Tallinn Architecture Biennale (TAB 2019) has recently  launched another Open Call for its Vision Competition. TAB 2019 (11 September – 3 November 2019) is dedicated to the theme “Beauty Matters: the Resurgence of Beauty“ and it is curated by Israeli-born, London-based architect and researcher Dr. Yael Reisner of Yael Reisner Studio. 

Related to the main curatorial topic, this year’s competition focuses on the east side of Kopli, part of Kalamaja, an urban area in the North of Tallinn. The curatorial team asks that the proposals escape the bland globalisation of standard developer architecture and find new concepts in keeping with the alternative lifestyles of Kalamaja’s inhabitants.

"No one can define beauty in simple terms, nevertheless, we know that its experience is oftenidentified with certain qualities. Mathematicians—who, unlike architects, never stopped believing inthe role of beauty—knowingly, and comfortably list surprise, significance, clarity, profundity, orambiguity, as some of its characteristics, and theypoint out that when order takes over disorder, ‘all falls into place.’ This pleasing moment is somethingthat architects are familiar with too and it is a well-known step towards beauty."

"In our time, beauty is not a singular idea, as plurality prevails, hence we are looking for new architectural beauties."

Site 

The site for the 2019 Vision Competition is made up of the east side of Kopli, a portion of Kalamaja, and areas adjacent to the railway lands that will, in the near future, become animportant new part of Tallinn. The nearby urban area is both local and global in outlook and we wish this duality to transpire through the proposals. We seek to escape the bland globalisation of standard developer architecture and find new concepts in keeping with the alternative lifestyles of the inhabitants of Kalamaja.

The scale of the site has been chosen to allow attention to detail as well as to provoke ideasat an urban scale. The exact limit of the competition area is marked on the .dwg drawing and .pdf file found in the competition package.

Brief

The task is to create a neighbourhood of shared and private habitats to live and work in. Indoor and outdoor places for people of all ages to learn, play and grow.

The aspiration is for the innovative design of dynamic and beautiful architecture where digitalgains are augmented by human judgment and cognitive intuition. A goal is to consider the shared eco-system, enhancing relationships between people, flora and fauna, exploring the relationship between the organic and inorganic and considering indoors as outdoors.

We seek a widening of the palette of emotional involvement and the creation of new architectures informed by contemporary, diverse experiences of beauty, which encompassthe requirements of ecology and society, as with all good architecture such parameters cannot be compromised.

Whilst not compulsory, we are excited by the possibilities of collaborative design and encourage entries by teams that include members from different practices working together, while eachkeeping their own language, tools and methods ‒ though being aware of the design produced by their colleagues, reflecting and hopefully responding at key stages in the design process.

Prizes

All winning and selected proposals will be exhibited at TAB 2019:

- first prize: 4.000€

- second prize 2.000€

- third prize 1.000€

+ five honourable mentions

All project entries will be published on the web page of TAB 2019.

Jury

An international jury comprising of Kjetil Trædal Thorsen (Snøhetta, Norway), Endrik Mänd (Chief Architect of Tallinn), Margit Mutso (Eek & Mutso Architects, Tallinn) and the TAB 2019 curatorial team. 

Timeframe

Digital submissions AND the hard copies must be received by 23:59 EET (21:59 GMT) on 16 January 2019. Entries that are not DIFOT (Delivered In-Full, On-Time) will not be considered. The winning project codes will be announced by the end of January 2019. Winning authors will be announced in September 2019 during the award ceremony at TAB 2019.

To download submission info, site documentations, please visit the competition's website. 

Top image © Tõnu Tunnel

> via TAB 2019