Many offices in Germany find it difficult to gain a foothold without winning a competition. But without reference projects, they also have little chance of winning. A vicious circle. What reforms does our competition culture need and to what extent does it still make sense for offices to take part in further rankings and awards? We analyze our award culture in October.
The theme of the G+L October issue is competitions. Cover: Joshua Golde via Unsplash
Three office owners, three perspectives.
Do the same people always win in our competitive system? – Yes, no, no. One question, three answers. I won’t reveal who said exactly what here, except to say that I spoke to AW Faust (SINAI), Franz Reschke (FRL) and Martin Rein-Cano (Topotek 1) about the current competition system in Germany in the run-up to this issue. Three office owners, three perspectives. The same applies to the question of whether young offices have a chance in competitions today and whether the jury members who are called upon are actually unbiased. Here again: one question, three answers. Thank you gentlemen. Can’t you have an opinion? It would be easier.
But this is not about easy. This magazine can’t be about easy. Because: competitions are real. A lot. A lot of work. And exhausting. And complex. And sometimes annoying. For everyone involved. Yes, even for the local authorities. And that’s why we’ve made it anything but easy for ourselves with this issue of G+L. In this issue, we celebrate the most outstanding competitions of the last twelve months and at the same time discuss all the issues surrounding the German competition system intensively and provocatively with some of the country’s most renowned planners – a little too heatedly for some. But it’s a hot topic – and so important.
really. much. work.
But this is not about easy. This magazine cannot be about easy. Because competitions are real. A lot of. A lot of work. And exhausting. And complex. And sometimes annoying. For everyone involved. Yes, even for the local authorities. And that’s why we’ve made it anything but easy for ourselves with this issue of G+L. In this issue, we celebrate the most outstanding competitions of the last twelve months and at the same time discuss all the issues surrounding the German competition system intensively and provocatively with some of the country’s most renowned planners – a little too heatedly for some. But it’s a hot topic – and so important.
Small and large miseries
This is because, at their best, competitions ensure the innovation and quality of our building culture in a highly democratic way – and yet the number of competitions is constantly decreasing. And that is “only” the big misery alongside all the smaller miseries, such as the fact that only a certain planning elite still wins all competitions, that young offices are consistently underestimated by municipal awarding authorities (or have no chance at all thanks to bureaucratic hurdles) or that there are far too few open procedures. None of this can contribute to building culture.
Berlin’s competition culture continues to go down the drain, Theresa Keilhacker, President of the Chamber of Architects, told us in an interview. In fact, we have to ask ourselves whether the competition culture in the whole of Germany is going down the drain and whether we urgently need to take countermeasures. What do you say, dear readers? Please write to me.
Theresa Ramisch
Editor-in-chief
The October issue “Competitions” is now available here in the store.
In the last issue of G+L, we took an in-depth look at landscape architecture studies and student work. Read more here.