Tag Archives: competition

Kiruna 4-ever wins

Kiruna_aerial

The city of Kiruna has announced the winner of the competition to effectively move the city away from the subsidence radiating from the iron mine which is slowly swallowing the old city. Kiruna 4-ever won by White Architects AB (Stockholm), Ghilardi + Hellsten (Oslo), Spacescape (Stockholm), Vectura Consulting AB (Solna) and Evidence BLW AB (Stockholm).

Because of what must be one of the largest mines in Europe Kiruna is the biggest energy consumer in Sweden coupled with a relatively extreme northerly climate the redesign of Kiruna is a big and interesting urban challenge. The winning proposal has at it’s heart in many ways the introduction of a cable car system to link the mine the new center and other key points of the city.

Espoo Venice!

With a lot less exposure than the Central Library competition but with much potential the city of Espoo has launched a competition for a masterplan of Finnoo-Kaitaa for 20,000 people. There has just previously been a masterplan report made (download pdf here ) by WSP Finland who won the Helsinki 2050 competition a few years back. This site has previous as it was featured in Europan 09 with a winning entry that caught my eye at the time. It would be centred between the harbour and as yet unconfirmed station on the west leg of the metro. The City of Espoo seems to be saying all the right things like trying to make this development carbon neutral by 2030. Could we see a properly urban plan enacted somewhere in Espoo soon? Go here for competition details.

Helsinki Library Competition

It’s been long expected, but finally announced, there will be an international competition to design Helsinki Library beginning of 2012. The site is in Töölönlahti, in the area between the Makasiinipuisto park and the Töölönlahdenkatu street.

update: there is now a website to keep everyone updated about the project. Not to mention Facebook page and twitter feed.

Serlachius Competition Results

The art gallery Serlachius has just announced the reults of it’s international competition for a new gallery wing. MX_SI studio from Spain won with a really beautiful and tasteful entry. The results pdf is worth reading as there were quite a few good entries. I knew a few people who entered and they both put their buildings on the harder and more interesting side of the site but only one of the top entries is on that side.

South Harbour Competition

The south Harbour right at the centre of Helsinki is subject of an open international design competition running until september of this year, see southharbour.fi. This is the most difficult, controversial area to develop in Finland at the moment. Most everyone agrees that it needs a major overhaul but what to do? Since the Herzog & DeMeuron hotel was cancelled last year the city has responded well to the critics and called for an open design competition. I’m looking forward to seeing some bold proposals.

Low2No Finalist Videos

A quick update on the low2no competition in Jätkäsaari, Helsinki. The finalists’ presentations have been posted on the low2no website. I won’t critisise here except to say they all meet the challenge of the brief in a provoking way, and are all worth watching in their differing styles.

  • c_life : City as a Living Factory of Ecology (Winner)- by Arup (London) / Sauerbruch Hutton / Experientia / Galley Eco Capital
  • Cradle of Innovation: WSP Group(London, UK) / Heatherwick Studios / B&M Architects /JKMM Architects / Space Syntax / Helsinki University / AA Palmberg Ltd / Pekka Himanen / Pauli Aalto-Setäl
  • Low Carbon-High Urban: Peter Rose & Partners / Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates / Guy Nordenson and Associates/ Matthias Schuler, Transsolar Climate Engineering / Mobility in Chain / ARO Architectural Research Office
  • Rebuilding 2.0:  REX / Croxton Collaborative / NOW (New York, USA) / Transsolar Energietechnik / Magnusson Klemencic Associates / Bureau Bas Smets / 2×4 / Arup New York / Front / Jonathan Rose Companies
  • ReciproCity: Bjarke Ingels Group, BIG (Copenhagen, Denmark) / Vahanen / ARUP Foresight Innovation / Transsolar Energietechnik / Anttinen Oiva Arkkitehdit AoA / Masu Planning / Passiivitalo.fi / Pasi Mäenpää / Mikko Jalas

Jätkäsaari Low2No Competition Winner

The Team of ARUP , Sauerbruch Hutton , Experientia,  Galley Eco Capital with their entry ‘c_life – City as living factory of ecology’ have won the Low2No Competition for a block development in Jätkäsaari, Helsinki. It will be Finland’s first Carbon neutral district and the competition was run by Sitra an innovation fund and though I can’t find many details or images about it yet as Dan Hill was involved I’ll be interested to see how much thinking about urbanism and the city as platform is hardwired into the project.

It’s the first time that the evolving projects of Helsinki’s old harbour have given me genuine cause for optimism that real quality work is being incorporated into a masterplan that has all too often seemed from here to be cherry picked urban images without any real direction. This project could help to change that situation.

The Self Sufficient City Competition

The IAAC has a competition that’s free to enter to envisage the future city. If you are interested you can find out more about the competition  and register at advancedarchitecturecontest.org. Entries must be submitted by 29th September so you don’t have too much time.

The contest is open to architects, 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, socialization and globalization, with a view to enhancing the connected self-sufficiency of our cities.

New Finnish Embassy in Japan

external view (images copyright Lahdelma & Mahlamäki)

external view (images copyright Lahdelma & Mahlamäki)

Architects Lahdelma & Mahlamäki have won the design competition for a new Finnish Embassy in Tokyo. The project is notable for the semi-opaque all glass facade which is patterned. In so much as it conveys an atmosphere or even an imagined landscape by a layering through the different glazing it could be a great project.  Here is a link to the embassy page which annouced the winner, but it leaves a little questionmark as to when the project will be completed.

Sundsvall Art Centre

Sundvall art Centre

Harri Mäkiaho a Finnish Architect has just won a competition for a new Art Centre and Theatre in Sundsvall, Sweden. The entry was called Kräfta. The Swedish Architects Association has a page on it with some good images and plans. It’s a really nice project and deserved winner, and the jury description is mostly quite accurate.

However rather that the jury calling it completely original I believe it as a strong development of recent themes in Finnish Architecture, JKMM’s Verkatehdas springs to mind as do a couple of recent schools. This does not detract from the scheme, actually in my view it adds to it. By developing successful methodology and adapting them you have a blueprint for an excellent building without having to raise it to the level of virtuoso artistic creation wholly original. Anyway Sundsvall is getting an excellent building.

Wuxi Opera House

WuxiOperaHouse

Finnish Architects PES, have beaten 3XN from Denmark, von Gerkan, Marg und Partner (GMP) from Germany, M.A.O. from Japan and Architecture-Studio from France to the new Wuxi Opera House. The project should be completed by 2010, I guess they want it ready for the Shanghai World Expo in 2010.

Oslo Ski Jump Push Needed

Julien De Smedt’s competition win for Oslo’s new ski jump (previous article) needs a little push to help it get off the ground. The Architectural Record reported that the project is in jeopardy. JDS have set up a petition website and are due to make final presentations to the city to try and save the scheme. I really hope they can build it, as I think it should be a magnificent project. Go here to find out more and add your name to the petition.