Yarışmalar-Competitions

Welcome
ARQUITECTUM, an enterprise dedicated to the development of architectural bidding contests, is pleased to welcome all architects from around the world to the International Architectural Competition “Nazca 2005”, which will take place from November of this year until February of 2005

Background
ARQUITECTUM is the first International Agency dedicated to bringing together architects and clients from around the world. Our mission is to promote excellence in design and architectural creativity, giving exposure to architects interested in these kinds of objectives.

Our vision not only includes the organization of private architectural projects but also that of International Idea Competitions that stimulate architects to speculate and to create with the least amount of restrictions possible, in the most enigmatic, unique and beautiful settings around the world.

Within this tradition, we organized in 2004 the successful “Machu Picchu 2004” Competition, which involved more than 500 architects from around the world. They presented the most diverse proposals, some of which can be seen at our website:

http://www.arquitectum.com/machu_picchu.htm 

Our current competition “NAZCA 2005” takes the same ideas but uses a new more dynamic, efficient and easier to manage format so that all interested architects may be able to develop, and get to us, their ideas, within a more user friendly and simpler environment.

Introduction
ARQUITECTUM, in its attempt to offer each year new and exciting locations in which to create and speculate with architectural designs, has chosen one of the most enigmatic and beautiful places in the world: the South American desert. This setting was chosen in order to gather the best ideas regarding the installation of objects in natural settings that due to their beauty or mysterious qualities require a studied intervention, of a deep ecological vision, but above all, of creative architectural poetry.

This is why we are pleased to invite all architects from around the world to participate in the Idea Contest “NAZCA 2005”. We are looking for the best design proposals to create a next generation observatory which renovates the vision of tourism in the area and also invites the visitor to enjoy a new and different experience, by spending the night and awakening in front of the Nazca Plains.

The Place: The Nazca Plains
The Nazca Lines are located in the Pampa region of Peru, the desolate plain of the Peruvian coast which comprises the Pampas of San Jose (Jumana), Socos, El Ingenio and others in the province of Nasca, which is 400 Km. South of Lima, covers an area of approximately 450 km2, of sandy desert as well as the slopes of the contours of the Andes. They cover nearly 400 square miles of desert. Etched in the surface of the desert pampa sand about 300 hundred figures made of straight lines, geometric shapes most clearly visible from the air. They were supposedly built by an ancient civilization called the Nazca.

The Nazca Lines are an engima. No one know who had built them or indeed why. Since their discovery, the Nazca Lines have inspired fantastic explanations from ancient gods, a landing strip for returning aliens, a celestial calendar, used for rituals probably related to astronomy, to confirm the ayllus or clans who made up the population and to determine through ritual their economic functions held up by reciprocity and redistribution or, a map of underground water supplies.

There are also huge geoglyphs in Egypt, Malta, United States (Mississippi and California), Chile, Bolivia and in other countries. But the Nazca geoglyphs, because of their numbers, characteristics, dimensions and cultural continuity as they were made and remade through out the whole prehispanic period, form the most impressive as well as enigmatic archeological group.

The Nazca plain is virtually unique for its ability to preserve the markings upon it, due to the combination of the climate (one of the driest on Earth, with only twenty minutes of rainfall per year) and the flat, stony ground which minimises the effect of the wind at ground level. With no dust or sand to cover the plain, and little rain or wind to erode it, lines drawn here tend to stay drawn. These factors, combined with the existence of a lighter-coloured subsoil beneath the desert crust, provide a vast writing pad that is ideally suited to the artist who wants to leave his mark for eternity.

The pebbles which cover the surface of the desert contain ferrous oxide. The exposure of centuries has given them a dark patina. When the gravel is removed, they contrast with the color underneath. In this way the lines were drawn as furrows of a lighter color, even though in some cases they became prints. In other cases, the stones defining the lines and drawings form small lateral humps of different sizes. Some drawings, especially the early ones, were made by removing the stones and gravel from their contours and in this way the figures stood out in high relief.

The concentration and juxtaposition of the lines and drawings leave no doubt that they required intensive long-term labor as is demonstrated by the stylistic continuity of the designs, which clearly correspond to the different stages of cultural changes.

There appear to be two kinds of designs: the first are figures of various beings and things and the others form geometric lines.

The former consists of figures of animals, plants, objects, such as anthropomorphic figures of colossal proportions made with well-defined lines.

There are also drawings of flowers and plants, as well as representations of deformed animals and other strange figures. .

Many lines are random and seem to have no pattern to them. They are seen over the scattered seemingly at random over the desolate plain, crossing and intersecting for no apparent reason.

The Nazca Lines were first spotted when commercial airlines began flying across the Peruvian desert in the 1920's. Passengers reported seeing 'primitive landing strips' on the ground below. Today people sometimes fly in hot air balloons to view the splendors of the Nazca Lines, their eneries awakening something within their souls.

1. Killer Whale
2. Wing
3. Baby Condor
4. Bird
5. Animal
6. Spiral
7. Lizard
8. Tree
9. Hands
10. Spiral
11. Spider
12. Flower
13. Dog
14. Astronaut
15. Triangle
16. Whale
17. Trapazoids
18. Star
19. Pelican
20. Bird
21. Trapazoid
22. Hummingbird
23. Trapezoid
24. Monkey
25. Llama
26. Trapezoids

The Project: An Observatory
This Idea Contest is organized by ARQUITECTUM in order to evaluate the feasibility of installing an Observatory that works not only as a lookout tower from which the wonderful scenery can be observed, but also provides a transitory Lodge for tourists (local and foreign) that go on excursions to the desert and wish to spend the night in the area. The Observatory should have a minimum height of 300 feet and have a basic plan that should not occupy a built area of 100,000 square feet, including:

* 20 double rooms
* Common bathroom
* Administration area
* Salon
* Dining room
* Kitchen
* Employee rooms
* Laundry
* Terraces
* Lookout tower
* Storage

Submission Requirements
Participants must deliver their proposals via Internet, in the form of a digital image of the following characteristics:

* JPG format
* 500 Kb maximum size
* 800 x 1143 pixels
* 96 dpi (72 dpi minimum)
* RGB colors
* Zip compression format (as a .zip file)

Awards
Awards given are as follows:

* $ 5,000 for first place
* $ 2,500 for second place
* $ 1,000 for third place

10 special mentions in the following categories:

* 1st MENTION: Utopian project
* 2nd MENTION: Avant-garde project
* 3rd MENTION: Landscape project
* 4th MENTION: Technologic project
* 5th MENTION: Contextual project
* 6th MENTION: Conservative project
* 7th MENTION: Minimalist project
* 8th MENTION: Vernacular project
* 9th MENTION: Commercial project
* 10th MENTION: Virtual project

Participation Requirements
WHO CAN PARTICIPATE:
All interested architects around the world, including multidisciplinary teams, are invited to enter (university students or another discipline professionals who wish to participate will have to have one architect in their team).

Fees
OPTION 1: One or Two member team
>From November 1st until December 1st: US$ 50
>From December 1st until January 31th: US$ 100

OPTION 2: Three or Four member team
>From November 1st until December 1st: US$ 100
>From December 1st until January 31th: US$ 200

OPTION 3: Five or more member team
>From November 1st until December 1st: US$ 150
>From December 1st until January 31th: US$ 300

Exhibition and Publication
Thanks to the agreements ARQUITECTUM maintains with diverse websites, magazines and design, construction and architecture publishers, there will be a strong campaign of promotion, broadcasting and publishing, not only of the projects submitted but also of the work of the winning architects, as was done for the Machu Picchu 2004 competition. There will also be a virtual exhibition that will include all the projects presented, as well as the finalists. This will appear in the ARQUITECTUM website in April of 2005 (www.arquitectum.com).

Schedule
• CONTEST ANNOUNCEMENT October 1st, 2004
• CONTEST BEGINS November 1st, 2004
• ACCEPTANCE OF QUERIES DEADLINE November 15th, 2004
• QUERY RESPONSES POSTED November 30th, 2004
• REGISTRATION DEADLINE January 30th, 2005
• PROPOSAL SUBMISSIONS DEADLINE February 15th, 2005
• JURY EVALUATIONS February 15th, 2005
• WINNERS ANNOUNCED March 15th, 2005

Jury
ARQUITECTUM desires to capitalize on the architectural know-how of past contest winners, and grow through feedback of knowledge gained by past participants. We are interested in renovating and improving evaluation criteria, therefore we have chosen as jury members the winners of the MACHU PICCHU 2004 contest:

* Architect Alvaro Pastor: PERU
* Architect Giuliano Validivia: PERU
* Architect GeanPaolo Pietri: USA
* Architect Sebastián Navarrete: CHILE

Registration and rules Purchasing
The Contest’s website, www.arquitectum.com , will be operational starting November 1st, 2004. You will be able to register at the website and you will be able to download all the files needed in order to participate in the contest (history, aerial photos, plans in dwg format). There will be two ways to pay: credit cards MASTERCARD, VISA, DINERS or AMERICAN EXPRESS; or bank transfers.

INFORMATION
For more detailed information about the contest please visit the ARQUITECTUM web site and click on the button for “International Competition: NAZCA 2005”.
Any questions you may have can be sent to any of our email addresses:
[email protected] 
[email protected] 

or via post mail to:

Arch. Alfredo Queirolo,
Professional Advisor
NAZCA 2005 Contest