1.5. Greek Concerns and Global Regulations Four Competitions for the New Acropolis Museum (1976 - 2000)
Cover The arrival of the first sculpture with protests (red panel) at the door of the site. Courtesy of Nikos Daniilidis, photographer.
Sofia Paisiou, Ph.D. Institute of Architecture, University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland FHNW Switzerland
Architectural competitions, despite their international appeal and reputation, emerge from the local conditions of diverse construction scenes. The definition and rules of competitions are usually connected to the architect’s chambers and/or architectural societies. However, the architectural competition may be thought of as an organizational platform derived from local issues and constraints, which framed the urban projects conforming to international regulations and economic rules. International rules and agreements influence the local and global construction scene and provide new regulations for the diverse types of procedures such as tendering, design contest, and parallel studies. We examine the competitions for the New Acropolis Museum in, illustrating how the international and European regulations “landed” on the Greek construction scene, and transformed the competition institutions by altering their procedural structure, thus affecting the competitions’ trajectory towards realization. We conclude that the internationalization of design, construction services, and construction markets has multiple affects on the appropriateness of competitions. These affects can be thought of as a network of interrelated reactions and work in multiple levels. These transformations may actually strengthen the competition as an institution and make it flexible to respond to an evolving international landscape.
093