OPEN CALL: Doorscape Contest by Oikos Venezia & Querini Stampalia Foundation

Oikos Venezia, a leading Venetian company in the planning and design of high-end entrance doors, and the Querini Stampalia Foundation in Venice, announce the first edition of DoorScape, an international contest created to support and disseminate the architectural culture of the entrance space with the involvement, as partner companies, of Adler, Iseo and Laminam.

The contest was conceived joining the efforts of the two promoters. Oikos Venezia is a company with decades of experience in the relationship with architectural culture and has always paid great attention to multidisciplinarity, considered a source of nourishment and growth. On the other hand, the Querini Stampalia Foundation with OpificioQuerini, the innovative corporate membership project started in 2020, enters into a relationship with companies and works with them on projects for the creation of a new and common vision of the future. To date there are nine partnering companies, including Oikos Venezia itself, and one ambassador, the Firm AMDL Circle, led by Michele De Lucchi.

The DoorScape contest, for which it is possible to register until January 15, 2023, on the website, is the outcome from a long consideration on the architectural space of the entrance in its many meanings, functions and connections. Often, this area is the same one in which the threshold plays a key role, both in creating a passageway and in protecting the environment to which this area leads. This consideration refers to a space that involves different domains, takes on different roles, draws from the sphere of functions, and includes stories of symbols. For this first edition, conceived by Oikos Venezia together with the Querini Stampalia Foundation in Venice, participants are requested to deal with these themes. The requested project has to consider an entrance space capable of expressing the dialogue between the function of access to a place, in its different cultural, functional and formal aspects, and that of protection of the accessed environment.

The winner will be awarded with a prize in money worth 10,000 EUR and the project will be exhibited, together with the other finalists, in the area created by Carlo Scarpa at the Querini Stampalia Foundation during 2023, on the occasion of the 18th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale that takes place in Venice.

The participants works will be evaluated and receive an award upon decision by an international jury of top experts in the field. High-profile professionals from several fields, as the contest requires. The jury is chaired by Michele De Lucchi & AMDL Circle: a professional and an architectural firm embodying the idea of contamination of knowledge.

The other members of the jury: Donatella Calabi, urban historian; Alessandra Chemollo photographer; Emanuele Coccia philosopher; Luciano Giubbilei landscape and garden designer; and Eugenia Morpurgo researcher designer. The jury reflects the character of the entire initiative and the criteria for the project selection: the content of each contest project, besides demonstrating the appropriate technical skills, should not overlook the cultural aim that the entire operation pursues, as well as the specializations of the different members of the jury.

Terms and regulations
The contest is open to architects, engineers, designers, creatives and architecture students who can submit projects by the set deadline, i.e., within and not later than January 15, 2023. Taking part in the contest is free of charge and the preferential titles are a degree in architecture and having practiced the profession.

The full version of the notice and specifications can be downloaded from the website, where there are all the news about the participation, the jury, the promoting companies, and the partnerships.