2022 World Stage Design Theatre Architecture Competition
World Stage Design is delighted to announce the launch of The 11th OISTAT Theatre Architecture Competition 2022. This is an international ideas competition, aimed at students and emerging architecture practitioners, and is organised by the Architecture Commission of OISTAT (International Organisation of Scenographers, Theatre Architects and Technicians).
World Stage Design is a major international theatre design exhibit and event, which takes place every four years under the auspices of OISTAT. Winning entries will be exhibited at World Stage Design 2022, to be held at The University of Calgary, Canada from August 6-16th, 2022.
The entry fee for the competition is $60 USD per entry and prize money will be awarded to winning entries as follows:
first prize $5,000 USD
second prize $2,500 USD
third prize $1,000 USD
3 additional prizes $500 USD each
Competition Theme
The challenge of the competition is to design an adaptable outdoor performance space for a beautiful site at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, on the edge of the Rocky Mountains, 100km to the west of Calgary.
This is an ideas competition and there is no intention to build the winning entry but prize winners will have the opportunity to visit and participate in the World Stage Design event in Calgary. Collaborations between architects and other theatre practitioners such as directors, designers, technicians, actors, dancers, musicians, or students of those fields will be welcomed. The closing date for the competition is 30th April 2022.
The design brief, terms and conditions and drawings and photographs of the site can be downloaded below.
TAC Brief & Documents
Introduction
The OISTAT Theatre Architecture Competition is an international ideas competition, aimed at students and emerging architecture practitioners, and is organised by the Architecture Commission of OISTAT (International Organisation of Scenographers, Theatre Architects and Technicians). The 11th Theatre Architecture Competition is organised in association with World Stage Design 2022, to be held at The University of Calgary, Canada from August 6-16th, 2022, where selected entries will be exhibited and prizes awarded. World Stage Design is a major international theatre design exhibit and event, which takes place every four years under the auspices of OISTAT. The 2022 event had been delayed by a year due to the global pandemic. The entry fee for the competition is $60 USD per entry and prize money will be awarded to winning entries.
Competition Theme – Adaptable outdoor performance space
The site for the competition is at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, about 100 km to the west of Calgary. Founded in 1933, Banff Centre is a learning organization built upon an extraordinary legacy of excellence in artistic and creative development. What started as a single course in drama has grown to become a global organization leading in arts, culture, and creativity across dozens of disciplines. From its home in the stunning Canadian Rocky Mountains, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity aims to inspire everyone who attends its campus – artists, leaders, and thinkers – to unleash their creative potential. The centre currently has an outdoor amphitheatre used for summer events. The competition challenge is to devise a new structure, which can extend the short summer season and cater for a range of sizes and types of performance.
Collaborations between architects and other theatre practitioners such as directors, designers, technicians, actors, dancers, musicians, or students of those fields will be welcomed.
The Brief
The Design brief is supplied as a separate document, together with related drawings and photographs of the site. This is an ideas competition and there is no intention to build the winning entry but prize winners will have the opportunity to visit and participate in the World Stage Design event in Calgary.
Drawings, photographs and information on the site are provided and can be downloaded with the brief from the World Stage Design website.
Special Considerations
Successful performance spaces have some very particular requirements, which you are expected to understand and explore in order to create an environment in which the unique interaction between audience, artists, and technology, which constitutes a live performance, can flourish in the setting of the Banff amphitheatre. Some key issues to be considered are set out below:
Audience Cohesion
The way in which an audience is arranged, in relation to the performance, plays a key role in creating a successful atmosphere where audiences feel engaged by the performance and performers can communicate well with them.
Sightlines
To see well the audience must be arranged so they can all see the performance. Not only must their view be free of obstructions, but they must also be sufficiently close to the performers to distinguish their gestures and appreciate the scenic or architectural space they occupy.
Acoustics
Good hearing is as important as good seeing. Different performance types require different acoustic conditions to be best appreciated.
Technical Requirements
Most performances rely upon some form of stage technology to facilitate them. This includes scenery, lighting, projection, sound, and mechanical systems, which are used to move scenery or reconfigure the space. Provision for these systems needs to be integrated into the architecture and must be accessible and safe to use.
Flexibility
The new theatre must support a range of sizes and types of performance, which should be illustrated in the drawings.
Competition Rules and Conditions
1. The Architecture Commission of OISTAT (International Organisation of Scenographers, Theatre Technicians and Theatre Architects) is promoting an international ideas competition in a single stage, open to architects and students of schools of architecture. Collaborations between architects and other theatre practitioners such as directors, designers, writers, technicians, actors, dancers, musicians, or students in those fields, will be welcomed, although it is not an essential requirement. Architects or students associated with members of the jury are not permitted to enter. The entry fee for the competition is $60 USD per entry and prize money will be awarded to winning entries in accordance with clause 4.1 below.
2. Documents to be Submitted
2.1 Drawing requirements
Plans of each level, at least two sections and important elevations to a scale of not less than 1/200.
Three-dimensional images of the building and the theatre space.
Auditorium studies showing it in use for a range of sizes and types of performance.
Site plan to a scale of 1/1000.
A short video illustrating how the proposal can change from winter to summer mode.
Models cannot be accepted, although photographs of models can be included. Entries selected for exhibition will be invited to submit CAD models for 3D printing, but these are not required in the initial submission.
Drawings and text documents must not carry any means of identifying the entrant(s) apart from the code number referred to in para 2.2 (c) below.
2.2 Competition entries may only be submitted electronically. Both the drawing and text documents are to be identified by a code of six numbers to be chosen at random by the competitor(s), 10mm high, appearing in the top right hand corner of each document. No name or other identifying mark can appear on any document, except the entry form, as the entries must be judged anonymously.
Every entry shall compromise an electronic copy of the following:
A single panel at AO size (841 x1189 mm) in vertical (portrait) format, submitted in pdf format at 300 dpi resolution. The document will be identified by the six figure code (e.g. 123456.pdf)
A short written description of the project, the performance(s) to be staged and an explanation of the design concept (maximum 200 words). The text will be incorporated on the panels but will also be submitted separately on the entry form.
A short video file illustrating the proposal. The file will be identified by the same six figure code used on the drawing (e.g. 123456/video.mov)
To enter the Theatre Architecture Competition, you must create a free Submittable account. The World Stage Design Submittable page can be found here or accessed from the TAC page on the WSD website.
Your Submittable account will allow you to save and review your work before completing your application.
For a quick how-to on creating a Submittable account, see here:
https://submittable.help/en/articles/904856-how-do-i-submit
All text is to be in English.
2.3 This is an ideas competition and there is no intention that the winning entry will be built.
2.4 Entries will not be returned by OISTAT. Competitors should retain copies of their work.
3. Competition Schedule
3.1 The competition documents and conditions will be available from 28 September 2021 on the World Stage Design website.
3.2 An online competition workshop will be held as part of the OISTAT World Congress on 12 October 2021, when the brief will be discussed and questions answered. Details can be found on the OISTAT website.
3.3 Written questions can be sent by email to info_wsd2021@ucalgary.ca. Questions should be written in English and must be received no later than 31 October 2021.
3.4 The answers to the questions will be posted on the Website from 8 November 2021.
3.5 Competition entries are to be uploaded electronically to Submittable, through the World Stage Design website. Entries can be submitted between 30 November 2021 and 30 April 2022, the closing date. Entries submitted after this date will not be considered by the jury.
3.6 The entry fee for the competition is $60 USD per entry. Competitors will pay via credit card or pay pal on the website at the time of submission.
3.7 All entries will be managed by a third party and the jury will not know the origin of the entries.
4. Prizes
4.1. The following cash prizes will be awarded:
first prize $5,000 USD
second prize $2,500 USD
third prize $1,000 USD
3 additional prizes $500 USD each
In addition to these prizes, there will be honourable mentions. The jury reserves the right to modify the distribution of prize money, within the same total amount and number of prizes.
4.2 The results of the competition will be announced on the World Stage Design website on 1 June 2022. Prizes will be presented at the World Stage Design event in Calgary between 6-16th August 2022 and paid electronically to those unable to attend, after the prize-giving.
5. Exhibition
5.1 The prize winning entries and other high scoring entries, up to a maximum of thirty projects, will be exhibited at the World Stage Design event in Calgary between 6-16th August 2022 and those included in the exhibit will be invited to attend.
6. Publication
6.1 The competition entries will become the property of OISTAT and may be published and exhibited in any country at the discretion of OISTAT.
6.2 OISTAT will respect and acknowledge the copyright of all participants.
6.3 A catalogue illustrating selected entries with the jury report will be published and will be available to download from the OISTAT website.
6.4 OISTAT will offer the results of the competition to the international press (publications covering theatre design and architecture).
7. Acceptance of Conditions
7.1 By submitting an entry, participants or participating teams will:
Agree to the rules and regulations as set out in this document.
Declare that the proposed design is their own work.
Agree to accept the decisions of the jury as final.
Agree not disclose their identities or publicise their entry in any way before the results are announced. Any breach of this rule will render the entry invalid.
8. Jury
8.1 The international jury will consist of 4 theatre architects and one experienced theatre practitioner. The chair of the OISTAT Architecture Commission will be a jury member and the previous chair of the OISTAT Architecture Commission will be the non-voting chair.
8.2. In case of the absence of a juror, OISTAT will assign another qualified person as a member of the jury.
8.3 The jury will produce a report explaining the reasons for its decisions and commenting on the prize-winning and honourably mentioned entries.
8.4. The report of the jury will be published on the OISTAT website and included in the catalogue.
8.5 The jury will select up to 30 entries for the Theatre Architecture Competition exhibition at the World Stage Design event in Calgary between 6-16th August 2022.
From August 6th to 16th, 2022 the University of Calgary’s School of Creative and Performing Arts (SCPA) with the Canadian Institute for Theatre Technology/Institut canadien des technologies scénographiques (CITT/ICTS), Canada’s OISTAT Centre, will host WSD2022.
