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Call for registrations to Bee Breeders' Gauja National Park Footbridge competition

Latvia Architecture News - Dec 20, 2018 - 07:02   5346 views

Call for registrations to Bee Breeders' Gauja National Park Footbridge competition

Bee Breeders has announced the Gauja National Park Footbridge competition, in collaboration with Environment Agency - Abu Dhabi (EAD). Latvia’s largest national park celebrates its 45th anniversary by tasking architecture enthusiasts with designing an entryway footbridge. Known for the scale of diverse wildlife and varied landscapes within, the Gauja National Park is a popular tourist attraction in one of the greenest and most naturally stunning countries in the world.

Participants are tasked with thinking about the buildability of their designs, and ensuring that they correspond with the context of the national park and being welcoming to visitors, while at the same time displaying innovation and the potential to become an internationally recognized landmark.

The footbridge should be both welcoming and innovative, greeting guests to the park while at the same time having the potential to become known as an internationally-recognized landmark in its own right.

Call for registrations to Bee Breeders' Gauja National Park Footbridge competition

The Gauja National Park Footbridge is open until April 26, 2019, with final winners of the US$ 6,000 prize to be announced on July 11, 2019.

Spanning over 917 km2, the Gauja National Park in Vidzeme is the largest national park in Latvia, a country known for its low population density and vast areas of natural forests. The park takes its name from the Gauja River Valley and was one of Latvia’s first national parks, established in 1973, but with a history of tourism supposedly dating back to the 19th century. 

Call for registrations to Bee Breeders' Gauja National Park Footbridge competition

With so many national parks in Eastern Europe, the Gauja National Park stands out for its varied landscape, featuring slopes, springs, valleys, caves, as well as the sandstone and dolomite cliffs that are one its biggest tourist attractions, all located within close proximity. Full to the brim with diverse wildlife and plant species, it is also home to more than 500 historic and cultural monuments such as castles, manors, churches, watermills, and windmills.

The Gauja National Park Footbridge competition is sourcing designs for a footbridge to serve as a symbolic entrance to the park in honor of its 45th anniversary. As the footbridge would be suspended over a road, it must be high enough for trucks and buses to pass underneath it. It must also be capable of bearing the weight of high volumes of pedestrian foot traffic, and should feature welcome and goodbye signage as well as park information stand.

Eligibility

Competition is open to all. No professional qualification is required. Design proposals can be developed individually or by teams (4 team members maximum). Correspondence with organizers must be conducted in English; All information submitted by participants must be in English. 

Prizes

1st prize: US $3,000 / Publications Certificate of Achievement

2nd prize: US $1,500 / Publications Certificate of Achievement

3rd prize: US $500 / Publications Certificate of Achievement

BB Student Award: US $500  (more details here) / Publications Certificate of Achievement

BB Green Award: US $500 (more details here) / Publications Certificate of Achievement

The competition will select 6 Honorable Mentions.

Publication: The winners will get international art and design media coverage and will be featured on the Bee Breeders website and social pages. 

Certificate: Bee Breeders will also acknowledge the outstanding performance of all winners and honourable mentions with Certificates of Achievement.

Jury panel is composed of Audrey McKee from Renzo Piano Building Workshop in France, Carlos M Guimarães – depA, correspondent of A10 magazine in Portugal, Daniel Jacobs from SHoP Architects, New York City, USA, Gemawang Swaribathoro from OMA, Hong Kong, John Paul Rysavy from SHoP Architects, New York City, USA; And-Either-Or Austin, Texas and Brooklyn, New York, USA. See the competition's full jury panel here

Key dates for the competition

Closing date for registration: 26 April, 2019

Closing date for project submission: 11 June, 2019 (11.59pm GMT)

Announcement of the winners: 11 July, 2019

Competition brief, photographs and 2D - 3D images of the site can be downloaded from the competition website. Contact Bee Breeders to receive special student rates for group registrations (discount applies for 3+ registrations from one university/school) and to receive further information and support for getting your students involved in architecture competitions. 

All images courtesy of Bee Breeders 

> via Bee Breeders Architecture Competitions