Tuesday, February 2, 2010
OPEN TO THE LIGHTING PASSIONATES
The Lumec “Fondation Concept Lumière Urbaine” (CLU) aims to encourage emerging designers to develop innovative lighting concepts within the context of an exterior public space.
THE OBJECTIVES
The CLU foundation aims excellence by encouraging conscious integration of the plastic quality of the products, technical advancements in exterior lighting and environmental respect.
THE GRANTS
The grants will be awarded based on merit by the Lumec CLU committee. This committee is composed of engaged professionals from within the Quebec community of creators and designers and aims social harmony by the quality of the built environment. Laureates will be selected from all received applications. The 2008-2009 edition includes three (3) prizes distributed as follow :
[ First Prize 2 500$ or a 12 weeks training course* with the industrial design and engineering teams of Philips Lumec ]
[ Second Prize 1 500$ ]
[ Third Prize 1 000$ ]
* The training course is remunerated. Conditions may apply.
2009-2010 EDITION
Theme: STREET FURNITURE LIGHT
How can light enrich and simplify the lifestyles of citizens? How to streamline urban infrastructure and integrate in street furniture innovative lighting solutions with improved performances? Open a window on the future and reinterpret the present.
Objective: To design an object that qualifies as a street furniture while retaining its primary purpose, lighting.
Deadline for submission: April 30th, 2010
http://www.lumec.com/company/fondation_clu.html
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
February’s Competition is now Open! Submissions due by 11:59PM EST on 15 February 2010.
The Spontaneous Architecture mini-competitions are a series of twelve monthly competitions to last throughout 2010. The entries are single images, and the entry fee is $5 per entry.
The competitions are intended to provide an immediate outlet for design thinking to engage current events. Participants are allowed only one image of predetermined dimensions to convey the essence of their entry. This restriction is meant to facilitate creative responses and enable each design to focus only on the most important issues of their proposals. Further, in the spirit of inspiring quick-and-dirty spontaneous responses, the format limits enable each entry to privilege visual clarity and conceptual depth over the commercial utility of gloss and style.
The competition winners will be decided by fellow competition entrants (although no entrant may vote for their own proposal). This collective voting will harness the group’s intelligence and interests and hopefully catalyze a discussion within the participating group which will be formally continued in a live event in New York City. The event will be held in collaboration with Columbia University’s Studio-X in downtown Manhattan and will coincide with the announcement of the competition winner(s).
www.SpontaneousArchitecture.net
Monday, February 1, 2010
Whether it is despite or thanks to Miami’s vertiginous development, it never found its feographical center and urban gravitational center. Therefore, Miami is composed of strips, avenues, suburbs and a small and weak “business center” which give incidence to verticality, rather than the enjoyment of the horizontal urban space coincident with the Atlantic horizon. Miami is bridges and viaducts, highways and Malls, small neighborhoods adjacent to private housings. As Los Angeles urban model, Miami has never encountered a functional civic space within its self-proclaimed center, which allows people to enjoy the proper “place spirit”. For this reason, ARQUITECTUM and a Chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA Miami) have decided to choose a troubled spot with huge potential, where the future of the human urban space will be debated, with a pedestrian scale which will allow gathering, enjoying shadows and living as any other city in the world; returning the public space its superiority over private and closed space such as Shopping Centers.
For this purpose, a basic and important program has been porposed, which includes a Catholic Cathedral, high cost living housing (lofts), a Civic Center, a small Contemporary Architecture Museum, as well as several plazas that reconfigure the new Center from within, leading the public open space to become the main object of the project.
http://www.arquitectum.com/