Architectural Competitions as Institution and Process

Samlingsverk (redaktörskap), 2016

The present book revolves around four key concepts. These concepts are architectural competition, institution, process and adjustments of contemporary competition structures. They may seem randomly assembled in order to form a pertinent book title, but considered as individual entities, they may also characterise the contemporaneous status of architectural competitions in the second decade of the new millennium. For clarity’s sake, what then is an architectural competition? Besides being an intentional combination of words, which etymologically suggests that architecture is not only the art of building, but in conjunction with competition also implies a mutual struggle between architects and other stakeholders to land the ideal design and constructive solution for a particular design problem, competitions in architecture are a phenomenon that is closely related to the practice of architecture, i.e. in a noble and fair spirit think outside established values and norms in order to renew spatial thinking (Cuff, 1992). T