Somebody help me!

Wasn't this competition supposed to be an international competition?

Let me see

Jury_ (European)
Benetton_Italian (European)
Winners- all (European) 3 italians. except the honorable mention.

So let me see out of all the entrants who participated from all around the world, none of them made them? I am not sure but this is kind of strange.

I smell conspiracy in here.

cheers

Conspiracy? Why? The projects selected are actually quite nice...Especially if you consider the recent Thyssenkrup Competition debacle.

Just because Europeans responded with better designs, doesn't mean it's a rigged competition.

Settle down! Progress is being made: only one project features a curtain wall derived from Arabic geometric patterns. Imagine how patronizing it COULD have been!

another one of these lace curtain things...i cant believe this was a winner? what is going on?
has anyone seen the entries for the 2010 shanghai world expo? carbon copy. come on guys...can we start thinking original?

The results are pretty good - there is much more pragmatic considerations when it comes to planning for offices/retail than in most international competitions - eventhough here the information given in the brief was quite poor (context, traffic, ...)

To get stuck with the orientalistic ornament is not productive - probably 1/3 of the entrants had something like that in the proposals. The strenghts of the winners are elsewhere.

It's refereshing to see an international competition where the jury as well as the entrants obviously did a good/thorough job. And as for the suspicion of conspiracy... that post was most likely a joke. (and "europe" is far from a homogenous zone)

what is it with online competitions?
how come they don't showcase all the results online?
when you upload the least for the organizers is to upload the non winners results on their website?

I found the way
1-non originality,copy of OMA works or zaha cubic projects,naive form and no consideration of spatial relations are the keys to win architectural competitions.
2-the project A winner misconception of Persian motives and use of Arabic motives and environment is so funny
3- juries must spend a few times at contemporary architectural courses

Once again it's been proved: winning competitions in our times is a sign for mediocrity

I'm wondering whether any of the winners had ever been to Tehran... Obviously not, such as the jury members themselves. It's embarrassing, especially for everyone who knows Tehran as a city, it's roughness and multiplicity, it's boldness and complexity. Its inconvenience. None of these slick designs reflects its character.

I think there was actually an important comment about the winners and their origin. Many architects from Iran, or Iranian architects abroad had participated as well. Apparently their designs did not please the taste of the jury. The question is if Tehran itself would please the taste of the jury. I don't think so. I think they rather perceive Tehran as a market such as any other city on earth, with the only difference that it's in the Middle East (the Dubai-esque feel of the designs pays tribute to this). In reality Tehran is not like other cities in the world, it's one of the few places on earth that has a rather inconvenient character that upsets many who live in it and many who travel there. Something that is a challenge to every architect, a challenge to our discipline and our dogmas. How on earth could those winning designs be acceptable in this light? Probably because our discipline became hopelessly ignorant.

As an american-born designer whose family is from Iran, I must say I agree with Niloufar. These images are beautiful and compelling but LACK any concern or reference to the complexities of the Iranian city. The real winning design would be one which addresses the existing fabric of Teheran and makes a distinct statement about moving forward that is representative of the uniqueness of place... you cannot ignore context like this in Teheran, or in any city for that matter.

I might be wrong but I have a strong feeling why they pick only europe winners, perhaps has to do with their copyright laws listed on the competition listing.

---->"By the payment of prizes to the winners and the remaining finalists, Benetton Group acquires all property rights and remaining rights specified in Italian law 633 of 1941, over planning documents, drawings, plans, works and anything else produced by the three finalists for A and the three finalists for B for participation in the contest.

Benetton Group may transfer these rights to Italian companies interested in the projects, and may promote the projects to Italian and foreign companies.<-------

Like I said I might be wrong, but please! out of some many world entries all 6 entries european?

cheers

Much of the criticism is misplaced and shows some lack of knowledge about this particular competition.

- context was not that important, when you consider the materials that the competitors were given: very flimsy site-information, low-res pictures and no detailed information concerning the locations.

- the "mediocrity" that is stated in some of the criticism stems most likely from the buildability of the schemes. Unlike many competitions in other regions, there actually is in some european (scandinavian, british, ...) competitions the underlying idea that the chosen concepts should be buildable. This may lead to stuff looking like "buildings" (mediocre/boring) more than some xefirotarch-goo (exiting/"emerging"/"potentially interesting").

- the nature of the competition - obviously aiming at solutions that are buildable, elegant but pragmatic - might have tilted the jury towards architectural cultures where these values are prized (prevalent in some european schools/countries) - so, the results show quite a homogenous collection of architectural ideas. There is nothing wrong with that - the choices are rational and calculated and you can see the logic behind them (the goals of the judges are also stated in the competition brief) - you can argue with the taste and priorities of the judges, but they seem to have done their job carefully and well.

- and again... Europe is not a country or an architectural style. please, people... If you feel like your country was not represented, it does not mean it was discriminated. There just wasn't any proposals worth noting from there. (Also, no cabal involving Italian copyright laws is to blame.... better luck next time.)

i completely agree with shabnam and nilufar ,i just want to know if the competitions are held to prepare the place of rethinking about architectural projects ( they could be easily commissioned) ,so originality would be the first regulation .how could you do nothing with form,spatial relations,CONTEXT(dear tommy context is not a local feature,it is a global notion after modernism) and configure the project in the state of first choice that ever get through mind and win the competition.
i participated in this competition with project A and I'm surprised especially with the catastrophe of project B .this is la fall for a potential perfect experience in architectural competitions.
bustler could u post a topic for non winners projects?

what a homogeneous world all countries in middle east have the same character and clothes,,,,

this is not the matter of identity ,this the matter of architectural profession .contextual approach is the reflective issue of designer qualification not the design style.and when it gets wrong ,ooo

so to all the designers around the world in upcoming competition please don't use the same arch models , personage and (3dmax opacity map) of same wrong , repeated, strange patterns in your projects.whether it is in Tehran or Amsterdam.

I admire the comments by iranian friends:Shabnam, Nilufar and Ramin and agree with them.
I honestly think there is a misunderstanding about some projects and view of points by jury.... Because there is not any vision which connect the winner projects together, while the projects are the same...
The city and its family(street,context,atmosphere,environment,
place,urban,... is losed in winner projects.

Me and my friends in Iran are publishing our projects for Benetton competition to discuss about them and understand what is the criteria?

http://www.Tehranbenetton.blogspot.com

Wait for iranian architects to visit our blog.....
Wait for comments....

"Understandable English" is also a global notion, dear Ramin, but seemingly hard to grasp for many.

Hope you get a good discussion going on your blog and report your findings to the rest of the world. The views on the site do look interesting, hope to see more (Ideally the Benetton people would have published all entries online, shame that they didn't.)

agree with my irainian friends!
the result of competition shows unfamiliar and misunderstanding of persian culture, persian identity, persian paradigms, persian patterns, persian ... ! and so misusage of those! ...

Have you seen this?

http://ciudaddelflamenco.jerez.es/en_proyecto.htm

I am sure the first winner of project A knows what I mean.........

Seems the jury did not bother themselves to look at architectural journals
like "domus 867"

and the second winner of project A

have seen this project for sure


http://www.archdaily.com/13237/tenerife-espacio-de-las-artes-herzog-de-meuron-by-iwan-baan/

again by herzog & de Meuron

and to let the 3rd winner of project A know that

there is no access to this project from behind

it is blocked by neighbor buildings

you may want to enter Benetton building through

neighbor houses!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It is a shame for jury not to notice this

I like the First winner of project B ,


and about 3rd winner of project B

Sorry It is not worth a comment

shameful I think!
saw these projects before too ,but not with ur attention it will be helpful for jury too see how much their selections really worth!!!
thanks for ur notice Good Architect !

but fake is a fact in todayes architecture and so architecture competition, if it was effective to solve these problem i see u more emulates in projects , winner or losers !!!

At the end of the day, this competition has nothing to do with good design or good architecture, is more about a sense of style and repetition we see everyday in every design magazine, professional practice and sadly in school. Everyone is trying to make the same thing, just bit different.

If this competition was to be judged by a local Iranian jury the results would have been completely different.

Is just the way it is....

I completely agree with your comment but did you guys hear what happened in Iran lately with the burned down of one of Benetton stores. I could you ever run a competition with an iranian jury without still expecting suppression/oppression of genuine choices. I mean there would have had some intimidation because of the image the store represent and the ideal some would have seen and associated to the west.

Although, I found that two iranian proposal that had more content and shows more relevancy to culture and such, this is without forgetting they had a greater advantage to site access.