7 Practical Advices On How To

Success In Architectural
Competitions
Earlier this year, we entered eVolo’s annual skyscraper
competition and the objective was to challenge the way people
understand vertical architecture and its relationship with the
natural and built environments. It is a concept competition hosted
by the avant-garde architectural magazine eVolo, which values
novel, original and visionary ideas. Our proposal, to put it in one
sentence, was a continuous horizontal skyscraper around the full
perimeter of a sunken Central Park (a “Sidescaper”, as called by
some articles later on). This idea we came up with drastically
challenged people’s understanding of a skyscraper, meanwhile
addressed several social and environmental contradictions that
big city like New York faces today. The bold concept was
eventually chosen as the 1st Place winner among nearly 500
entries received around the world.
We are very glad we participated, not because that we won, but
the fact that as young designers, we could have the chance to put
some ideas on paper and be noticed, discussed and even
criticized by a wider audience. Looking back, we also realized that
to complete successful entries requires more than just hard work.
Beyond the obvious, below are some practical advices we found
particularly true and useful from our experience preparing for the
entry, and we want to share this with all the young professionals
out there who are interested in participating architectural design
competitions:
1. Determine Your Goal
Why am I participating? What do I want to get out of this?
Architectural competitions can be both time and energy
consuming, and most of them requires you to pay a registration
fee. So always ask yourself these questions before taking on the
challenge.
There are many things one can get out of participating
architectural competitions other than the prize: Build up a strong
personal portfolio, enhance design thinking and skill, a little
escape from everyday school or corporate project, etc. The list
can go on and on and none of them requires winning places.
While it would never hurt by aiming high, design competitions
aren’t standardized tests. There is a good chance that you may
not win, and there is no right or wrong between winning projects
and all the other entries. In other words, participating in design
competitions shouldn’t be all about winning, rather, it is a safe
way to express one’s original ideas with less responsibility and
risks than doing practice in the real world, and a great opportunity
for you try the best to produce your top quality work without any
fear or constrains.
Working on competitions should be a rewarding and enjoyable
experience. Remember, this is your own work, you are the one
who gets to make all the decisions, and no one is forcing you to
do this. So don’t waste time thinking what the juries wants, what
the audience might say. Good attitude will help immensely along
the way no matter what the outcome is.
2. Choose the Right Competition and the Right Team.
Competitions are good opportunities for people who looking for
chances to supplement their professional or school experience
with some independent ventures. So know the strength of yourself
or your team and choose the competition that interests you and
suit you the best both time-wise and strategy-wise.
Since there are mainly two kinds of competition – conceptual and
real commissions, make sure that you choose the right path to
maximize you and your team’s advantage. Unless you want to try
out different things to test your potential and learn more. As
pointed out earlier, once you know what you would like to get out
of this competition, it is not very difficult to choose the right path.
3. Read the Entry Criteria and Requirements Carefully.
The least thing you wish to happen to your idea is any mistake
caused by misunderstanding or neglecting the design brief, so
you should read it carefully. The better you comprehend the
requirement, the more convincing your work would probably be to
the juries. If the organization has hosted competitions in the past,
try check out some previous winners’ work, as it might help you
know their focus and criteria more clearly, in order to avoid any
obvious mistakes.
4. The Balance Between Concept and Practicality.
While the design brief addresses all the technical requirements, it
may not say too much about this. As we participated in an idea
competition, this question was one of our earliest discussions,
probably also the most important one.
Take our own project as an example. In reality, digging down and
creates an underground park means there would be a lot of
practical concerns, things like underground water, pipings,
subway systems, bedrocks etc. If we choose to address every
single one of these issues, and use half of the board explaining
how some of them can be solved while others not, the big idea
would almost certainly be weakened. In our case, we chose to not
emphasize some of these practical concerns. This may cause
some doubts from the audience, but at least most people get a
clearer message of our strong ideas.
This is not saying bold concept is more important than reality, but
don’t miss the forest for the trees. Also it is true to our specific
project, but might not apply to your project. Just remember, no
matter what competition you are interest in, it will certainly ask for
something new. That means probably it is not about creating for
the sake of being new, but it is backed by a good reason.
5. Good Presentation Means Working Backwards.
Often, for architectural competitions, the only opportunity for you
to convey your idea to the viewer is through the submission
boards. Everything else, your thinking process, research,
sketches, study models, although equally important, are hardly
presented to the juries. So you must make sure your board have
a great presentation, so that it can leave a great first impression
to the viewers.
To achieve that, try have the a rough vision (how do you want the
board to be like) already in your head, before all the other works
even starts. If possible, do layout sketches, set up the blank page
file, put in placeholder images and text frames, and fill the gaps
afterwards.
Working backwards has two big benefits: On one hand, it helps
you with the thinking process, you are always actively thinking
while drafting the boards, being clear with what you want without
getting too lost in the exploration. On the other hand, it is a great
progress indicator, which helps you avoid wasting time on
unnecessary work as the deadline approaches.
6. Talk With Friends And Ask Their Opinions
After all, design competition is mostly about sharing ideas with
people. It is always beneficial when you try to summarize and
present the project to others, both inside and outside the field of
architecture, and ask for their opinions. Because the concept is
always clearer to you than it may appears to others, this practice
helps you to sharpen the idea and convey the vital charisma of
the project within a few sentences.
Moreover, the feedback from others may point out something you
overlooked or ignored before, these easy fixes, added up together
might make a big difference to your final product.
7. Be A Good Self Promoter
Young designers are often trained to be focus on the work by
devoting so many hours in perfecting any details. While there is
nothing wrong about it, we should also start to learn how to better
handle the business side of our careers.
This could start by simply submitting works to publishers
selectively, writing articles for magazines, build a good website,
seeking exhibition opportunities, and etc. In today’s world, there is
more ways to promote yourself than just doing good work quietly
and waiting for others to discover you. It is not easy to establish a
name at one’s early career path, so start putting your best
competition work in the portfolio, post it on your website no matter
what, and if you do win something, hold the chance to promote
yourself via different media channels.