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HOME Press  >  ARCHITECTURE COMPETITIONS COME UNDER DEBATE AT CONSTRUTEC 2010

ARCHITECTURE COMPETITIONS COME UNDER DEBATE AT CONSTRUTEC 2010

Logotipo Noticia Prensa IFEMA

The event, organised by IFEMA, will take place at Feria de Madrid, between 28th September and 1st October 2010

The Official College of Architects of Madrid will debate the idea that the work of architects receives little recognition

The Official College of Architects of Madrid, COAM, with the support of the Higher Council of Architect Colleges of Spain, CSCAE, will stage a debate on an issue of great concern to architects, namely the fact that their work is undervalued at architecture competitions.

Noticia Prensa IFEMA G

This debate will be thrown open to all members of this profession and will take place as part of the Forum organised by COAM on 28th and 29th September next within the framework of the Building Exhibition, CONSTRUTEC 2010. For some years now, COAM has worked in close conjunction with this fair, which is organised by IFEMA and is due to stage its eleventh edition between 28th September and 1st October 2010 at Feria de Madrid. This close cooperation, in addition to the fact that CONSTRUTEC is considered one of the leading and most strongly established trade events for the industry, explain why CONSTRUTEC has been chosen as the setting for a meeting of this kind.

During the meeting, architects will repeat the denunciation they have made repeatedly in recent years that architecture competitions tend to grant almost exclusive attention to administrative and financial criteria, to the detriment of technical and professional aspects. According to architecture professionals, the competitions organised by both the Government and by private bodies grant almost no value to the efforts of architects and the value-added dimension they contribute to building projects, as witnessed by the low prize money offered at these competitions and the absence of any reward in the case of runners-up and those who are not even selected.

Another of the complaints that architects make is that their work is very often confused with that of project execution, when architecture really constitutes an eminently intellectual and creative discipline, making a decisive contribution in terms of enriching and enhancing our cultural heritage.

With this Forum, COAM aims to open up the debate in order to include all members of the industry, encouraging them to search for alternatives to the current Law on Public Sector Agreements, LCSP, the legislation that regulates architecture competitions at present. These kinds of competition offer considerable possibilities in terms of promoting research and job canvassing and allocation.

In order to generate a debate and bring together different ideas regarding this matter, the Architecture Competitions Department of Madrid, COAM (C/San Lucas, 6, local - 28004 Madrid, Tel. +34 91 700 1138 - Fax. 91 700 11 89; concursos@coam.org – www.coam.es/concursos) has set a deadline for ideas and proposals to be sent in regarding questions such as "Open and Restricted Competitions"; "Professional Solvency"; "Theoretical Concepts and Approaches in Research Competitions"; "Competitions As a Policy Planning Tool"; "Experience and Juries: Interpretative Quality in the Design of Competitions"; "Stagnation and Public Tenders: The Impact of the Law on Public Sector Agreements (LCSP)"; and "The Creation of Historical Heritage through the Staging of Architecture Competitions".

These proposals, either in text or Powerpoint version, must be sent in PDF format to the address, concursos@coam.org, before 9th September 2010. These ideas will be posted on the COAM web page.

With regard to the Programme for the Debate on Architecture Competitions, which is currently being finalised and will be staged within the framework of CONSTRUTEC, various themes that are due to be tackled can already be highlighted. Thus, on Tuesday 28th September 2010 the participants will address the themes "Un-Rewarded Efforts - Open and Restricted Competitions" (5.00 p.m. to 6.30 p.m.) and "Experience and Juries: Interpretative Quality in the Design of Competitions" (7.00 p.m. to 8.30 p.m.). The debates will conclude on 29th September by analysing the themes "Demands for Professional Solvency" (5.00 p.m. to 6.30 p.m.) and "Competitions As a Policy Planning Tool" (7.00 p.m. to 8.30 p.m.).

The Building Exhibition, CONSTRUTEC 2010, a fair organised by IFEMA, will take place between 28th September and 1st October next at Feria de Madrid, based on the wide-ranging participation of building material manufacturers and distributors.

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