AUCA Campus Design Competition

November 16, 2018

Dear Students!

AUCA is pleased to invite submissions for the AUCA Campus Design Competition.

The purpose is to invite students to create a concept or an idea for improving the AUCA campus’ front yard in order to make it more comfortable and user-friendly for university community and visitors.

AUCA is looking for proposals, which will allow for an ethnic, cultural, and religious diversity. Proposals are to reflect among other AUCA values: freedom of expression, speech, and thought; critical thinking, openness, trust, respect, integrity, justice, responsibility, and civic participation.

AUCA is open to big and small ideas. A design idea can be as grand as a design of the whole front yard. Or as small as a design idea of a cool chair, a functional bench, a flower pot with a special meaning, or any other idea (even with no means to realize it) bringing value to the university community and guests will be accepted for the competition.

All AUCA students, including NGA and Masters, are eligible to compete for prizes. AUCA encourages all students to explore different ideas and take part in this competition.

AUCA faculty and staff members are welcome to submit their ideas, however will not compete in the contest.

For your convenience, there will be a Q&A session about the competition:

November 20, 2018, 13:00-14:00, CH.

If you have any questions or would like to learn more about this competition, please make sure to attend this session. If you still have questions, contact Zhamilia Irsalieva, Student Initiative Development Program Coordinator at sidp@auca.kg

Instructions for the competition follow below.

We wish all of you creative inspiration and success in your projects!

Almas Chukin Chyngyz Shamshiev

Board Member, AUCA Board of Trustees AUCA Vice-President/ Chief Operating Officer

Guidelines for Campus Design Competition.

Eligibility:

Students:

Students working in teams of 3 or individually are eligible to submit their proposals and compete for prizes.

Faculty & Staff:

Faculty and staff members are not eligible to compete in the contest; however they are welcome to submit their proposals either individually or in groups. Their ideas might be taken into consideration during the selection period.

Rounds:

The competition will have two rounds and run from November 2018 to May 2019:

ROUND 1: Announcing a call for proposals to draw a large pool of ideas from as many students as possible. After the first round is closed in January, jury will select 5 best ideas proposed by teams and/or individual students.

ROUND 2: The selected participants will compete further and receive guidance from professional architects and different experts to:

Develop their ideas in more detail;
Work on creating a project budget and timeline;
Represent their ideas graphically.

AUCA reserves a right to change the rules of the competition as students go through a learning process. Any changes will be communicated to the competition participants immediately by e-mail to everyone who registers for the competition (see “Submission” section below).

Evaluation & Selection:

ROUND 1 results will be announced on February 4, 2019.
ROUND 2 results will be announced on May 31, 2019.

The Challenge:

Located in the center of Bishkek, the old campus allowed students and residents of the City to share public spaces. The new campus is very successful; however it feels more like a “university bubble,” disengaged from the local community.

AUCA community is underusing the front yard (southern side) of the university. Students, faculty, staff, and visitors spend most of their time indoors.

Goals of the competition:

To redesign the front yard in a way that creates a sense of community by giving people an opportunity to meet, communicate, connect, and do different activities outdoors.
To make the front yard usable during all 4 seasons.

Constraints:

No housing/ dormitory proposals will be accepted.
No proposals of commercial character will be accepted (food, selling goods and services, advertisement, etc.).
In the interest of fairness, students may not ask faculty or other professionals for advice on their ideas or assistance on their submissions. Faculty and others may, however, offer general advice in pre-announced open settings where all can learn about redesigning public spaces.
Students are encouraged to conduct their own research in best practices for the redesign of public spaces.
The participants, who are selected for the second round of this competition, will have a budgetary limit of $75,000 (seventy-five thousand U.S. dollars).
Due to installed geothermal heating underneath the university area, no constructions can be placed below 50 cm underground in the front yard.
Due to safety concerns, constructions/ installations have to be lightweight, durable, not bend (if might cause injuries or harm), and not fall under the weight of the wind or snow. If constructions/ installations are to be placed on the lawns or walkways, they may not damage them in any way.
For security reasons, it is important to be able to see what’s happening in the public spaces from the inside of the building. Therefore, installations and constructions should not block the view to the front yard from the inside. Installations and constructions up to 2-3 meters tall will be allowed.

Requirements:

For the first round of the competition, the participants are expected to come up with a campus design idea or any other interesting idea that is communicated clearly through a representation of their choice: pictures, essays, videos, PowerPoint Presentations (no more than 10 slides), and graphics (or a combination of all) taking into consideration the evaluation criteria. Ideas do not have to be professionally drawn out for the first round.
For the second round of competition, the selected participants will be provided with more detailed instructions for how to present their final ideas.
The proposed design idea is expected to utilize the allocated funds efficiently.

Evaluation Criteria:

Accessibility to all - people with disabilities, kids, elderly;
Compliance with the legal, and AUCA requirements mentioned above;
Consistent with the image and strategy of the University as a Liberal Arts educational institution in Central Asia;
Creativity;
Environmental friendliness (a key factor);
Fits in the landscape;
Fits with the goals of the competition;
Functionality;
Innovativeness;
Suitability with the overall university design;
User-friendliness.

Submission:

If interested in entering this competition, participants must register at http://bit.ly/AUCA2018. All news or updates on the competition will be sent to the e-mail address(es) participants provide in this form.
Proposals to be submitted in English both in electronic (PDF format, scanned as one document) and paper versions (except videos). The document should contain a cover page with participant’s name, or team name and a list of its members, be in the A4 format, spacing of 1,5, Times New Roman, 12, and no longer that 5 pages.
Electronic versions of proposals to be e-mailed to sidp@auca.kg . Paper versions of proposals to be submitted to Zhamilia Irsalieva, President’s Office, room 115.
Participants must keep a copy of their submission(s).The University cannot be responsible for ensuring that some materials might not be lost or damaged. The university might request to submit a second copy.
Proposals are due on Sunday, January 13, 2019, at 11:59 p.m.;
Late proposals will not be considered for evaluation.

Implementation:

The University reserves the right to take the best ideas from multiple proposals and combine them in a final solution that can be implemented over a period of several years.

Prizes:

The teams and/or individuals selected for the second round will:

Be honored on a commemorative plaque on campus;
Receive a certificate of appreciation;
Receive recognition through posts on AUCA web-site and social media.

Grand Prize:

In case a grand prize winner is a team, its members will be awarded with one of the following prizes of their choice:

A trip for 3 people to Moscow, Russia with all expenses covered (Travel). The Travel will be both a cultural and a learning experience;
A $1000 cash prize for each person. These funds can be used to either cover the tuition fee at AUCA or to pursue educational opportunities of students’ interests.

The winning team members will also have an opportunity to be involved in the implementation of their idea and gain some experience.
In case a grand prize winner is an individual, a student will receive a $2000 cash prize. These funds can be used to either cover the tuition fee at AUCA or to pursue educational opportunities of the student’s interests. The winning student will also have an opportunity to be involved in the implementation of the proposed idea and gain some experience.

2^ndPlace Prize:

In case a second place winner is a team, its members will be awarded with one of the following prizes of their choice:

A $150 cash prize for each person.
Travel- in case the grand prize winner is a team, and its members choose the cash prize over the Travel.

In case a second place winner is an individual, a student will receive a $300 cash prize.

3^rdPlace Prize:

In case a third place winner is a team, its members will be awarded with one of the following prizes of their choice:
1. A $100 cash prize for each person.
2. Travel- in case the second prize winner is a team, and its members choose the cash prize over the Travel.
In case a third place winner is an individual, a student will receive a $200 cash prize.

*Place*	*Team*	*Individual*
1st Place, Grand Prize	$1000 per member or Travel for 3	$2000
2nd Place	$150 per member or Travel for 3^[1]	$300
3rd Place	$100 per member or Travel for 3^[2]	$200

The competition will be judged by jury consisting of:

Chukin Almas, AUCA Board Member;
Irsalieva Zhamilia,SIDP Coordinator;
Kim Anna, General Grants Coordinator;
Muslimova Liliya, Physical Plant Department Director;
Myerberg Henry, AUCA New Campus Architect;
Shamshiev Chyngyz, Vice-President of AUCA;
Ukueva Nurgul,Head of Economics Department;
TBA,AUCA Student Senate Representative.

^[1] If a second place winner is a team, its members will either receive a $150 cash prize for each person or be awarded with the Travel in case the grand prize winner team chooses the cash prize.

^[2] If a third place winner is a team, its members will either receive a $100 cash prize for each person or be awarded with the Travel in case the second place winner team chooses the cash prize.

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