A new Crystal Palace to replace the Victorian original which burnt to the ground in 1936.
The competition was looking for design teams capable of delivering a new design that was faithful to the spirit of the original in all its ingenuity, scale and magnificence, creating an internationally recognised landmark building and establishing a cultural centre to showcase the best of London to the world.
Winners
This competition is on hold.
Six competitors were invited to take part in Stage 2 of the competition:
David Chipperfield Architects
Haworth Tompkins Architects
Grimshaw
Marks Barfield Architects
Roger Stirk Harbour + Partners
Zaha Hadid Architects with Anish Kapoor
Process
A two-stage, open, international competition to find architects to design and deliver the project. Stage 1 asked for Expressions of Interest; Stage 2 was planned as a design competition.
A total of 38 highly targeted submissions were received from architects in North America, South America, Germany, France, Italy, The Netherlands, Scandinavia and the UK. Six teams were shortlisted to take part in the Stage 2 design competition.
Our involvement
We were brought onboard by Arup to help its client Zhong Rong Group find a design team to realise its ambitious aspirations for this landmark site in London. We worked closely with Arup as the client representative and with the GLA and the London Borough of Bromley to design and manage the competition process. Our involvement included:
- Designing the competition process
- Researching and identifying potential competitors to invite
- Advertising the competition appropriately
- Writing the competition rules
- Writing the competition brief, in particular devising the brief for the design element of the competition
- Planning the competition timetable and budget to meet client requirements
- Acting as point of contact for the competition
- Ensuring a clear and ethical process
- Briefing the jury panel and the technical advisors
- Briefing competitors
- Managing the competitive process
- Ensuring a compliant procurement process
- Advising on and then managing the scoring/evaluation procedures
- Maintaining confidentiality and anonymity
- Creating an audit trail
- Assisting with press and media enquiries and coverage
- Assisting with community consultation and exhibitions
- Competition administration
- Debriefing and follow up
Facts
- This is an enormous project with cultural content and a wide public profile that sets out to establish a major London landmark
- The client has a strong social and environmental agenda, which needs to be reflected in the brief
- The client put as much emphasis on creating places as it did on creating architecture.
- The competition process has had to take into account the backdrop of strong local and community interest
- The client wanted to attract interest from organisations from both outside and within the UK
- The client was looking to appoint high quality designers, capable of creating something pioneering and new, with whom they could develop innovative and clever designs for a complex multifaceted brief.
- The project involved the GLA and the London Borough of Bromley as well as the client organisation, creating very diverse group of stakeholders.
- The competition was planned with several stages and includes a design competition
- The competition involved a rigorous, auditable procurement route.