Media Release
December 2013 STUDCOMP/archother
INTERNATIONAL ARCHITECTURAL STUDENT COMPETITION …driving architecture for the future
The 25th International Union of Architects World Congress, UIA 2014 Durban, will be held at the Durban International Convention Centre (ICC), from 3-7 August 2014.
“The event will not only provide an opportunity for professionals and industry leaders from around the world to discuss some of the most critical questions around sustainable city development, but also foster a long-term relationship between the profession, government and communities, in order to position the profession and young professionals as stable and relevant partners in development,” says competition convener and General Reporter of the UIA2014 Organisation Committee, Amira Osman.
The theme of this year’s UIA Congress ‘architecture OTHERWHERE’, will celebrate diversity by exploring Other Thinking, Other Regions, Other Practice, Other Disciplines, Other Communities an Other ways of teaching, thinking about and practicing architecture.
An important component of the congress is the International Student Competition, which provides an opportunity for undergraduate and graduate students from schools of architecture around the world, to submit their solutions for interventions around the dynamic and complex Warwick Junction, one of Durban’s most exciting urban hubs. Warwick is a dynamic trade and transport hub in the heart of Durban’s inner city - rigorous, colourful and noisy, it is a nucleus of activity and movement for hundreds of thousands of people every day. In addition, the competition outcomes will be shared with the Warwick community as part of the legacy of the Congress.
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The project brief has three aspects to it, ranging in scale and needing a range of technical/spatial skills, as well as good understanding of the socio-cultural and political dynamics of the context. These are:
1. The development of a LONG-TERM /LARGE SCALE vision for Warwick Junction;
2. The development of a MEDIUM TERM /MEDIUM SCALE INTERVENTION on one edge of the Brook Street Cemetery;
3. A SHORT TERM/IMMEDIATE - SMALL SCALE INTERVENTION as an urban catalyst in Warwick Junction.
The focus of the competition will fall on OTHER ways of critiquing, arguing and interacting with the problem beyond the confines of the architectural studio / office; beyond the confines of architectural literature; and beyond the conventional parameters of architectural professional practice.
Emphasis will be placed on seeking solutions within OTHER unexpected places, local knowledge, habits, traditions, movement networks, evolving habits and highly specific perspectives; and how these directly impact architectural materialization, in terms of concept, orientation, tectonics and embedded or external technologies.
“The work of shortlisted student teams will be exhibited and the competition winners announced at the UIA 2014 Durban Congress in August 2014,” adds Osman. “Outside of the cash value of the prizes, the prestige of winning this competition, which forms part of the UIA 2014 World Congress on Architecture, cannot be overstated.”
The competition registration closes on 31 October 2013; adjudication starts on 7 April 2014 and shortlisted teams will be announced in May 2014.
For more information or to register for the Congress visit www.uia2014durban.org
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Issued for: UIA2014 Organisation Committee
Media Enquiries: Joanne Hayes, Tumbleweed Communications
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NOTE TO EDITORS:
About The Congress – The 25th International Union of Architects World Congress of Architects, UIA 2014 Durban, will be held at the International Convention Centre in Durban from 3-7 August 2014. This is the first time that this Congress is being held in Southern Africa and 6000 delegates are expected from around the world.
The International Union of Architects (UIA) organizes a World Congress every three years, and there have been 24 previous UIA Congresses. The UIA is a non-governmental organization accredited by the United Nations, and it represents professional associations of architects in 124 countries, and approximately 1,3 million architects worldwide. The UIA secretariat, located in Paris, is responsible for the Union’s management and general administration.
The selection of the Congress host city is made six years in advance. At the UIA 2008 Torino Congress, the South African Institute of Architects (SAIA) won the bid to host this triennial World Congress with the support of the national Department of Public Works, barely nine years after SAIA’s post-Democracy readmission to the UIA.
One of the key participants in the Congress is the Africa Union of Architects, which was instrumental in helping South Africa to win the bid in 2008 and will be holding its General Assembly at the ICC Durban in the two days preceding the Congress. The AUA represents, through professional organizations in 27 countries, nearly 35000 African architects.
ArchitectureOTHERWHERE - aims to find the “in-between”, spatially, metaphorically and conceptually. UIA 2014 Durban therefore aims to dissolve distinctions between the architectural profession and other built environment professions, between the building and the city, between South Africa and Africa, between design and making, between the profession and communities, between the profession and government. This aim allows for the creation of new realities – an INTERFACE that views the profession and its role as part of larger interlinked systems.
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