UIA

INTERNATIONAL COMPETITIONS

NEW COMPETITIONS

International Competition
For the design of “Ephemeral Structures in the City of Athens”

"Hellenic Cultural Heritage SA” supported by the Hellenic Ministry of Culture is organising, within the context of the Cultural Olympiad 2001-2004 and the Athens 2004 Olympic Games, an international competition for the design of ephemeral architectural structures. The competition is open to professional architects as well as to students of architecture of UIA member countries.
The competition has been approved by the International Union of Architects (UIA).

TYPE OF COMPETITION

The international, open, anonymous, single stage competition includes two categories :

• A professional competition, open to architects
• An ideas competition, open to students of architecture.
  
  
  

PROGRAMME

The competition is an invitation to architects world-wide to rethink and give an architectural form to their relationship with the city of Athens by designing ephemeral structures. The structures have specific programmes and themes that can generate cultural events :

• Events platforms to be used for music, dance and other events that do not require audience seating
  
• Open-air theatres, of approximately 250 seats (with the possibility of extension to approximately 500 seats)
  
• Creative activities spaces (art activities and alternative activities for the general public)
  
• Semi-open exhibition spaces
  
• City-leisure activities generators for individuals or groups
  
• Landmarks of Olympic activities (a specific 2004 Games structure). This programme is reserved to professional architects only.
  

Architects and students of architecture may present one project only and should choose only one of the theme-structures displayed above. The rule is that each competitor submits only one entry.

No specific site is given for the installation of the structures. Their design should guarantee easy mounting and de-mounting. All structures should be movable and designed “in the name of Athens”. This implies that they should neither be conceived as site-specific nor generic. The ephemeral structures will rather operate as “urban parasites” to be adapted to the existing infrastructure of the sites that host them, and they are expected to invite citizens and visitors to participate in the cultural events they will generate.

A number of the winning entries will be implemented. Those structures will initially installed in the city of Athens and move over different sites within Athens as well as to other Olympic cities (Volos, Patra, Herakleio, Thessaloniki).

The competition programme - written by Maria Theodorou, Mark Cousins, Paul Hirst, Andrew Benjamin, Dimitris Papalexopoulos, Iosef Efraimidis, Zissis Kotionis, Dimitris Sgoutas - includes, apart from the regulations and technical specifications, a number of texts on the ephemeral, the parasite, the contemporary cities, and Athens.

JURY

The members of the international jury are :

• Elias Zenghelis, architect, representing the Promoter (Greece)
  
• Zaha Hadid, architect (Iraq/United Kingdom)
  
• Hani Rashid, architect (Iraq/USA)
  
• Yatsuka Hasime, architect (Japan)
  
• Sylvia Lavin, architect (USA)
  
• Claudio Baldisserri, architect (Italy), representing the UIA
  
• Andreas Vourekas-Petalas, architect appointed by "Athens 2004 OC"
  
• G. Peponis, architect appointed by the Athens School of Architecture
  
• Nikolaos Tsinikas, architect appointed by the Greek Association of Architects (SADAS)
  
• Ifigeneia Lolopoulou-Skamnaki, architect appointed by the Technical Chamber of Greece (TEE)
  
• A member appointed by UNESCO.
  

The four deputy members of the jury are :

• Nelli Marda, architect (Greece)
  
• Gyiorgos Tzirtzilakis, architect (Greece)
• Ivana Wingham, architect (Serbia/United Kingdom)
  
• Flemming Aalund, architect (Denmark) representing the UIA.
  

AWARDS

• Professional category
  Five prizes of 23 000 EUROS and twenty mentions of 5 700 EUROS each will be awarded to the winners who submitted projects for one of the five theme-structures
  One prize of 15 000 EUROS and three mentions of 5 000 EUROS each will be awarded to winners of the ‘Landmarks of Olympic Activities’ project.
  

• Students of architecture category
  Five prizes of 5 700 EUROS and twenty mentions of 1 200 EUROS each will be awarded.
  
  
  

TIMETABLE

REGISTRATION

To register, competitors must complete the registration form, obtainable from the organisers, and send it together with the receipt proving payment of registration fee, and a document proving their right to practice the profession (for architects) or an appropriate certificate issued by their school (for students of architecture).
The registration fee is 120 EUROS for professionals; 30 EUROS for students.

This fee should be paid by bank transfer to the order of the Ephemeral Structures Competition at the :

Commercial Bank of Greece
Account Holder : Hellenic Cultural Heritage SA
Account Holder : 84570664

Please note that the registration fee is not refundable. Any fees in transferring the registration fee are to be paid by the contestant.

DOCUMENTS TO BE SUBMITTED BY COMPETITORS

The official language of the competition is English.

• Professional category
  The project will be presented on two rigid sheets, of A0 format (84cm X118.8cm) on which the following will be displayed :
  Plans, sections, elevations (scale 1/50) with the exception of the open-air theatre (scale 1/100) ; details of the structure and mechanism for mounting and de-mounting, choice of materials etc. (scale 1/20 and 1/5) ; 3D drawings.
  Description of the project (500 words) and a technical description/cost estimation (1.000 words) on A4 format pages, placed on the AO sheets.
  

• Students of architecture category
  The project will be presented on a rigid sheet, of A0 format (84cm X118.8cm) on which the following will be displayed :
  Plans, sections, elevations (scale 1/100) ; details (conceptual drawings) of the structure and mechanism for mounting and de-mounting, choice of materials etc (scale 1/20 and 1/5) ; 3D drawings.
  Description of the project (500 words) on an A4 format page, to be placed on the A0 sheet.