Observing juries in architectural competitions: advantages and paradoxes

! 1! Proposal(for(the:( INTERNATIONAL!CONFERENCE!! ARQUITECTONICS!NETWORK:!MIND,!LAND!AND!SOCIETY! Innovative!and!Interdisciplinary!Research!by!Design:!Education,!Architecture!and!Social! Planning!Participation!! ! Authors:(( Carmela'Cucuzzella,!PhD,!Assistant!Professor! Design!and!Computation!Arts,!Concordia!University,!Montreal,!Canada! Research!Chair!in!Integrated!Design!And!Sustainability!for!the!Built!Environment!! LEAP!lab!(www.leap.umontreal.ca)! ! Jean-Pierre'Chupin,!PhD,!Professor! School!of!Architecture,!Université!de!Montréal,!Montreal,!Canada! Research!Chair!on!Competitions!and!Contemporary!Practices!in!Architecture! LEAP!lab!(www.leap.umontreal.ca)! ! Main(Topic(of(Presentation:"" 4.'Ethnographies'in'the'studios,'Phenomenology,'Social'Dialogy' ! Title(of(Proposed(Presentation:( Observing'Juries'in'Architectural'Competitions:'Advantages'and'Paradoxes' ! Abstract:( For! socio-anthropologist! Jean-Pierre! Boutinet,! the! architecture! project!reveals! theoretical!problems!with!respect!to!the!complexity!of!anticipating!the!form!of!a!place! through!‘design!thinking’((2012).!Weconsider!the!project!as!a!set!of!traces!and!indices! of!design!thinking!and!of!reflexive!practices!embedded!within!the!epistemology!of!‘how! professionals!think!in!action’!(Schön,!1983).!In!a!design!competition,!projects!are!meant! to!be!compared.!! Competitions,! along! with! the! design! projects! that! are! generated! through! this! normally! transparent! device,! are! therefore! understood! as! epistemological! filters,! revealing! phenomenological! situations,! allowing! the! study! of! interdisciplinary! issues! related! to! contemporary! design! projects! (Chupin! et! al.,! 2015;! Anderson,! et! al,! 2013;! Ronn! et! al,! 2010;! Collyer! &! Berk,! 2004).! Some! competitions! act! as! controversial! moments,! while! others,! as! experimental! moments! in! the! design! disciplines! (Yaneva,! 2012;!Lipstadt,!1989,!1991).!! Recent!work!in!competitions!studies!shows!that!from!the!construction!of!the!brief,!to! the!realization!of!the!winning!project,!competitions!are!true!communication!platforms! (Van! Wezemael,! 2011)! however,! these! communicative! exchanges,! these! qualitative! judgments,!also!emphasize!the!value!systems!of!the!various!stakeholders!with!regards! to!design!quality!as!a!whole!(Cucuzzella!&!Chupin,!2013).!In!this!sense,!the!competition! situation!requires!both!a!multiplicity!of!views!and!a!representative!mix!of!disciplinary! expertise! of! practitioners! (Chupin! &! Cucuzzella,! 2011;! Kreiner! et! al,! 2011;! Tostrup,! 1999;! Spreiregen,! 1979).! So! competitions! represent! exemplar! comparable! situations.! Specifically,!observations!of!jury!deliberations!help!better!understand!how!architecture! project! representations! are! interpreted!and! how! the! social! interdisciplinary! and! cognitive!origins!of!the!jurors!help!in!the!production!of!knowledge!through!the!process! of!qualitative!judgment.!! ! 2! In!fact,!rather!than!viewing!judgment!as!a!separate!process!from!design,!jurors!may! be!considered!the!re-designers!of!the!potential!winning!project.!From!this!point!of!view,! the!judgment!process!requires!jurors!to!converge!on!a!project,!to!the!point!where!they! can! appropriate! it! and! make! it! theirs! in! a! common! decision.! Since! the! winner! is! the! «product»! of! the! judgment! process,! it! follows! that! the! product! is! the! «project! of! the! jury»,!as!if!the!jury!had!designed!it!(Chupin!2011).!! Given!the!richness!of!competition!juries!as!exemplary!epistemological!devises,!how! can! the! jury! process! contribute! to! research-by-design! through! the! process! of! deliberation?!How! can! we! best! observe! and! transcribe! this! process?! How! can! this! paradox! of! transparency! in! a! competition! jury! be! overcome?! Drawing! on! empirical! observations!of!competition!juries!in!the!Canadian!context,!this!presentation!focuses!on! the! advantages! and! paradoxes! of! the! transparency! of! the! competition! jury! in! this! construction!of!knowledge.! ! ! References:' ANDERSSON,!J.!E.,!ZETTERSTEN,!G.!B.!&!RÖNN,!M.!(eds.)!2013.!Architectural(Competitions(-( Histories(and(Practice:!Rio!Kulturkooperativ.! BOUTINET,!J.P.!2012.!Anthropologie!du!projet.!Paris,!Presses!Universitaires!de!France.! COLLYER,!G.!S.,!BERK,!M.!2004.!Competing(globally(in(architecture(competitions,!Chichester,! West!Sussex,!England!;!Hoboken,!NJ,!Wiley-Academy.! 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