BAUA Announces Baltic pavilion design competition for UIA World Congress of Architects in Copenhagen

Baltic Architects Unions Association announces an open and anonymous one-stage Architectural idea Competition for BAUA pavilion in World Congress of Architects, Copenhagen, Bella Center, July 02, 2023 08:00 to July 06, 2023 The purpose of this competition is to find the best idea for an exhibition booth to interpret the main theme of the congress - Sustainable Futures - Leave No One Behind! The final design of the booth will be created from the submitted design proposal with the winning team coordinated by a professional curator.

BAUA is looking for ideas for the exhibition consisting of two parts:

1. The design of on-site exhibition/installation.

2. Souvenirs the visitors can take away.

Competition awards include the realisation of the idea with a full budget of 20 000 EUR (All costs included) The deadline for idea submission is 13.02.2023. 24:00 EET. Competition winners can realise a full-scale pavilion at the World Congress of Architects in Copenhagen and win the following awards: 1st Prize 1200 EUR, 2nd Prize 800 EUR and 3rd 400 EUR. Find out more information about the full competition rules below.

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BAUA PAVILION ARCHITECTURAL IDEA COMPETITION BAUA-UIA 2023 Copenhagen, Denmark

1. Competition organiser: BAUA (Baltic Architects Unions Association).
The coordinator of the competition is Matijs Babris (Latvian Association of Architects), tel: (+371) 25925972, e-mail: baua.awards@gmail.com.

2. About UIA and UIA Congress program: Sustainable Futures – Leave No One Behind The International Union of Architects (UIA, www.uia-architectes.org) was founded in Lausanne, Switzerland on June 28, 1948, to unite the architects of the world, regardless of nationality, race, religion or architectural doctrine, and to federate their national organisations. Described as the Olympics of Architecture, the UIA World Congress is a major international architectural event. The UIA World Congress takes place every third year with 10-15,000 participants from all over the world. The congress usually comprises keynote speakers, lectures and seminars, research presentations, study trips, exhibitions as well as public cultural events and much more.

The goal of the UIA 2023 conference is to promote, discuss, create, and showcase architecture as a vital tool to achieve the UN 17 Sustainable Development Goals by 2030: “We will share sustainable solutions, examine the latest research results and join our efforts to make the 28th UIA World Congress a milestone in the history of what architecture can do to help save the planet.”

3. About UIA Exhibition in Copenhagen in 2023 Time of the event: 
2 – 6 July 2023.
Venue: Bella Center, Copenhagen.
About the event: https://uia2023cph.org/

Info on UN 17 Sustainable Development Goals: https://uia2023cph.org/the-guides/

The topic of the UIA conference Sustainable Futures – Leave No One Behind is the central, transformative promise of the 2030 UN Sustainable Development Goals. This promise – and premise – represents the commitment of all UN member states to reduce the inequalities and vulnerabilities that leave people behind and undermine the potential of individuals, and humanity. The congress will address how architects, urban planners and the building and construction industry are already contributing to the necessary transformation towards more just, resilient and including societies – and how it can be further improved.

Below this theme, the Baltic countries together have decided to investigate further the recently initiated topic of Holistic Renovation of Modernism Housing. The initiative aims to promote quality holistic modernism housing renovation in European and non-European countries as well, discussing the most relevant topics, highlighting the challenges, sharing the experience and presenting the best practices of holistic renovation of modernist housing.

We expect to find with this competition an interesting approach which results in an installation or exhibition to examine the topic further. The theme has been discussed previously in May 2022 during the Madrid Forum “Affordable housing” where 11 European examples and research on a holistic renovation of the housing built after WWII were showcased. Read more

4. The goal of the competition
The competition’s purpose is to find the best idea for the exhibition pavilion in Copenhagen which will originally interpret the main theme of the congress Sustainable Futures – Leave No One Behind with the more focused topic Holistic renovation of modernism housing. The installation must have a clear message and should be easy to remember. From that basis, the final design of the pavilion will be created with the author(s) of the winners and professional designers.

BAUA calls for ideas for the exhibition consisting of two parts:

1. The design of the on-site exhibition/installation.
2. Souvenir(s) the visitors can take away.

The exposition installation must be reusable! Please consider the nature of the Congress and the scale of the whole exhibitions happening simultaneously.

5. Form of the Competition

Open and anonymous one-stage Idea Competition. Information provided and available through BAUA (www.balticarchitecture.com) and all included Architects' Union's websites: AAL (www.architektusajunga.lt), EAL (www.arhliit.ee), and LAS (www.latarh.lv).

6. Accessibility

The Competition is open to all architecture and design professionals and students (All study levels) who are based within the Baltic states. The number of entries is not limited. Registration is not necessary.

No member of the Jury shall take part either directly or indirectly in the competition nor be entrusted either directly or indirectly with work connected with the prize-winning design. No member of the promoting body or an associate or an employee or any member concerned with the preparation or organising of the competition shall be eligible to compete or assist a competitor.

7. Competition language

English

8. Timetables
8.1. Competition Timetable

16.12.2022. Announcement of the competition
09.01.2023. QA Call on Zoom
20.01.2023. Deadline for inquiries
30.01.2023. Answers posted on the BAUA website
13.02.2023. Submission deadline 24.00 EET
16.-20.02.2023. Jury session online
27.02.2023. Winners announced on balticarchitecture.com and social media

8.2. Provisional timetable for pavilion realisation

01.03 - 01.06.2023. Development of pavilion design, realisation and installation in CPH
02.-6.07.2023. The exhibition is open to all visitors

9. Questions-Answers

Participants may present questions by 20.01.2023 through e-mail to baua.awards@gmail.com.
Answers will be posted on BAUA Website www.balticarchitecture.com.

10. Awards 

1st Prize 1200.-€

2nd Prize 800.-€ 

3rd Prize 400.-€ 

11. The Jury

The Jury panel will consist of 6 members, 2 delegates from each Architects Association: Architects Association of Lithuania: Rūta Leitanaitė, Marius Dirgėla, Estonian Association of Architects: Mae Köömnemägi, Johan Tali, Architects Association of Latvia: Juris Poga, Dina Suhanova.

11. Evaluation criteria and the Jury’s work (not listed in hierarchical order):

- Clarity of the idea.
- Innovation and originality.
- Attractive, engaging representation.
- The multi-layered idea, so that the exhibition would be attractive and interesting both for the visitor, who can view it for only several minutes and for the visitor, who wants to take a deeper look into the problem.
- Rationality: a real idea that may be implemented, using a rational budget.
- Safety of the visitors and the staff.
- Possibility to dismantle, transport and demonstrate the content of the pavilion later in different places as well as to recycle it.

13. Technical information

The pavilion will be 9 square metres in size (space: 3m (w) x 3m(d) x 3 m(h)) and include 3 octanorm walls, header, 1 table with 3 chairs (if needed), energy outlet with 1 kVA, daily cleaning and security. The budgetary limit for the whole production (including design fee, project, materials, production of the elements, transportation, travel+accommodation of the authors of the project, mounting, dismantling, waste disposal, etc.) is 20 000 EUR.

The Organizers are not expecting submissions to have all issues resolved. The project will be developed further in collaboration with the organisers.

14. Submission

The competition is anonymous and keyword based. The submissions shall bear a keyword or title representing an idea. Any emblem, logo nor alphanumeric combination is not allowed.

Submissions should consist of two parts:

Part 1. Design presentation:

The graphical presentation should include a planning scheme with dimensions. The design presentation should include comprehensive text about the exposition describing:

- both concept and content of exhibition design/installation, - materials used,
- construction and transport,
- proposal for “souvenir/memorabilia”.

The design presentation should be no more than 4 pages of A3 size in PDF format. Each page should contain a keyword or title. Part 1 of a Submission should be emailed as an attachment to the e-mail address: baua.awards@gmail.com Total size of Part 1 of a Submission shall be no more than 20MB. Entries any larger than this will automatically be discounted.

Part 2. Participant's information:

Participant's information must contain the following information in a separate file with no more than two pages of A4 size in PDF format:

- contact details (name, e-mail address, phone number),
- a short CV of the participant(s) indicating relevant experience if any.

Each page should bear a keyword or title. Part 2 of a Submission should be emailed as an attachment to the e-mail address: baua.awards@gmail.com.

The deadline for submissions is 24.00 (EET) on 13.02.2023.

The subject of the email should be “UIA BAUA Copenhagen competition”. In case of questions regarding submission please contact: baua.awards@gmail.com
The attached files shall carry the same keyword or title ONLY which is used on the design presentation. For example, if the presentation's title is “Copenhagen”, then the presentation file is to be named “Copenhagen.pdf”.

15. End of the Competition

The competition ends with the announcement of the winner's titles and names through the BAUA website and social media until the date indicated in the Timetable (8.). The organiser will contact the winners and notify them about further actions.

16. Organiser's right

The organiser reserves the right not to proceed with the winning design if the entries fail to meet the expectations of an outstanding proposition. All submitted materials for the competition will become the property of the organiser. The organiser reserves the right to use, publish and exhibit all or any part of the entries and documentation at any time and in any format, under the condition that the author is acknowledged.