Six practices shortlisted in island home competition
December 5 2013
These are Arc Architects, Anta Architecture, Dualchas Architects, Rural Design, Thorne Wyness Architects and Simon Winstanley Architects will all go head-to-head in the competition’s second stage.
Our Island Home was launched back in September in order to give young people the opportunity to make their home in island communities and drew 50 entries which were all put through an anonymous judging process.
Juror chair Lesley Riddoch, said: “After a feisty and thorough judging session we were unable to separate six projects and decided to extend the shortlist by one. Thanks to all the practices who entered the competition, the quality of their submissions made our job very difficult”
Shortlisted teams have until 31 January to submit final designs with the winner to be named at the Rural Housing Scotland conference on 28 February.
Anta were amongst the half dozen practices to make the grade
Arc plumped for a more traditional look
Simon Winstanley rounded out the top six with this proposal
The only terraced scheme to be shortlisted - ©Thorne Wyness Architects, 2013
This Dualchas entry made the final cut
|
12 Comments
#2 Posted by Lee Ivett on 5 Dec 2013 at 23:14 PM
wow; stunning in their lack of originality, flair, ambition, range, excitement, conceptual depth, diversity. I can see why it was hard to separate the six of them given that they are pretty much the same. What's the point of a design competition if the result is a series of projects that can already be bought of several self build websites. Depressing
#3 Posted by Trimontium on 6 Dec 2013 at 10:42 AM
A very disappointing shortlist that makes the competition look entirely pointless. One can only hope that the lack of originality is down to the attitude of the judging panel rather than the proposals put forward for all the entries. It would be interesting to see a display of all the submissions.
#4 Posted by Art Vandelay on 6 Dec 2013 at 10:48 AM
Would have been nice if Anta had proof read their entry prior to submitting.
#5 Posted by Robert on 6 Dec 2013 at 11:25 AM
Seems completely pointless to hold a design competition and then choose entirely conventional and familiar designs. The organisers could have drawn up the same shortlist from looking at past projects on the practices websites.
What a waste of time for the 50 practices who committed time and energy to the competition! Are the other entrants going to be published??
What a waste of time for the 50 practices who committed time and energy to the competition! Are the other entrants going to be published??
#6 Posted by worth it? on 6 Dec 2013 at 12:04 PM
We reconned that the only way it made sence to enter this competition was to adapt something we've done before (good designs that meet the brief) and chalk up the drawing time to publicity costs - it appears others came to the same conclusion. Maybe the innovation and new ideas will come out in the next, detailed, stage?
#7 Posted by Rule change? on 6 Dec 2013 at 12:11 PM
So have the shortlisted teams agreed to completing the next stage for the same poor 'prize' but with reduced odds of getting paid for their hard work?
#8 Posted by boaby wan on 6 Dec 2013 at 12:32 PM
@ worth it - is that not the reverse of most competitions, usually the winner is over ambitious and needs reined in for the later stages...
rehashing something that you have previously done just reinforces the thoughts that the shortlist could have been invited if the panel had just taken some time to look at their websites (and/or their kit-house company spin offs) and not had to sort through 50 pieces of (no doutetly hard) unpaid work.
It's difficult to judge if the conservatism is on behalf of the entrants or of the panel, there doesn't seem to even be one "out there" entry, look at the range the highland housing fair attracted.
rehashing something that you have previously done just reinforces the thoughts that the shortlist could have been invited if the panel had just taken some time to look at their websites (and/or their kit-house company spin offs) and not had to sort through 50 pieces of (no doutetly hard) unpaid work.
It's difficult to judge if the conservatism is on behalf of the entrants or of the panel, there doesn't seem to even be one "out there" entry, look at the range the highland housing fair attracted.
#9 Posted by boaby wan on 6 Dec 2013 at 12:56 PM
just read this on a link from another website:
"Oliver Chapman of Edinburgh-based Oliver Chapman Architects asked why RHS was bothering in the first place: ‘I was surprised that they didn’t seem to be aware of two or three Scottish architects/ manufacturers who are already offering £100k houses such as Rural Design Architects in Skye and Maker in Inverness."
Is Oliver Chapman the new Dr Who?
"Oliver Chapman of Edinburgh-based Oliver Chapman Architects asked why RHS was bothering in the first place: ‘I was surprised that they didn’t seem to be aware of two or three Scottish architects/ manufacturers who are already offering £100k houses such as Rural Design Architects in Skye and Maker in Inverness."
Is Oliver Chapman the new Dr Who?
#10 Posted by Stephen on 6 Dec 2013 at 14:38 PM
We boycotted this competition because of the scandalous expectation (even more so than with ordinary competitions!) of a complete, buildable scheme on the promise of a maximum of £1500. And this was promoted by A+DS!! We HAVE to stop giving away our work free.
Those who have entered have devalued our profession and there isn't an original scheme amongst them. Their cards have been marked.
Those who have entered have devalued our profession and there isn't an original scheme amongst them. Their cards have been marked.
#11 Posted by MAKAR on 6 Dec 2013 at 15:13 PM
Sorry you never received our entry. We were too busy building houses for real - see our house in Inverness which was built for under 100K - no competition!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBC-XoNndLE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBC-XoNndLE
#12 Posted by abacus on 10 Dec 2013 at 10:33 AM
Disappointing for all the reasons stated. There are already a number of existing, better, cheaper and more architecturally developed contemporary solutions in the highlands from highland based Architects; Dualchas, Rural Design, Makar and HRI alone have portfolios of work preferable to any of the shortlisted schemes. Setting aside the usual ludicrous assumptions that we will work for nothing (or effectively nothing), a wee bit of research by RHS and ADS would have enabled a far better and more productive competition process to be offered; look at what the Housing Expo generated. Once again, a lot of Architects have wasted a lot of time and money...
Post your comments
Back to December 2013
Like us on Facebook
Become a fan and share
News Archive
Search News
Features & Reports
For more information from the industry visit our Features & Reports section.
It would be great to see all the entries for the competition, the shortlisted entries (imo) look very safe disappointingly - I wonder if any of the entries really pushed it...
Did arc and dualchas have a charrette?