Program looks for innovative solutions to shelter needs following a disaster

Last week, the American Institute of Architect’s (AIA) Young Architects Forum (YAF) and Committee on Design (COD) selected the recipients of the first annual YAF/COD Ideas Competition.

Submitters were asked to explore the issue of temporary relief housing that could have a permanent function, through a concept design problem. While successful site adaptability is a key goal and criterion for this competition, the specific site to demonstrate the solution consists of approximately 200 acres at Houston’s Astrodome and the surrounding parking lots. Entrants could include modifications to the structure of the Astrodome in their proposal, may allow the Astrodome to remain untouched and focus solely on the surface parking areas, or may have some combination of the two. Individual entries could focus their solutions on the provision of either temporary or permanent housing. Entrants were encouraged to address issues of uncertainty associated with either types of housing and with temporary solutions that become permanent.

Juried Competition To Be Sponsored By Pamphlet Architecture

Founded in 1977 as an alternative to mainstream architectural publishing, Pamphlet Architecture provides a forum for architects and writers to present their ideas, theories and designs in modest, affordable booklets. Pamphlet Architecture helped launch the careers of architects from Steven Holl and Lebbeus Woods to Zaha Hadid, and has had influence far exceeding the ad-hoc nature of these humble books.

Competition theme: Resilience

By addressing the capacity to cope, the ability to bounce back, and the mitigation and management of risk, proposals are welcome that showcase a fresh understanding of the possibilities and opportunities of resilience in architecture, from the large to the small scale. Whether resilience stems from natural disaster, civil conflict, global warming, catastrophe, and so on, is the applicant’s discretion. Please visit the submission site for more details.

Global design competition launched by the International Living Building Institute to award a total of $125,000 in prizes

Design teams from around the world are expected to create powerful visual renderings of truly sustainable cities based explicitly on the Imperatives of the Living Building Challenge 2.0™.

The Living City Design Competition (ilbi.org/livingcity) requires participants to select an existing city anywhere in the world and conceptually transform it through photo-realistic three-dimensional modeling and renderings. Leveraging the Living Building Challenge’s already substantial impact on the green building industry, the competition is expected to draw contributions from multi-disciplinary teams composed of the world’s most talented and daring designers, planners, artists and animators. The International Living Building Institute created the competition in partnership with the National Trust for Historic Preservation, with generous funding from the Kendeda Fund and the Summit Foundation and media support provided by Metropolis Magazine.