AIANH Young Architect Design Competition 2012

www.aianhyac.org

Competition Overview:
The AIANH Intern/Young Architect Design Competition was created to provide an opportunity for interns and young architectural professionals to strengthen their design skills, gain recognition, and assist a community with their design challenges. It is open to all New England architectural interns and architects within five years of registration. Participants do not need to be members of AIA.

Urban Bicycle Station:
Imagine walking to a sidewalk corner and finding a public bicycle. With a cellphone call or swipe of a card, you unlock it from its bike rack and ride it across town. Once at your destination, you steer to the closest bike rack and, with one more call or card swipe, return the bike to the public network. You pay a small charge for the trip, and the bike is once again available for the taking.

This vision is not far off for the city of Portsmouth and Bike-sharing programs as described above have become fixtures of progressive cities like Paris, Barcelona, and Montreal. With Montreal and Paris each having over 10,000 bikes at over 500 stations. Bike-sharing is revolutionizing transportation networks and greening the urban fabric.

There has been an increase in the presence and fundamental understanding of bicycles, fueled by urban culture, energy costs, environmental awareness, and lifestyle choice. This positive growth creates the opportunity to propose new civic infrastructures and architectural responses that support the commuter and cultural use of bicycles. With that awareness it is the focus of this competition to design a pubic Urban Bicycle Station in the hopes of establishing a more bike-friendly city that comes to a tectonic resolution responding contextually and culturally from a detail urban analysis of the city of Portsmouth.

Design Problem:
The future of urban transportation, public health, and environmental conserving requires cities to encourage their populations to shift to alternative modes of transportation, with the bicycle offering a leading option. This year's Young Architects Competition challenges each candidate to address these paramount needs through the design of an urban bicycle station near Market Square in downtown Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Some key issues to consider are:
-Links between sustainability, transportation,and a healthy lifestyle.
-The relationship between infrastructure,civic space, and public life.
-Movement, speed, cycling, and the urban experience.
-Bike culture, the desire to celebrate cycling, and the bike itself as an elegant and efficient machine.
-The relationship between a fixed site and a prototypical structure.

www.aianhyac.org

Awards:
1st place: $1000
2nd place: $750
3rd place: $500