center, MIT Libraries are looking for people who are able to bring the general public in Africa and beyond to a mainstream understanding of architecture and its relation to culture through writing about built heritage. The recipients of this award will join the A3 – Archnet team in this project, starting with a fully funded weeklong trip to Boston, Massachusetts to work with the staff of the Aga Khan Documentation Center, MIT Libraries, to build a database on African Architecture.

A $5,000 fellowship awarded for study of historic and architecturally significant residences in LA County. Reports and research findings, and other content developed by FORT Fellows, will be added to the Discovery Center and linked to Trails maps as applicable.

Call for entries now open for the biennial New Practices New York 2020 Awards.

New Practices Committee of the New York AIA Chapter invite you to submit your portfolio to the 8th biennial juried portfolio competition and exhibition known as New Practices New York. The selected winner will have their work showcased in an exhibition at the Center for Architecture, a symposium to discuss their practice, and will hold a lecture series in New York to present their work.

Videos

The Créateurs Design Awards will be presenting the Andrée Putman Lifetime Achievement award to French designer Pierre-Yves Rochon at an exclusive black-tie award ceremony at the iconic Hotel Ritz Paris on January 15, 2020. Rochon has built his career designing some of the most iconic hotels in the world, including the Four Seasons Hotel George V and Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills. He has also created restaurant environments for some of the world’s leading culinary talents including Alain Ducasse, Paul Bocuse and Gérard Boyer.

The Galvanizers Association Galvanizing Awards (GAGAs) is a free annual competition which has been recognising the use of galvanizing since 1994.

Archistart promotes the fourth Architectural Thesis Award, the international thesis award, launched with the aim of promoting, rewarding and giving visibility to young talents in architecture.

World Campus Masters Selective Graduation Design Program (short for "WCM Program”) is launched by an international design competition platform Young Bird Plan, and it is committed to recognizing the fresh blood of contemporary design through evaluating graduation designs from global young designers in different regions and cultures. It encourages original design and design thinking in campus to conduct a positive dialogue with global design industry and industrial development, bringing young designers and their graduation works to one of the world's most influential design platform and the cutting-edge design ecosystem.

The Center for Architecture is now accepting for applications for the 2019 Stewardson Keefe LeBrun Travel Grant. The grant provides single or multiple awards of up to $25,000 for early to mid-level architects who wish to further their personal and professional development through travel. Originally conceived as a fund to provide architects with the experience of a European Grand Tour, recipients now explore unique travel research topics around the world. Recent topics include the study of architecture in Siberia, post-revolutionary architecture in Cuba, and a survey of the art of topiary in Europe and the United States, among many others. The Stewardson Keefe LeBrun Travel Grant focuses on self-directed education through travel. Itineraries should be focused on a selected topic of interest to the individual, rather than a part of a larger humanitarian or institutional endeavor.

The Archiboo Web Awards, now in their fourth year, are the only awards to highlight and celebrate the creative use of technology to communicate great architecture.

Admission: FREE
Grand Prize: $1,000
Deadline: June 30 11:59PM PST
Winner Announced: July 31, 2019

BRIEF
On the evening of April 15th, 2019 the world held its breath as the Notre-Dame Cathedral was engulfed in flames. A few hours after the fire begun, the centuries-old cathedral had lost its entire roof, spire, and was severely damaged by the flames. Thankfully it was not completely destroyed and many priceless artifacts from the interior were saved.

The TRANSFER Architecture Video Award is an independent award, to be launched in 2019, to recognise the most creative and innovative short films in the field of architecture, city and landscape worldwide.

Video is becoming increasingly instrumental in analysing architecture and the human environment, and is directly related to the digital networks that underpin contemporary communication.

The Fundació Mies van der Rohe, together with BOZAR and UNINA, promotes the European project Artists in Architecture. Re-activating Modern European Houses. An initiative that aims to promote collaboration between artists, architects, students, professionals in the field of heritage and the public in general and at the same time opens an intergenerational and interdisciplinary dialogue that helps to define a contemporary vision and the future approach to conservation, restoration and reuse of a heritage as delicate and at risk as the single-family home.

We are calling for entries from now for final submission on May 16th, 2019, for projects that respond to the following themes:

The 2019 Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) Norman Foster Travelling Scholarship opens today and welcomes applications from architecture students enrolled in schools of architecture around the world. A £7,000 grant will be awarded to one winner by a panel of judges which will include Lord Foster and RIBA President Ben Derbyshire.

Where we live plays a role in who we are. It influences where we go to school, where we work, who we hang out with, everything. According to the United Nations, almost 75% of everyone on earth will live in a city by 2050. This move to a high-density living will push architecture and the urban experience to its max.

The U.S. Department of State and the National Endowment for the Arts Design Program announce that the call for applications has been posted for the U.S. presentation at the 17th International Architecture Exhibition held in Venice, Italy, from May 23 to November 29, 2020. The Venice Architecture Biennale exhibition is the premier showcase for revolutionary ideas in contemporary architecture and design through national venues.

Welcome to 2019; polarizing political views are an ever-present reality and it doesn't seem to be improving. Whether you live in the US or on the other side of the globe our environments are actors in the theater of influence. What happens when design becomes part of the equation? How does architecture and the built-environment play a role in the social and political lives of the people in power and those on the fringes?

Nominations are now open for the 2020 World Monuments Watch—a program that uses cultural heritage conservation to empower communities and improve the sustainability of their cherished sites. Every two years, with support of founding sponsor American Express, as well as our 2020 Watch supporters, Stavros Niarchos Foundation and the Ford Foundation, we partner with citizens, activists, and experts in the field to recognize and take action at 25 significant sites in need around the world. The result? More resilient communities, enhanced social inclusion, and new skills in the conservation field and beyond.