Two teams have been announced as the finalists of a competition to rebuild Norway’s government headquarters after it was bombed in 2011 during the country’s worst terrorist attack in modern history. The state building agency Statsbygg selected G8+, comprised of A-Lab and LPO Architects, and Team Urbis, which includes the firms Haptic and Nordic, out of a group of seven teams to create a safe, inviting hub of ministry buildings for central Oslo.
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The National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) has reviewed the revised concept for the National Washington WWI Memorial as part of several major commemoration and transport projects taking place in the capital city. Designed by architect Joseph Weishaar and sculptor Sabin Howard, the proposal won the memorial’s competition last year, beating out 4 other finalists with its multilevel design and use of relief sculpture.
This open international competition aims to collect design works of public space for hutongs in Baitasi neighbourhood. Shortlisted works will be implemented in a simulated way during Beijing Design Week, and the winning designs will be selected by professional Jury and residents in the neighbourhood and will be made available as reference of the revitalization development in Baitasi neighbourhood, in a broader old-town area of Beijing and even in old towns throughout China.
Architectural research initiative Arch Out Loud has released the winners of the Tenancingo Square Mediascape international open-ideas competition aimed to engage architects with the topic of human trafficking. The competition challenged participants to reimagine the town square of Tenancingo, Mexico in response to the prevalent issues of sex trafficking existing in the area. “With proposals from both regional designers and designers from other parts of the world, the competition brought forth a large variety of approaches to an extremely sensitive, but immediate, societal problem” Arch Out Loud said in a statement. “Being the first architectural competition to address human and sex trafficking, Arch Out Loud hopes that the culmination of this exploration is only the beginning of the field’s examination of its’ role in the matter.”
In response to the Yangjaegogae Eco Bridge Design Competition commissioned by the Seoul Metropolitan Government, SLOPEWALK is a mountain-inspired bridge designed by a Lithuanian team, KILD, proposing a structure evoking the “pictorial passage through the southern slopes of the two discontinued mountain peaks of Mt. Umyeon and Maljukgeori Parks.” Seeing a current infrastructural void, the project aims to unite the two neighboring mountain parks over the Gyeongbu Expressway, as a continuation of the sloped landscape.
International architecture non-profit Shelter Global has just announced the winners of its third annual Dencity Competition, highlighting innovative solutions that will improve living conditions for over 1 billion slum dwellers worldwide. The goal of the competition is to foster new ideas on how to spread awareness and handle the growing density of unplanned cities .
Russian architecture office Blank Architects have won a competition to design the Rzhevskaya Metro Station in Moscow, Russia. The open international competition searched for proposals to design three stations along the capital’s new metro line: "Rzhevskaya," "Sheremetyevskaya," and "Stromynka." Blank Architects is one of three architecture offices winning proposals for each station, with AI Architects chosen to design "Sheremetyevskaya" station and Map Architects winning "Stromynka." Designed as a sequence of arches and topped with a transparent pavilion, the proposal creates a dialogue between monumental and light elements - a modern addition to the city’s architectural identity.
Hong Kong based architecture firm Cheongvogl has won an international competition to build the Yeoui-Naru Ferry Terminal in Seoul, South Korea. Founded by Judy Cheung and Christoph Vogl in 2008, the international practice aspires to “touch human hearts with poetic senses” through their projects. With that in mind, their winning design impressed an illustrious jury including architects Ryue Nishizawa (SANAA, Nishizawa, and Associates) and Alejandro Zaera Polo of APML. Using an approach called “Poetic Pragmatism” – the design aims to enhance the flatness and monochrome characteristics of the Han River site through its architecture. The masterplan connects the entire design to the city’s existing infrastructure while creating a sense of place along the riverbank.
Powerhouse Company have won a competition to create a new mixed-use hub in Eindhoven, Netherlands. For the competition, Powerhouse teamed up with landscape architects ZUS and developer Amvest to design a trio of skyscrapers forming the winning proposal for a new urban plaza, called “District E”. The 70,000 square meter proposal will be located next to Eindhoven Station.
Bee Breeders have selected the winners of the Mango Vinyl Hub Competition, challenging entries to marry architecture, music, industry, and design in the repurposing of a decrepit tin foil factory in Cesis, Latvia. With a focus on the revival of the vinyl record industry, “successful projects temper the impulse of retrojecting nostalgic hallmark or tradition, through revitalization of purpose of an artifact and history of a bygone era.”
Here are the winning visions of the Mango Vinyl Hub:
With a modular composition inspired by traditional sub-Saharan African building typologies, MASA Studio’s safe lodging proposal for Tanzanian cancer victims has been selected as the winner of the Hostels for Hope competition, which called for solutions to issues of health and safety in regards to the rehabilitation of cancer victims away from home in rural Africa. Organized by Pink Ribbon Red Ribbon, an international foundation combatting women’s cancers, the competition responds to the unfortunate decision that thousands of Tanzanian women have to make every year – to travel great lengths for unaffordable treatment and lodging, or to remain at home unable to fight the disease.
Bee Breeders have selected winners of the Stone Barn Meditation Camp competition, seeking to create a place of refuge for individuals amidst the pristine natural beauty of one of Latvia’s most remote regions. In announcing the competition results, the jury applauded the respect and regard shown to the environment by submitted schemes, commenting that the most successful projects stood out for their simplicity, elegance, and balance with nature.
The competition winners, including noted ‘Green’ and ‘Student’ schemes, are set out below.
KOHT Arkitekter has won an international competition to expand one of Norway’s s largest university campuses. The Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim launched their masterplan competition in December last year, setting the deadline for the first stage in January 2017. The emerging studio, consisting of Anders Olivarius Bjørneseth (27), Kenneth Larssen Lønning (25), Jonas Velken Kverneland (27) and Christopher Wilkens (32) beat 39 competing proposals before winning in the two-stage competition.
The European two phases Urban Design Competition promoted by the Municipality of Bergamo will transform the center of the Lower City asking Italian and international designers proposals to overhaul open areas, public squares and spaces and new functions for the discarded buildings. It asks for participants with multidisciplinary skills and aims at strengthening the role of the Piacentiniano system as the identity generator of the city centre, exploiting urban spaces, reviving commercial activities, re-using existing buildings, promoting social and cultural events and improving the accessibility of the area.
Presented by AECOM and Van Alen Institute, with 100 Resilient Cities — Pioneered by the Rockefeller Foundation, hOUR City is this year’s Urban SOS™ student ideas competition. We’re asking students to propose new solutions to tackle housing, transportation, or economic development challenges and to re-imagine what a future “hour city” boundary can be.
A competition for the interior renovation of the Alte Oper, one of the world’s most prominent opera houses in Frankfurt, has been won by German firm Buero Wagner, selected ahead of heavyweight runner-up Zaha Hadid Architects. The scope included the conversion of one of the building’s multipurpose foyers into a central social space, to be activated by the 450,000 annual visitors that attend the Alter Oper’s 400-plus concerts.
Placing third place out of 69 entries in an international competition for a new cultural building in Shenzhen, China, Mecanoo’s proposal for the Bao’an Public Culture and Art Center aiming to re-evaluate the “inwardly focused identity of cultural facilities in Hong Kong," through the form of an elevated cube. Situated near the Bao’an Metro Station and the Binhai School, the Dutch firm responds to the site’s challenges by reconnecting the center with its adjacent infrastructure.
The metro station and cultural center are united by the large masses of people that are channeled by the former and engaged but the latter. In order to capitalize on this condition, the design combines the metro entrance with that of the museum, thereby connecting the wider community with the arts and creating a more appealing public network.
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