Open Call Prix de Rome Architecture 2022: Healing Sites

With the Prix de Rome being the oldest and most prestigious architecture award in the Netherlands, this edition’s jury feels the urgent need to redefine the role of a competition in identifying talented architects, urbanists, and landscape architects, supporting their professional development, and giving their practices increased visibility.
This edition the jury calls for proposals of new methodologies, values, and design articulations that address our contemporary condition and has as its outcome a framing of the architect’s self-directed site of operation. With this the jury aims to redirect the efforts invested in this competition towards contributing to fair and sustainable long-term practices.

Constructing bigger, better, faster has put us on an accelerating trajectory towards a precarious future. When we consider our environment, it becomes clear that design interventions of the past, which have now entrenched themselves as the norm, are preventing convivial forms of all manners of life. How can these parts of the invisible infrastructure of design be undone? Some parts may be superfluous, others beg for a meaningful architectural layer of comment, yet others need to reverse engineer or urgently be removed and redesigned as – Healing Sites – at least to mitigate effects or avert future man-made disaster.
The jury has consciously chosen not to provide a site, but challenge candidates to propose a site of their own (to later project proposals on in the second round). With this the jury posits the site not as the prerequisite for the architectural act of construction, but the site as part of the architect’s projective and propositive agency.

spatial statement
For the first open round – Healing Sites – we ask candidates to hand in a spatial statement that fits in a box of 30 x 30 x 30 centimetres. In the spirit of this edition of the Prix de Rome the jury encourages the candidates to freely interpret the use of this container, provided that it represents the candidate’s: positioning in relation to the theme put forward by the jury, spatialisation of a self-identified issue (or issues) and framing for a site of architectural operation. The site must be in the Netherlands or must, if abroad, hold a strong historical significance to the spatial legacy of the Netherlands.
From all the submissions of the open first round, which will be presented to the jury anonymously, four candidates will be selected. The shortlisted will continue in a closed second round, in which they will respond to a general second assignment formulated by the jury with specified elements based on the proposed sites from the first round.

sending your proposal
To participate send us a single PDF (in English, saved as: surname_firstname.pdf) via prixderome@stimuleringsfonds.nl before the 4^th of March 17:00 containing:

- A CV that includes your date of birth, place of residence, educational history, employment history and, if available, a link to your website(s).
- Additional written information supporting your spatial statement: outlining intention, position, proposed methodology, and inherent values. (maximum of 2 A4’s in standing orientation, if you choose to include a link to video material, please limit it to 1 minute). Please make sure this information can be assessed by the jury anonimously.
- A photograph of your spatial statement (for administative confirmation purposes).

The physical spatial statement (in a 30 x 30 x 30 centimetres closed box) can be handed in, by appointment, at the office of Stimuleringsfonds (Rotterdam, Weena 723, Groothandelsgebouw, Entrance C, 5th floor, space C5.069) on the 2^nd, 3^rd, or 4^th of March. Please make sure the spatial statement itself can be assessed by the jury anonimously. The spatial statements might become part of the exhibition at Het Nieuwe Instituut in October, please let us know if you would not want your entry to be part of the exhibition.

conditions
The Prix de Rome architecture is open to architects, landscape architects and urban planners.

In addition, candidates who want to apply need to satisfy the following requirements:
- No older than 35 (1^st of October 2022 at the latest).
- Not currently attending a bachelor or master's degree programme.
- Has been working as a professional architect, urbanist, or landscape architect for a minimum of one year.
- Substantively active and integrated in the Dutch architectural sector.
- Architects, urbanists, or landscape architects working at a larger firm are required to work independently and in a personal capacity on the assignments, without the assistance of the office.
- In the case of collaborative practices, all members need to satisfy all of the above-mentioned requirements.

The Prix de Rome cannot be awarded to legal entities, members of the jury, members of the supervisory boards of the Creative Industries Fund NL or Mondriaan Fund, or previous recipients of the Prix de Rome.

jury
- Afaina de Jong (founder and director AFARAI)
- Alessandra Covini (co-founder and co-director Studio Ossidiana, winner Prix de Rome 2018)
- Carson Chan (director Emilio Ambasz Institute at MoMA)
- Dirk Sijmons (founder H+N+S Landscape Architects)
- Jan Jongert (founding partner Superuse Studios)
- Samir Bantal (director AMO at OMA)
- Syb Groeneveld (executive director Stimuleringsfonds Creatieve Industrie, technical chair)

criteria
The jury will assess the spatial statements and additional supporting information according to the following criteria:
- The architectural, intellectual, and artistic qualities of the site and statement.
- The awareness, positioning, and relevance of the statement in relation to the theme put forward by the jury.
- The experimental and forward-thinking qualities of the statement.
- The extent to which the statement contributes to a significant architectural practice.

results
The shortlist will be announced before mid-April 2022. The working period for the shortlisted candidates is scheduled from the 18^th of April till the 18^th of August 2022. Shortlisted candidates will receive compensation (€ 7.200) and a working budget for this four-month period. In October 2022 the winner(s) will be selected, and the results will be exhibited at Het Nieuwe Instituut. The winner of the Prix de Rome Architecture 2022 receives a cash prize of € 40.000 and a working period abroad.

questions?
If you have any questions, please write to prixderome@stimuleringsfonds.nl or call Hyun Vin Kaspers or Dominique Geelen on +31 10 436 1600.

This year the Prix de Rome Architecture is organized by the Mondriaan Fund in collaboration with the Creative Industries Fund NL and on behalf of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science. The presentation is organized in collaboration with Het Nieuwe Instituut.

Click here for more information on the Prix de Rome Architecture.