The French Ministry of Culture and Communication (Direction of Architecture and Heritage - DAPA) and the International Union of Architects announce a joint initiative aimed at enhancing and expanding their web index of 20th century architectural heritage: www.archi.fr/UIA/.

This project focuses on an international student competition for digital representations of landmark 20th century buildings. The competition will be run entirely through the Internet. An initial national competition will be carried out by the UIA Member Sections and the winners of the national selections will be submitted to the international jury.

The panoramas and 3D models designed for this competition will be based on digital photographs and developed using the Autodesk software ‘Autodesk® ImageModeler™’ and ‘Autodesk® Stitcher™’. This software will be made available to the participants free of charge for a period of three months.

The competition will be launched during the European celebration of Architectural Heritage Days, organised by the Minister of Culture and Communication on 19 & 20 September 2009. Project submissions are planned for April 2010. The grand prize winners and all projects selected at the national level will be exhibited at the Venice biennial in September 2010.

The digital presentations of all selected projects will be posted on line at www.archi.fr/UIA/.

Created in 2000 in the framework of an agreement between the French Ministry of Culture and Communication (direction of Architecture and Heritage), the French National Centre for Scientific Research (UMR-CNRS 694 MAP) and the International Union of Architects, the site www.archi.fr/UIA/ aims to identify and promote architectural works around the world that have left their mark on 20th century architecture. The international committee for Documentation and Conservation of buildings, sites and neighborhoods of the Modern Movement, DoCoMoMo, is also participating in this project.

Contact:
communication.dapa@culture.gouv.fr
uia@uia-architectes.org