CALL FOR ENTRIES
EXPLORING THE AESTHETICS OF LANDSCAPE EXPERIENCE IN THE AGE OF SUSTAINABILITY
AN INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION FOR BUILT AND VISIONARY (UNBUILT) RESIDENTIAL LANDSCAPES
Background
For most, James Rose is remembered as one of three Harvard students who rebelled against their Beaux Arts training in the 1930s, helping to usher landscape architecture—kicking and screaming—into the modern era. Yet somewhere after Harvard and well into the real world, Rose lost faith in the modern planning and design professions he had helped to inspire. By the mid 1950s he had retreated from public practice and spent most of the latter part of his career designing private gardens that were in direct contrast to the environmental excess and cultural banality of the emerging contemporary post-WWII suburb.
These built critiques were made with found objects, recycled left-over materials, native plants and whatever he could scavenge from the sites themselves. He called them “space-sculptures-with-shelters,” and they reflected the creative, spatial and artistic nature of the garden in ways that were greener, more economical and less wasteful of resources. In doing so, Rose incorporated a conservation ethic into a modern design aesthetic, skillfully choreographing outdoor spatial experiences that inspire us to better perceive our relationship with the environment. Today, in the age of sustainability, it is equally, if not more, important to employ contemporary green technologies within the context of the aesthetics of landscape experience.
The Competition
The goal of Suburbia Transformed 2.0 is to promote and celebrate residential designs that go beyond “green” by explicitly using sustainable strategies, tactics and technologies to enrich the aesthetic spatial experience of people. ST 2.0 will assemble contemporary projects achieving this goal into an exhibition and catalogue. The emphasis is on how such sustainable landscapes can be beautiful, inspiring, perhaps profound; and serve as examples for transforming the suburban residential fabric, one garden at a time.
Significantly, this year’s version, ST 2.0, invites the submission of visionary (unbuilt) work, along with built projects. Our hope is to trigger an instructive dialog between design that has been built and that which is untethered to the construction process. Such a curatorial stance has the additional benefit of opening up the competition to students, as well as professionals.
Eligibility
Open to all, including landscape architects, landscape designers, architects, individuals, teams or firms…and students of design whose work will be judged in a separate category.
Submission Requirements
We seek solutions to the ubiquitous small-lot, detached single-family, residential condition in the hope that we may better understand how to transform suburbia. Therefore, submissions must be for two-acre or less residentially zoned single-family properties. A submission with a newly built house is allowed as long as the lot was part of a pre-existing subdivision or town property. Distance from an urban center is not relevant for the purpose of this competition.
Each entry must be submitted on a CD to include the components in the order listed below and sent to:
- ST2.0 Competition Administrator
- 58 Brook Circle
- Boulder, CO 80302
Submission Components:
1. Main submission:
A multi-page PDF document that includes the following in the order listed:
- a. A 250-word or less description of the overall project specifically addressing how the project responds to the competition goal and design criteria
- b. Existing Conditions Plan showing topography, planting, and structures (including first floor plan where appropriate), as well as any other relevant site and immediate context conditions
- c. Site Design Plan
- d. Eight to fifteen (8-15) images keyed to the site plan with captions describing relevance to the competition goal and design criteria.*
- *For visionary (unbuilt) projects on real sites only, to better communicate the intended spatial experience, a minimum of two detailed cross sections at 1”=10’-0” or larger is required.
2. Supporting files:
A digital folder consisting of separate image files for all images used in the main submission. This will be for exhibition and publication purposes, and files must be of high quality and high-resolution. All photographs, drawings, plans, and cross sections must be in .jpg or .tiff format at a minimum of 300 ppi (pixels per inch) at 16” x 20”. **
- **Entrants are responsible for obtaining permission for photographs with photographers for publication and reproduction by the James Rose Center. The James Rose Center will provide proper credit for photographs and other images, but will not assume responsibility for any copyrights or photography fees. The James Rose Center retains the right to publish, exhibit, and publicize all materials submitted.
The CD shall be identified only by the number you have received upon confirmation via email of your Entry Form. Place the CD in a transparent case also labeled with the entry number. No logos or other form of identification shall be seen on the submissions. CD submissions must be received by March 9, 2012 no later than 5:00 PM. All submissions become the property of the James Rose Center.
The jury will review the submissions and select up to twelve outstanding projects in each category: built work; professional visionary (unbuilt) work, and student visionary (unbuilt) work. Those selected shall receive notification shortly after the jury makes their selection. The James Rose Center shall assemble exhibition displays and an exhibition catalogue from the submitted work. (See www.jamesrosecenter.org for an example of the 2010 exhibition) Exhibited work shall become the property of the James Rose Center.
Design Criteria for Judging
Selected submissions must provide landscape experiences that are beautiful, inspiring and/or profound; in so doing they should:
- Make the most of what’s already on the site (earth, rocks, plants, structures, water) before importing or removing anything
- Use local, inexpensive, low-energy-consumptive, non-polluting materials and construction techniques before others
- Consider the landscape’s potential to create useful resources rather than consume them
- Consider the relationship of the site to larger environmental systems
- Consider means for guiding future growth and evolution of the garden
Jurors
- Cornelia Oberlander OC, FASLA, FCSLA, LMBCSLA, Landscape Architect
- Meg Calkins, LEED AP, ASLA, Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture, Ball State University
- Matthew Urbanski, Principal, Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, Inc., Landscape Architects, P.C.
- Joseph S. R. Volpe, Professor, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
- Julie Bargmann, Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture, University of Virginia; Founding Principal, D.I.R.T. studio.
Selected Outstanding Projects Receive
- Public exhibition at the James Rose Center
- Publication of work in select design periodicals
- Publication of work in exhibition catalogue
- Copies of catalogue at reduced rate
- Recognition on the James Rose Center and NJASLA websites among others
- A framed custom awards certificate, presented at the opening reception
- Professional photograph of award presentation for publicity purposes
- Further exposure through traveling exhibition
Schedule
Aug 15, 2011 Call for Entries posted
Feb 17, 2012 Entry Form and fee due
Mar 09, 2012 CD submission due
Mar 24, 2012 Jury convenes
May 19, 2012 Opening Reception at James Rose Center
Aug 31, 2012 Exhibition travels
To Enter
Fill out the Entry Form available on the website, www.jamesrosecenter.org. An entry fee of $95 ($35 for students) must be received together with the Entry Form by February 17, 2012. You may either return the form electronically using PayPal, or mail it with a check payable to the James Rose Center to:
- ST2.0 Competition Administrator
- 58 Brook Circle
- Boulder, CO 80302
We will confirm receipt of your entry form via email and assign you a number to identify your submission. This number must be placed on your CD submission. No other identifying marks are allowed.
Questions
Please email questions to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. by February 1, 2012. We shall reply via email asap. All questions and answers shall be posted on the James Rose Center website by February 13, 2012.
