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Kaohsiung Maritime Competition - Canceled After Submisssion Deadline!
Posted: Tuesday, June 08, 2010 | ↓ 14 comments
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We’ve just been informed that the Kaohsiung Maritime Cultural & Popular Music Center International Competition has been suspended. This would not normally be big news, but news of the suspension was made today, a day after the submission deadline! One of our readers, and competition participant, sent us the following in an email:

View this competition brief:

Update! View this related article:

Update! View this related article:

Update! View this related article:

Update! View this related article:

Update! View this related article:

As someone who dedicated many hours to this competition, and on behalf of my boss who spent thousands of dollars to produce and ship 15 (30 pg) books as per the submission requirements. We find this suspension to be an outrage.

According to the letter on the competition website, all proposals will be returned without opening. What we are wondering is, if this suspension, and participants were notified AFTER having sent in the submission, why doesn’t the competition archive all the submissions for evaluation at a later date rather than send them back with no consolation for the participants?

Our office is still awaiting clarification from the competition officials…

News of the suspension in confirmed on their website here, with the following message:

Date: June 8th, 2010
Dear Competition Participants:

Thank you for your participation in the Kaohsiung Maritime Cultural & Popular Music Center International Competition Project.

In order to ensure the process of the competition is conduced flawlessly, after thoughtful consideration, Kaohsiung City Government has decided to temporary suspend the competition. The delivered proposals will be returned without opening as soon as possible. For further information about the re-announcement of the competition, please visit our web site at: www.kpop.com.tw.

I hope you can accept my sincerely apology. Thank you for your understanding.

Sincerely Yours,
Construction Office, Public Works Bureau,
Kaohsiung City Government, Taiwan, R.O.C.

Did you participate in this competition? What are your thoughts?



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Tags for this entry:
sketchy, suspended, canceled
Comments:
Sivan Amar
NY, NY
Wednesday, June 09, 2010
My firm participated, the entire office was working on this non-stop, weekends forfeited, sleep forfeited, all apparently for nothing! we're all deeply upset that we can't get back all that time and energy we spent working on this project. How can KPOP do this?

Tracy
Geneve
Wednesday, June 09, 2010
me too. My team have worked 3 weeks without any day off, thousands dollars just for print and 1 person flied to Taiwan with 30kgs of 15 books. and they was delivered successfully to their office right at the last day and no problem. how could they inform something like that right after the deadline??? they even updated news on June 02, just 6 days before they stopped the competition. I checks Taiwan news several times today, just for my hope that the website was illegally hacked. Never work with Taiwanese again

Paul Petrunia
Los Angeles, CA
Wednesday, June 09, 2010
More comments on Archinect

a designer
Los Angeles, CA
Wednesday, June 09, 2010
Soooo weak... Apparently legitimate professional competitions don't exist anymore.

They probably suspended because the firm that they already knew they were going to choose didn't submit.

Completely disheartening, and I question the ethic of how the whole situation transpired.

This line of the apology is laughable:

"In order to ensure the process of the competition is conduced flawlessly, after thoughtful consideration"

architect?
Taipei
Wednesday, June 09, 2010
some people here in Taiwan couldn't believe this happened as well, though - if you check the backgrounds of the jury - there are people seem... not qualified being such professional position - to say this in another way, the city gov. might have invited them just because they "wanted" to be a part of the jury...for fame...for "relationship"...shame...

rojiar soleimani
vienna ,austria
Thursday, June 10, 2010
i am really upset ,i spent about one month on this project and my chef spent thousands of euros on mailing and preparing 15 copies for the competition ,it seems really funny ,how can they explain it and apology when they claim about the suspension one day after the submission deadline ....

wizzleteet
yugoslavia
Thursday, June 10, 2010
we all cry outrage, but come on!
think about it, aren't all open unpaid competitions an economic crime of sorts ?
30 page booklet times -say- 100 entries.
which jury on earth is going to read 3000 pages ?
Winners being selected for other reasons than content, we all know the stories.
Then , one winner, 99 losers worked for nothing.
What does winner get ? Price money ? Barely covers costs. Commission ? Not always, but if you're lucky they'll grant you your work and first thing on the agenda is skipping the first design phase, the competition was the first phase, right ? Nevermind that the program got changed.
Work like a dog, spending money for the minute chance to get actually compensated and a client that does not take you seriously, because you went along with all their bullshit in the first place.
We have nobody but ourselves to blame for being such enormous chumps.

Arman Chowdhury
philadelphia
Thursday, June 10, 2010
i read the above comments and i couldn't agree more. we worked on our proposal for the last two months, sometimes after work hrs. and during weekends. this shows how un professional the Kaoshiung Govt. representatives are ! we should be refunded on printing and postal cost on the least, let alone the man hrs!

these are the rules of any design competition : since the cost of the entries are borne by the participants they are entitled to fair judging and expedited result publication. never can you cancel a competition or postpone it.

shame on you kaoshiung!

architect
los angeles
Thursday, June 10, 2010
wizzleteet, architects take on the risk of the cost of a competition because they have a passion for design and are confident in their ability to win. blame ourselves for what? believing in fair competition? no one is to blame except the competition officials.

wizzleteet
yugoslavia
Thursday, June 10, 2010
dear architect,

since we are so collectively confident in our ideas we have no problem giving them away for free.
This is not smart, but not my point.
My point is that our unbridled ambition and confidence are subject to exploitation.
My point is that a line has been crossed.

Solutions? Plenty, in no particular order:
1. pay, doesn't matter what, more a token of commitment, really.
2. only allow individual architects, no firms. this is to assure that the deliverables are of a simple scope, managable by one person and to halt the inflation of deliverables we've seen.
3. on the competition website it show the actual number of expected entries, to keep competitions that cannot be judged due to sheer numbers at bay.
4. max the total allowable entries to 50, variation on #3.
5. the winner's commission contract is publicized in advance, when it's the size of a phone book, you might want to reconsider entering. The architect shows its colors, so should the client.
6. winner is guaranteed a commission.

architect
los angeles
Friday, June 11, 2010
7. competition officials should give participating architects back massages.

wizzle, let me know when we live in a world when we get everything our way, in the meantime, i'm fine with a world where competition officials simply abide by the rules and ethics of fair competition (and rules that participants agree to follow).

kos
Greece
Saturday, June 12, 2010
shame on taiwan.

The only reason to cancel a competition after deadline is the low participation which in this situation is not the case.

UIA should denounce the competition.

shame on Taiwan

archt
Philippines
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Lucky for me that last april i decided not to join the invited competition. I learned lesson from previous competition in taiwan like TPAC & TPMC. Its always a political architecture.

smoothcore architectes
paris
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
we are organising a book and exhibition in Paris.
send all project on this link!!

http://www.facebook.com/photo_search.php?oid=127740050590045&view=user#!/group.php?gid=127740050590045

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