InstantHouse Competition, Design Contest, Deadline

InstantHouse Competition : Contest Information

instanthouse© Social Club Architecture Contest

20 Jan 2011

InstantHouse Competition

instanthouse© Social Club

2011 INSTANTHOUSE International Architecture Student Competition

17 Mar 2011 deadline – submission

INSTANTHOUSE is organized by Federlegno Arredo for Made Expo with the support of Politecnico di Milano. INSTANTHOUSE is the “only architecture students competition building the 1:1 scale winning project” to be displayed at MADE EXPO in Milan during Oct 2011 and to be positioned during the EXPO 2015 in Milan.

SECTION 1: CONTEST DEFINITION

1. Preamble

For MADEexpo Milano Architettura Design Edilizia, a trade show which will take place from October 5 to October 8, 2011 at the Fiera Milano Rho convention center, Federlegno Arredo Srl intends to promote a contest whose goal is to select designs that are complimentary to future and existing social housing scenarios, building a catalogue of architecture that is sensitive to environmental and territorial issues, sustainability, and the need for well-being and high quality of life.

The winning design will be built on the chosen site on the Vie d’Acqua (Water Streets) of Expo 2015 by Federlegno Arredo Srl and with the various institutions that will be involved.

The contest is targeted toward architecture, engineering, and industrial design students and recent graduates (Italian and non-) who possess the prerequisites that are presented in this announcement.

2. Sponsor The contest is sponsored by Federlegno Arredo Srl for MADEexpo, in collaboration with Milan’s Politecnico.

3. Topic and specific objectives of the contest

Introduction

InstantHouse Social Club will be a small building with a variety of services under one roof, and will represent a positive contrast to the temporary and “liquid” conditions that are normally found in today’s city.

These small service-based structures, on an urban or local scale, will be able to complete, or to merge with, public housing that has already been built or will soon be built. They will have a network of services that will serve as a communications link for the living spaces around the parks. The parks become a wonderful public space that serves as a hub for different parts of the city.

The central theme of the contest is that of EXPO 2015: a network of services strung along the system of the Vie D’Acqua (Water Streets).

For the city this system can be an opportunity to enrich lives, to create a flow of different people (who come from parts of the city that are traversed by the Water Streets), and to welcome inhabitants, visitors, metropolitan tourists (who will be curious to see a unique concentration of functions that serve various sections of the city).

The system contemplated by Expo 2015 for the Vie D’Acqua (Water Streets) will become an interconnected chain of generous spaces that links parts of the city, becoming a social and landscape infrastructure.

Each small Social Club will be like a new “piazza” for the surrounding neighbourhoods, but also for the city, in order to be a welcoming meeting point, somewhere where people can chat, etc. It will give citizens an opportunity to be active and exchange ideas with different generations and different cultures. The Social Club activities will be managed by small Associations and No Profit Organizations in order to develop real social cohesion, experiences with nature, and sustainable building.

photos from the organisers

4. General information about the project

The design project must have:
• a choice of location
• a choice of programme from the proposed themes (max. 80 sq.m., 1 floor)
• various combinations and aggregations
• choice of materials and technology
The designs must use the external space, making it a connector between the building’s interior space, the proposed services, and the city. The design should clearly detail, therefore, the nature of the service and the club’s value to the public (no fences).

5. Conditions necessary to participate

Participation in the contest is free and open to all young people, both Italian and foreign, who, by the 31st of January, 2011, were enrolled in Architecture, Engineering or Industrial Design (the two-year specialization degree course) or who received their degree after January 31st, 2006. Entrants may participate individually or in temporary groups. Entrants participating as part of a group must nominate a group leader to represent the group with the promoter organisation. Only the group leader must meet the aforementioned requirements.

6. Causes for exclusion to or incompatibility with the contest

Contest participation is allowed and deemed valid only if all rules in this announcement are closely observed. The following persons may not participate in the contest:
• the director of the contest and the persons in the Organization Office;
• the Jury;
• spouses, and relatives up to and including the third-degree of relation to persons in the categories listed above;
• employees of the Jury, as well as employees of the institution sponsoring the contest;
• those who have participated in writing this contest announcement;
• those who have, by the date of publication of this contest announcement, a contractual working relationship with the sponsoring institution.

Location: Milan, Lombardy, Northern Italy, southern Europe