At its narrowest, the Strait of Hormuz is only 39 kilometers or 21 nautical miles wide. At its widest, a world apart. A strategic chokepoint, it is the only sea connection between the Gulf and the ocean; one fifth of all global oil shipments pass through it each year. The Strait of Hormuz is crucial to the economies of the future: 85% of those barrels head towards the Asian powerhouses of India, China, South Korea and Japan.

This is an open call for an international architectural competition that bridges this narrow/wide gap, and envisions the geopolitical future of the Strait of Hormuz. The competition seeks proposals for a bridge or other structure that connects both coasts/sides of the Gulf. Speculation and design fiction are welcome. Entries should keep in mind the traces of a post-petroleum future.

What if we by-pass the Silk Route to connect Africa and Asia?

The open competition, hosted by the Gulf Architecture Biennial, aims to generate new new new architectural ideas. There are no plans for the Hormuz Bridge to be built.

This is a single stage competition. We encourage applications from architects, engineers, writers, artists, students, and especially, interdisciplinary teams. Selected entries will be published in the first volume of the Gulf Architecture Biennial and exhibited publically.  No registration or fee is required. Teams can submit more than one entry.  All submissions are accepted digitally by email addressed to:  

book01@gulfarchitecturebiennial.com

Participants must submit:

1. Word Document: 800 to 1000 words text that describes the proposal, entry title, team member names and contact details.
2. Two A2 Panels (594x420 mm or 23.4x16.5 in), format PDF, JPEG or TIFF. CMYK in 300 dpi. The Panels must not include any team member name, just the entry title.

Calendar:

1. Competition launch:  12 November 2013
2. Submission deadline: 12 January 2014
3. Results announcement:  24 January 2014
4. Publication launch: 02 March 2014

1st Award 750 USD
2nd Award 500 USD
3rd Award 250 USD

The rest of the selected entries will be published in the first volume of the Gulf Architecture Biennial.

The international jury will be announced soon.

NEW NEW NEW

The Gulf Architecture Biennial is a publishing house project that proposes to explore the scripts/scores for the invention of a NEW NEW NEW architecture pertinent to this time.

From the biennial as paradigm of the architecture on display towards a biennial as publishing project, true process of production and dissemination. The book as the ultimate display strategy given the conspicuous depletion of the biennials and the other forms of architecture on display so absorbed in dealing with the current self-inflicted situation, where contemporary architectural culture is made by few for a few others, irrelevant and with little interest for the public audience.

Starting in February 2014, The Gulf Architecture Biennial will be a 15-month project, composed of a selection of little publications, compiling content overlooked by the current prevailing content coiners.  Each little publication will be able to act independently, and with the possibility of being unfolded or deployed in different geographic and time conditions.

Three main forms of self-reflective topics are proposed through international competitions, open calls and direct commissions – Gulf, Architecture and Biennial.

Gulf: Is not the Gulf itself the ultimate true format of architecture on display? It turns out that the excess of building production in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries has not been accompanied with architectural culture content, but is it needed?  Just as if the Gulf and its architecture have been able to do what precisely is under discussion, to broaden the public and audience interest. With or without criticism, a global audience consumes Gulf architecture culture.

Architecture: Since the publication of the last relevant architectural books, the territory has been broadened and narrowed at the same time, with a proliferation of new sizes, 2XS, XS, 2XL and 3XL. What is the future of futurism ?

Biennial: The biennials have become the cultural paradigm of the current cloudification process distressing the cultural institutions, where any track of responsibility, answerability, blameworthiness and liability are blurred. Escapism.

The Gulf Architecture Biennial is a collaborative project initiated by Brusselssprout and THE STATE.

Brusselssprout (www.brusselssprout.org) is a curatorial practice based out of Dubai, U.A.E. It focus on contemporary thinking and emergent art. Responsible, among others projects, of Dubai Graphic Encyclopedia, The UAE Art Cartography, The Archive of Mohammed Kazem, Dubai Manifesto I,II,III

THE STATE (www.thestate.ae) is a publishing practice based out of Dubai, UAE. It focuses on South-South reorientations, alternative futurisms, the transition from analogue to digital, and Khaleeji swag.