La Spezia Arsenale 2062 Open Competition

OPEN INTERNATIONAL DESIGN COMPETITION
Re-Thinking a city in 50 years from now

Prologue

La Spezia, year 2062. The young Chinese provincial new governor Liu Jin Dong, after the complete change  of  the  Maritime Arsenal, finally given to the city from the Italian  Ministry of Attack, asks for help and for  creative ideas to designers from all over the world, in order to re-think and renovate this massive area no  longer in use. By now buildings and open spaces are overwhelmed by very tall weeds and shrubs, while the  few old military ships are sinking into the bays. After The Big Recovery, immigrants and tourists are coming from the sea, but there are no more spaces where to sleep or have a good dinner of local mussels’ dishes. What can we do with these ancient buildings?  How can we put people back into an area as big as the city itself, in a rational and green way? These are the questions of the new administrator, pushed by young in need to jump into the sea, in front of  their own homes.

Organizing Associations and objectives

The La Spezia Arsenal 2062 Competition is launched by two associations: Wenext and  Murati Vivi di Marola, during the Florence Liquid.Lab Festival from 9 to 12 of  May 2012. Competition’s aim is to receive from participants an idea about reusing the area of Italian Navy’s Arsenal of La Spezia. All the submitted proposals will be showed in an exhibition during the last session of  Liquidlab Festival in Florence from 18 to 21 October.

Theme

The competition’s request is a renovation project for all areas of La Spezia’s Maritime Arsenal, assuming a  future scenario in which a really important and strategic military zone could be merged with the urban center.  Every way of expressing the idea of the project is accepted, as long as it follows the rules of  submission explained later. Ways of representing the project are free as well as no specific scale drawing is required.  Written and graphic documents about the site are not a required  base for the project. There’s no specific  request about the new use for open spaces and buildings inside the boundaries of the Arsenal. The Arsenal  of the future could also be an integration of military and civil functions.

Internet site, email and site documentation

Web address for site documentation is: www.liquidlab.it. On the same site faq will be published from time to  time. Please send your question to this email address: [email protected]
Closing date for submitting questions on the site is 31 August 2012.

Participants

La Spezia Arsenal 2062 is an international Concept and Design Competition open to everyone. Projects can  be submitted by a single contributor or by a team. The same person can’t be in more than a team. The same  person cannot participate alone and in a team. Every participant, being a team or a single, can submit only one project.

Anonymity and compulsory content on every document and package

Every team or single participant must choose a unique code in order to associate it to his/her/its project. It consists of 3 letters of the Roman alphabet followed by 3 numbers. The code must be present on the graphic and digital documents, as well as on the sealed envelope containing personal informations on participants and team members. The package containing all of the above documents must be sealed.

Language

Projects must be written in Italian or in English.

Items to be submitted

1. A3 Board. The project must be on a single board, format mm 297 x mm 420: it consists of graphic documents mounted on flat, stiff, light, strong backings. The board can be laid horizontally or vertically
2. Digital Document. It consists of a digital copy of the A3 Board at point 1: it should be a pdf file either on a cd or a dvd. The pdf file must be the same size of the board ( mm 297 x mm 420 )  and must have a resolution of 300 dpi.  The digital document must have a cover with the chosen code printed on it.
3. Personal informations. It consists of a  A4 sealed envelope containing all the necessary documents needed for the disclosure of names and verification of the validity of the proposals.

Documents must be filled and signed following the form which can be downloaded together with the site documentation on the internet site. The chosen code must be written on the envelope.
Please note that failure to include all the documents results in the participant or team in question being disqualified. Documents should be :

• formal author's declaration and acceptance of the competition rules with all participants’ infos;
• in case of team, participants acceptance of team leader’s assignment;
• A photocopy of a valid ID document of each participant;

Submission of entries

Closing date for submitting packages is 30  October  2012 (UPDATED!).
Packages must be sent anonymously to: Wenext.org Firenze, Via Bisenzio n. 25, 50127, Firenze – Italia.
Togethere with the address above, on the package there will be written only: “Progetto per il concorso La Spezia Arsenale 2062”.

Results

Winning projects will be announced during the last Liquid.Lab Festival’s event.

Winner’s Prize

Competition’s winners will be granted a full holiday weekend for two persons in the Gulf of La Spezia, including accommodation in a local fishing village, lunches and dinners based on typical dishes and free transportation. Winners will be also invited to discuss their project and meet the associations during the last Liquid.Lab Festival event.

Rights and Obligations

1. The Organizers are not liable to pay compensation for any loss or damage;
2. All material received by the organizers becomes their property, including reproduction rights. The intellectual property rights in each project remain the exclusive property of the author(s) of the project.
3. Teams or individual participants may not publish drawings included in the competition or disclose their names by using their project for any communication before the official announcement of the results. Any such publication may result in exclusion from the competition.
4. The organisers reserve the right to publish all the projects submitted to them. Projects are exhibited or published under the names of their author or authors;
5. Packages and items in them will not be given back. They will be kept by the Organizing Associations.

Evaluation criteria

The jury will assess projects on the base of overall architectural quality and on the choices for an appropriate use of spaces and relationship of the proposal with landscape.
The jury should consider of great importance projects demonstrating sustainable solutions and  good connections with urban settlements surrounding the Arsenal.

Jury

The Jury will be nominated by the leading councils of the Organizing Associations and it will be composed by five people of demonstrated experience. The Jury will start its work immediately after the competition closing date and they will finish within the next month. Meetings of the Jury will be secret and  a nominated Secretary will write a record of them.
The last Jury’s meeting will be public, during which they will post a final account on evaluation criteria used to choose the best projects, together with their assessment.
During this session, after announcing the projects’ ranking, the Jury will open all the A4 sealed envelopes. The Jury will check documents goodness and integrity thus assigning prizes to the wining  projects.

Mail: [email protected]

www.liquidlab.it

Competition Brief in English (PDF)

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UPDATE: The competition's deadline has been extended to October 30, 2012.