Gateway Goes For Guild

Result

RCKarchitects has been selected as the winner of the Gateway goes for Guild Social Housing competition. They will work with Community Gateways, Preston’s largest housing association to deliver a social housing development in Preston city for occupation in 2012, to coincide with and celebrate Preston Guild 2012.

Preston Guild is a famous and unique celebration with more than 800 years of tradition. The Guild dates back to the granting of Preston's first Charter by King Henry in 1179. Linking the city's glorious heritage and past with its ambitions for the future, the Guild is Preston's most important and historic event and is held every 20 years. The next Guild is in 2012 with the theme of “Innovation and Creativity”.

Launched in September 2009, the competition invited Architects to develop innovative design proposals for a social housing development in the centre of Preston, where people would aspire to live. The winning scheme, with an emphasis on design quality and energy efficiency, was to be a project demonstrating that affordable does not equate to ordinary, and act as an exemplar for future social housing developments in Preston and elsewhere. The competition attracted seventy four entries to the anonymous open first stage from which a short list of four teams were invited to attend an interview to expand on their first stage submission and discuss their working methods with members of the Assessment Panel. The other teams selected to take part in the interview stage were:

Conran & Partners, London
KOSI Architects, Chichester
Original Field of Architecture, Oxford

Overview

The competition seeks submissions for a two stage competition for the design of a new social housing scheme for a city centre site in Preston Lancashire.

Description
Preston Guild is a famous and unique celebration with more than 800 years of tradition. Linking the city's glorious heritage and past with its ambitions for the future, the Guild is Preston's most important and historic event and is held every 20 years. The next Guild is in 2012 with the theme of "Innovation and Creativity". Community Gateway Association, as the largest housing association in Preston, and working in partnership with Preston City Council, is keen to be involved and is sponsoring this architectural competition with the aim, subject to funding availability, to have the selected scheme built and occupied by the time of the main Guild events in mid-2012.
Architects are invited to develop innovative design proposals for a social housing development in the centre of Preston, where people will aspire to live. The winning scheme, with an emphasis on design quality and energy efficiency, will be a project demonstrating that affordable does not equate to ordinary, and should act as an exemplar for future social housing developments in Preston and elsewhere.
The overall development should be capable of being delivered within the client’s works only budget of £1.1 million pounds (based on July 2009 costs), but may vary depending on the number of units proposed, their size, mix and configuration, together with any other attributes the scheme may bring.

Jury
Jackie Dixon (Community Gateway, Board Member and tenant)
Nigel Roberts (Conservation Officer/Principal Urban Designer, Preston City Council)
Dave Warlow (Director of Operations, Community Gateway Association)
Peter Hodgson (Architect)
Gill Robinson (RIBA Adviser)

Prize
Each team invited to take part in the second phase of this competition will receive a payment of £3000.

Entry Fee
None

Entries
An A1 lightweight board (portrait) and an accompanying report (a maximum of 4 A4 pages) and a CD ROM containing pdf datas

Submission Address
Gateway goes for Guild Competition
RIBA Competitions Office
6 Melbourne Street
Leeds
LS2 7PS
UK

Timetable
Site visit: Week commencing 21st September
First stage Assessment: Week commencing 2nd November
Announce shortlist: Week commencing 9th November
Provide feedback to shortlisted teams: Week commencing 16th November
Final Interviews: Week commencing 7th December
Result: Week commencing 14th December

Organizer
Community Gateway Association

Official Website
http://www.gatewaygoesforguild.com/