2016

Throughout history, the coast has spawned various architectural types of public infrastructure which enabled and enhanced the coastal experience. The British invention of the marine pier for instance was an architectural innovation that allowed the first coast tourists to walk on water, as it were, only without getting wet or seasick. The seafront promenade in turn was the public place to be for the well-to-do dawdler, but at the same time also an integral part of coastal defence as well as an efficient real-estate instrument along which the first prestigious ‘Grands Hotels’ could be erected. Lastly, the modern installations balnéaires in Ostend, Knokke, and Blankenberge integrated showers, changing rooms, luxury cabins, ticket sales, and steps leading to the beach.

TRANS-PLAN is an international student design competition organized by A2G (Architecture Gallery at the Faculty of Architecture University of Manitoba). The competition is open to all students registered in spatial design and or exhibition design disciplines.

The Passive House is now 25 years old; to celebrate this, the International Passive House Conference is returning to Darmstadt – the city in Germany, in which this success story began. On 22 and 23 April 2016, over a hundred speakers from all over the world will report on the latest projects relating to highly energy efficient construction and retrofits. But the anniversary will also serve as an occasion for a review, with the presentation of results relating to the durability of the individual building components of the first Passive House. The complete Conference programme is now available online. In

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Re-Ball! is an open design competition to turn 650,000+ 3-inch, white, translucent plastic balls into a site-specific installation in the Dupont Underground’s 14,000-square-foot east platform. The balls were previously part of the National Building Museum’s blockbuster 2015 summer destination The Beach.
The winning concept will take the medium in a new direction, one that responds to the uniqueness of the installation site. From the open, light-filled box of the National Building Museum’s Great Hall to the curving concrete volume of the Dupont Underground's east platform, Re-Ball! entries should transform the constituent materials — and the space itself — into an entirely

Increasingly, more architecture professionals are breaking into the world of film, learning digital animation and design skills to engage non-specialists, as well as their peers. Architect-trained Kibwe Tavares, co-founder of creative studio Factory Fifteen, will explore the ways architects and designers can use digital representation to encourage imaginative thinking through a combination of architecture and film.

At the beginning of January 2016 the Municipality of Prato, Italy, is launching an open, anonymous, international two-phase design competition for a new 3-hectare urban park in its historical city center. By the end of February, the international jury will select 10 finalist architects who will be invited to conceive a schematic design for the site. In June 2016 the winner will be awarded and commissioned to design the final project for the new Parco Centrale di Prato.

A’ Design Award & Competition is the world’s leading international annual juried competition for design. The A’ Design Accolades are organized in a wide range of creative fields to highlight the very best designers from all countries in all disciplines. Entries to the competition are peer-reviewed and anonymously judged by an influential jury panel of experienced academics, prominent press members and established professionals. A’ Design Award & Competition promises fame, prestige, publicity and international recognition to all A’ Design Award Winners through the A’ Design Prize which is given to celebrate the awarded designs.

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. 

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Honda is launching a new supercar in Europe, the Honda NSX, and we would like to create a special Dealer Showroom Display for this special car within our current Car Dealers.

The NSX display area should be not bigger than 35m2, has to include private small luxurious lounge, colour chips & trims display, and has to create a differentiated spaced within the current Honda dealer showrooms (so should consider showroom limitations) and has to emphasize the exclusivity of the NSX car.

See things differently? 
Show your idea. Enter the Re-think competition and your work could be showcased on TiP, Balmond Studio’s influential online ideas lab. The winner will also receive a £100 iTunes voucher and enjoy a private call with Cecil Balmond himself, one of the world’s leading thinkers on space form and structure.

What is a Re-think?
Anything with an original idea at its core is a Re-think. To put it simply – a piece of work that challenges the norm. Something that pushes the boundaries, creating an alternate way of thinking.

At the beginning of the 21st century there is a need to address contemporary social needs and desires and an emerging economic potential in order to create a new generation of shopping centers and leisure facilities. Architecture is no longer considered a footnote, but a fundamental means of engaging and extending the experience of the visitor toward new dynamic leisure horizons.