An architectural design competition is a type of design competition in which an organization that intends on constructing a new building invites architects to submit design proposals. The winning design is usually chosen by an independent panel of design professionals and stakeholders (such as government and local representatives). This procedure is often used to generate new ideas for building design, to stimulate public debate, generate publicity for the project, and allow emerging designers the opportunity to gain exposure. Architecture competitions are often used to award commissions for public buildings: in some countries rules for tendering public building contracts stipulate some form of mandatory open architectural competition. [1]
Winning first prize in a competition is not a guarantee that the project will be constructed. The commissioning body often has the right to veto the winning design, and both requirements and finances may change, thwarting the original intention. The 2002 World Trade Center site design competition is an example of a highly publicized competition where only the basic elements of the winning design by Daniel Libeskind appeared in the finished project.
Architecture competitions have a more than 2,500-year-old history. The Acropolis in Athens was a result of an architectural competition in 448 B.C., as were several cathedrals in the Middle Ages. During the Renaissance, many projects initiated by the Church have been decided through design competition. Examples are the Spanish Steps in Rome or in 1419, a competition was held to design the dome of the Florence Cathedral, which was won by Filippo Brunelleschi. Open competitions were held in the late 18th century in several countries including the United States, Great Britain, Ireland, France and Sweden. [2]
In 19th century England and Ireland there have been over 2,500 competitions in five decades, with 362 in London alone. The Royal Institute of British Architects drafted a first set of rules in 1839 and a set of formal regulations in 1872. The German Regulations were introduced in 1867. In the same period in the Netherlands, an association for the advancement of architecture (Maatschappij tot Bevordering van de Bouwkunst), started organising conceptual competitions with the aim of stimulating architects' creativity. [3]
There are a variety of competition types resulting from the combination of following options: [4]
The rules of each competition are defined by the organiser; however, these often follow the guidelines provided by the International Union of Architects, [5] respectively the relevant national or regional architecture organisation. Competition guidelines define roles, responsibilities, processes, and procedures within a competition [6] and provide guidance on possible competition types, eligibility criteria, jury composition, participation conditions, payments, prizes, publication of results and other aspects. [7] [8]
In France and Germany design competitions are compulsory for all public buildings exceeding a certain cost. [1] [9]
Most significant among architectural competitions are the ones which are internationally open, attract a large number of design submissions, and the winning design is built.
An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that have human occupancy or use as their principal purpose. Etymologically, the term architect derives from the Latin architectus, which derives from the Greek, i.e., chief builder.
Remment Lucas Koolhaas is a Dutch architect, architectural theorist, urbanist and Professor in Practice of Architecture and Urban Design at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University. He is often cited as a representative of Deconstructivism and is the author of Delirious New York: A Retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan.
Tadao Ando is a Japanese autodidact architect whose approach to architecture and landscape was categorized by architectural historian Francesco Dal Co as "critical regionalism". He is the winner of the 1995 Pritzker Prize.
Dame Zaha Mohammad Hadid was an Iraqi-British architect, artist and designer, recognized as a major figure in architecture of the late-20th and early-21st centuries. Born in Baghdad, Iraq, Hadid studied mathematics as an undergraduate and then enrolled at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in 1972. In search of an alternative system to traditional architectural drawing, and influenced by Suprematism and the Russian avant-garde, Hadid adopted painting as a design tool and abstraction as an investigative principle to "reinvestigate the aborted and untested experiments of Modernism [...] to unveil new fields of building".
The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally, founded for the advancement of architecture under its royal charter granted in 1837, three supplemental charters and a new charter granted in 1971.
Sir David Alan Chipperfield, is a British architect. He established David Chipperfield Architects in 1985, which grew into a global architectural practice with offices in London, Berlin, Milan, and Shanghai.
The Tsentrosoyuz Building or Centrosoyuz Building is a government structure in Moscow, Russia, constructed in 1933 by Le Corbusier and Nikolai Kolli. Centrosoyuz refers to a Soviet bureaucracy, the Central Union of Consumer Cooperatives. The building included office space for 3,500 personnel, as well as a restaurant, lecture halls, a theater, and other facilities. The address of the building is 39 Myasnitskaya Street, and the eastern side of the building faces Myasnitskaya Street. The western side, which was supposed to be the main entrance, faces Academician Sakharov Avenue. Currently it is the home of Rosstat, Russian Federal State Statistics Service and Federal Financial Monitoring Service.
Manchester Civil Justice Centre is a governmental building in Manchester, England. Completed in 2007, it houses Manchester's county court and the Manchester District Registry of the High Court, the city's family proceedings court, the district probate registry, and the regional and area offices of the Court Service.
Bjarke Bundgaard Ingels is a Danish architect, founder and creative partner of Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG).
Villa Serego or Villa Sarego is a Palladian villa at Santa Sofia di Pedemonte, San Pietro in Cariano in the province of Verona, northern Italy. It was built for the aristocratic Sarego family, and designed by Italian Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio. The villa is distinctive for its use of rusticated columns of the Ionic order.
William Robert Dunster OBE is a British architect.
Malcolm Fraser is an architect from Edinburgh, Scotland. He was the founder of Malcolm Fraser Architects, a firm of architects based in the Old Town of Edinburgh from 1993. The company entered liquidation on 21 August 2015 and Fraser worked with Halliday Fraser Munro Architects before setting up anew with Robin Livingstone as Fraser/Livingstone Architects in January 2019.
Jestico + Whiles is an architectural firm and interior design practice based in London, UK. It has completed a number of high-profile cultural, diplomatic, hotel and retail projects in Europe.
Percy Thomas Partnership was the trading name of the award-winning British architectural practice established some time between 1965 and 1973 as the successor to a series of earlier partnerships originally set up by Percy Thomas (1883–1969) in Cardiff, Wales in 1911/12. Percy Thomas and the Percy Thomas Partnership put their name to a number of landmark buildings in the United Kingdom including the Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff. It opened offices overseas and completed a number of prestigious buildings in Hong Kong.
ACME was established in 2007 in London. The practice operates in the fields of contemporary architecture, urban planning, interior design and product design – working with private, corporate and public clients. Since 2007, ACME has received numerous awards, most notably winning international competitions such as the John Lewis in Leeds 2007, the Kaufhof Department Store in Duisburg 2008 and the Royal Institute of Human Development in Bahrain 2009. The practice completed its first UK building – Hunsett Mill in Norfolk– in 2009, which received a number of awards, including the RIBA Manser Medal 2010 for the best one-off house in the United Kingdom. On an urban scale, the office has completed a number of masterplans, among them Bishopsgate Goodsyard / London, Birmingham Smithfield, Swansea Parc Tawe, Leeds Eastgate, Chester Northgate and Doha / Qatar.On an architectural scale, ACME has worked on a number of cultural, commercial and residential projects in the UK, Germany, India, Colombia, Spain, Syria, South Korea, Romania, Bahrain, Qatar, Australia, France and the UAE.
RIBA Competitions is the Royal Institute of British Architects' unit dedicated to organising architectural and other design-related competitions.
Landscape architecture competitions are structured similarly to other types of design competitions. In the case of landscape architecture design competitions, the procedure is sponsored by an organization or client that intends on implementing a new landscape design to a property in their care or ownership. Just as in architectural design competitions, the winning design is usually selected by an independent jury composed of design professionals and stakeholders such as government and/or local representatives. In general, design competitions are often used to stimulate new ideas in design, generate public debate, serve as a form of public relations for the project in question and integrate emerging designers into a more level field of competition.
Hugh Giles Keyworth Broughton is an English architect and one of the world's leading designers of polar research facilities. His practice, Hugh Broughton Architects, was founded in 1995 and is based in London, works internationally. The practice has won several high profile international design competitions, including Halley VI Research Station, Juan Carlos 1 Spanish Antarctic Base, the Atmospheric Watch Observatory in Greenland for the US National Science Foundation and a new health facility on Tristan da Cunha, the world's most remote inhabited island. As of 2020, current polar work includes the redevelopment of Scott Base for Antarctica New Zealand, designed in collaboration with Jasmax; and the modernisation of the Rothera Research Station for the British Antarctic Survey (2023). In 2019 the practice completed the conservation of the Grade I listed Painted Hall in the Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich, designed by Sir Christopher Wren in 1696.
The Oare Pavilion or Oare Tea House Pavilion is a summer house designed by I. M. Pei for the businessman Henry Keswick and his wife Tessa Keswick at Oare House in Oare, Wiltshire. It was completed in 2003 and is Pei's only building in the United Kingdom. The pavilion was the recipient of an award from the Georgian Society for a new building in a Georgian context.