THE ARCHITECTURE OF DEGROWTH Free Architecture Competition

THE ARCHITECTURE OF DEGROWTH

BRIEF

An open call for contributors to OAT 2019 will be launched on October 29th. The deadline is 19th November 2018. OAT 2019 will challenge the growth paradigm and investigate the architecture of alternatives. Architects, urban practitioners, activists, novelists, artists, researchers, citizens and others are invited to join this investigation:
The Architecture of Degrowth: An open call
The engine of contemporary architectural production, and the basis of societies around the world, is economic growth. Global political orthodoxy declares GDP growth is always good; that more is more. Throughout the last two centuries increased economic growth brought with it many measures of prosperity, but for many decades now the limits to growth have been visible on the horizon. Social equity, health and wellbeing, quality of life, happiness and other non-monetary measures of success are faltering while resource extraction, greenhouse gas emissions, waste and toxicity, temperatures, sea levels, extreme weather, and many such indicators of climate breakdown make clear daily that the time of this worldview is running out. The next Oslo Architecture Triennale will challenge the supremacy of economic growth and investigate the architecture of alternatives. The festival will explore the buildings, spaces and institutions of a new culture in which economic growth is no longer the basis of societies. The curators have launched this open call inviting architects, urban practitioners, activists, novelists, artists, researchers and citizens to explore the architecture of a new economy in which human and ecological flourishing matter most – the architecture of degrowth.

Institutions of sharing
During the ten-week programme of the Triennale, Oslo’s National Museum of Architecture will undergo a transformation from a gallery of architecture past and present to a library of architectural futures. For centuries, libraries have provided the spatial infrastructure for sharing knowledge, ideas, stories and entertainment freely and widely. As such, libraries play a central role in breaking free from the growth paradigm. The Triennale library will comprise artefacts and installations exploring the architecture of degrowth from multiple perspectives. Drawings, models, materials, artefacts, devices and ideas will be collected and catalogued, and some made available to library members to borrow and use. The library will be a space to linger and learn, a repository of useful and beautiful objects exploring the architecture of a Degrowth economy to be critiqued, measured, studied and enjoyed. This open call invites individuals and multi-disciplinary teams to propose exhibitive, performative and physical submissions that explore the architecture of degrowth in the context of the new library’s collections and facilities.

SCHEDULE

The deadline for submissions is Monday 19th November 1.00 PM Norway. Only digital applications will be accepted. Documents sent after the competition deadline will not be accepted as part of the application. Contributors may submit questions by email to opencall@oslotriennale.no until Monday 5th November. All questions and answers will be published on the website on Friday 9th November.

AWARDS

The receipt of proposals will be acknowledged by e-mail.
The selected contributors will be contacted by the Curators by Monday 3rd December, initiating a development phase taking selected expressions of interest forward into specific contributions for the library, agreement on teams, budgets and a contract. In some cases, the curators may explore the pairing of contributors on the basis of cross-disciplinary overlaps and potentials.
Plans for the library will be finalised early in 2019. Contributions will be received in Oslo in August 2019 for installation. The Oslo Architecture Triennale opens on 26th September and closes on 24th November 2019.

FEES

FREE

JURY

Matthew Dalziel, architect, carpenter and educator. He has taught widely and worked on projects for clients ranging from artists to airports.
Phineas Harper, critic, co-founder of the international debating society Turncoats and Deputy Director of the Architecture Foundation think tank in London.
Cecilie Sachs Olsen, Norwegian artist and post-doctoral urban researcher. She is the founder of the artist collective, zURBS.
Maria Smith, architect and engineer. She is the founder of the transdisciplinary practice Interrobang and co-founder of Studio Weave, a narrative-driven architecture studio.
Interrobang, is a transdisciplinary architecture and engineering practice founded in 2015 within Webb Yates Engineers.

THE ARCHITECTURE OF DEGROWTH Free Architecture Competition