Leeds Beckett University - City Campus,
Woodhouse Lane,
LS1 3HE
Contributors sought for international architecture conference in Leeds
Dr Maria Theodorou, Senior Lecturer in Architecture at Leeds Beckett University and organiser of the conference, explained: “The purpose of ICC 2016 is to offer a window into current interdisciplinary research on the topic of architecture competitions.”
Architecture competitions are open calls to compete for the best design or idea in response to a brief presented by a client through an agency, such as the Royal Institute of British Architect (RIBA). Buildings created through a competition process include the Royal Armouries, Wembley Stadium, and the Millennium Bridge in the UK; and, internationally, the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the Sydney Opera House.
Dr Theodorou added: “In recent years we have, alongside the standard process of architecture competitions used for the procurement of buildings, seen, and continue to see, a surge of competitions which do not seek to produce a building or an architecture structure, but aim instead to raise awareness and pinpoint current social, political, technological issues in our cities; these aim to entice experimentation by reformulating and resetting the very terms and conditions within which a problem is posed or arises.”
Taking place from 27-29 October at Leeds Beckett University’s Rose Bowl, followed by a visit to London, the ICC 2016 conference will include a professional organisations’ panel discussion and is supported by RIBA Competitions and the UIA (International Union of Architects).
This year will be the first time that the ICC is held in the UK. As with previous ICC conferences, architecture competitions will be considered as a complex research topic rather than as a mere practical activity in which architects and architecture students take part regularly. The history of competitions, their organisational, legal and conceptual framework, the role of clients and professional organisations, are all aspects which will be put under scrutiny by researchers and practitioners. The specific focus of this year’s conference is to frame the various aspects of competitions within the concept of experimentation.
Dr Theodorou said: “We are looking for papers that aim to broaden our understanding of the category of experimentation, with and within architecture competitions, by examining, historically or otherwise, the various types of competitions, the effects of architectural representation ‘idioms’ deployed, as well as the social, financial and political motivations and impact competition might have or had in the past.
“We aim to cover all aspects of architectural/design competitions’ experimentation and merge in the ICC2016 UK both a practice-oriented and theoretical approach to the subject by opening up this call for papers to independent actors/various entities as well as to professionals and scholars in the field. During the conference all voices can be heard and debated.”