The Present Challenge of Architecture


Theme

Traditional cities gave an architectural response to people’s needs. They represented the communities they sheltered and displayed the inhabitants’ values, history, and aspirations. In fact, they lived together with the communities and gave a quick answer to the emerging changes.

It seems that the modern city has lost its flexibility. Although it wished it could foresee society’s direction, it lagged behind several changes and, since there was no architectural answer, a series of crises broke out. That led to malfunction, and its pace of development could not keep up with novelties.

What is more, the modern city can hardly adjust to the present and seems to forget that it has to be at the service of its dwellers. The 21st century poses many challenges to our modern cities. Some can be felt everywhere, while others are just local manifestations. The role of architecture is to come up with solutions to any challenge.

Technology is one of them, and architecture finds it rather difficult to metabolize it sometimes.

Economic changes are trials as well, and some- times they unsettle vast territories.

There are also the haphazard challenges, i.e., natural or social calamities.

Nowadays there are individual migration phenomena, and architecture cannot possibly find a way to settle people. There are also some challenges taking place on smaller territories, and of which you can hardly learn.

Architecture should come up with an answer for each of them, but we can only notice how it tries to offer transitional solutions. Architecture should learn something from such challenges and provide appropriate answers.

From the mentioned challenges, we recommend competitors to identify and define a problem, and offer a response directing approach through the public space redefinition conceived, stated and explored by its connection with the other spaces.

In an individualized society odds the notion of public space tends to be completely revised: what is today public space, how do we understand it, how are we experiencing it?
Students of architecture are expected to debate a large range of local challenges from their places of origin and select the most meaningful one to respond.

The projects should contain clear statements on both the chosen problem and its solution, illustrating their distinct approach to public space.
 

Competition Rules

Language
English is the official competition language

Eligibility
The competition is open to all students of architecture enrolled in an education institution affiliated to the EAAE/AEEA. For schools not affiliated to the EAAE/AEEA the registration fee/school is 100 Euro. The projects can be designed individually or in groups supervised by an architectural school professor.

Registration
Filling in the provided competition form will register each entry. Each student will choose a 6 digit code that will be displayed on the competition entry.
The competition form once filled will be e-mailed to the competition secretary no later than by the deadline announced in the competition schedule.

Jury
The evaluation will consist in two phases:

• A jury will meet at each architectural school participating in this competition in order to select 3-5 entries
• A final jury

Architectural School Jury
In this phase the jury composition and process will be conducted by each participating architectural school and will aim at selecting the 3-5 best projects representing the school at the final judge- ment. Henceforth, each school will select the jury members and selection criteria.

Final Jury
The final judgement will take place at the University of Architecture and Urbanism "Ion Mincu" Bucharest, Romania. Prizes and Mentions will be established for the best projects entries. The jury's members will set the selection criteria and evaluation process.

Final Jury Members
- to be nominated

Secretary
Françoise Pamfil, Romania

Note
None of the professors that tutor the entry project can be a jury member or secretary.

Entry Contents

• site plan 1/500 (1/1000)
• a set of site pictures indicating the intervention zone
• 2 characteristic sections 1/100 (1/200)
• all elevations 1/100 (1/200)
• all plans 1/100 (1/200)
• relevant perspectives
• other graphic items that will help a deeper understanding of the entry
• scale of the above compulsory items will be chosen by entrants in order to best illustrate each case.

Format

• Hardcopy - 2 A1 paper formats (594x840mm) Drawings must be made in a PORTRAIT format of A1.
• Digital- a CD with a .bmp/jpeg extension (300 dpi) consisting of the two A1 images.

Ensuring Anonymity
Each paper format A1 will, in the right bottom corner, display a code of 6 types (numbers and letters) written with a 1cm height ARIAL FONT body text.
This code will be marked also on the CD cover, disk and folders and will be provided by to organizers upon the following rule: two types - country of origin; two types - school/university, two types - entry no. The same code will be written on the A5 sealed envelope.
In the closed envelope an A4 paper format will state the following:

• name and surname of the author (authors). In case of group entries the group leader will be named
• name and surname of the tutoring professor
• name of the school of architecture where the students (group of students) are enrolled
• declaration on self-responsibility stating that the invoiced project is original and is conceived by the indicated author(s). In case of group entries the group leader will sign the declara- tion.

The CD and the sealed envelope will be introduced in the same packaging and invoiced to the organizers.

Questions and Answers
Competitors may formulate questions to the inter- national competition secretary by email on compe- titioneaae2007@iaim.ro. They will receive (from this email addresses) also the list of all questions received and answers provided by the international competition secretary.

Prizes
I - 6000 Euro
II - 4000 Euro
III - 3000 Euro
10 Mentions - 1000 Euro each
The jury has the right to convey these prizes or to distribute in another agreed manner the prizing fond.

Publication of Results
The international competition results will be communicated to each school that has had partici- pants in the competition.
The results will be announced on the website of the University of Architecture and Urbanism "Ion Mincu" Bucharest website as well.

A press release will be invoiced to main architec- tural magazines.
It is envisaged to publish An Official Catolog Editing with best projects.

Rights
The organizers reserve the printing, editing and issuing rights to all entries (be it integral of partial) and also the right to organize exhibitions of the projects.
Both the Hardcopy and Digital formats become the property of the organizers and consequently will not be returned to the entrants.

All rights from publishing or exhibiting the competition projects are exclusively of the organiz- ers. Participation in this international competition implicitly represents the acceptance of the compe- tition terms by the competitors.

Competition Schedule

• 1 September 2007
  Theme launch and registration start
• 31 March 2008
  End of registration
• 31 March -17 April 2008
  Questions from entrants
• 25 May 2008
  Deadline for answers to questions
• 15 October 2008
  Architectural schools jury deadline
• 25 October 2008
  Project arrivals at organizers