Want to be part of a London borough architectural services framework, work on a holistic housing initiative or design an urban visitor destination? These are the latest architecture competitions and contracts from across the industry
For updates on the latest competitions, contests and contracts follow us on twitter #ribajopportunites @RIBAJ.
ARCHITECTURAL AND RELATED SERVICES, BARKING
Council regeneration arm seeks to establish four-year framework for £132 million social housing programme
Barking and Dagenham Council has issued a prior information notice via its regeneration arm Be First for the procurement of architectural services relating to the development of 4,000 social housing units across the London borough. According to the notice ‘Be First is seeking to create a suitably qualified and knowledgeable designer framework, led by architects, to submit full planning applications for pipeline schemes and develop proposals to RIBA Stage 3, including coordination and detailed design… with the option to be retained post contract’. The programme will run for four years and includes place making and supporting infrastructure alongside the provision of high-quality affordable housing. The procurement aims to deliver ‘comprehensive regeneration that will radically improve the look and feel of Barking and Dagenham’. Value of the contract is £132 million.
Location Barking, Dagenham and Havering, London.
Deadlines Procurement notice expected to be published, 8 November 2022. Closing date, 12am, 24 March 2023. Contract start date, 1 June 2023. End date, 31 May 2027.
To apply or find out more, see the prior information notice
Buyer contact Be First Regeneration, 020 8227 2757, pmo@befirst.london
BUILT ENVIRONMENT PROFESSIONAL SERVICES, CORNWALL
Cornwall Council publishes future opportunity notice for single consultant 8-year procurement contract for county-wide capital projects
Cornwall Council has given future notice of a procurement process to appoint a single consultant on an eight-year contract from 2023 to deliver capital projects for the council from RIBA stages 0 to 7. Architectural, construction, engineering and inspection services will be sought, in particular project and cost management, design, procurement, on-site supervision and other related services. The council is not yet inviting bids, but expects to approach the market in late November 2022. Total value of contract, £80 million to £100 million. Spend value for 2022/2023, £8 million.
Eligibility/procedure Open future opportunity.
Deadlines Briefing session, 2pm, 1 November 2022 at New County Hall in Truro, Cornwall. Specification and key contract documents will be drafted before the meeting. To register for the session, see below contact details. Approach to market, 21 November 2022. Contract start date, 1 June 2023. Contract end date, 30 May 2031.
Buyer contact Stuart Hinde, Cornwall Council, 01872 322222, stuart.hinde@cornwall.gov.uk
To apply or find out more, see the notice
HOMES-AS-POWER-STATIONS PROJECT, NEATH PORT TALBOT, WALES
Five-year, £1 million contract to monitor and evaluate technology performance and occupant wellbeing across the HAPS holistic housing programme
Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council is looking for a research and development contractor to monitor and evaluate its Homes as Power Stations (HAPS) project as part of the Swansea Bay City Deal. HAPS aims to integrate energy-efficient design and renewable technologies in new-build and existing housing stock across the public, private and third sectors in Carmarthenshire, Neath Port Talbot, Pembrokeshire and Swansea. Objectives of the project include futureproofing 10,300 properties (7,000 retrofit, 3,300 new build) within five years to increase affordable warmth and reduce fuel poverty, improving health and wellbeing and delivering a ‘sustainable, commercially viable, cost effective and holistic housing programme by taking a whole-house approach’. The monitoring and evaluation programme involves continually evaluating HAPS houses in terms of their technology performance and environmental conditions and ‘to sensitively measure health and social outcomes associated with the whole HAPS process’. According to procurement documents, ‘the tender specification is intentionally non-prescriptive to support the variation of applications that will be taking place as part of the roll out of HAPS’. Award criteria is 80 per cent quality, 20 per cent price. Estimated total value of the contract is £1 million. The Swansea Bay City Deal is a £1.3 billion investment funded by the UK Government, the Welsh Government, the public sector and the private sector aimed at boosting the regional economy by at least £1.8 billion over 15 years, while generating more than 9,000 jobs. City Deal programmes and projects are based on key themes, including economic acceleration, life science and wellbeing, energy, smart manufacturing and digital.
Eligibility and procedure Open procedure. Bids welcomed from consortia as well as single contractors. As a minimum, proposals must demonstrate experience of monitoring and evaluation in new-build and retrofit homes in Wales.
Location Bridgend and Neath Port Talbot, Wales.
Deadlines Closing date for receipt of tenders, 12 noon, 2 November 2022. Tender evaluation, 2 to 21 November 2022. Award of contract, 6 December 2022.
To apply or find out more, see the contract notice
Buyer contact Oonagh Gavigan, Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council, 01639 763929, o.gavigan@npt.gov.uk
RIBA competition seeks international design team for Belfast Stories project
RIBA has launched a competition on behalf of Belfast City Council to find an integrated design team for its Belfast Stories project. Belfast Stories is ‘a unique visitor destination of unprecedented scale and ambition in the heart of the city centre that will catalyse economic, social, and cultural regeneration in the city and wider region’. The council is looking for a high-quality landmark building design that will attract international and local visitors and provide a home for the Belfast Stories experience by 2028. The 5,000m² site is located on a city centre block to the north of the Royal Avenue and North Street intersection and includes the former Bank of Ireland Art Deco property, which dates from 1928. As well as the Belfast Stories visitor experience, the site will accommodate the Belfast Screen Centre and a number of public spaces. According to the brief the design needs to provide a ‘recognisable window to the city, accessible, bold, inclusive, respectful and responsive to its context’. Organisers have outlined three key components of the project: a stories-based visitor experience; a screen centre with state-of-the-art screens and flexible spaces to facilitate archive and skills development; and social spaces to eat, drink, meet, network and relax. Proposed designs should allow all three components ‘to combine to create a coherent and compelling narrative, enhancing Belfast’s city centre and reputation on a world stage’. The project forms part of the Tourism and Regeneration Pillar of the £1bn Belfast Region City Deal.
Procedure Two-stage restricted competition. Stage 1: Expressions of interest and submission of a pre-qualification questionnaire (PQQ). Up to five teams will be shortlisted and invited to participate in Stage 2. Stage 2: Invitation to tender requiring concept proposals that illustrate design intent and approach.
Eligibility Open to organisations internationally: ‘the architect firm/lead designer is required to act as the Economic Operator/Group of Economic Operators for the bidding integrated design team. Collaboration between firms is encouraged. An Economic Operator/s can only act in this capacity for one IDT and cannot act as a sub-consultant for any other consortium’.
Prize Honorarium of £15,000 for each shortlisted team.
Evaluation panel (Stage 1): John Prevc (chair) RIBA nominee - architecture, place making; Wendy Langham, Belfast City Council, programme director, Belfast Stories; Aidan McGrath, RSUA nominee - architecture, place making; Prof P W Roberts, urban regeneration, planning, sustainable development; Deirdre Robb, culture, arts, community; Sinead Grimes, Belfast City Council, director, physical programmes.
Location Belfast, Northern Ireland.
Deadlines Stage 1 completed PPQs, 12 noon, 1 November 2022. Shortlist results, November 2022. Stage 2 return of tenders, February 2023. Award of contract, April 2023.
To apply or find out more, go the competition website
Competition contact, RIBA Competitions, 020 7307 5355, riba.competitions@riba.org
Additional opportunities Tenders for the Belfast Stories Interpretative Planning and Exhibition Design team and the Project Management and Design Assurance team are also live and more information is available at belfastcity.gov.uk/belfaststories
DEVELOPMENT OF LAND AT WHITTON, IPSWICH
Masterplanner/multidisciplinary consultant sought for preparation of Suffolk village framework
Ipswich Borough Council-owned Handford Developments is looking to procure a framework and infrastructure delivery plan for landholdings around the village of Whitton, two miles north west of Ipswich. The framework ‘study area’ sits to the east of the A14 and includes a residential area of Whitton, plus playing fields, allotments, an agricultural holding, retail park and settlement countryside. Various ‘land parcels’ are also within the scope of the framework and are located to the east and south. There is potential capacity for new homes, improved sport and leisure facilities, commercial floorspace and public transport facilities. According to the brief, works will need to address ‘infrastructure and character related challenges for new development’. The successful masterplanner will be the single appointed party and lead consultant to the client and will be responsible for appointing an identified team on a sub-consultancy basis. This is a nine-month contract.
Procedure Open procedure. Proposed lead consultants who submit a compliant tender are required to deliver a presentation to the evaluation team and take part in a 20-minute question-and-answer session.
Location Whitton, near Ipswich, Suffolk.
Deadlines Closing date for receipt of tenders, 11am, 17 November 2022. Presentations, week of 12 December 2022. Award of contract, February 2023.
To apply or find out more, see the contract notice
Buyer contact Elizabeth Dunachie, Ipswich Borough Council, elizabeth.dunachie@ipswich.gov.uk
BUTRINT NATIONAL PARK VISITOR CENTRE, ALBANIA
International design contest launched for ‘thought-provoking, charismatic and practical’ facility at ancient archaeological UNESCO World Heritage Site
The Albanian-American Development Foundation (AADF) is seeking designs for a 1,000 sq m visitor centre near the ancient city of Butrint in southern Albania. The city is located approximately 12 miles from the modern city of Sarandë, overlooking the Straits of Corfu and is set within the wider Butrint National Park, ‘an unspoilt and spectacular landscape of hills, lakes, wetlands, salt marshes, plains, reed beds and coastal islands’. Archaeological treasures include the surviving Epirot Theatre, Roman Forum and early Byzantine Baptistery, along with other Hellenic, Roman, Byzantine, Angevin, Venetian and Ottoman monuments. According to the brief, the centre ‘must receive, welcome and orient visitors, interpret the site, convey the Outstanding Universal Values of this World Heritage Site and be a gateway to the wider national park… A proactive and forward-thinking approach to sustainability throughout will be key, to tackle the many challenges of the climate emergency, with rising sea levels being a particular threat to Butrint’s low-lying peninsula’. Proposed designs need to factor in projected annual visitor numbers of around 400,000 by 2030. Initial funding of USD $2.45 million has been secured, with the final budget (up to USD $4 million) dependent on the winning design proposal and further engagement with project stakeholders. The competition is organised by Malcolm Reading Consultants.
Eligibility Organisers welcome international submissions ‘from new and emerging studios as well as seasoned ones’.
Procedure Two-stage contest: Stage 1 requirements: proposed team composition, relevant experience, pre-qualification questionnaire; initial reaction to project; no design work expected at this stage. Four teams will be selected to compete at Stage 2. Stage 2 requirements: anonymous concept design to be reviewed by a competition jury.
Prize/expenses Each finalist team will receive a contribution to expenses of USD $10,000 at the conclusion of the process.
Jury panel Architects Róisín Heneghan, Hene; Mónica Luengo, ATP; Suzanne Ogge, studioMilou. Plus, Elva Margariti, Minister of Culture, Albania; Martin Mata and Aleksandër Sarapuli, both AADF; Emily Freeman-Attwood, Butrint Foundation; Malcolm Reading, administrative chair.
Deadlines Stage 1 responses, 2pm, 24 October 2022. Stage 2 launch, early November 2022. Shortlist, mid-November 2022. Briefing and site visit, late November 2022. Stage 2 responses, late January 2023. Winner announced, March 2023.
To apply or find out more, go the competition website
Competition enquires butrint@malcolmreading.om
RIBA international contest seeks designs for 107-acre sustainable resort to include beach club, marina and accommodation
A client who has recently bought an island in the West Atlantic Ocean is looking to create a highly sustainable destination that will attract ‘diverse groups of travellers, the yachting community and residents, while preserving the surrounding natural beauty of the island’. The island, once home to a pineapple plantation, has no formal residential infrastructure, no roads, no power and no water supply. It features a shallow inland lagoon and peninsula and the site for development is a total of 107 acres. The project centres around three areas: a beach club, marina and fully equipped accommodation. Entrants can submit designs for one or more of these categories. This is a two-stage contest requiring the following from the outset: declaration form; 2 landscape sheets showing main characteristics of scheme; design statement; sustainability strategy and 1 visual image representing the proposals.
Eligibility Open to all architecture and design professionals and students worldwide.
Procedure Stage 1: anonymous assessment of concept design ideas and selection of a longlist of up to 10 for each category. Successful bidders pitch their ideas to the evaluation panel. Stage 2: further shortlisting of up to five entrants for each category who will be asked to refine their ideas following feedback and then present final concepts.
Evaluation criteria Stage 1: overall quality of the design; demonstrating an innovative and sustainable approach to the challenge; response to the brief; sustainability strategy for the selected concept; creativity and innovation. Stage 2: development of design principles and response to feedback; response to site and viability of the design ideas; clear presentation and communication of ideas to explain the ethos behind the proposals.
Prizes £25,000 for the overall winner; £25,000 distributed amongst other prize winners as agreed by the panel.
Evaluation panel Expected to comprise client representatives, plus Kirsten Lees, partner, Grimshaw, acting as the RIBA competition architect adviser.
Deadlines Submissions, 12 noon, Thursday 27 October 2022. Stage 1 longlist, week of 31 October 2022. Stage 1 shortlist, week of 21 November 2022. Stage 2 Final interviews, week of 12 December 2022. Winner announced, end of December 2022.
To register and find out more, visit the competition website
Competition contact, RIBA Competitions, 020 7307 5355, riba.competitions@riba.org
Organisers of international student contest seek ‘creative and ambitious’ designs for a facility that will meet the needs of 30 stroke survivors
Australia’s Public Health Group of International Union of Architects (UIA-PHG) and the Redesign Team of collaborative healthcare innovation project NOVELL have launched a contest for architectural design students interested in designing for health. Organisers say the aim of the competition is to ‘advance new ideas and futuristic concepts to solve current challenges identified by brain-injured (stroke) patients, family members and medical staff. We believe that buildings and surrounding environments have potent influences on these vulnerable individuals and their caregivers’. The single-stage student competition is looking for a creative approach, high quality architectural design and innovative ways that the built environment can support stroke survivors’ experiences. Entries will be considered by a jury panel on these criteria. Submission requirements include: up to four A1 landscape-orientated panels, site plan and analysis, a response to NOVELL’s ‘Aspects of Design’ and a report describing how the proposal addresses the competition requirements. The NOVELL project is led by the Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health in Melbourne, Australia.
Prizes 1st , €5,000; 2nd, €3,000; 3rd, €2,000, 4th, €1,500; 5th, €1,000. NOVELL will also invite prize winners to become co-researchers at NOVELL Redesign.
Eligibility ‘Open to full-time university architectural students from all over the world. Multidisciplinary teams are encouraged, however only architectural students can serve as team leaders or authors. Full-time university students from other disciplines, including interior design, landscape architecture, urban design, urban planning, medicine, neuroscience, psychology and others, can be co-authors or team members acting as specialists.’
Jury members Architects John Cooper (Chair), Philip Patrick Sun, Jane Repin Carthey, Innocent Okpanum, and Fani Vavili-Tsinika, professor emeritus, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece.
Deadlines Registration, 15 March 2023. Submission of entries, 15 April 2023. Results announced, 15 May 2023.
To apply or find out more, go the competition brief [PDF]
Open-to-all £18k prizes will fund prototype production of four innovative, sustainable ideas that address global challenges
Entries are now open for the Lexus Design Award 2023, an international competition that helps launch the careers of emerging design talent. Submissions are welcomed from a broad range of fields, including architecture, industrial design, technology and engineering, interior design and fashion design. Organisers are looking for ideas that anticipate global challenges to societies and provide inventive ways to reach a sustainable future. Judging criteria: how the design can enhance the happiness of everyone; how the design embodies the Lexus brand’s three key principles of anticipate, innovate and captivate. Four winners will be chosen by the judging panel and supported to produce a prototype before a mentoring session and presenting their finished work for feedback and career advice.
Prize Up to 3 million Japanese yen (approximately £18,000) in research and development grant funding per winner to cover prototype construction, expenses and personal creative development.
Eligibility International. Open to professionals, students and design enthusiasts who have reached the age of majority in their home country.
Judging panel and mentors Judges: Paola Antonelli, senior curator of architecture and design, Museum of Modern Art; global designer Karim Rashid; and Simon Humphries of Toyota & Lexus Global Design. Mentors: architect Sumayya Vallysolar; designer Marjan van Aubel; and sound artist and experience designer Yuri Suzuki.
Deadline Entries,16 October 2022. Winners notified, November to December 2022. Mentorship programme and winners announced, January 2023. Prototype production, January to March 2023. Final presentation of works to judges, April 2023.
To apply or find out more, go the competition website
V&A DUNDEE BLACKWOOD DESIGN AWARD 2022
Open-to-all call for inclusive concepts that have the potential to change lives
V&A Dundee is partnering with Scottish social housing provider Blackwood Homes and Care to launch the Blackwood Design Awards 2022. The international competition calls for concepts, designs and inventions that can boost independent living and enable people with disabilities to live a full life. There are five categories, including Best Collaborative Project, Best New Concept and Best New Aids, Equipment or Accessible Technology. All are open to individuals or groups of professionals and non-professionals. Past winners have included universities and gifted amateurs with an insight into living with a disability. According to the brief, ‘entries are judged not on how technologically advanced they are, but on how innovative, impactful and practical they are’. Blackwood provides social housing for rent and care and support services for those with disabilities across Scotland. Through its online community, bespoken.com, it runs focus groups, reviews products and services and brings people with disabilities together with product designers to find innovative and inclusive solutions that improve lives.
Prizes Around £2,000 plus a ‘package of support’ per main category.
Eligibility Open to all, international.
Judging panel Expert judges include Joanna Mawdsley, V&A Dundee head of learning.
Deadline Entries by 12 midnight, 13 November 2022. Winners annouced, January 2023.
To apply or find out more, go the competition website
LAS VEGAS AFFORDABLE HOUSING CHALLENGE
Open-to-all call for adaptable residential design concepts for the Nevada city
Competitions organiser Buildner has launched a contest to find the best affordable housing ideas for Las Vegas. This is the 14th in its series of city-based competitions with past locations including Berlin, Toronto, Melbourne and San Francisco. In 2017, the Nevada city was revealed to be the least affordable in the USA for renters, according to the US National Low Income Housing Coalition. There are no specific competition requirements in terms of site or structures, so ‘participants are encouraged to be as creative as possible in the solutions they design’. Organisers say the jury will be looking for designs that challenge typical ideas of housing design and community, ‘while maintaining a practical element that could potentially see these designs realised’. Concepts need to be easy to roll out, minimal in their use of land and materials, adaptable in terms of size and inhabitant capacity and flexible enough to work in different locations across the city. The jury will consist of architects and professionals from other backgrounds relevant to the competition theme.
Prize €3,000 for first prize. €4,000 in runners-up prizes and special awards.
Eligibility Open to all, international. No professional qualification required. Ideas can be developed individually or by teams (four team members maximum).
Evaluation panel To be confirmed. Jurors from previous versions of the competition have included: Ben Van Berkel, UNStudio; Winy Maas, MVRDV; Karen Alcock, MA Architects; Tristan Wong, SJB Architects; Linda Cheng, editor, ArchitectureAU; Umber Bawa, Rabble; Nicky Bruun-Meyer, The Site Magazine; Mauricio Quirós Pacheco, University of Toronto; Mark Sterling, Acronym Urban Design and Planning; Andreas Tjeldflaat, Framlab.
Deadline Registration up to 2 November 2022 (registration fees, from €95; or €85 for students). Project submissions by 11.59pm GMT, 7 December 2022. Winners announced, 15 February 2023.
To apply or find out more, go the competition website
For updates on the latest competitions, contests and contracts follow #ribajopportunities @RIBAJ
If you have a competition or contest you want architects to know about, email details to julie.butterworth@riba.org
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