ArchSociety

ArchiFest 2009
Singapore ArchiFest is an annual festival for the city to celebrate the built environment since 2007. The activities of the festival is increasingly turning to an international nature and drawing international designer crowd. This year the festival will be held between 5 – 31 October with a theme ‘Architecture for Humanity’. Which includes the Forum on 19 & 20 October at the National Library of Singapore, ‘ArchiTours’ to various locations, exhibitions and different other events and activities.
A handful internationally renowned architects and thinkers are already confirmed as the speakers in the Forum. The list includes Aamer Taher, Ben Van Berkel, Jacques Ferrier and many more. Early registration for the event (till 1st October) costs SGD 200 for SIA/IDP/CIJC/ARCASIA members and 75 SGD for students. A group discount is offered till 16th October which includes a free pass for buying 5 passes.
Visit the Event Website for other details.

Photography Competition
The competition is open for anyone from anywhere in the world. They want photographs which say something about the event theme ‘Architecture for Humanity’. This competition is sponsored by Basheer Graphic Books and they are providing Lomo camera or a photography book as the prize. There’s no entry fee, it’s just clicking uploading and waiting for the result!
Submission deadline: 5 October 2009
To upload photos and other details visit the Competition Website.


Design Competition: New Ideas for Recyclable Housing
A common notion of ‘emergency housing’ is it has to be absolutely temporary, very low cost and thus very often of ‘low quality’. Hundreds of charitable organizations are spending money during the disasters or in other causes making temporary houses which actually don’t help the victims at all in a long run. This competition gives a challenge to design an emergency temporary shelter which will eventually allow reusing the material and structures for a permanent house later.
The co-organizer of the competition is Habitat for Humanity which is an international charitable organization focusing on providing housing solutions to the needy of all race, language, religion or nationalities. And the organization has thus been focused on providing permanent housing solutions.

The basic goal of the competition is to obtain a design for a prototype housing that can be implemented on actual disaster relief sites. The primary idea is about the design of a temporary shelter for housing victims post crisis, which can then be later “recycled” (- converted or incorporated) into permanent housing structures for these victims.

Eligibility: The competition is open to all architect, designers, students and members of the public either individually or as a team.
Schedule: Registration deadline: 11 September, Submission deadline: 1st October 2009 by 12 noon.
Registration: There’s no registration fees. Registration is mandatory and the registration documents can be obtained by emailing to design_competitionATsia.org.sg
Submission: Submission will be via postage mail or directly at the SIA office
For any other details visit the Competition Website.

This competition is something architects always wait for! Designing a national center for pop music is really somewhat an interesting and challenging competition. It may give one the opportunity to get into the raw practice of involving cultural issues in architecture.
With an area of approximately 7.65 hectares, the center base is located in Nangang District, Taipei City, nearby the MRT Kunyang Station. The principal space design comprises of an indoor performing hall with 4500-6000 seats, an outdoor performing space with 15000 standing seats, exhibition space for reputed musicians, a digital library, a medium and small indoor exhibition and performing live house, industrial communities and incubation space, etc. Its a two stage open design competition. The total budget for the construction is about 106,000,000 USD. The winning architect will get a fixed service fees in the total amount of 11,500,000 USD.
In the first stage the architect or the firm or the association has to submit the general information, profile and the design in maximum 40 A3 pages.

Eligibility: Any licensed architect from any country is qualified to tender.

Deadline: Stage One Material Submission Deadline: 19th October 2009 (before 09:30 GMT)

See other details at the competition website.

The Background:
The liberation war of Bangladesh is the most significant phenomenon in the history of the nation. After the 200 years long imperial rule in 1947 Indian Subcontinent was divided into two parts India and Pakistan on the ‘Twin Nation’ theory based on the religious point of view. And today’s Bangladesh was one of the two parts of Pakistan known as the East Pakistan. After 1947 in the following years it was becoming more and more obvious that the ‘association for religion’ was totally an irrational decision in terms of the cultural divergence of the two parts of Pakistan. And apparently the first evident reaction of this divergence out busted during the movement for Bangla language in 1952 when the Bengali people gave their life to establish Bangla as the state language of Pakistan. And the continuing sociopolitical unrest between East and West Pakistan went beyond the control of Pakistani military rulers during the first public election of Pakistan in 1970. Awami League (the largest Pakistani Political party) won the majority of the seats in Pakistani National Assembly led by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. However Pakistani politicians refused to allow Sheikh Mujibur Rahman to become the Prime Minister of Pakistan. And the military started a brutal massacre on Bengali people killing civilians and activists started on 25th March 1971.
On 26th March the independence of Bangladesh was declared and a civil war began along with the genocide by Pakistani Army that led to casualty which vary from 5,000–35,000 in Dhaka, and 200,000–3,000,000 in Bangladesh as a whole.

The Museum

To uphold the memory and pride of the nation the Liberation War Museum was opened in 1996 by non-government initiative. And running by local and international donations. After the decade long operation the museum it has become an eternal part of Bangladesh and the people. The museum is now operating in a chartered building in the city. However, Bangladesh Government has allocated 0.82-acre land in Sher-e-Bangla Nagar near about the National Parliament Building in Dhaka for the new building of the Liberation War Museum.
Museum Website: liberationwarmuseum.org
The Competition
The Liberation War Museum Bangladesh and the Institute of Architects Bangladesh jointly organizing an open architectural design competition to conceive the design of the first own building of the museum in Dhaka to uphold the memories of the liberation war to the people. One of the trustees of the museum and member-secretary Mofidul Hoque said in a recent press conference: “The new building of the Liberation War Museum would be an emblem of nation’s pride and it would inspire the young generation”. Renowned architect and a trustee of the museum Architect Rabiul Hussain said “We like to build up a museum where the young generation will get the true picture of the history of the country”. It is the target of the museum to construct the new building within two years. The design competition is thus the first attempt of the process.
Eligibility:
a.  Architects willing to participate in the Open Design Competition must meet the eligibility conditions specified in the Dhaka Mohanogor Imarot Nirman Bidhimala 2008 for designing museum building (Type-C)
b.  In case of Firms, Owner or at least 01(One) of the Partners/Directors must fulfill the criteria above.
c.  Firms and Architects may participate as a Joint Venture, in which case the Firm or Architect fulfilling the eligibility conditions shall be the lead Firm.

Competition Documents:
Interested architect/firm may obtain Competition Documents from the office of Liberation War Museum on everyday of the week except Sunday between 11.00 am to 5.00 pm paying an amount of BDT 1,000.00 in cash. A written application for the competition documents has to be submitted. Last date of collecting Competition Documents is Thursday the
3rd September 2009.

Queries:
Written queries, if any, shall have to be submitted to the office on or before Thursday, 10th September 2009, at 11:30 am at the office of the undersigned.
Submission: Entries shall be submitted on Wednesday the 18th November 2009, between 11.00 am and 4.00 pm at the
Nalinikanta Bhattashali Hall of
National Museum, Shahbag, Dhaka.
Result: Result to the competition will be announced on 23 November 2009.
Awards:
1st Prize : 5,00,000 BDT (Winning design will be built and the architectural fees will be adjusted as per the rules of IAB)
2nd Prize: 3,00,000 BDT
3rd Prize: 2,00,000 BDT
Jury:
1. Architect Mohammad Asaduzzaman
2. Architect Abu Haider Imam Uddin
3. Architect Rabiul Hussain
4. Architect Kazi Khalid Ashraf
5. Architect Fuad Hasan Mollik
6. Member of International Council Museum
7. Air Vice-Marshal (Rtd.) A. K. Khandoker
8. Professor Zamilur Reza Chowdhury
9. Mofidul Hoque (Trustee of Liberation War Museum)
All other necessary details of the competition are available in the competition documents obtainable from the Museum office.
-----
ArchSociety News Desk.
Edited by: Mohammad Tauheed, Ishraq Zahra Khan
References: Competition Documents, The Daily Star, Wikipedia, Liberation War Museum