SELECTED NEWS FEED ON COMPETITIONS
The Canadian Academy of Architecture for Justice (CAAJ) invites architecture students to speculate on issues ranging from the influx of highly addictive drugs to the suppression of Indigenous culture to an ever-increasing need for mental health care facilities in a design competition for a new community-oriented building that helps to fill a gap. This involves the selection of a site in a community of the competitor's choice, identification of the specific crisis (or crises) being addressed, and the development of an architectural or urban design solution.
Design submissions will be evaluated by a jury of justice experts, architects and industry professionals. Participants are highly encouraged to explore a wide spectrum of architectural responses from functional and practical at one end to philosophical and social at the other, including ways in which the building integrates into the community, and acts as a catalyst for building positive relationships with the community it serves.
This annual contest for architecture and design students is organized by the CCA in partnership with the Université du Québec à Montréal, the Université de Montréal, and McGill University. Participating teams will have four days to develop a proposal in response to this edition's theme, which will be revealed during the launch on 13 March. The contest is open to all students currently registered in Canadian universities as well as to recent graduates.
The City of Beaconsfield's competition for a new multi-functional cultural center is a multi-disciplinary architectural competition to provide the municipality with an architectural and public development project combining a library and spaces to support cultural activities. The project's construction budget is in the order of $17.3 M, plus taxes, and the total surface area of the main building is in the order of 2,700 m2.
Decoding Density
International
Registration deadline: January 19, 2024
Submissions deadline: April 3, 2024
Decoding Density is an international invitation to imagine new possibilities for six-storey plus apartment forms by addressing two of the most existential problems of today: climate change and housing affordability. Submissions will challenge the constraints of code and other regulations to do so. The six-storey wood frame apartment building is becoming a standard for municipalities in the Metro Vancouver region for increasing density. And yet, designers exploring these apartment forms find that code and other regulations, combined with financial factors, generate boxes that are not affordable, do not address climate change, and struggle to offer outdoor space, light, and cultural, communal and family-orientated features.
