Architectural Competitions: Creating Dialogues and Promoting Excellence?

Architectural competitions have become a major way of commissioning buildings, especially for corporate and government structures. They belong to a practice that dates back to ancient Greece. This editorial essay ponders some of the critical issues raised by the two major types ‐ project competitions and ideas competitions ‐ through representative case studies of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture and the recent competition for master plan and buildings for the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Science. The notions discussed are based on the author's personal experiences over four decades, and the roles played by the major players involved in the process ‐ the client or sponsor, the competition organizers, the designers/architects, and the architectural juries. The article ends with a consideration of why architectural competitions are valuable in the lessons they offer and the discourses they raise, and their significance for architects and architecture more broadly.