We have discovered that the submittal deadline was not completely clear in our documents or the EU Design Contest Notice. To clarify both documents and in fairness to global entrants, the submittal deadline is 23:59, 22 April 2009, local time. Thus if a team is located in central Europe, their deadline is 23:59 CEST. If the team is located in New York, their deadline is 23:59 EST, etc.

A Sitra team will review the RFQ proposal and adjudicate points based on the evaluation criteria posted in the RFQ.

• The selection team members are:
• Justin Cook, Sustainable Urban Development Lead; M.Arch.
• Johanna Kirkinen, Project Manager, Energy Programme M. Sc. (Tech).
• Juha Kostiainen, Director, Energy Programme; M.Sc (Tech), MA (Ph), D.Sc (Adm)
• Jukka Noponen, Executive Director, Energy Program; M.Sc. (Tech.)
• Marco Steinberg, Director of Strategic Design; SAFA; M.Arch.

Sitra retains the right to seek consultant input in the evaluation process as it deems necessary.

As stated in the RFQ, Sitra will award each finalist team a 50.000 euro honorarium. In addition, Sitra will cover all related costs in Finland and up to 6.000 euro for travel to the invited events.

“Environmental systems” is intended to be an umbrella that captures a range of issues such as those listed in the question. We are largely expecting the teams to make this determination as they see fit to accomplish the goals of the competition. That being said, I think in this case that we are looking for competency in environmental systems as it relates to the built environment. This is due in part to the location and limits of the competition.

Again, this is an umbrella term—there are no specific requirements here. However, we recognize that the economic/financial side of the sustainability question is often the one that determines whether a solution is durable over time. We want teams to be able to make the case that their solution is viable and demonstrate that with a preliminary, honest accounting of costs.

In this case, we recognize “business development” as an important tool for analyzing the development context and designing program scenarios that will support a sustainable building complex and urban district. In the Overview, we list the program of the complex as a headquarters, retail, housing and other programs that support a sustainable approach to urban development. We are expecting that addressing this question of “other programs” will require some expertise in business development. For instance, we do not want teams proposing a GMC Hummer dealership as part of an innovative approach to programming a sustainable, low-carbon building complex.

A more detailed plan will be available as part of the full brief. A preliminary site plan is available at the City of Helsinki website: http://www.hel.fi/wps/portal/Kaupunkisuunnitteluvirasto/Artikkeli?
WCM_GLOBAL_CONTEXT=/ksv/fi/Ajankohtaiset+suunnitelmat/Projektialueet
/L_nsisatama/Suunnittelualueet/J_tk_saari

Sitra has rights to develop the 7.100+ m² site. The larger site of Jätkäsaari will be developed in 3 phases ending in 2023 - a timeline established prior to the economic crisis and according to a master plan developed by the City of Helsinki. There are also many sites (~400+ hectares) within metropolitan Helsinki that will be developed in that time as a result of the port moving out of the city. There will be many chances to impact this development.

We see the larger context as critical to the success of any site strategy. Indeed, Sitra’s mission is to work toward systemic change and we will work to create opportunities at many scales.

Engineers should provide strategies and principles for the purposes of the competition. As we state in the competition overview and RFQ, we are looking for the right team with the right approach to continue to the design phase. We are not looking for high resolution architectural solutions with engineered systems. That being said, proposals should not be designed in isolation of the things engineers do well such as systems and lifecycle analysis.

Sitra will not accept competition teams that include individuals participating in two or more Low2No competition teams. However, a firm or organization can have multiple individuals participating in multiple teams so long as the lead/representative or core team works within one Low2No competition team. We ask that firms or organizations with representatives in mulitiple teams be transparent about their roles and participation in the competition.

Once the finalist teams are selected, firms or organizations may adjust their teams so long as the same standard, quality and preconditions are met.

This rule is made in the interest of setting a high standard of transparency.

This process is designed to identify and enable the best team to verify their solutions in design development. The team will then will be charged with guiding the project through construction. Concurrent to the design process (which begins with this team and approach selection competition) is the development of financing, development and construction partnership.

Some do. In any case, the mix of structures, policies and dynamics that will lead to the long-term sustainability of urban systems remains an open question. Demonstration projects (some with laudable outcomes) have been constructed throughout northern Europe, but these are often exemptions from their context and the day-to-day practices of development. It remains to be seen how the governments of Nordic states will spur large-scale sustainable urban development programs, especially given their challenging northern climate.

No it is not an ideas competition in the typical sense, but good ideas are important to the project’s long term efficacy and impact. We see strong principles as a hedge against shifts in the market and the fragility of political support. Asking the right questions and determining the real dynamics of the problem will allow us-and users of the information generated by the competition-to overcome the countless legacy issues that will push back against a project seeking systemic change.

No this is not an architecture competition, but rather a sustainable development competition which has a significant architecture component. It is our belief that effective and robust solutions will need to take a broad, deep, and systemic integration of diverse dynamics. As such we expect teams to integrate deep knowledge in business, technology, economy, policy, urban design, landscape design, environmental technology, and architecture.