The architecture competition as contact zone

Competition is key to the architectural profession. On a daily basis, practicing architects compete for the recognition of their ideas, new commissions, team approval, media attention, prizes and awards.00This issue will study different modalities of architecture competitions, and the ways in which they collectively produce knowledge. Architecture competitions are considered as a productive site of negotiation and exchange, or 'contact zones', an open arena for debate between different architecture cultures that produce moments of friction and wisdom. From this perspective, the study of architecture competitions is essentially a study of exchange.00Like other contact zones intrinsic to the profession, architecture competitions can be considered intense transcultural and transdisciplinary exchanges of architecture knowledge. As such, they have significantly affected the way architects have thought their profession. Recognizing the architecture competition as a contact zone stimulates innovative reflections on the theory and methodology of architecture.