Tackling gaps and mismatches in the field of higher education for architecture and urban planning while exploring and addressing discontinuities along the national borders in-between Romania, Hungary and Serbia

The creation of these resources has been (partially) funded by the ERASMUS+ grant program of the European Union under grant no. 2019-1-RO01-KA203-063881. Neither the European Commission nor the project’s national funding agency ANPCDEFP are responsible for the content or liable for any losses or damage resulting of the use of these resources.

Rules

Contents:

1. Competition eligibility
2. Competition materials
3. Competition calendar
4. Projects submission
5. Jury works
6. Awards
7. Rights and obligations
8. Communication
9. Organizers

1. Competition eligibility

Think Brick! is open to any team consisting of at least one architecture student enrolled in one of the accredited architecture faculties in Romania, Hungary, Serbia or Bulgaria. The student may be in association with one or more students or professionals of the same or related disciplines within the architectural, urban and landscape field (such as architects, urban planners, landscape architects, engineers) or from other relevant fields (such as sociology, geography, art, computer science, etc). 

All team members must be under the age of 30 years old on the closing date for submission of projects.

Teams can choose to be tutored (by a Triplex Confinium team member or by any other teacher from any of the accredited architecture faculties from the 4 countries). The tutors are considered external collaborators, and are not part of the team. The Triplex Confinium available tutors can be found on the project’s website, together with their contacts (contacts will be displayed only for the tutors available for collaboration).

A member can be part of maximum 2 teams within the competition.

Composition of the Teams 

There is no limit to the number of participants per team. Multidisciplinary teams are strongly encouraged, considering the Competition Brief.

Each team can have maximum 2 submitted projects in the competition.

Team Coordinator – Each team names one “Team Coordinator” among its members. The Team Coordinator will be the sole contact with the Triplex Confinium secretariat during the whole competition. Furthermore, every communication shall be done with one email address, which shall remain the same during the whole competition.

In order to initiate the collaboration with a tutor from the Triplex Confinium team, the team coordinator must contact the selected tutor at any date before the 1st of December 2021.

Each tutor can collaborate with a maximum of 5 teams. Each tutor has the right to select the teams with which he/she can and wants to collaborate with.

Non-Eligibility 

None of the Think Brick! jury members and/or members of their families are eligible to be part of any team, or to tutor any of the teams.

The teaching staff from the partner universities can tutor any of the teams that registers in the competition. Any team has the right and possibility to be tutored by the Triplex Confinium available tutors.

The members of the Triplex Confinium team and the members of their families can only take part in the competition as tutor and organizer, and cannot be a member of the competing teams or author any of the projects.

2. Competition materials

Competition Brief and Research Materials

A database with competition materials has been created, HERE, and is composed of the following:

  • Repository of relevant materials about the region and project site 
  • Digital (dwg) file with the project site and surroundings 
  • A selection of pictures from the project site 
  • Competition Brief 

Besides these materials, the following will be published on the competition website:

  • Interviews with locals about relevant stories and places in Jimbolia – 10 episodes, published throughout the competition duration
  • Jimbolia Atlas – will be published on the 22nd of October.

Competition Submission Layouts

100x70cm Panel Layout 

A3 Project Motivation&Presentation Layout

3. Competition Calendar

16 July — Competition launch

3 September — Deadline for Questions regarding the competition

10 September — Deadline for Answers to the submitted questions

20 September — Guided Site Visit

17 – 30 September — Triplex Confinium First Summer School

22 October — Online publication of the Jimbolia Atlas (Summer School Research)

25 February — Deadline for Project Submissions – 24:00hrs GMT+3

26-27 February — Preliminary analysis of Submissions by the Competition Technical Commission

28 February — Online Publication of the preliminary analysis report

1 March— Deadline for Submission of Complaints

2 March — Online publication of Complaints resolve and of the final list of projects to be presented to the jury members

2 – 18 March — Online Jury Works

21 March — Online publication of selected projects

1 – 12 April — Selected Works Exhibition in Kikinda, Serbia (Triplex Confinium Second Summer School)

14 April — Jury Members Lectures and Award Ceremony in Novi Sad, Serbia

21 April — Online Publication of Jury Report

4. Project Submission

Digital Submission

Digital submission is compulsory and will be realised through the ”Competition Submission” section of the Triplex Confinium website (www.triplex-confinium.eu)

The form found on the Competition Submission section of the website must be fully filled in and submitted before 24.00hrs GMT+3 on the 25th of February.

The form will imply the upload of:

  • one 100x70cm panel in pdf format of maximum 15Mb, using the given layout
  • one Project Motivation&Presentation file in pdf format of maximum 15Mb and 10 A3 pages, using the given layout
  • one PDF file proving the eligibility of all team members
  • 3 project images in jpg or png format of 150dpi and maximum 3 Mb each

Failure to comply with the here-mentioned requirements on board presentation may result in the disqualification of the team.

Anonymity and Compulsory Content

The project title must be displayed on every document: panel, project motivation&presentation.

A specific code will be attributed to each project after upload. The teams do not know this code, through which the jury members take note of the project. The teams’ identities will only be known by the Technical Commission.

Language

The panel and all text presenting the ideas shall be written in English.

Items to Submit 

The 100×70 Panel

Contentwise, the panel must:

– explain the ideas developed in the project with regards to the specific site issues;

– present the project as a whole, highlighting the architecture of the project, and particularly the relationship between the new developments and the site’s existing context, including three-dimensional representations of the project;

Technical specifications:

– The panel must use the layout specified by the Competition;

– PDF format; 

– Vertical (L 700 mm x H 1000 mm) ; 

– Maximum 15 Mb 

– All technical drawings must have a specified scale

The Project Motivation&Presentation File 

Content:

The text must answer the following questions: What is the specific problem that the project wants to solve? What is the project hypothesis? What are the project’s objectives? Which are the desired outcomes?

The File must also contain a short presentation of the project, and will be used for online presentations of the project.

Technical specifications:

– maximum 10 pages; 

– PDF format; 

– Maximum 15 Mb

– Horizontal A3 (L 420mm x H 297mm).

Documents to prove the eligibility of the team members 

Documents for the disclosure of names and verification of the validity of the proposals shall be uploaded as ONE PDF on the competition website and will include:

– A copy of an ID document with a picture for each team member, providing evidence that they are under the age of 30 at the closing date for submission of entries (see calendar);

– Any form of proof (certificate, badge, letter of recommendation from one of the faculty members, etc.) for one member of the team, that shows that the person is an active student in an architecture faculty in Romania, Hungary, Serbia or Bulgaria.

Documents for the project communication

– 3 separate JPG or PNG images that symbolize the project (max. 3Mb per image).

Control of the Submissions

After the upload you should receive an automated e-mail confirming your submission. Please also check your spam box.

If you do not receive this message within 24hrs from the submission, please write an e-mail to the competition secretariat: thinkbrick.competition@gmail.com

Any message written after the 24hrs window regarding the project upload will not be considered, and the project (if not received) will not be considered by the Jury.

5. Jury works

Technical Commission

The Technical Commission does not judge but examines all the projects submitted in order to prepare the work for the jury. It will check if the submission is compliant with the rules, attribute a specific code to each project and keep the secret of the identity of authors until the public announcement of the competition preselection.

Juries

The Jury is composed of an interdisciplinary team representing the four countries. Its composition will be announced up until the 1st of September.

*the Organizers have the responsibility to replace any member of the Jury in case one of the members cannot fulfill its mission for any reason.

Working Methods and Evaluation Criteria

The jury’s decisions are final in compliance with the competition rules. The jury meets in 2 separate sessions at different times:

First round – At the beginning of this session, the jury appoints one of its members as chairman and agrees on its working method. It assesses the projects on their conceptual content and the degree of innovation and relevance for the project site and community and shortlists a maximum of 25 projects from the submitted works.

Second round – During the second round, the jury examines the shortlisted projects and points out the 3 winners, and 2 mentions. The jury could assess the projects on basis of: the relationship between concept and site; the relevance to the questions raised by the competition brief; the relevance of the programe and of the proposed solution for the local community; the innovative nature of the proposed solutions; the consideration given to the connection between different functions; the landscape, architectural and technical qualities.

The jury finally writes a report giving the reasons for the choice made in relation to the requirements of the competition and the concerned site.

If necessary, the jury can distribute prizes among entries up to its will or decide not to award all the prizes. In this case, the reasons shall be made public.

The jury may single out projects for Special Mention. These projects are recognized by the jury as presenting innovative ideas or insights, yet not sufficiently suitable for the site. The authors of such projects do not receive any reward.

Disclosure of Authors

The projects assessed by the jury are anonymous.

Once the list of selected projects is final, the authors of the selected projects will be revealed. This operation is done with the help of the Technical Commission.

6. Awards

The 3 winners receive a reward of the equivalent of 1000 euro (taxes included). The organizers undertake to abide by the decisions of the national juries and to pay the reward within 60 days of the announcement of the results.

The 2 mentions receive a reward of the equivalent of 500 euro (taxes included). The organizers undertake to abide by the decisions of the national juries and to pay the reward within 60 days of the announcement of the results.

7. Rights and obligations

By registering to the Think Brick! competition, the participants agree to have their personal data, as it has been provided, processed by the organizer.

The organizer ensures that the participants’ data will be honestly and transparently processed, exclusively in the professional interest of both parties, in accordance with the provisions of the (EU) Regulation no. 679/2016 of the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union (GDPR).

By registering entries in the competition, the participants declare that they have read and agree with the entirety of the rules from this present document.

All material (images, texts, panels…) submitted to the organizers becomes their property, including reproduction rights. The intellectual property rights remain the exclusive property of their author(s).

Teams may not publish the documents submitted to the competition or disclose their names by using their project for any communication before the official announcement of the results. Any such publication may result in the disqualification of the team.

The organizers reserve the right to publish all the projects submitted to them after the official announcement of results. Projects are exhibited or published under the names of their authors.

Any kind of dispute will be resolved amicably. In the event of jurisdiction, this will take place in Timișoara, Romania.

The Organizers hold the right to make any necessary changes to the Competition Rules, due to the Covid-19 situation or any other situation. All changes must be announced on the competition website.

8. Communication

The official means of communication for the competition is email.

The official email address for the competition is thinkbrick.competition@gmail.com

All communication related to the competition must be made through this address.

The official website of the competition is www.triplex-confinium.eu

9. Organizers

Think Brick! is organized by the Triplex Confinium Consortium.

 

Triplex Confinium is a project partially funded by the ERASMUS+ grant program of the European Union under grant no. 2019-1-RO01-KA203-063881 which is tackling gaps and mismatches in the field of higher education for architecture and urban planning while exploring and addressing discontinuities along the national borders in-between Romania, Hungary and Serbia.

 

Team members:

UNIVERSITATEA POLITEHNICA TIMIȘOARA: Cristian Blidariu, Oana Simionescu, Ioan Andreescu, Bogdan Demetrescu, Mihai Danciu, Tiberiu Bucșa, Bogdan Isopescu, Ștefana Bădescu.

UNIVERSITATEA DE ARHITECTURĂ ȘI URBANISM ION MINCU DIN BUCUREȘTI: Irina Tulbure, Irina Băncescu, Ilinca Păun-Constantinescu, Cristi Borcan, Alexandru Belenyi, Cristian Bădescu, Horia Moldovan.

BUDAPESTI MUSZAKI ES GAZDASAGTUDOMANYI EGYETEM: Zsolt Vasáros, Levente Szabó, Gergely Sági, Zoltán Major.

DEBRECENI EGYETEM: Tamas Szentirmai, János Vági, Miklós János Boros.

UNIVERZITET U NOVOM SADU: Bojan Tepavčević, Ivana Bajšanski, Vesna Stojakovic,

Marko Vučić, Miloš Obradović, Jelena Kićanović, Marko Jovanović.

SOFIA UNIVERSITY ST KLIMENT OHRIDSKY: Kaloian Tsetkov, Georgi Bardarov, Antonina Atanasova, Peter Stoyanov.

UNIVERSITATEA BABES BOLYAI: Norbert Petrovici, Cristi Pop.

 

Technical Commission:

Oana Simionescu, Vesna Stojakovic, Gergely Sági, Zoltán Major

Competition Secretariat:

Oana Simionescu

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