4th International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam (IABR) "Squat City Competition"

The 4th IABR 'Open City' is committed to display projects that negotiate between the integrating and segregating forces and enable people of diverse cultures and lifestyles to connect and interact. 'Squat City' is part of the Rotterdam Biennale and deals with the increasingly common phenomenon of informal urban developments all over the world.
The projects submitted for the Squat City Competition should contribute to the agenda of the 'Open City' by proposing inventive design strategies and techniques pertaining to informal urban development.
The call goes out to projects from the fields of architecture and urban design that are based on or that support bottom-up practices and that encourage the self-empowerment of local actors, and that help formalize and legalize such developments.
They qualify by being:
- economically sustainable, e.g. by creating jobs and supporting.
social business
- ecologically and energetically sustainable, e.g. by reducing
waste. or energy and material consumption.
- socially sustainable, e.g. by creating education facilities and
enabling communities to become self-reliant

Competition site here

"Ang Pinakamagandang Bahay sa Balat ng Lupa" competition winners

Winners for "Ang Pinakamagandang Bahay sa Balat ng Lupa" 2008 house design competition were chosen from among 35 entries for the Student Category and 44 entries for the Professional Category. The winners for each Category are:

Student Category:
First Place- Laurence Angelo Angeles, Norbert Cornelius Batangan, Jaycee Gopez (graduates of UP-Diliman)
Second Place - Kim Patrick Pullante, Dean Michael Ramos, Don Joseph Sebastian, Marc Angelo Virtucio (undergraduate students of UP-Diliman)
Third Place- Deniece Yusun (graduate of UP-Diliman), Zada S. Ong (graduate of National University of Singapore)
Honorable Mention- Aristotle O. Santiago (graduate of Technological Institute of the Philippines – Manila)

Professional Category:
First Place - John Patrick Anthony L. Buensalido with Marie Veronique Boncan, Emereauldine Eliseo, Nathan Fabe, Ysrael Uy, Raymond John Balmes, Ernesto Medrano Jr. III, Bayan Dela Pasion
Second Place - Nestor Arabejo, Rowena Ramos, Bert Peeters
Third Place - Jose Eduardo G. Calma with Sherwin Abad, Sarah Canlas, Benjamin Mendoza
Honrable Mention - Roger Magsakay


The panel of jurors was composed of:
Ma. Cristina V. Turalba (Jury Chair)
Geronimo V. Manahan, Ph. D.
Jose Pedro Recio
Leon M. Mayo
Jean I. Cornejo

Pictures of the winning entries will be available for public viewing on their website soon (click here).

Awarding and exhibit

The awarding of the prizes for the winners will be on March 31st, 6:30 pm, at the Executive House in UP-Diliman. An exhibit of the winning entries and other notable entries will be arranged in the near future. A monograph of the competition and its winners will also be published very soon.