The Competition

Redundant docks have proved to be ideal for regeneration projects - Canary Wharf, Salford Quays and the Albert Dock are waterside led regeneration success stories. But the docks at the centre of these schemes are left untouched as big, empty swathes of dark, deep water that are hardly used by the occupiers of these new developments. The Royal Docks has the potential to offer an alternative; the Mayor of London is currently preparing to seek a development partner to deliver a floating village at the western end of Royal Victoria Dock. At 4km, the Royal Docks are the length of Central Park, and offer almost 90 hectares of water space with enormous potential to be brought to life.There is a need for forward thinking ideas and proposals to help transform the Royal Docks into a mixed use amenity and development space that is fully integrated with the surrounding communities, many of whom have yet to benefit from the regeneration of the area. The docks offer the potential to provide for a range of functions including water activities, parkland and even development space. The docks could also help attenuate water flows in and out of land based development to mitigate the risks of flooding and pollution and could provide space for reservoirs and treatment facilities for more sustainable communities. Ecobuild has teamed up with the Landscape Institute to launch a competition to develop ideas for the Royal Docks that will integrate green infrastructure and water sensitive urban design to help promote the area as a world class location.

The competition is open to all individuals or teams (students as well as qualified practitioners) with an idea for the Royal Docks, that addresses the challenges given in the brief. For this exercise, entrants should not necessarily be constrained by restrictions including current planning law and land ownership issues. The design ideas should innovate, inspire and challenge, but entrants are encouraged to consider the practicalities of realising their scheme.The winner will be announced on Wednesday 5th March 2014 at Ecobuild, where there will also be an exhibition of the top twenty designs. A selection of those shortlisted will be featured in Building Magazine. The winners and runners up will also be featured in Landscape, the journal of the Landscape Institute.

Judges
• Sue Illman, President, Landscape Institute
• Thomas Lane, Group Technical Editor, Building 
Magazine & Ecobuild
• Ric Blakeway, Deputy Mayor of London (Housing, Land 
& Property)
• Peter Barbalov, Partner, Farrells
• Victoria Thornton, CEO London Open City 
• Colm Lacey, Head of Regeneration, London Borough of Newham 

The first stage of the judging is due to take place in the third week of January and results will be made available shortly after.The winner and runners-up will be chosen at Ecobuild 2014

Prizes
• First Prize: £2,000
• Second Prize: £1,000
• Runners up x 4: £500
The top twenty designs will be exhibited at Ecobuild 2014, 
which takes place from 4-6 March at the ExCeL Centre.
 

Timetable 
• Submission deadline: Monday 6 January 2014 at 5pm.
• Announcement of winner: Wednesday 5 March 2014 at Ecobuild 

Submission Format 
• One A0 board 
• One CD/memory stick
Included on the A0 board should be: 
• A visual representation of your idea, this can be in any 
medium - painting, drawing, collage, photography, CAD 
drawing. 
• An indication of the location for your proposed project 
• A statement of no more than 250 words which includes 
the title of your idea, description of the proposal and 
why and how your idea does what you want it to do. This 
should also be included on the CD/memory stick. 
• Your name and/or organisation name 
• Your registration number – this will be sent to you when 
you register online; please include this on the top right 
hand corner of both, the front and reverse, of your 
board.
• Your Entry Form – this is given on the last page of the 
brief and must be pasted to the back of your board. It 
should also be included on your CD/memory stick.
 
The board can be presented landscape or portrait.

Included on the memory stick should be:
• The A0 board in PDF format.
• Each image used in your submission given as a separate 
file. These should be submitted in jpeg format and at 300 
dpi. Any submissions that do not fulfil these criteria will 
not be put forward for judging. If you are using images that 
are not your own, please indicate this and make sure you 
provide credits for these images and also make sure that 
they can be used for publicity purposes.

• An electronic version of your entry form.
• The 250 word statement, describing your proposal (this 
should also be included on the board).

Submissions will not be returned. 

If your submission is within the top twenty, it will be exhibited at Ecobuild 2014 so you may wish to consider how it will look in the context of a group exhibition. The ownership of copyright in the work of all the competitors will be in accordance with the Copyright and Patent Act 1988; copyright rests with the author(s). All press announcements related to the competition, shortlisted entries/entrants and the winner/winning design will to be managed by the Landscape Institute and Ecobuild. Entrants must seek the prior permission of the Landscape Institute before they undertake any promotional activity relating to the competition. 

> Competition Brief PDF

> via landscapeinstitute.org