CUDC launches COLD competition

CUDC launches new competition
COLD (Center for Outdoor Living Design)
COLDSCAPES: New Visions for Cold Weather Cities

"COLDSCAPES: New Visions for Cold Weather Cities" is a multi-disciplinary design competition intended to reveal the often overlooked potential of cold climate cities. COLDSCAPES invites artists, architects, landscape architects, and urban designers to submit conceptual and built projects, of various scales, which reveal exciting opportunities for revitalizing cold climate urban places. The competition is organized by Kent State University's Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative (CUDC).

Intended Visions

COLDSCAPES aims to provoke a critical assessment of idealized representations from warmer seasons and challenge designers to engage more creatively with the unique conditions presented by winter. Submissions should explore new visions and emerging possibilities for enhancing livability in cold weather cities. We're interested in encouraging designers to inspire other designers to become cultural change agents, ultimately enabling cities to embrace their winter identities. Projects may fall within the domain of a particular discipline (architecture, public art, landscape architecture, urban design) or may cross over multiple disciplines. Entrants are encouraged to explore responses within a wide range of scales: city-scale urban form, mid-scale public spaces, or smaller street interventions. The competition does not specify a single site for submissions. Entrants may choose their own specific sites from around the world or submit proposed interventions that could be deployed in multiple geographic locations. The submission should provide an effective visual (and potentially aural, if using video) presentation of a built project or conceptual proposal that responds to critical design questions. What novel urban experiences can designers enable for winter city residents? How can the built environment become more responsive to changing outdoor conditions, enabling long-term resiliency? What visualization techniques can be employed to meaningfully communicate the ephemeral atmospheric qualities of winter environments? How can the urban environment respond to the needs of vulnerable populations in cold climates and increase opportunities for social inclusion?

Submission Format

In order to encourage a broad range of communication techniques, submissions may consist of still images or video. Various kinds of visualizations may be used, optimized for on-screen browsing, such as conceptual perspective renderings, explanatory diagrams, or photographs of built projects. A submission may include a maximum of three images or one video that clearly express the project's cold weather design intent. Each image must be in 16:9 aspect ratio (maximum size of 1024 x 768 pixels), in .jpg, .png, or .pdf format, with a maximum file size of 10 MB for each image. Video submissions must have a 16:9 aspect ratio and no more than 3 minutes in length. Videos must be submitted in .mov format and may be no larger than 100 MB. Submissions will be uploaded to the competition website as digital files. Mailed submissions will not be accepted. (A link to the full registration/submission page will be made available in mid-April 2013. See Competition Guidelines section below.) Creators of winning submissions and honorable mentions may be asked to submit higher resolution versions of their projects for inclusion in the online archive, physical exhibition, and print publication. Please do not include the entrant's name anywhere on the submission, since the submissions will be judged anonymously.

Text

In addition to images or video, entrants are required to submit text describing their projects. The text may be a maximum of 200 words and should focus on communicating the cold weather related design intentions of the submission.

Jury & Awards

A jury of artists and designers familiar with cold weather design issues will select three thought-provoking and visually compelling projects, each to receive a $1,000 award. A larger set of submissions will receive honorable mentions and comprise an online archive, providing an evolving, interactive resource for designers, residents, and public officials in winter weather communities. A final list of jurors will be announced before the registration deadline.

Exhibition & Publication

In addition to the online archive, a curated selection of entries will be included in a physical exhibition in Cleveland, Ohio, currently scheduled for November 2013. Winning entries will be published in Volume 6 of the Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative’s Urban Infill journal series, focused on advancing the design of urban environments for winter weather.

Ownership

By entering the COLDSCAPES competition, entrants grant Kent State University's Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative (CUDC) ownership of all prize-winning and honorable mention design submissions. Entrants acknowledge that the CUDC may exhibit all entries in an online archive, physical exhibition, and print publication. In entering the design competition, entrants grant the CUDC unrestricted license to exercise the entrants' rights regarding their design submissions, including, but not limited to, reproduction, preparation of derivative works, distribution of copies of the design submission, and the right to authorize such use by others.

COLD Competition timeline:

April 1, 2013 - Competition announced

May 24, 2013 - Registration deadline

July 12, 2013 - (6pm EST) Submission deadline

July 26, 2013 - COLDSCAPES competition winners announced

COLD Competition guidelines:

The entry fee is $20 per registrant. Each registrant may submit up to 3 entries. For team submissions with multiple individuals credited, only one registration fee is required. A link to the full registration page will be provided in mid-April 2013, so please enter your contact information to receive an email notification by clicking the "Enter Now" button below:

Enter Now