The Politics of Design: Competitions for Public Projects
by Anthony Shorris, Director of Policy Research Institute for the Region at Princeton University
In 2005, Princeton University's Policy Research Institute for the Region joined with the University's School of Architecture and the Van Alen Institute to study the dynamics of an increasingly important process shaping landscapes across the region and the world: the design competition. These competitions, which pit architects and planners against one another for contracts to design major public projects, are not only channels for billions of dollars in public money, but lenses through which we envision the future of our cities and towns. Design competitions, as many of the contributors to this volume emphasized, are among our best opportunities for wide-ranging debates on what kind of environments, and societies, we want to build for ourselves. And the process by which they operate teach us other important lessons about the workings of our own public sector and civil society.
That being said, the design competition–long a fixture of European public planning–is still taking form in America. As some of the best examples of American design competitions have taken place here in the region, it seemed like an ideal topic for the Policy Research Institute and its partners to examine.
The Policy Research Institute for the Region is focused on applying the human capital of Princeton University to the problems of the New York City and Philadelphia metropolitan areas and the State of New Jersey. To put it another way, we are dedicated to thinking about how to solve problems that cross boundaries–political and geographic boundaries, but also disciplinary boundaries. So with this project, we did not focus on just the architectural aspects of design competitions, or the planning, economic, public policy, or political aspects. Rather, we tried to bring all of these perspectives together to develop a more comprehensive understanding of how design competitions work in an American, and especially a regional context.
At the same time, we also crossed a relatively new set of boundaries for us. For this project, we had to cross continents. We cannot understand how design competitions work here without learning lessons from the venerable and thriving tradition of European design competitions. So when we assembled our group of experts, we made a point of reaching out to people like Deyan Sudjic of London's prestigious Kingston University Faculty of Art, Design, and Architecture, Richard Burdett, of the London School of Economics, and Mels Crouwel, chief government architect for the Netherlands. Their knowledge, coupled with that of noted experts from here in the U.S., provides, we think, a unique view into the dynamics of design competitions.
As always, we would like to thank our partners in the School of Architecture at Princeton and at the Van Alen Institute for their invaluable contributions to this volume and to the conference on which it is based. We could not have been successful without them.
(Text taken from preface to The Politics of Design: Competitions for Public Projects.)
Please visit the Policy Research Institute for the Region website for more information on this conference and to view webcasts from the event.
by Anthony Shorris, Director of Policy Research Institute for the Region at Princeton University
In 2005, Princeton University's Policy Research Institute for the Region joined with the University's School of Architecture and the Van Alen Institute to study the dynamics of an increasingly important process shaping landscapes across the region and the world: the design competition. These competitions, which pit architects and planners against one another for contracts to design major public projects, are not only channels for billions of dollars in public money, but lenses through which we envision the future of our cities and towns. Design competitions, as many of the contributors to this volume emphasized, are among our best opportunities for wide-ranging debates on what kind of environments, and societies, we want to build for ourselves. And the process by which they operate teach us other important lessons about the workings of our own public sector and civil society.
That being said, the design competition–long a fixture of European public planning–is still taking form in America. As some of the best examples of American design competitions have taken place here in the region, it seemed like an ideal topic for the Policy Research Institute and its partners to examine.
The Policy Research Institute for the Region is focused on applying the human capital of Princeton University to the problems of the New York City and Philadelphia metropolitan areas and the State of New Jersey. To put it another way, we are dedicated to thinking about how to solve problems that cross boundaries–political and geographic boundaries, but also disciplinary boundaries. So with this project, we did not focus on just the architectural aspects of design competitions, or the planning, economic, public policy, or political aspects. Rather, we tried to bring all of these perspectives together to develop a more comprehensive understanding of how design competitions work in an American, and especially a regional context.
At the same time, we also crossed a relatively new set of boundaries for us. For this project, we had to cross continents. We cannot understand how design competitions work here without learning lessons from the venerable and thriving tradition of European design competitions. So when we assembled our group of experts, we made a point of reaching out to people like Deyan Sudjic of London's prestigious Kingston University Faculty of Art, Design, and Architecture, Richard Burdett, of the London School of Economics, and Mels Crouwel, chief government architect for the Netherlands. Their knowledge, coupled with that of noted experts from here in the U.S., provides, we think, a unique view into the dynamics of design competitions.
As always, we would like to thank our partners in the School of Architecture at Princeton and at the Van Alen Institute for their invaluable contributions to this volume and to the conference on which it is based. We could not have been successful without them.
(Text taken from preface to The Politics of Design: Competitions for Public Projects.)
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Please visit the Policy Research Institute for the Region website for more information on this conference and to view webcasts from the event.