ARCHITECTURAL COMPETITIONS

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. Architectural competition promotes interest in a
project from inception to completion, and the promoter stands to gain a sense of
achievement and enhanced pride of ownership in a project. 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:

Design competitions offer a number of benefits to the promoter of an architectural

competition:

 Attaining an outstanding and often unique design by stimulating a range of

design concepts and explorations
 Sound and experienced judgments and advice from the jury
 The opportunity to comprehensively test the project brief
 Promotion of the promoter and the project through publicity and exhibitions
 Opportunities to discover talent and skill which, but for a competition, would
remain unknown

OBJECTIVES OF ARCHITECTURAL COMPETITIONS

An architectural competition can have one of three objectives:

1. To select a design
2. To select an architect
3. To provide awards for design ideas and/or research

IMPORTANCE OF ARCHITECTURAL COMPETITIONS

Competitions are organized because of all the advantages and benefits that they offer.
These benefits are not enjoyed only by the participating professionals and architects but
also the sponsors, the community, corporations or institutions.

 Competitions typically provide a wide range of design solutions that would not be
possible by pre-selecting one architect. These competitions have resulted in a
high quality of design as well as creating public interest in the role of architecture
in national and community life.
  Most importantly, competitions give participants the opportunity to showcase their
skills, they help participants gain experience and confidence in whichever field
they are competing in.

 Competitions offer its participants the opportunity to learn and apply new skills
and techniques. They help the organizers assess and examine participants
aptitude and talent, even the participants can evaluate their performance and
work on techniques and strategies to improve their skills.

 Competitions are a great place to meet new people who are in pursuit of similar
goals.

 These architecture competitions help in selecting designs and architects from a

broad range of proposals submitted by number of participants, which would not
the case for a single architect.

 The sponsors have multiple choices to select a design and an architect as these
competitions offer design quality and variety.

 Architecture competitions offer architects the opportunity to launch their career

and create a name for themselves and the design methods that emanates from
their perception.

 Corporations and institutions have benefitted from architecture competitions by

fetching positive recognition in promoting their corporate/institutional identity.

 Architecture competitions directly or indirectly involve community and as a result

they also benefit from these competitions with pride and identity.

ADVANTAGES OF ARCHITECTURAL COMPETITIONS

Some of the advantages or benefits of architectural competitions to the people are;

For sponsors:
Competitions provide options. For example, a sponsor can choose to select a design
and its architect, or the sponsor can obtain research or ideas through a creative process
to initiate a project or product. When a number of architects focus on a single problem,
the process contributes to design excellence and variety.
For architects:
Many competitions offer opportunities for young architects that are not always available
through other selection methods. Several significant architects have launched their
careers because their designs were selected as the winning schemes.

For the community:

Competitions can create community interest and/or involvement, and a successful
conclusion can contribute to community identity and pride.

For corporations/institutions:
Competitions can bring positive attention to a project and help promote and contribute
to corporate/institutional identity.

DISADVANTAGES OF ARCHITECTURAL COMPETITIONS

1. They take away the opportunity for the architect to work closely with the clients.
2. Financial burden
3. Waste of time, resources and money
4. Projects are almost never built
5. Too much competition

TYPES OF COMPETITION

There are a variety of competition types resulting from the following options:

1. Project or Idea type

2. Classification of competitions
 OPEN TYPE
 CLOSED TYPE
 SPECIAL TYPE
3. Competition organization
 SINGLE STAGE TYPE
 TWO STAGE TYPE
4. Anonymous or Co-operative type
5. Student design type
OPEN COMPETITIONS

 In this type, all Architects are invited to participate through an announcement by

advertisements in suitable media and through circulars which may be issued by
the promoters.
 Its projects estimated at less than Rs. 10,00,000 could be restricted to Architects
who have their main or branch office in the State of the project site

LIMITED COMPETITIONS

 For Competitions by Invitation

 Competitions in which limited number of Architects (about 5 to 8) are selected by
the promoter on the advice of the Senior Architect Assessor or Board of
Assessors, are invited to participate.
 Each participant who submits his designs shall receive an honorarium

SPECIAL COMPETITIONS

 A competition that combines town planning as well as design

problem, and may involve the use of industrial components or
participation of developers.
 In such competitions, participation may be required to be limited
to professionals or group of professionals with certain definite
expertise.
 In such cases the competition announcement shall clearly define
the field of expertise.
RUNNING A DESIGN COMPETITION

1. Define the Goals of the Competition

The first and most important step is to establish a set of goals to be achieved
through a competition.

2. Define Audience for Competition

It is important to define the audience that may participate or submit entries to a

competition. If the audience is broad it will allow for a greater range of entries, but may
also make the judging process more difficult. The scope of the audiences to consider
might include: professional, student, national, state, regional, international, multi-
disciplinary, etc. The audience and scope of the competition may also have a direct
impact on the budget.
 3. Number and type of entries accepted

Defining the number and type of entries to be accepted into the competition will
allow for a focused jury process, but also has the ability to limit qualified or quality
entries.

4. Develop Competition Budget

Defining expenses that will be covered under the competition, including

staff/consultant time, travel and or honorarium expenses for jurors, rental space and
other jury meeting expenses, marketing and publicity, entry fees, and awards to
winners.

5. Develop Competition Program

The competition program must clearly state the goals and entry requirements for
the competition. The program is also the place to set the tone and provide background
on the competition including trends or new directions sought through the use of a
competition. It is critical to request information about the entry that will give the jury a
complete understanding of its intent in order to evaluate the merit of the individual entry
and be able to compare it against the other entries.

6. Establish competition entry rules and guidelines

Items to consider are the eligibility, regulations, format (hard copy or electronic
submission), deadlines, overall competition schedule, or resources (physical or access
to) that entrants should utilize as part of the competition. The COA competition
guidelines provide a new up to date code that safeguards the interests of prompters and
of architects and bring the system into line with present day conditions.

7. Develop and coordinate jury/judging panel and process

The structure of a jury should be carefully considered so as to bring the

appropriate and desired backgrounds and perspectives to bear on the jury process. A
balanced jury might include individuals with a mix of technical, design, political, or
educational perspectives to accomplish goals stated within the competition.

8. Establish Marketing/Publicity Schedule

To maximize the publicity and exposure of the competition and its results, it is important
to develop a marketing and publicity strategy at the outset of the competition.
 9. Develop and establish awards structure

There are a variety of approaches to awards within competitions. Depending on

the budget available there may be monetary prizes, award certificates, trophies,
publicity or awards ceremonies, educational opportunities, or professional opportunities.

SPECIAL ARCHITECTURAL COMPETITIONS- CASE STUDY

Yilong Futuristic City International Design Competition

Yilong Futuristic City International Design Competition is an initiative for a conversation
on the modern city life founded on nature and an opportunity to build a futuristic city
from scratch.

Yilong District is the most promising area in Guizhou, China, and its core area-Qiushui
Lake is facing a revolution in urban design. With Qiushui lake area as the design
objective, this competition is looking for a futuristic and sustainable new city.

This competition is intended to initiate a conversation on the modern city life founded on
nature, involving topics such as local vs global, tradition vs future, Eastern vs Western,
landscape vs city, nature vs living habitat, preservation vs development, intention vs
reality. The unique mountainous landscape of Guizhou has its own regionalism
characters, that inspired many poets to write down grandeur and sensational lines.

A total of 1184 design teams from different countries and districts enrolled in the
competition, and finally, 28 outstanding design works were selected by the Jury
committee to enter the final winners list, including 1 First Prize, 3 Second Prizes, 8 Third
prizes and 16 Honorable Mentions.

Mr. Peter Rowe is the jury chairman of Yilong Cup competition. And the awards are as
below.

1st Prize (1 team), Certificate and 200,000 RMB (approx.30, 000 USD) (tax included);
2nd Prize (3 teams), Certificate and 100,000 RMB (approx.14,000 USD) (tax included);
3rd Prize (8 teams), Certificate and 10,000 RMB (approx. 1,400 USD) (tax included);
Honorable Mentions, Certificate and free UED magazine;
Participation in the competition is free of charge. Competition is limited to:

 Architects, designers, civil engineers, landscape architects, structural engineers,

urban planners, students
 A group, no more than 5 participants

First prize: Loop Linear City

Team：TAKENAKA Corporation
Concept as stated by the team was;
“The "oriental landscape" we envision is not limited to shapes and colors, but includes
distant mountain views and topography, farms and the activity of the people who live
there and practice agriculture all as overlapping layers, and without specifying that
scenery be defined by landmarks or axes, is something similar to a constantly swaying
life form. By integrating with the unique topography that will become the "framework" for
this landscape, we propose a sustainable city that uses the "ringed linear city" model for
its "framework" and leverages the city's "BIG DATA" to plan for its transportation
network.”
PANEL OF JURY