With the technical assistance of the Centre for Architecture Belgrade, Municipality of Požega submitted the application of the recently reconstructed main city square for the  European Prize for Urban Public Space.

Freedom square in Požega is one of the best public spaces realized in Serbia in the last few years. Good practice in design, and especially the realization, carried out in cooperation with the authors Dragana Stevanović and Oliver Stanković, is an example that should be promoted.

Before…

… and after the reconstruction.

European prize for the best urban public space, organized by the Centre for Contemporary Culture of Barcelona (CCCB) is a prestigious competition, carried our biennially. The results of the competition will be announced in the first half of 2014.

Darko Polić, one of the founders of the Centre for architecture,  has recently been appointed as a member of the Expert Committee of the European Prize for Urban Public Space.

World’s leading interior design magazine FRAME, together with the firm Moooi, known as creators of some of most inspiring designed furniture, are organizing again  this year the competition for FRAME Moooi Design Award 2013 – calling professional architects and designers to enter with their products realized between 1st January, 2011, and 1st September, 2012.

Competition is dealing with design of interiors, furniture and lamps – designed for public or commercial spaces, like hotels, restaurants, bars, schools, etc.

The competition brief emphasizes that entry products must be custom-designed for a specific interior. Considering the cutting edge approach to design both Dutch brands are known for, it is easy to predict that beauty and uniqueness will be highly appreciated.

Last year’s completion was very successful with a total of 890 entries from 79 countries that were submitted and famous Philippe Starck as a juror. The winner received cash prize of 25.000 EURO, that have been claimed this year too.

Frame Moooi Award is accepting applications until 1 December, 2012. For all details visit their official website http://www.framemoooi.com/home

Students of the Belgrade Faculty of Architecture Sanja Ivkov and Anđela Đorović won a Special Award competing against 6 teams from 6 countries (Bulgaria, Ukraine, Georgia, Russia, Turkey and Serbia) at the 5th Intenational student competition organized by the Faculty of Architecture of the Free University in Varna, Bulgaria, that took place from 16th to 19th May 2012.

The topic of this year’s competition was Plein air in Architecture – Island Protection and Recreation Zone Golden Sands with the Ideas Proposal of a complex of recreational facilities on newly formed islands in Varna, on the Black Sea. Sanja and Anđela presented a project titled Wavelands in which they developed a parametric approach based on glitch art. The Author of audio-visual effects is electrical engineer Stefan Malešević, and the mentor was Aleksandar Videnović.

Here’s what the authors wrote about the project:

Concept

The design concept is derived from the geometric approach and contemporary trends in visual expression and presentation [glitch art] that correspond with the existing built environment, topography and oscillations of sea waves.

* GLITCH ART is a contemporary tendency of expression in the field of sound and images. Sound and picture are the result of digital and analog experiment with the basic factors (pixel -> Image | frequency -> sound).

Technology is a generator of its development, while glitch generates its own growth, modulations and variations in order to be implemented in the area as a trigger of the dynamics and ambient through time. This way of understanding and perception was used as a visual, structural and ambiental experiment.

Objectives

This project aims to create enriched, sustainable and environmentally important areas. The proposed action with its reaction – result is transformed into an idea that is gradually implemented in the tissue of the island, and then to the wider built environment. This new areas are accessible, comfortable, attractive in its structure and ambient, with green areas that have a positive impact on the environment at the micro and macro level. Ambient diversity encourages the activation of all senses and enhances the experience and perception of environment and activities. Space is opened to its future users and the wider environment. This solution represents a method that can be applied to any surface, object, block, and the entire city. The result is universally applicable and variable.

Program

The diversity of contents and ambients that are formed around them represent one of the essential features of the project. Thematically organized functions within the island participate in expansion of the complex in the direction sea – land and land – sea, where they create relationships in their functioning and further development as a whole. The program structure consists of several topics with their contents distributed on the islands:

I group of islands:

1. SPORT: surf, yachting, paragliding, swimming pools…
2. LODGE: hotel, restaurants, spa, beaches…
3. FOOD: ethno village, national food, festivals, fishing…
4. ART: open-air galleries, workshops, land/water art…

II group of islands:

1. FUN: music, theme park, circus, Pirates…
2. MULTIMEDIA: projections, multimedia, digital art…
3. DIVE IN: water lounge, dive-in cinema, beach, water balloons…

Structure

The volume of the islands can be achieved by filling the land. In addition to the structure it is proposed to use different types of sea coast erosion protection and vegetation as secondary protection. Types of coast protection should be selected in accordance with the needs and possibilities of the islands, as well as activities that are performed on them. Types of sea coast erosion protection:

1. Seawall
The purpose of a seawall is to protect areas of human habitation, conservation and leisure activities from the action of tides and waves.

2. Beach nourishment
Beach nourishment describes a process by which sediment (usually sand) lost through erosion is replaced from sources outside of the eroding beach. A wider beach can reduce storm damage to coastal structures by dissipating energy across the surf zone, protecting upland structures and infrastructure from storm surges and unusually high tides. Nourishment is one of three commonly accepted methods for protecting shorelines.

3. Breakwaters
Breakwaters are structures constructed on coasts as part of coastal defense or to protect an anchorage from the effects of weather and longshore drift. They reduce the intensity of wave action in inshore waters and thereby reduce coastal erosion or provide safe harborage. Breakwaters further out in sea are considered for creating the right ‘peeling’ waves for surfing.

4. Artifical surfing reefs
Structures that create the ideal conditions for surfing.

Sustainable development

The usage of renewable resources and natural materials, green areas and recycling , with the help of technologies that reduce emissions of harmful substances and energy consumption, helps creation of an environment that is healthy for a man, with a positive effect on the climate, economic and ecological sustainable.

You can download the project in PDF here

Designers from 23 Central Eastern European countries are called to submit a new project for a functional object using as its source an object singled out from the recent collective memory of objects of their country.

The contest is promoted by the Trieste Contemporanea Committee under the patronage of the C.E.I. (Central European Initiative).

The aim is to build a large memory atlas dedicated to the anonymous design of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe.

Further information at the  Trieste Contemporanea official Web site.

Pripreme za Evropsku nagradu za javni gradski prostor za 2012. godinu su započele!

Ovo je odlična prilika da kvalitetno uređen javni gradski prostor vaše sredine konkuriše za ovu prestižnu nagradu Centra za savremenu kulturu Barselone (CCCB).

Kalandar za dodelu nagrade je:

17.10.2011.- 19.01.2012.
Registracija
05.03.2012- 11.04.2012.
Rad žirija
19/20. 04 2012.
Finale rada žirija
29.06.2012.
Dodela nagrada.

Više detalja na: www.publicspace.org.

Svi nagrađeni radovi sa konkursa za Beton halu se mogu u celosti pogledati na zvaničnom sajtu konkursa.