LIBRARY FOR THE
INFORMATION AGE
The 1998 ACADIA
International Design
Competition
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
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If you have questions about the competition, please check the questions and answers listed below. If you do not find the answer to your question here, please email Branko Kolarevic using branko@hku.hk
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| The Competition is Finished. The results are in! Check out the Winners! There was a tremendous amount of great work done for this competition. We hope that you will continue to watch this space for another ACADIA Internet Competition starting next year!
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I am having problems printing the competition pages. Can you help?
Some browser versions insist on printing black text, even on black backgrounds. Try printing the plain text version of the site (the page includes everything but this FAQ page and the Registration form.
Are ACADIA members able to participate?
Yes. Only members of the organizing committee are prohibited from participating.
Should each participant have their own web-site for jurors to visit or should the entries be sent as functional www-sites to be reviewed off-line (downloading times may vary a lot depending on the geographical location of the participant) ? Can I register without my final URL?
Each participant should have his/her own web-site. The sites will be reviewed on-line by the jurors; off-line review is not anticipated at
this time. You should register once you have established your URL. You have until October 15, 1998 to register.
Will there be a list of submission URLs circulated to the participants so that we may visit the sites as well?
No, we are not considering that at this time. The URLs of the winning entries will be published.
I'm an Instructor at a school of Architecture, but not a licensed architect. Can I enter the competition? How can my students enter the competition?
You may personally enter the competition as a "professional designer", even though you are not licensed. You will need to pay the $40.00 entry fee. You and your students may enter as a team for the $40.00 "professional designer" registration fee, or your students may enter either as individuals or as a team, at no cost. You can still be listed as an advisor on their entries.
What browser configurations are acceptable? Can I expect jury members to have special plugins, for example?
Submitted entries will be viewed using the latest standard (i.e. non-beta) versions of
Microsoft Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator browsers that are available at
the time of judging, with plug-ins for viewing VRML 2.0, QuickTime 3.0,
and QuickTime VR files.
It is the responsibility of the participants to insure compatibility
with both browsers on Windows and MacOS computers. Neither the Organizing Committee nor the Jury
will necessarily have browsers with more specialized
configurations. Participants should design their
submissions accordingly, aiming to communicate their
ideas to a large audience on the Internet.
To what extent are technical issues (downloading times, delay in responsing to user interaction and so on) judged as compared to other aspects of the entry ?
Downloading times should be kept to a minimum possible without
compromising the content or the quality of the submission (participants
should use JPEG images with high compression ratios whenever possible,
etc.). Participants may want to create high-quality (or
high-resolution) and low-quality (low-resolution) segments of their
web sites to compensate for different download times.
The medium used (WWW) does impose certain constraints on the size and the number of graphic or 3D elements used in presentations, and that will be taken into consideration during the judging phase. Creative solutions in this regard may be looked upon favorably by the jurors.
The judging criteria will be published on the competition web site later this fall.
Is there a particular physical site for the project? If not, may I choose one?
No, there isn't any particular physical site for the library. If you wish you may choose/propose a particular site as part of your project.
Is the software listed the only available software awarded to winners.....What about the software ARRIS....... Is it possible to substitute software if I was a winner.....
The prize software is donated by the competition sponsors; Sigma Design (the maker of ARRIS) is not sponsoring the competition and therefore its
software is not available as a prize.
Could mail me some information on registration (like a flyer or poster) to place at the university.
All ACADIA members will receive a copy of the poster in the mail. Also, all schools of architecture worldwide that are listed in the ACSA
directory will get a copy of the poster.
Is it possible to pay the registration fee by credit card? or checks drawn on my regular (non US) bank?
We cannot accept payment by credit card, either on-line or via surface mail. Unless your bank account is payable in US dollars we cannot accept a personal check either. For a nominal fee you should be able to obtain a bank draft or international money order, in US dollars, from most commercial banks. This is a fairly standard service.
Can I send a scanned proof of student status as attached email as a JPG or TIFF file instead of mailing it by snail mail?
You should send the proof of your student status by postal mail.
Which time zone is used for deadlines of registration and submissions.
Deadlines are Midnight, in the Pacific Time Zone (U.S. West Coast), on
the dates in question.
I am an MS Degree student. Can I join the competition?
Yes. Graduate or Undergraduate students in any discipline may join.
I'm not sure yet if your competition is open to student from other countries than US, and if yes if he has to be registered in a specific university or group of universities.
The competition is open to students and professionals WORLDWIDE -- see the registration page for more information. You
can register for free if you are a student (you must provide a proof of
your student status). If you
are not a student, you may register as a professional, in which case there is a registration fee of US$40.
As is often the case I belive
one category of AIA members hasn't been considered properly.
AIAAssociates, often interns in architecture are not accounted for in
the instructions. Interns are no longer "students" and, by pay and
often responsibilty, are not professionals. The AIA in fact strictly
forbids AIAA members to call themselves architects which is the
professional position in the architectural profession.
I would suggest that due to the pay afforded many interns that interns
be allowed to register for the competion at the student rate or at a
reduced rate.
Thanks for your message and your concerns regarding the participation of
intern architects from the United States.
This is an international competition and as you probably know the architectural qualifications vary from country to country; in some countries one becomes an architect the moment he or she graduates from the university. Our registration procedure is already demanding considering that we have registrants from all over the world and limited resources (we are all volunteers -- none of us are paid for the time devoted to this competition). Adding another category of participants -- interns -- will make the process even more complicated and demanding. We will have to find out what it takes for someone to claim to be an intern in France, Norway, Brasil, Pakistan, etc. -- all in all, some 150 or so countries!
We have intentionally set a low registration fee of only $40 to encourage as many professionals as possible to participate. We believe that most intern architects in the U.S. can afford to pay that much.
What language should be used for the competition web pages? Is it OK to use something other than English?
The language of the competition is English. You may use other languages for portions of your site, but you should provide English pages for the judges.
How often will the jury expect to find new information on the web site? Are there intermediate deadlines on which dates the jury is going to review the projects?
It is expected that web-sites will not change during judging. We cannot reveal the dates when the judging will take place.
Must I establish a dedicated homepage for the competition?
You can use just a part of your web site for the competition entry, but
make sure that there is a direct link to it in the URL (for example
http://www.surf.net/~surfuser/acadia98/)
Should I build download attachments, with scaled information about the project, or I can work only whit digital pictures in Jpg and Gif format, (maybe animations?)
There will be NO downloading of attachments. Please refer to the web site for more information on supported file formats for images,
animations, etc., that may be embedded into web pages.
If the proposals
are to be submitted in the form of web pages, are they going to be
viewed in their cached form (i.e., viewed from the hard disk) or are
they going to be subject to bandwidth limitations of a dial-up modem
connection or other remote service?
The review of entries will be subject to bandwidth limitations, i.e., there will be no "pre-loading" of files prior to review by judges. However, it is expected that the judges will have direct connection to the Internet (i.e., not through a dial-up link).
I sent in registration materials for the ACADIA Library competition more
than 5 weeks ago, and have not yet heard back. Could you please confirm
that you have received my request? Also, when can I/my design team expect
to receive more information?
All information pertaining to the competition will be posted on the web site. Important info will be circulated through email once the
registration period is over.
I have Read the FAQ page and am unclear about the plug-ins question.
Does it mean that any site utilizing plug ins (such as shockwave) will
not be considered, or that the inconvenience of downloading the plugin
may detract from the overall presentation. I feel that using readily
available plug-ins and providing download links is a reasonable method
of using multimedia. by using Shockwave I am only trying to save on
the download time for a Quicktime or AVI movie. I would apprciate
some clarification on this issue.
The list of plugins will be announced after the registration deadline has passed (October 15). Please visit the web site then for more information.
We will probably add Shockwave to the list.
One simple question. What is URL? Could you tell me simply?
How do I get one? Is it possible to get one after registration and before final submission?
URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator -- a web address for a specific web page or web site. For example, the URL of ACADIA's home page is
- http://www.acadia.org
You need to have a web site (the URL is its 'address') where your entry will be located in order to register for the competition. You will need to consult with your Internet Service Provider (which is usually the same company/organization through which you get your email and web access) for information on how to create web pages on their server.
Can I participate with my real name or I should use a nickname?
Use your real name.
Because english isn't my native language I have some difficulty understanding the web pages. What does "drawn check" mean? Is it something like a "saving account check" from a U.S. Bank; or something like "traveler check"--in spanish: "Cheque de Viajero"?
I am not sure that I understand your question, but will try to answer it
anyway. The payment must be in US dollars, not some other currency. You can pay with a check issued by a US bank and payable in US
dollars or you can pay with an international money order, again payable in US dollars. The check should be payable to ACADIA.
There are several of us comprising a mixed TEAM of proffesionals and students. Do we pay ONLY $40 for the team or does each proffesional pay $40?
Since you intend to enter as a team you will have to pay only US$40 to register.
And Lastly DO WE HAVE to have the url before we can register for the competition?
We haven't resolved this issue yet (it came up recently). We need the
URLs to organize the review process. As you can imagine, handling all of
the URL notifications later on can become a messy affair. So if you can,
please register with the URL; if you don't have it, check this page
later on (we may create a mailing list for the registered participants
to inform them of any changes). As I mentioned previously, we haven't
fully resolved this yet.
Could I have more than one project web address (because most of them have limited memory)? If I can, do I have to fill in all of those on the form?
One web address only. If your presentation uses links to pages on several servers that should not be a problem, but there must be only one "entry point" to your presentation as a whole.
I am a student in architecture at the University of Montreal (Canada) and am having problem getting a proof of my status here. I can either:
- send you a letter issued by the University but that will be in French only... (I could not get them to prepare a document in english) or
- send you a photocopy of my student ID (card) but the University will just not sign this...Do you need a certified copy or will a simple photocopy do?
You can send us either a letter issued by the University (in French) or a photocopy of your student ID card (any legible photocopy is OK).
I have graduated in architecture (I am not a student any more), but I don't yet have the professional registration (I am not an architect yet). How should I register?
You should register as a professional (since you are not a student) and pay the $40 registration fee.
Do I have to send my proof of status in english, or I can send it to you in Serbo-Croatian (in original)?
Serbo-Croatian is fine; please include the English translation (which doesn't have to be official -- you can do the translation yourself) and
mail everything to Loukas Kalisperis per these instructions.
We need the ACADIA full post adress to make an International
Money Order from Brazil.
Please use the address shown on this page.
The registration form does not allow two of us to be
listed as authors in equal terms since there can be only one name stated. We want
to work on the competition in a team but with equal rights to
authorship. Do we apply both as team members?
It is up to you to decide how to handle the rights to the authorship. For the practical reasons, we need one person designated in each team for all future communication between us, the organizers, and the
participants. That person should be registered as a team leader.
If a team of students wants to register (as a team), does each one have to submit proof of student identification or does only that of the person whose name appears first on the registration (or "team leader") suffice?
Proof of the student status must be provided for each student member of the team.
I have just sent copies of proof of student indentities of my self and
the three people involved in the competition by snail
mail this afternoon. I was trying to find an e-mail address for Loukas Kalisperis on the Competition web site so that I could inform him that they are in the mail, since the deadline is the 15th of October...
There is no need to contact Loukas, as long as your registration letter
is postmarked by October 15. In other words, if you mailed your
registration before the 15th, you are O.K.
My name is Nader, I'm a student, and I sent my student proof without a copy of my registration. I ask. Have any problem?
We don't know yet. We will fully examine the submitted registration documentation after the registration deadline (October 15).
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