The Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia and HP are pleased to announce the 4th Advanced Architecture Contest, on the theme of CITY-SENSE: Shaping our environment with real-time data.

The aim of the competition is to promote discussion and research through which to generate insights and visions, ideas and proposals that help us envisage what the city and the habitat of the 21st century will be like.

The competition is open to architects, engineers, planners, designers and artists who want to contribute to progress in making the world more habitable by developing a proposal capable of responding to emerging challenges in areas such as ecology, information technology, architecture, and urban planning, with the purpose of balancing the impact real-time data collection might have on sensor-driven cities.

The competition jury, which is composed of architects, professionals in a wide range of fields and directors of some of the world's foremost architecture schools, is looking for outstanding proposals at any scale, for any city in the world. Competition entries should be submitted via the Internet on Smart Cities, Eco neighborhoods, Self-sufficient buildings, Intelligent homes or any other proposal that analyzes the phenomena of sensor-driven cities and intelligent behavioural systems.

The proposal should include whatever texts, videos, drawings and other images may be needed to make it fully understandable.

The competition prizes will consist of: Three scholarships for the IaaC Masters in Advanced Architecture program for academic year 2012-13, cash prizes, and an HP latest-generation printer. The selected projects will go on show in a major exhibition, opening in Barcelona in May 2012, which will travel to key cities around the world. The best projects will also be featured in a book to be published by Actar-Birkhauser, like in the three previous editions: SELF-SUFFICIENT HOUSING, SELF-FAB HOUSE and SELF-SUFFICIENT CITY.

http://www.advancedarchitecturecontest.org

A HOUSE FOR LADY GAGA

The more she hides, the more she exposes. And vice versa.

We reflected on the strange dialectics between hiding / exposing, as illustrated by Lady Gaga. Quite often she seems to want to hide away… her hair, her masks, her veils, betray a very high interest in hiding, in concealing…

Even her use of umbrellas, when outside it is sunny…!?

And the fact that quite often she hides her face behind her hand, when photographed (as if she is guilty of something, almost like Adam in the famous painting by Masaccio “Adam and Eve banished from Paradise”), does show the same thing… and the meaning of her video Paparazzi seems to be the same: an intense. almost neurotic questioning of the violation of privacy that contemporary life seems to be unable to avoid.

She probably does not want to end her life like Princess Diana or like the main character of “Das Parfum.”

But the price of fame is high, quite often! Sometimes tragically high!

So we are tempted to believe that she displays her legs,and sometimes even more intimate parts of her body in order to detract attention from “the other side,” her head, her eyes, her thinking and her feelings, and by extension, her mind and her soul… a strange duality / dichotomy.

But the incredible inventory of her facial expressions does testify about an unending attempt to hide away, as if she is ambivalent about her relationship with society. We are reminded of that strange short story by Albert Camus where the main character, a famous painter, leaves to society his last painting, a visual testament consisting of a single word, written with his own blood: Soli ary, (an ambivalent linguistic construct meaning either solitary or solidary depending on what letter - “t” or “d” - the viewer chooses to fill in the empty space with).

And perhaps for a pop artist it is even more difficult, this dilemma. Not to speak about a “star.”

Let’s explore this dilemma in A HOUSE FOR LADY GAGA.

A HOUSE WITH VERVE / NERVE. A FRAGILE HOUSE. A WHIRLING HOUSE. A SINGING HOUSE. A DANCING HOUSE. A SUICIDAL HOUSE. A HIDING HOUSE. A REVEALING / EXPOSING HOUSE. A BAROQUE HOUSE. A TRAGIC(?) HOUSE. A BI-SEXUAL HOUSE. A LACED HOUSE. A MUSICAL HOUSE. A RED HOUSE. A HOUSE WITH A COIFURRE. A VICTORIAN HOUSE. A BLOODY HOUSE. A PLASTIC HOUSE. A HOUSE NAKED DOWN BELOW. A BURLESQUE HOUSE. A HOUSE DIFFICULT TO PIN DOWN. A HOUSE OF UNENDING FASHION STATEMENTS. A CHAMELEONIC HOUSE. A HOUSE CONTINUOUSLY REINVENTING ITSELF. A RHYTHMIC HOUSE. A VEILED HOUSE. AN EXUBERANT HOUSE. A CRYING HOUSE. A HOUSE ON CRUTCHES. A HOUSE WITH DARK GLASSES. A HOUSE OF LEATHER. A HOUSE WITH PROSTHETICS. A CHIC HOUSE. A LONELY HOUSE. A BLUE HOUSE. A HOUSE IN THE CROWD. A SHINING HOUSE. A HOUSE WITH A STRANGE HAT. A GREEN HOUSE. A HOUSE WITH TATTOOS. A HOODED HOUSE. A HOUSE WITH WILD HAIR. A MASKED HOUSE. A MODERN HOUSE LOOKING BACKWARDS. A HOUSE WITH HEAVY MAKEUP. A TENT HOUSE. A NOSTALGIC HOUSE. A SCREAMING HOUSE. A HOUSE NOT YET A HOUSE. A HOUSE MORE THAN A HOUSE. A HOUSE FOR A NOMAD. A TENTACULAR HOUSE. A SCRATCHED HOUSE. A SCRATCHING HOUSE. A HOUSE ON THE RUN. A HOUSE UNFINISHED. A WILD HOUSE. A SCENTED HOUSE. A HOUSE ON HIGH HEELS. A FRIGID HOUSE. A SENSUAL HOUSE. A HERMAPHRODITE HOUSE. A HOUSE WITH A PENIS. A HOUSE WITH A VAGINA. A HOUSE UNABLE TO SAY EVERYTHING IT WANTS TO SAY, THIS IS WHY DANCING AND SINGING AND PARADING UNENDINGLY, FASHIONABLY, GLAMOROUSLY, CRAZILY, CONTRADICTING / OPPOSING EVERYBODY AND EVERYTHING. A PRIMITIVE HOUSE. A SOPHISTICATED HOUSE. THE HOUSE OF THE FUTURE…? THE HOUSE OF THE PAST…? THE BEGINNING OF A HOUSE…? THE END OF A HOUSE…? AN ELECTRONIC HOUSE…? AN EARTH HOUSE…? A HANDMADE HOUSE…? A PREFABRICATED HOUSE…? A GALACTIC HOUSE…? A BUBBLE HOUSE…? A PINK HOUSE…? A FREAK HOUSE…? A MONSTER HOUSE…?

A HOUSE FOR LADY GAGA.

Please send us ANY work, ANY size and ANY format that responds to the theme. You can send your work to icarchgallery@yahoo.com. There is an entry fee of 30E (15E for students) payable by PayPal through the registration section of our website. The registration deadline is July 1st, 2010. The deadline for submitting your work is August 1st, 2010. We will display all the works received on our website: http://www.icarch.net. It is our intention to invite Lady Gaga to be part of the jury that will evaluate the projects received. And we hope that if one proposal matches “her essence and her spirit,” (as apparently the dress that Armani designed for her did), she will build it! We are almost sure of it! We suggest you choose a real location for your proposal, since we think that this potential client will be quite able to build anywhere in this world. Let’s get Lady Gaga interested in architecture! We think she might enjoy our provocation very much, since architecture is supposed to be “fr
ozen music.” So let’s bring together Dance and Music and Architecture through an adventurous, forward looking and exciting house for the ever changing Lady Gaga!

Thank you,

ICARCH Gallery

Call for Papers: Terrain Vague: The Interstitial as Site, Concept, Intervention

This collection of essays will focus on terrain vague�marginal, semi-abandoned space in or along the edge of the city�as abstract concept, specific locale, and subject of literary, architectural, or otherwise artistic intervention.

Ignasi de Solà-Morales defines terrain vague as land in a �potentially exploitable state but already possessing some definition to which we are external,� or �strange places� that �exist outside the city�s effective circuits and productive structures� (119, 120). Gil Doron similarly defines �landscapes of transgression� as derelict sites where �nature has started to reconstruct the built or (now) �ruined� environment. . . . space[s] that opened in the dichotomy of what we perceive as city and nature� (255).

We are particularly interested in responses to the idea, as expressed by Luc Lévesque, that ��terrain vague� offers a counterpoint to the way order and consumption hold sway over the city. Offering room for spontaneous, creative appropriation and informal uses that would otherwise have trouble finding a place in public spaces subjected increasingly to the demands of commerce, the �terrain vague� is the ideal place for a certain resistance to emerge, a place potentially open to alternative ways of experiencing the city.�

We invite submissions from a range of fields, in particular literature, architecture, ecocriticism, urban studies, cultural geography, the visual arts, and film studies. Suggested topics may include:

Site and situation
Forms of documentation
Contextual definitions/theorizations
Urban wilds
Transgression and recreation
Urban natural history
Environmental justice
Interventions

Please send abstracts of 300 to 500 words, accompanied by a brief bio, to site.situation@gmail.com. Inquiries are welcome.

The deadline for abstracts is 1 June 2010.
Completed essays will be due on 1 February 2011.

Manuela Mariani, The Boston Architectural College
Patrick Barron, University of Massachusetts, Boston
�That zero panorama seemed to contain ruins in reverse, that is�all the new construction that would be built. This is the opposite of the �unromantic ruin� because buildings don�t fall into ruin after they are built but rather rise into ruin before they are built.� Robert Smithson, �A Tour of the Monuments of Passaic, New Jersey�

References
Doron, Gil. �The Dead Zone and the Architecture of Transgression.� City: Analysis of Urban Trends, Culture, Theory, Policy, Action 4.2 (2000): 247-63.
Lévesque, Luc. �The �Terrain Vague� as Material�Some Observations.� http://www.amarrages.com/textes_terrain.html
Solà-Morales, Ignasi. �Terrain Vague.� Anyplace. Ed. Cynthia Davidson. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1995. 118-23.
Smithson, Robert. �A Tour of the Monuments of Passaic, New Jersey.� Robert Smithson: The Collected Writings. Berkeley: U of California P, 1996.

Modern in Denver Magazine and the founding members of The Denver Architectural League invite you to share your ideas on how we should house ourselves in the new century. This is an ideas competition seeking new definitions for modern language, modern living and modern lifestyle.

The competition is open to all designers and architects who are presently in school or who have been out of school for less than 10 years. There will be approximately $1000 - $1500 in cash awards and the winner will be published in Modern in Denver Magazine. The sites are 44' W x 68' L.

More information? Competition website is: https://sites.google.com/site/modernhousecompetition

ASLA has released its 2011 professional and student awards call for entries. Award recipients receive featured coverage in the October issue of Landscape Architecture magazine and in many other design and construction industry and general-interest media. Award recipients, their clients, and student advisors will be honored at the awards presentation ceremony during the ASLA Annual Meeting and EXPO in San Diego, October 30 – November 2, 2011. The award winning projects will be featured in a video presentation at the ceremony and on the awards website following the event.

The prestige of the ASLA awards program relies on the high-caliber juries that are convened each year to review submissions.  Members of the professional awards jury are:

• David Yocca, FASLA, Jury Chair, Conservation Design Forum, Elmhurst, IL
• Robert Campbell, FAIA, The Boston Globe
• Mark Hough, ASLA, Duke University, Durham, NC
• Ilze Jones, FASLA, Jones & Jones Architects and Landscape Architects, Ltd, Seattle
• Elizabeth Meyer, FASLA, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA
• Laurie Olin, FASLA, OLIN, Philadelphia
• Pamela Palmer, ASLA, ARTECHO, Venice, CA
• Christine Ten Eyck, FASLA, Ten Eyck Landscape Architects, Phoenix
• Alex Washburn, AIA, Chief Urban Designer, New York City Department of City Planning
• William H. Tishler, FASLA, representing the National Trust for Historic Preservation, will join the jury for selection of The Landmark Award.

Members of the student awards jury convening in June 2011 includes:

• Mario Nievera, ASLA, Jury Chair, Mario Nievera Design, Palm Beach, FL, and New York City
• Thomas Balsley, FASLA, Thomas Balsley Associates, New York City
• Gary A. Brown, FASLA, University of Wisconsin—Madison
• James Burnett, FASLA, The Office of James Burnett, Houston
• Shane Coen, ASLA, Coen+Partners, Minneapolis
• Diane Dale, FASLA, William McDonough + Partners, Charlottesville, VA
• M. Elen Deming, ASLA, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• John King, Hon. ASLA, San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco
• Karen Phillips, FASLA, New York City Planning Commission

The ASLA awards program features six categories: General Design; Residential Design; Analysis and Planning; Research, co-sponsored by the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture; Communications; and The Landmark Award, co-sponsored by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The student awards program also features the Student Community Service Award and Student Collaboration categories. 

Entry forms and payment must be received by:

• Friday, February 25, 2011, for Professional Awards
• Friday, May 6, 2011, for Student Awards

Submission binders must be received by:

• Friday, March 11, 2011, for Professional Awards
• Friday, May 20, 2011, for Student Awards

In need of inspiration? View the ASLA 2010 Professional and Student award-winning projects.

http://dirt.asla.org/2010/12/01/asla-2011-professional-and-student-awards-call-for-entries/

Wastelands: XXXII European Architecture Students Assembly and Flow Festival are cooperatively organizing a design contest for building an intimate stage for the use of Flow Festival. The contest is open for students, postgraduates, researchers and/or equivalent non-practising-professionals of the fields related to architecture, arts and design.
The aim of the contest is to create a new Flow Festival venue suited for intimate performances, bringing the audience and the performer close to each other. The winning entry will be constructed at the festival site in Suvilahti (Helsinki, Finland) on 16-29 July 2012 during the Wastelands assembly. The stage will be utilised as one of the venues at Flow Festival 8–12 August 2012.

Register by: 03-17-2012 / Submit by: 03-31-2012

The task is to design urban furniture (5 pieces) suitable to the environment of Hernesaari (Helsinki, Finland) and applicable for temporary use.
The work should express high professional standards, serving the extensive tourist flows and focusing on public usability, visual attractiveness, continuity and the urban growth of the area.
Lifespan of the furniture should be at least 10 years.
The urban environment of Helsinki is very difficult in terms of durability. The climate type is marine urban climate which means rains, wind and salts brought by the winds. In the urban environment there’s also lots of sulfur dioxide, carbon dioxide, soot, dust and smoke in the air. Urban furniture is also typically placed in uncovered outdoor locations in which case they’re exposed to direct UV-radiation and rain. In these difficult circumstances even high quality furniture needs regular maintenance. To simplify maintenance furniture should have easily replaceable and repairable parts. Maintenance on the spot (cleaning, grinding, painting) should also be made as easy as possible.
Winning entry will be built during Wastelands: XXXII European Architecture Students Assembly on 16-29 July 2012 as a result of a workshop.
Furniture should serve multiple purposes: taking a break, relaxing, having picnics, enjoying the stunning marine views, exploring maps etc.
Participants should also consider the accessibility of the furniture.

Register by: 02-28-2012 / Submit by: 02-28-2012

After a successful inaugural launch last year, Core77 - the world's first online design resource - is now accepting entries for the Core77 2012 Design Awards. With progressive categories, professional and student entry fields, globally distributed juries, in-depth video testimonials, live jury announcements and a unique trophy that honors teamwork, the Core77 Design Awards continues to be the most inclusive, transparent and web-savvy award platform in the design industry. Adding to the wide breadth of categories, this year's awards will feature two new areas - Food Design and Writing & Commentary - plus a new jury of leading design minds from around the world. 
According to Allan Chochinov, Partner and Editor-In-Chief of Core77, "We created the Core77 Design Awards to reflect the diversity of design practice today and to offer more opportunities to honor design enterprise in all forms." Jacqueline Khiu, Director of the Core77 Design Awards adds, "One of the interesting points of departure with this program is the greater transparency it brings to the process of entering and judging awards. It provides faces and voices to makers and jurors, and creates a more revealing and rewarding platform to participate in." 
Open for entry starting January 17, the Core77 2012 Design Awards features 17 categories ranging from established fields to new emerging practices. Of these, 15 categories offer separate entry fields for professionals and students. Entrants are also encouraged to upload video to accompany their submission, providing a personal testimony about their entry to the jury. In addition to the sliding scale of entry fees, Core77 is offering a 20% Earlybird discount to people who enter by March 13. The final deadline for entries is April 10, 2012.
The Core77 Design Award's unique judging process combines global perspectives with local expertise. For each category, Core77 handpicked Jury Captains from 13 cities and 8 countries and invited them to choose their own jury from local experts in their field. The results will be broadcast live from the home cities of each jury team, revealing their choices via online video announcements.
Winners in each category will be awarded a trophy created by the New York design studio Rich Brilliant Willing. Recognizing design as a team sport, the trophy is a metallic mold that allows multiples to be produced - allowing contributors and clients to share in the glory.

Register by: 04-10-2012 / Submit by: 04-10-2012

The competition is organized by the FAKRO Company – a global roof window manufacturer in cooperation with an European magazine for architects – A10.  If you are an architect full of new ideas, if you have a passion for designing lofts full of light and creative spacial solutions which are environmental friendly – take part in our competition organized under the slogan.
Design your innovative, creative and artistic vision of the loft using any of FAKRO products, including, obligatory, a minimum of two FDY-V U3 Duet proSky roof windows and one FGH-V P2 Gallery roof windows.

Register by: 03-20-2012 / Submit by: 03-20-2012

The City of Helsinki is arranging an open two-stage international architectural competition for the design of a Central Library. The competition looks for a contemporary library design. The aim is to create a vibrant and functionally versatile meeting place, as well as an energy-efficient and architecturally significant building.
The Central Library will be located in the very centre of Helsinki, the Toolonlahti [“Toolo Bay”] area, on city block no. 2014 , a site significant in terms of both the cityscape and symbolically (Bing-map service, extract from the base map, urban fabric illustration). It will be part of a cohesive totality of public buildings together with the Finnish Parliament building, Helsinki Music Centre, Finlandia Hall, Sanoma House and Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art.
The Central Library will be a combination of personal cultivation, culture and entertainment. It will be a vibrant and functionally versatile meeting place, a house of literature in which the users are the focus. The new Central Library will be much more than a traditional library. It will be a dynamic entity comprised of the physical spaces, technology, library collections, staff, cooperation partners and clients.
The objective is a high-quality, eco-efficient and timeless building:The building will be an energy-efficient, nearly zero-energy building. In the choice of materials and structural solutions the aim is for material efficiency.
The building’s room programme area is 10,000 m2. Based on a project feasibility design, the estimated building costs for the project are 69,9 million EURO (0% VAT) [period 2/2010, Tender Price Index (THI) = 146,0]. The goal is for the building to be completed in 2017, and it will be a project marking the centenary of Finland’s independence.
The competition looks for a design solution for the Central Library building that:
− responds to the challenges set by the cityscape-wise unique location, and adjusts to the urban fabric and blocks of the Töölönlahti area.
− is high quality and timeless architecture.
− forms a symbolic and architecturally significant building that resonates with society as a whole and expresses the operational concepts of the building in an intriguing way.
− offers a functionally high-quality and technically and spatially flexible framework for cutting-edge and adaptable library operations.
− is eco-efficient.
− is technically and economically feasible.
The purpose of the competition is to act as a selection procedure in the procurement of a designer for the building (architectural design and expert in energy technology).
The competition is a part of the World Design Capital Helsinki 2012 programme.

Register by: 03-30-2012 / Submit by: 04-16-2012

The goal of Suburbia Transformed 2.0 is to promote and celebrate residential designs that go beyond “green” by explicitly using sustainable strategies, tactics and technologies to enrich the aesthetic spatial experience of people. ST 2.0 will assemble contemporary projects achieving this goal into an exhibition and catalogue. The emphasis is on how such sustainable landscapes can be beautiful, inspiring, perhaps profound; and serve as examples for transforming the suburban residential fabric, one garden at a time.
Significantly, this year’s version, ST 2.0, invites the submission of visionary (unbuilt) work, along with built projects. Our hope is to trigger an instructive dialog between design that has been built and that which is untethered to the construction process. Such a curatorial stance has the additional benefit of opening up the competition to students, as well as professionals.

Register by: 02-17-2012 / Submit by: 03-09-2012

The purpose of the Virginia Low Impact Development Design Competition is to challenge teams of development professionals to demonstrate cost-effective approaches to replicating pre-development hydrology on development sites.  The Virginia LID Competition is modeled off of the highly successful Houston LID Design Competition held in 2009 in Houston, Texas.
The competition will take place over a 6 month period, starting in November 2011 and concluding April 2012.  Three real-world projects have been chosen in the Commonwealth for professional design teams to tackle, one in each of the three following categories:
1)     Suburban Mixed use2)     Urban Re-development3)     Green Roadway  
A prize of $15,000 will be awarded in each of three design categories:                                                                               Competition ObjectivesProvide a hands-on learning experience through which design, construction and development professionals in the Virginia will gain meaningful experience in working with Low Impact Development methodologies that can be applied to their everyday practices.
Demonstrate to statewide design professionals, and to the development and civic communities, the economic, environmental and marketing benefits that are available to those developers and local governmental entities who adopt and innovate with respect to sustainable site development.
Encourage through the body of work represented by the entries submitted, greater use of these beneficial techniques for sustainable development in our area. Recognize the participants and finalist design teams for their creativity, innovation and application of sustainable site design.
EligibilityEach entry must come from an integrated design team consisting of a minimum of three licensed participants, including at least one Civil Engineer and one Landscape Architect. 
The inclusion of team members from the Land Planning, Development, Homebuilding and Construction disciplines, including students, is strongly encouraged.Individuals may not participate on more than one team competing in the same Design Challenge Category.
There are no limits on the number of individuals from a single firm that may participate in the competition as members of teams.
Teams must include Virginia registered professionals, i.e. P.E., A.I.A., L.A.

Register by: 02-03-2012 / Submit by: 02-29-2012

Internationally acclaimed architect Craig Dykers will chair the jury for Washington University in St. Louis' 2012 Steedman Fellowship in Architecture International Design Competition.
Dykers is co-founder of Snøhetta, an architecture, landscape architecture and interior design firm with offices in Oslo, Norway, and New York City. Major projects include design of Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Egypt, the Norwegian National Opera and Ballet in Oslo, and the recently opened National September 11 Memorial Museum Pavilion at the former World Trade Center site in New York.
The Steedman Competition, sponsored biennially by the College of Architecture in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University, is open to young architects from around the world. Winners receive a cash prize to support study and research abroad. For 2012, the first place award will be $50,000 — up from $30,000 in 2010 — making it one of the largest competition prizes in the United States.
Dykers, who will serve as the Sam Fox School's Ruth and Norman Moore Visiting Professor of Architecture next spring, will be joined on the Steedman jury by Brad Cloepfil, principal of Allied Works Architecture in Portland and New York; and by Sarah Dunn and Martin Felson, principals of Urban Lab of Chicago. 
Registration for the competition will begin January 16, 2012. The program will be announced February 17, with competition entries due April 2.
Applicants must be graduates of an accredited school of architecture, and must currently be employed in — or have completed at least one year of practical experience in — the office of a practicing architect. Applicants are eligible to compete for up to eight years after receipt of their professional degrees, regardless of age.

Register by: 04-02-2012 / Submit by: 04-02-2012

Together with the Society of Architecture and Spatial Design, the Department for Spatial and Sustainable Design from the Vienna University of Technology organizes the BLUE AWARD 2012.

The Kick Off Event of May 31, 2011 (11:00 am) at the Vienna University of Technology (Kuppelsaal) gives the winners of the first competition the opportunity to present their works - some of their designs were built.
Programm

Introduction
Univ.Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dr.techn. Peter Skalicky
Rektor der Technischen Universität Wien

Blue Award 2012: ›Building for an Environment worth living in
Univ.Prof. Mag.arch. Françoise-Hélène Jourda
Architektin und Vorstand Abteilung für Raumgestaltung und nachhaltiges Entwerfen,Technische Universität Wien

They won! They built! Sustainability in Architecture, the new generation.
Blue Award Winners 2009 present their work:

Ismail Karaduman
Conservation vs. Heritage

Christian Probst, Elias Rubin, Erhard Steiner, Jürgen Wirnsberger, u.a.
SCHAP! School and Production

Sebastian Brandner, Christoph Grabner, Victoria Culen und Martin Summer
GERald
Kinder- und Jugendzentrum in der Mongole

The past few years have seen an exciting rise in the fascination with robotics. Simultaneously, the ability to develop and build robots capable of complex and experimental applications has become easier and more accessible to the general public. From hardware like Arduino to open source programming like Processing, there now exist inexpensive and even free ways to dabble with robotics. An amazing amount of resources and exchange points on the Internet also exist to answer questions and develop new ideas. In Brooklyn, groups have begun regular meet ups in makeshift spaces to talk about their robots and gain insight from others and the challenges they face.
The Robot Workshop will be a place people can come to work on their projects, utilizing shop facilities while simultaneously interacting with fellow robot enthusiasts. The Workshop should be a place for the exchange of ideas and for harnessing the collective intelligence of designers and builders. There will be several types of experimentation spaces, from communal studios to private labs. Teaching spaces will allow for workshops and community activities, including classes for children. A large area will also be devoted to storing a stockpile of parts for purchase and use on site. The Workshop will also serve as a social gathering place within the neighborhood through a storefront gallery and bar.

Register by: 03-30-2012 / Submit by: 04-02-2012

Over the last 200 years, Klaksvik has grown from five settlements of a mere 100 people to a modern town of 5000 inhabitants. The large and swift population growth was triggered by the growing fishing industry, which led to the development of the areas along the shore for industrial purposes. The central part of town is virtually undeveloped and with a recent landfill in the center area, where the shore used to be, you are now invited to enter the contest for providing Klaksvík with a masterplan for a new town center.
This contest was initiated so that Klaksvík may take advantage of the untapped resources that lie in the town’s center. The ideas generated by this contest are to be used for the creation and arrangement of Klaksvik's town center, which will be comprised by new residential and commercial areas, offices, public institutions, and leisure areas; as well as all the services that citizens can expect from a town center. The winning entry will be used as the basis for new building regulations and for inspiration for new construction work in Klaksvik's center.
In preparation for this contest, Klaksvik Municipality has undertaken an update of its master plan with the main emphasis on projection of future numbers and figures, and an updated analysis of commerce and trade in Klaksvík. Together with Klaksvik’s conservation group, municipal records have been made of conservation worthy land areas, buildings, landscapes and other historic sites in Klaksvik, some of which are still recognizable today while others have vanished or been forgotten.

Register by: 04-27-2012 / Submit by: 04-27-2012

The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) is pleased to announce its 2nd Annual International Student Tall Building Design Competition to be held in conjunction with the CTBUH 9th World Congress Shanghai 2012. The goal of the competition is to shed new light on the meaning and value of tall buildings in modern society. As noted by the 2011 Competition Jury Chair, William Pedersen of Kohn Pedersen Fox, “There has been a major transition in the sense of the value of the tall building and what it can contribute to the urban realm, and society in general. This transition moves the tall building away from just an instrument of financial exploitation and toward a development highly concerned with its impact on the city, the environment, and the urban habitat.”

Register by: 06-22-2012 / Submit by: 07-06-2012

To showcase the new Andersen® Exterior Trim System, the company is launching a contest for architects and designers to render and submit an original building design using Andersen exterior trim as a building component. Now through May 18, 2012, applications are being accepted. Entrants must submit an original building design with four (4) elevations[MD1] rendered in color, and may submit one (1) additional drawing of their choice. The project must include the exterior trim system specified for Andersen A-Series or 400 Series products. See the official rules for details.[MD2] Up to five (5) designs will be selected.

Contest winners will receive a trip to Minnesota for an architectural tour of the Twin Cities and a facilities tour of Andersen Corporation. Each winning design that is built on or before May 30, 2013 will also receive Andersen exterior trim (up to 700 linear feet); an approximate retail value of $7,000.

Andersen’s new Exterior Trim System makes installation a snap. Can you imagine installing finished trim on an average house in just half a day and never touching it again? Sound too good to be true? Not anymore. The Andersen trim system saves time on the jobsite because it can be ordered along with the windows and arrives ready for installation. Available completely assembled and finished for most windows and in pre-cut kits for patio doors, the Andersen Exterior Trim System makes measuring, cutting, filling nail holes and painting a thing of the past. Installation takes as little as five minutes for an exceptional fit and lasting finish. It’s made of Fibrex composite material, which is highly sustainable, low maintenance and virtually impervious to water. In addition, it installs independently of the window or door’s water management system. Trim is available in 11 colors and a range of architectural styles.

Register by: 05-18-2012 / Submit by: 05-18-2012

National land charity the Land Trust is launching an international competition to find the most inspirational design and funding a team to create a new visitor destination and public open space at the former Cronton Colliery in Knowsley.
The competition is open to multi-disciplinary design teams and is being run by the Land Trust in association with RIBA Competitions. The competition will be in two stages, judged anonymously in the first stage. A shortlist will then be invited to enhance and present their designs and potential funding propositions at interview as part of the second stage.
It is the intention of the Land Trust to identify an architect or team that is able to demonstrate an empathy and understanding of the site based on its past and future contexts, as set out in the brief, and in tune with the vision and values of the Land Trust.

Register by: 02-15-2012 / Submit by: 02-15-2012

Competition purpose and goal: to obtain a quality urban design concept that meets all the functional and economic criteria required to create a new and modern segment of the city centre, while both adding value to the wider urban area and providing a reminder of the historical development of the site. The site area should become a new factor in the definition of identity of this part of the city as well as the central point for the most relevant activities in the fields of business, tourism, hospitality, culture and art, while remaining a location providing quality everyday life environment for its inhabitants both today and tomorrow. 

This ideas competition aims to collect variety of conceptual design proposals, with no intention of realization. The ideas competition may serve as a preparation of the competition for realization, or to select authors who will participate in a limited competition.

The ideas competition is organized for the buildings or area that have not yet defined the programme of purpose and content. The competition is organized to determine the spatial, formal and special features of the building, and for analysis and exploration of the potential of the spatial planning area, which is the subject of the competition programme. Proposals obtained from competition are used to further determine the purpose and content the competition site.

The awarded entries will be a professional and expert basis for the city government in decision-making process about investments in this urban location.

Open to Professionals who hold a master's degree in architecture or have completed a five-year course of study and are graduate engineers in the field of architecture and urban planning.

Register by: 04-05-2012 / Submit by: 04-05-2012