WPA 2.0 : Whoever rules the sewers rules the city.

Competition Competition for Students Objectives and Priorities More About the Competition Stage 1 Request For Proposals Stage 2 Design Development Register Jury Awards Schedule Partners and Sponsors Questions and Answers Contact Us About cityLAB

Jury: Stan Allen,Cecil Balmond, Elizabeth Diller, Walter Hood, Thom Mayne, Marilyn Jordan Taylor WPA 2.0: an open design competition for working public architecture organized and sponsored by cityLAB cityLAB, an urban think tank at UCLA’s Department of Architecture and Urban Design, announces a call for entries to “WPA 2.0: Working Public Architecture.” WPA 2.0 is an open competition that seeks innovative, implementable proposals to place infrastructure at the heart of rebuilding our cities during this next era of metropolitan recovery. WPA 2.0 recalls the Depression-era Works Projects Administration (1935-43), which built public buildings, parks, bridges, and roads across the nation as an investment in the future—one that has, in turn, become a lasting legacy. We encourage projects that explore the value of infrastructure not only as an engineering endeavor, but as a robust design opportunity to strengthen communities and revitalize cities. Unlike the previous era, the next generation of such projects will require surgical integration into the existing urban fabric, and will work by intentionally linking systems of points, lines and landscapes; hybridizing economies with ecologies; and overlapping architecture with planning. This notion of infrastructural systems is intentionally broad, including but not limited to parks, schools, open space, vehicle storage, sewers, roads, transportation, storm water, waste, food systems, recreation, local economies, 'green' infrastructure, fire prevention, markets, landfills, energy-generating facilities, cemeteries, and smart utilities. Download the competition brief here: http://wpa2.aud.ucla.edu/inx/files/wpa20brief.pdf

July 24, 2009:
REGISTRATIONS CLOSES; last day to submit questions

July 31, 2009:
Final update posted to Questions and Answers

August 7, 2009:
PROPOSALS DUE (5 PM PDT)