Effects of Architectural and Urban Design Project Competitions on Built Environment

What is it about?

A B S T R A C T Competition system is considered to be the most objective project selection method in a country’s architectural and urbanism organization and is a mechanism which promotes professional creativity. Both national and international competitions have a significant potential in terms of providing knowledge and accumulation to contemporary architecture history. It is stated by the studies conducted on design competitions that while competitions contribute to the architecture environment of the country where they are held, they also provide opportunity for monitoring the architecture and accordingly changing discourse of the environment. The aim of competitions is to obtain "the best project" for a building or building group or a specific area, designs of which are predetermined. Furthermore, it has been stated that competitions are one of the methods to obtain qualified buildings and environments in Turkey, there are problems in their being sufficiently developing, leading and raising awareness. The reasons why there are still a few qualified buildings (besides exceptions) have been stressed. Recommendations as to institutions organizing design competitions, creation of specifications for design competitions and establishment of jury in design competitions have been offered for eliminating issues in design competitions.

Featured Image

Why is it important?

Effects of Architectural and Urban Design Project Competitions on Built Environment and New Discourses Brought Thereby * M.Sc OSMAN UMIT SIREL 1, Dr. AYSE SIREL 2, M.Sc BURAK TURSOY 3 1 Bahçeşehir University, Faculty of Architecture and Design, Istanbul, Turkey 2 İstanbul Aydın University, Faculty of Architecture and Design, Istanbul, Turkey 3Eastern Mediterranean University, Faculty of Architecture, Famagusta, Cyprus 1Email: umitsirel@yahoo.com 2Email: aysesirel@aydin.edu.tr 3Email: buraktursoy@gmail.com A B S T R A C T Competition system is considered to be the most objective project selection method in a country’s architectural and urbanism organization and is a mechanism which promotes professional creativity. Both national and international competitions have a significant potential in terms of providing knowledge and accumulation to contemporary architecture history. It is stated by the studies conducted on design competitions that while competitions contribute to the architecture environment of the country where they are held, they also provide opportunity for monitoring the architecture and accordingly changing discourse of the environment. The aim of competitions is to obtain "the best project" for a building or building group or a specific area, designs of which are predetermined. Furthermore, it has been stated that competitions are one of the methods to obtain qualified buildings and environments in Turkey, there are problems in their being sufficiently developing, leading and raising awareness. The reasons why there are still a few qualified buildings (besides exceptions) have been stressed. Recommendations as to institutions organizing design competitions, creation of specifications for design competitions and establishment of jury in design competitions have been offered for eliminating issues in design competitions. CONTEMPORARY URBAN AFFAIRS (2019), 3(1), 109-120. https://doi.org/10.25034/ijcua.2018.4688 www.ijcua.com Copyright © 2018 Contemporary Urban Affairs. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Design competitions, results of which are anticipated with anxiety, are conducted in numerous countries with an eye to select the best in their disciplines. Both national and international competitions have a significant potential in terms of providing knowledge and accumulation to contemporary architecture history. It is stated by the studies conducted on design competitions that while competitions contribute to the architectural environment of the country where they are held, they also provide opportunity for monitoring the architecture and accordingly changing discourse of the environment. Sure enough, considering the remarkable buildings of the second half of the 20th century, the project competitions and the competition colloquiums as regards the cited buildings are observed to have significant influences on architectural and urban environment in terms of theoretical discussions and innovations. Objective, nature and achievements of the project competitions are discussed primarily in the study. In this context the buildings which have been built by competitions and which are known as the important examples of the architectural history of Turkey and the world have been examined by taking their periods into consideration. The importance of competition models in the European and Nordic countries where new and different discourses are brought forward, extreme points of design are questioned and criticizing and groundbreaking unique products are revealed are underlined. On the other hand, it has been stated that competitions are one of the methods to obtain qualified buildings and environments in Turkey, there are problems in their being sufficiently developing, leading and raising awareness. Recommendations as to institutions organizing design competitions, creation of specifications for design competitions and establishment of jury in design competitions have been offered for eliminating issues in design competitions. 1. Objective of the study The objective of this study is to determine the effects of new ideas, technologies and talents brought forward through the architectural and urban design project competitions on the built environment. Contributions of competitions made in the U.S.A., some European countries and Turkey and the applications obtained by such competitions on architecture and urban environment obtained within this framework have been explained. 2. Architectural and Urban Design Project Competitions and Achievements Different definitions of project competitions are available in different sources. According to the "International Union of Architect / UIA" regulations which are valid in international projects, competitions are held in order to find the best solution among many designs and ensure that the designer is included in the process during the application phase of the project (UIA, 2000). SAFA, the Finnish Architects Association, which is highly experienced in competitions, defines competition as a method of obtaining the most important projects which is focused on quality and developing the fine skills of the profession and which contributes to the beauty of the built environment for a democratic society. Competitions are regarded as opportunities for professionals to train themselves more, test new theories and improve their skills. It is stated that competitions provide learning experience to participants of the competition during the competition process by virtue of evaluation alternatives from different points (URL 1). The concept of competition in Turkey is defined as "an organization necessary for the realization of a subject related to architecture, landscape architecture, engineering, urban design projects, urban and regional planning and fine art works ... " (Regulation on Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Engineering, Urban Design Projects, Urban and Regional Planning and Fine Arts Competitions", 2004). As it can be understood from the definitions, a competition is aimed to obtain the "best project" for a specified building or built environment or for a specific area. Competition system is the most objective system in selection of architectural, urban design and urban planning projects. It is a mechanism which establishes the society’s connection with architecture and which promotes professional creativity. At the same time, competitions are important tools for drawing attention to how effective the role of designers (architect, urban designer, landscape architect) is in the development of society (Rönn, 2009). A competition is a platform where a tool and new ideas are produced, new arguments are put forward and the most extreme ideas are questioned in order to obtain a design. The achievements of competitions, in this context, can be summarized as follows: • Encouraging fine arts and architecture, • Selection of a qualified project in line with the architectural and urbanism approach of our day,

Perspectives