We wish for young creative talents to explore, interpret, and creatively visualise Jørn Utzon’s working drawings for some of his unbuilt works. Furthermore, the idea is for entrants to fully understand and make Jørn Utzon’s approach to architecture an integral part of their submission. This entails that each entrant should interpret a selected Utzon project by merging Utzon’s own vision for the project with one’s own creative mind.

The annual competition begins in 2019 and runs for three years. Each time, the competition will be based on a new Utzon project. For the first year of the competition, entrants were asked to re-imagine the Theatre in Zurich. This year the competition seeks for entrants to re-imagine Jørn Utzon's Jeita Grotto Theatre (1968) in Lebanon.  

The competition is open to anyone under the age of 40, whether a professional or a student in the field of architecture, design, animation, architectural technology and construction, engineering etc. Both individual and team entries are welcome. The competition programme is the brainchild of the Utzon Center in association with Denmark’s institutions for Architecture and Design education.

Do you have an artistic take on animation or motion graphics? Can you turn drawings of architecture into beautiful and meaningful digital imagery? This is your change to join the competition and help Utzon Center bring the Danish architect Jørn Utzon’s unbuilt masterpieces back to life.

Utzon UNBUILT seeks to understand the innermost being of Jørn Utzon’s architecture and to re-imagine some of his many unbuilt projects. So, we urge all entrants to go into dialogue with the fascinating world of Utzon and his approach to architecture, in order to help Utzon Center show the world a selection of Utzon’s unbuilt marvels. We wish for entrants to communicate in such a way that everyone – your parents, the stranger on the street, children, and also the architect – understands the world of architecture. It is about seeking the innermost being of architecture, and how we unveil the seeds of architecture.

“If we want further to enhance our grasp of architec­ture, we must understand that amidst all changes in circum­stances, the architectonic expression is created in an alliance with the social structure. The true innermost being of archi­tecture can be compared with that of nature’s seed, and some­thing of the inevitability of nature’s principle of growth ought to be a fundamental concept in architecture.” – Jørn Utzon in The Innermost Being of Architecture, 1948

The competition allows entrants to approach the visualisation of Jeita Grotto Theatre in different ways. This means that it is up to you as an entrant to decide, whether you find it appropriate to use analogue tools or digital visualisation in order to bring the Danish architect Jørn Utzon’s unbuilt masterpiece back to life. Moreover, you are encouraged to read about Jørn Utzon's approach to architecture.

The recommended case studies for the competition's entrants are:

• The winning drawings from Aarhus School of Architecture's drawing of the year 2018.
• Images from Luxigon that may serve as an inspiration for your submission.
• The digital visualisations and animations of Jørn Utzon’s unbuilt Silkeborg Museum (1964) that featured in the exhibition 'Fatamorgana – Utzon meets Jorn' at Utzon Center.

When attempting to visualise Utzon’s unbuilt works of architecture, it is important to dwell upon the nature of Jørn Utzon’s work. Where do the ideas come from? What are they inspired by? And how is it revealed in the work itself? That said, you can dive into Jørn Utzon's approach to architecture and suggested readings below:

The upbringing of Jørn Utzon
Jørn Utzon (1918-2008) grew up in Aalborg, Denmark under the influence of his naval-architect father, Aage Utzon. Utzon have recalled how his father took him and his brothers hunting, fishing, and sailing, which had him look back at his childhood as a period of great creative importance. He never excelled academically, but his father and his own work regarding boat building evoked a sincere respect for craftsmanship, and it showed him how rudimentary observations in nature could inform a more natural approach to design.

Finding a timeless and natural approach to architecture
As a young man, Utzon became interested in art. Especially the emotional and even mystical work by painters such as Carl Kylberg and Povl Schröder was interesting to him. In 1937, Utzon joined the Copenhagen Royal Academy of Architecture. Here, Utzon was exposed to a Scandinavian design tradition while furthering his own studies of natural forms and rural architecture built upon local craftsmanship, the dignity and a greater relationship with the landscape.

Even Utzon’s first works as an architect reflects Utzon’s desire to liberate his work from superficial styles and to recast a more timeless and natural approach to architecture. Utzon’s work explores the building techniques of his own period, yet his courtyard house projects, even in his intensely personal Can Lis, are so natural-seeming and rudimentary that they evoke a feeling of ’architecture without architects’.

Utzon viewed architecture as a fusion of forms that are inspired by nature and different cultures. This means that his architecture relates to its surroundings and is deeply rooted in the local culture so that people can make use of the buildings in their everyday life.

Over the course of his life, Utzon fostered countless of other significant works of architecture besides the most famous building of his century, the Sydney Opera House. Some are well-known, others less so, but the basic approach that underpins each project remains to be a continuous source of inspiration for contemporary architects. And one thing is for sure, Utzon was extraordinarily uncompromising, which is one of the reasons why many of his projects only exist on paper to this day.

Suggested readings
In the search of how to visualise Utzon’s work in a meaningful way, it is necessary to have a deeper understanding of the humanistic and nature-sensing foundation which unite Jørn Utzon’s distinct approach to architecture.

Here, we have collected a set of suggested readings to understand Jørn Utzon’s distinct approach to architecture and his works:

• 'The Innermost Being of Architecture' – an essay by Jørn Utzon (1948). Find the essay online here.
• 'A tribute to Jørn Utzon' by Michael Keiding (2008). Published by The Danish Architectural Press.
• 'The joy is not in owning – but in creating' by Stig Matthiesen, Bente Jensen, and Thomas Mølvig (2011). Published by Utzon Center A/S.
• 'Utzon – Inspiration, Vision, Architecture' by Richard Weston (2008). Published by Edition Bløndahl.
• 'Jørn Utzon: Drawings and Buildings' by Michael Asgaard Andersen (2014). Published by Princeton Architectural Press

The winner will be informed directly after the jury meeting.

One project will be awarded the following prize:

• The 1st place winner will be awarded with EUR 7,000. The winning project will be exhibited at the Utzon Center, where the award ceremony will also take place.

The winning project will be presented on www.utzoncenter.dk/en and will be published and subsequently used in various exhibitions, dissemination and educational contexts.

The jury is allowed to award a number of special honouring prizes.

NOTE: Due to the many unforeseen global consequences of the coronavirus we have been forced to cancel the competition.

The jury will evaluate the projects in accordance with the following criteria:

• The entrant’s ability to explore, visualise, and implement Jørn Utzon’s architectural intention. This requires that you explore Jørn Utzon’s previous work further in order to understand his fundamental way of thinking regarding architecture.
• The entrant’s aesthetic language. The jury will not be looking for a particular style but a clear voice and a personal take.
• The entrant’s ability to use new digital tools of visualization in a meaningful manner.
• The entrant’s ability to visualise Jørn Utzon’s work of architecture in a way which is comprehensible for a wider, non-specialised audience.
• The entrant’s ability to find interesting points of intersection between Jørn Utzon’s analogue drawings and modern 3d drawing techniques.
• The entrant’s ability to challenge trending modes of visualisation. The jury will be looking for entries with an experimental, non-dogmatic and innovative approach to 3-dimensional visualisation tools.

You need to submit the following files:
 

• 1-page project description. Please focus on your interpretation of Jørn Utzon’s work, and the way in which this has influenced your visualisation.
   
• One 3D animated model that explores and visualises the architectural qualities of Jørn Utzon’s architecture. This could be a fully 3d animated visualisation, animated graphic, or something more traditional by combining analogue or digital tools etc.
  • Film resolution: Full HD, or preferably 4K
  • Video file format: AVI, MOV or MP4
     
• 5-10 renders showing key aspects of Jørn Utzon’s architecture. There should be a minimum of five renders or a maximum of 10 renders in total. The 5-10 renders could be still images, drawings extracted from the 3D animated film, or hand-drawen visualisation. But minimum one render should be a section render, and minimum one render should be a plan render/top view.
  • File format: JPEG /PNG
  • Image dimensions: minimum A1 / 594x841 MM
  • Render resolution: minimum 300 dpi
  • High quality scanned (at a minimum)
     

The following two items are optional and not required in order to submit your project. However, some submissions may benefit from the following:
 

• One 3D model prepared for 3D printing, if the entrant find that it supports one's submission. You should then specify in the 1-page description what material the model should be printed in. Consider what material captures your vision for the visualisations better, so video still renders, and the 3D printed model becomes a part of one seamless narrative. The 3D model that shows the entire project including its context could be a section model or something else, as long as you have carefully thought about your choice.
  • File format: OBJ, STL or VRML if the file has colour and you want this to be transferred to the print.
  • Tolerances: The 3D print file should be prepared with the right resolution and tolerances according to your choice of printing material.
     
• A VR model, if this further supports your submission, but this is not a requirement. 

All entries will be evaluated by an international jury consisting of academics and professionals with a personal and/or professional association with the work by Jørn Utzon.

The jury’s elections of the winners are based on the judging criteria and requirements.

The 2020 jury consists of:

Rafael Moneo, Renowned Spanish architect, educator, previous employee of Jørn Utzon and recipient of numerous awards, including the Pritzker Prize, the RIBA Royal Gold Medal, and the Praemium Imperiale for Architecture. Moneo established his architecture firm in Madrid in 1965 and began his teaching career in 1966 at ETSAM. From 1985-1990 he served as chairman of the architecture department at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. Throughout the late 1990s and into the 21st century, Moneo designed many museums and cultural spaces such as the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles and Fine Arts Museum in Houston.

Lene Tranberg, Renowned Danish architect, honorary fellow AIA, friend of the Utzon Family and founding partner of Lundgaard & Tranberg Architects. Tranberg has received several awards for her work such as RIBA European Award, Red Dot Design Award, and Honorary Fellowship, American Institute of Architects. Tranberg is noted for projects like Tietgenkollegiet, a student housing in Copenhagen, and the Royal Danish Playhouse, and her design for the new parish centre in the medieval town of Ribe, Denmark, was one of the five finalists for the 2017 EU Mies Award.

Isak Worre Foged, Associate Professor at Aalborg University and holds a PhD in Architecture. He is educated MSc.Eng.Arch. from the Institute of Architecture and Design, Aalborg University and M.Arch. in Genetic Architectures from the EsArq, International University of Catalunya, Barcelona. At Aalborg University he is head of a research group for adaptive architecture, and he is cofounder of the research based architectural STUDIO AREA, which is formalised in 2010 in collaboration with Anke Pasold, located in Copenhagen.

Line Nørskov Eriksen, Head of exhibition at Utzon Center and holds a PhD in Architecture. Her research focuses on Jørn Utzon’s oeuvre, specifically the formative influence of his travel studies. Through her research and her work at the Utzon Center, she has built an in-depth understanding of Jørn Utzon’s private archive collection - now in the joint guardianship of Utzon Center and Aalborg University.

Lasse Andersson, Creative director of Utzon Center and holds a PhD in Cultural Planning. Until 2014, Lasse was heading the Urban Design Department at Aalborg University, and, since 2015, he has been the creative director of Utzon Center in Aalborg, which is developing into an experience house for architecture and Jørn Utzon. During his time as creative director, Utzon Center has become home of the full Utzon Archive with an international outreach and a strong program for play and learn targeting kids and schools.

Here you will find important dates and deadlines that relates to the Utzon UNBUILT competition.

• 22nd of March 2020: Deadline for submission/upload
• 1st of September 2020: Deadline for submission/upload
   

PLEASE NOTE: This years competition is cancelled. There will be no winner announced.

The original deadline was 22nd of March 2020. If you have already submitted your project, we sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you. You do not need to submit your project again. But you are of course free to make any alterations to your original project and to submit a new version by 1st September.

A date for winners announcement and online presentation will be announced at a later date. 

For further information and questions regarding the competition please contact competition@utzoncenter.dk.

By entering the competition and submitting a project the entrant automatically agrees that the copyright/patent of the submitted projects will be handed over to the Utzon Center, including a consent for usage by third parties.

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