Just Launched: CoArq's "New Dwelling Old Context" Competition

We are excited to introduce CoArq's latest competition "New Dwelling Old Context", which launched on Aug. 19. New Dwelling Old Context is an international competition to revamp a vacant lot situated in the historical center of downtown Guadalajara in Mexico.

The lot's redesign will consist of three levels of underground parking and the construction of a 120-unit dwell complex including private underground parking. The project site is located in the Santuario neighborhood, which had to sacrifice some historical structures to keep up with the times and make room for progress. Since then, the site has been used as a public parking lot.

Students and practioners from all disciplines are welcome to compete. Individuals and teams can register online until Nov. 16 and submissions will be due by Nov. 23. The jury members--who are not yet revealed--will choose three prize winners and five honorable mentions to be announced on Dec. 17. Entrants are allowed to submit multiple proposals as long as they register each project.

Keep scrolling to read a little about the project site.

From the competition brief:

"In many parts of the world, it was the car which outlined the current form of cities. The scale, urban growth and in many cases, urban space and architecture, paid the consequences of giving space to the car. Not only the roads, but the car storage spaces have transformed large areas of cities and in the case of Guadalajara City, opening up space for the car has been a loss factor of the architecture heritage."

"This sequence of images begins in 1961. Above these lines, a photograph of the Alcalde Avenue taken from north to south, which appears in the foreground, the vanished Military Hospital. It indicates the current project site, where there was the two-story neoclassical house demolished at the end of the twentieth century."

"..[An] overlay of the same image of 1961 with a photograph taken in 2013. The two-story neoclassical building has already been demolished, as well as the Military Hospital. In its place was built, in 1970, the Federal Palace."

"The last image in the sequence corresponds to 2013. Now the project site is a vacant lot used as a public parking lot with a perimeter wall full of graffiti."

"Popular festivities in honor of Nuestra Señora del Santuario [...] are still a tradition today. The restoration of the Plaza of the Santuario in 2007 still allow the installation of the fair."

For complete details on the competition and the project's historical location, click here and download the pdf.