As part of the IDEAS CITY festival in 2013, Storefront for Art and Architecture jointly with the New Museum and Architizer are launching the StreetFest competition for the design, management, and construction of temporary outdoor spaces that produce new ways for collective gathering and city engagement.

By News Editor 16 Jan 2013

Registration Deadline: January 18, 2013

Submission Deadline: February 8, 2013

First Prize: $7,500 + $20,000 Construction

On Saturday, May 4, 2013, one winning entry will occupy designated outdoor space along the Bowery during the StreetFest. The organizers envision fabricating a minimum of ten structures that will cover approximately 1000-1500 square feet. These temporary outdoor structures will accommodate a multiplicity of activities including: vendors, workshop areas, outdoor classrooms, demonstrations, installations, music, and other performances and exhibitions.

This competition asks for designs that envision street tents not only as shelters but also as active elements within the collective construction and understanding of the city. StreetFest calls for architects, artists and engineers to re-envision the performativity of temporary outdoor structures including the material, social, and educational possibilities.

he Challenge

Prefabricated tenting structures have proliferated in the last years as the only solution to temporary affordable outdoor shelter. The resulting landscape of street fairs or temporary events throughout cities and neighborhoods has been a spatially, geometrically, chromatically, and materially homogeneous environment that simply enables activities to happen without generating a playful engagement with the city or its citizens.

This competition asks for designs that envision street tents not only as shelters but also as active elements within the collective construction and understanding of the city. StreetFest makes a call to Architects, Artists and Engineers to re-envision the performativity-the material, social, and educational possibilities-of temporary outdoor structures.

The winning entry will have these characteristics:

1. Aspires to reinvent the typical street fair tent
2. Is modular; one unit can become three can become seven, providing scalability and the ability to go from an intimate platform to a larger one
3. Is conscientious of the materials used and their impact on the environment
4. Is easy to produce and install

The selected project will work closely with the StreetFest Task Force committee and will be commissioned to produce, construct, install, and disassemble the final design.

About Ideas City

Formerly known as the Festival of Ideas for the New City, IDEAS CITY was founded by the New Museum as a major collaboration between dozens of downtown arts, education, and community organizations to harness the power of the creative community and imagine our collective future. This ambitious initiative is built upon the core belief that arts and culture constitute a driving force behind the vitality of urban centers worldwide.

The theme for IDEAS CITY 2013 is Untapped Capital. As the world’s resources continue to be endangered, depleted, and destroyed, we all need to imagine new solutions and develop innovative approaches and practices. Rather than focusing on deficits, IDEAS CITY 2013 will encourage intensive examination of surplus resources that may be under- recognized or underutilized: Untapped Capital. There are many ways of thinking about what might define “untapped capital,” ranging from people and raw materials, to ideas, networks, varied resources, and modes of communication. The topic of Untapped Capital provides a touchstone for alternative thinking about new methodologies, new solutions, and new goals.