Competing in Architecture

Tomáš Zdvihal

This issue of ERA21 solely focuses on architectural competitions, once again, and comes out exactly seven years after our first issue on this topic, in 2013. Public awareness of what architectural competitions are and why they exist has grown slowly but surely during this period, thanks to the efforts of enlightened local politicians, civic associations, city architects, the Czech Chamber of Architects, as well as many journalists and advocates of architecture. Some architects are becoming professional organizers. Municipal institutes and offices with departments dealing specifically with competitions have also cropped up in Prague, Brno, or Ostrava. These are all reasons for why the number of competitions continues to grow.
Granted, this positive trend is tied to the recent construction boom. Globally speaking, design contests remain an entirely marginal way of selecting a contractor, not helped by the fact that systematic state support is largely nonexistent. The full potential of architectural competitions is far from being exploited. If we want them to be more than an extraordinary event, to become a standard procedure, we need to increase effectiveness and minimize risks for both clients and participants. A better proportion of different types of limited competitions, as opposed to traditional open competitions, could help for the smallest as well as the largest commissions. We can find inspiration in countries with a long-term tradition of architectural competitions.
But a higher number of contests says nothing about their eventual success. The goal, after all, isn't pretty pictures, but ideally a finished building. It’s positive that this happens more and more often, too. The grand opening often becomes a social event for the village or town. And surely there is no better way to promote architectural competitions than a successfully completed building.

ERA21 magazine decided to open own online archives for free because of closed libraries in times of COVID-19, so we give it like a present for our readers in terms of celebration of 20th birthday of our magazine!

Pražské Centrum architektury a městského plánování CAMP hostilo v sobotu 7. března finálový večer jubilejního 10. ročníku architektonické soutěže pro studenty vysokých škol Superstudio. O nejlepších projektech z celého Česka o Slovenska rozhodovala mezinárodní porota, ve které zasedli zakladatelé londýnského studia OMMX, Miroslav Šik a Pavla Melková. První cenu si odnesl tým studentů z liberecké Fakulty umění a architektury, který osobitým architektonickým způsobem poukázal na význam a roli dat v dnešní době.

Skoro každý/á absolvent/ka architektury zná specifika architektonické praxe. Neexistují ale žádná data, která by potvrdila sdílené zkušenosti týkající se aktuálních pracovních podmínek. Proto byl vytvořen dotazník určený pracujícím architektům mezi 22-35 lety. Pokud se vás toto téma osobně týká, prosíme o vyplnění dotazníku, který nezabere víc než 15 minut času. Dotazník je možné vyplnit do 18. 3. Veškeré zadané informace jsou anonymní. Prosíme také o šíření mezi vaše kolegy. Výsledky průzkumu budou publikovány v časopise ERA21 #03/2020.

In the last four years, the warehouse area in the Czech Republic has doubled. Czechia’s strategic position as almost one of the richest regions in Europe, together with lower prices for land, lower building costs, an affordable and less socially protected labor force, stable but weak state regulation, make for ideal conditions for the construction of new logistics centers. On top of the well-known saying: “Czechia – Europe’s assembly shop”, we can now call our country Europe’s transshipment point, too...