WPA 2.0 - Whoever rules the sewers, rules the city

An open design competition for working public architecture

Description
cityLAB, an urban think tank at UCLA’s Department of Architecture and Urban Design, announces a call for entries to “WPA 2.0: Working Public Architecture.” WPA 2.0 is an open competition that seeks innovative, implementable proposals to place infrastructure at the heart of rebuilding our cities during this next era of metropolitan recovery. WPA 2.0 recalls the Depression-era Works Projects Administration (1935-43), which built public buildings, parks, bridges, and roads across the nation as an investment in the future—one that has, in turn, become a lasting legacy. We encourage projects that explore the value of infrastructure not only as an engineering endeavor, but as a robust design opportunity to strengthen communities and revitalize cities. Unlike the previous era, the next generation of such projects will require surgical integration into the existing urban fabric, and will work by intentionally linking systems of points, lines and landscapes; hybridizing economies with ecologies; and overlapping architecture with planning. This notion of infrastructural systems is intentionally broad, including but not limited to parks, schools, open space, vehicle storage, sewers, roads, transportation, storm water, waste, food systems, recreation, local economies, 'green' infrastructure, fire prevention, markets, landfills, energy-generating facilities, cemeteries, and smart utilities.

Jury
Stan Allen (Principal, Stan Allen Architect; Dean, Princeton University)
Cecil Balmond (Deputy Chairman, Ove Arup and Partners; Cret Chair, University of Pennsylvania)
Elizabeth Diller (Principal, Diller Scofidio + Renfro; Professor, Princeton University)
Walter Hood (Principal, Hood Design Urban Landscape + Site Architecture; Professor, Berkeley)
Thom Mayne (Principal, Morphosis; Professor, UCLA)
Marilyn Taylor (Partner, Skidmore Owings & Merrill; Dean, University of Pennsylvania)

Prize
- Professional
Finalists (6): $5,000, Presentation at the National Building Museum, Exhibition
- Student
The First prize: $500
Finalists (up to 6): Exhibition, Invitation to the symposium

Entry Fee
$100 per professional team
$40 per student or recent graduate (spring 09)

Submission Address
cityLAB
Department of Architecture and Urban Design
1317 Perloff Hall, Box 951467
University of California
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1467

Timetable
- Professional
Finalists announced: August 21, 2009
Finalists in LA for Experts Workshop: September 11-12, 2009
Phase 2 Submittals DUE: November 10, 2009
Symposium and Exhibition in Washington, DC: November 16, 2009
Web exhibition launched: February 2010
- Student
Student finalists announced: November 10, 2009
Symposium and Exhibition in Washington, DC: November 16, 2009
Student Prize Awarded: November 16, 2009
Web exhibition launched: February 2010

Organizer
cityLAB

Official Website
http://wpa2.aud.ucla.edu/info/