An Australasian student design competition to create more inclusive public spaces, run in conjunction with This Public Life: Festival of Landscape Architecture and based on Van

Alen Institute’s multi-year initiative, Elsewhere: Escape and the Urban Landscape.

Adapted from a project by the

2015 Festival of Landscape Architecture Oct 15 – 18Melbourne

Presented by Competition partners

Cover photo: Dandenong Civic Square by Rush\Wright Associates and Material Thinking. Photo: Michael Wright

An Australasian student design competition to create more inclusive public spaces, run in conjunction with This Public Life: Festival of Landscape Architecture and based on Van

Alen Institute’s multi-year initiative, Elsewhere: Escape and the Urban Landscape.

Parckfarm by Taktyk and Alive Architecture. Photo: Courtesy Parckdesign 2014, Parckfarm

Photo: William Watt

CONTENTS

— Overview— Evaluation criteria— Eligibility— Submission requirements— Schedule— Competition terms — About

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Parckfarm by Taktyk and Alive Architecture. Photo: Courtesy Parckdesign 2014, Parckfarm

OVERVIEW

This Public Space (TPS) calls on students across Australia and New Zealand to work in teams to develop innovative design and programming strategies that make public spaces more inclusive.

Drawing on Van Alen Institute’s multi-year exploration of the theme Elsewhere: Escape and the Urban Landscape and its recent series of public programs about ‘hangouts’ in New York City, TPS asks participants to consider: why do we seek escape from the city, and what forms of escape can we find within the urban environment?

Hangouts – cities wouldn’t be cities without them. These informal spaces provide an escape from the tensions of congested urban life; they serve as venues for people to congregate and catch up, swap gossip, play games, organize meetings, share meals, fill time, and so on. For some, hangouts serve as places to unwind and relax, while for others they can be a refuge when there is nowhere else to go.

When it comes to public space, ‘hanging out’ gets political - the form of these urban landscapes often dictates who can use the space and how. Discouraging homeless people from getting too comfortable by installing benches that are impossible to sleep on, breaking up smooth surfaces to keep skateboarders away, neglecting to add access points for the elderly to sidewalks, parks, and plazas - whether intentional or not, the design of many public spaces results in the automatic exclusion of particular groups.

TPS invites participants to propose strategies for making public spaces more inclusive and conducive to bringing together diverse groups of users. Students will identify a public space in an Australian or New Zealand town or city that they feel could be made

more inclusive, define the relevant problems and questions, and devise detailed strategies for how to realize this goal through design intervention or public programming. These strategies can range from design interventions to temporary installations or programming strategies, but the end result should be cross-disciplinary where possible.

Three shortlisted teams will be invited to present their work at a panel at This Public Life: Festival of Landscape Architecture in Melbourne in October 2015. The Festival will award a total prize to the value of $3,000 to either one winning team, or to be split amongst the finalists.

“For some, hangouts serve as places to unwind and relax, while for others they can be a refuge when there is nowhere else to go.”

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Photo: Shigeto Miyamoto

EVALUATION CRITERIA

The jury will look for proposals that:

- Demonstrate a thorough understanding of the site context: for example, who owns and manages it; who uses it – when, why, and for what; how it has been used historically and any competing interests among those users. Who is excluded and how - through physical barriers, policies or regulations, etc.? (This is not a required or exhaustive list – just examples of the kinds of questions you might pose and answer.)

- Respond creatively and resourcefully to the site context, develop strategies that will engage new or diverse communities to use the space, and define specifically how the strategies accomplish this goal.

- Provide clear and imaginative illustrations of the site and proposed strategies to change it, using a full range of media (e.g. hand-drawings, interview transcripts, diagrams, models, etc.) In other words: how do your methods of representing the problems and solutions reflect innovative thinking, or tell us more than conventional digital photography or beautiful renderings can?

The competition is open to undergraduate and graduate students at all levels of higher education in Australia and New Zealand. Landscape Architectural entrants must be enrolled in an AILA or NZILA accredited program or at a partner university during the second semester of the 2015-2016 academic year at Bachelors, Masters, or Ph.D. levels.* Submissions must come teams of up to four members, and should be multidisciplinary where possible; individuals may not participate alone.

*Refer below for accredited program:www.aila.org.au/accreditedprogramshttp://www.nzila.co.nz/become-a-landscape-architect/how-can-i-become-a-la.aspx

ELIGIBILITY

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Photo: Thong Nguyen

SCHEDULE

All applicants must pre-register their interest at thispubliclife@aila.org.au by leaving a contact e-mail address. They may do so at any time until the competition deadline of Friday 25 September 2015, but must do so before submitting their final entry. Pre-registration ensures that you receive all relevant updates.

Final submission is due by midnight AEST on Friday 25 September 2015; entrants must submit:

- A brief description (100-250 words) of their proposal. This statement must clearly identify the name of the city and the challenges and solutions that address the competition theme.

- The name(s) and contact information of the team members.

- A PDF slide presentation of up to 5 slides. These must include images and/or text. There is no word limit but font size must be legible when printed at A3 paper size.

- All responses must be in English, with any measurements provided in metric units.

- Slide presentations must be in Adobe Acrobat PDF format. Each file must be no larger than 10MB. They must be A3 paper size and landscape orientation.

- Submissions must be sent to thispubliclife@aila.org.au via DropBox / WeTransfer link by midnight AEST on Friday 25 September 2015. Entrants will receive an email confirming that the files have been received and downloaded. (Please retain confirmation for reference.)

Failure to comply with any of these submission requirements will result in immediate disqualification.

Pre-registration of interest at: thispubliclife@aila.org.au

Friday 25 September 2015Final submission deadline at:thispubliclife@aila.org.au

Friday 2 October 2015Announcement of finalist teams

Thursday 15 October 2015Presentation and critique of semifinalists’ submissions at This Public Life in Melbourne and announcement of the winning team

SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS

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COMPETITION TERMS

Registration

All registration takes place through thispubliclife@aila.org.au

Registration requires identification of team members, site selection, and rationale and submission of a site plan.

Entry fee

There is no entry fee for entering TPS student design competition.

Judging

A judging panel comprised of landscape architecture, design and research professionals involved with the TPL Festival will select the three final teams. The three final teams will be invited to present their work to a jury at the Festival on Thursday 15 October 2015. Teams who present at the Festival must cover the cost of airfares, accommodation and related expenses. The jury will announce the winning team at the event.

Notification

All entrants will be notified by e-mail by Friday 2 October 2015 when the three finalist teams are announced. The winning team will be announced at the event at the TPL Festival on Thursday 15 October 2015.

Winner and prizes

Each finalist team member will receive a pass to the Research Summit (Thurs 15 Oct) and Festival Conference sessions (Fri 16 & Sat 17 Oct).

The winning team (or teams) will receive a cash prize. The total prize money is valued at $3,000, which may be divided among one or more winning teams.

Number of entries

Individuals may participate on only one team. Each team is permitted to enter only one submission.

Publication restrictions

Entrants may not refer to projects that have already been implemented or that have been designed on the basis of any agreement entered into by the entrant or entrants with a public, public/private or fully private body with the intention of actual development of the project in question. Similarly, entries may not refer to projects published before the last day of the deliberations of the judging panel.

Infringement of copyright and other intellectual property

All work submitted for the competition must be the entrant’s original work. It is the entrant’s sole responsibility to ensure that the work submitted does not infringe upon the intellectual property rights of any third party, including, but not limited to copyright, trademark and design right. TPL shall not be responsible for entrant’s infringement of any third party intellectual property rights, regardless of whether said infringement was known or should have been known by entrant.

Use of submitted works

Entrant agrees that TPL and competition sponsors are granted the non-exclusive reproduction rights to all entries for TPL’s advertising, promotion, exhibition, print publication and internet purposes directly relating to the competition. TPL shall have no responsibility for any unauthorized use of the entrant’s works by any third party, including but not limited to the sponsors.

ABOUT

This Public Life: Festival of Landscape Architecture Landscape is spatial, economic, political, environmental and social – a product and reflection of our collective imagination. From civic responsibility to cultural specificity, from the topological to the philosophical, the production of landscape is a situated public project.

The Anthropocene era and the effects of large-scale urbanisation and climate change pose massive risks to human life and natural systems. Can prioritising everyday experience above utility increase empathy and our connection with each other and our environments? Can landscape incrementally change the way we think and behave, to generate hybridised resilient cities that are both ecological and sociological?

This year’s Festival of Landscape Architecture will share tools and methods to address these critical design challenges. Combining presentations by, and conversations with, thinkers and practitioners from the arts and sciences – both nationally and internationally – the festival will explore public life through the lenses: Life + Death, Love + Longing and Participation + Spectacle.

Australian Institute of Landscape Architects

Landscape architects plan and design for life outside. Founded in 1966, the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects leads the profession in its mission to sustain people and place. The Australian Institute of Landscape Architects (AILA) champions quality design for public open spaces, stronger communities and greater environmental stewardship. We provide our members – in urban and rural Australia, and overseas – with training, recognition and a community of practice to share knowledge, ideas and action. With our members, we anticipate and develop a leading position on issues of concern in landscape architecture. Alongside government and allied professions, we work to improve the design, planning and management of the natural and built environment. AILA represents over 2000 members throughout Australia and overseas.

Elsewhere: Escape and the Urban Landscape

TPS draws its inspiration from Elsewhere: Escape and the Urban Landscape, a multi-year initiative of Van Alen Institute exploring escape in the urban environment.

Elsewhere is composed of competitions, public programs, and research that investigate how both the form and organization of the built environment influence our need for escape. This unique multidisciplinary effort is bringing together innovators in design, public health, policy, and the sciences to change the way we understand cities.

The Institute launched Elsewhere with four days of festival-style programs in November 2013, at the Institute and select venues throughout New York City. In May 2014, Van Alen Institute continued Elsewhere with our Spring 2014 events exploring how the mind and the body interface with the urban landscape. In December 2014, Elsewhere programs looked at the way we move through the urban realm by framing the city as both a destination and departure point. This June, Van Alen explored hangouts in the city. Through a dynamic line-up of debates and conversations, screenings, performances, workshops, small group tours, and activities, Van Alen Institute looked at the network of public, semi-public, and private places that serve as the hangouts for New Yorkers. Who uses them, who doesn’t? How do they impact our well-being—for better or worse?

Van Alen Institute

Van Alen Institute brings 120 years of experience organizing design competitions, as well as developing cross-disciplinary research and provocative public programs. Van Alen Institute collaborates with communities, scholars, policymakers, and professionals on local and global initiatives that rigorously investigate the most pressing social, cultural, and ecological challenges of tomorrow.

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www.aila.com.au/thispubliclife

2015 Festival of Landscape Architecture Oct 15 – 18Melbourne

Presented by

Participating universities

Competition partners

Adapted from a project by the