Parliament design competition enters final round; judges to decide on winner in January

The Urban Development Corporation (UDC) has commenced the final round of judging in the Parliament Design Competition now that three dimensional renders and models of the top five preliminary architectural designs have been submitted.

The creative pieces were submitted on December 18 from the five shortlisted design teams led by Jamaican architects Ravi Sittol; Damian Edmond; Stephen Facey; Guenet Anderson and Evan Williams. The designs will go through a rigorous final judging exercise by the competition's esteemed panel of jurors. 

The panel of judges, which is comprised of Mark Raymond, Christopher Lue, Jacquiann Lawton, Richard Picart , Dr Elizabeth Pigou-Dennis, Dwight Ricketts and Martin Addington, is an amalgamation of architects, engineers, planners and educators in the built environment. 

Chairman of the Jury Mark Raymond explained: "We will convene in early January 2019 to deliberate over the submissions and how they have adhered to the rules and guidelines of the competition. Once again, concept and theory; architectural expression, language and form, as well as relationship to context (urbanity) will be taken into great consideration. Other factors such as practicality, security, costing and the use of the site will also play a part." 

Each of the five teams will have an opportunity to present to the panel during individual 45-minute sessions between January 14 - 16. The entries will become available for the public to weigh in via a People's Choice voting process when the jury deliberations are complete in late January. The design, which receives the most votes, will receive the People's Choice Award during an announcement ceremony in early March. 

Also taking place during this period is the evaluation of cost estimates and other technical data. 

The Houses of Parliament Design Competition commenced in May and invited entries from Jamaican professionals living in Jamaica and the Diaspora. A total of 24 designs were received from local and international interests from the United Kingdom, Trinidad, Guyana, America, Argentina, Italy, Canada, Serbia, Turkey and Iran at the end of stage one of the competition in September.  

The top five designs were announced during an exhibition launch event for the 24 designs, which was open to the public from October 10 - 24 at the Jamaica Conference Centre in Kingston. 

The Houses of Parliament Design Competition is managed by the UDC on behalf of the Jamaican Government and is granted oversight by a Parliamentary Steering Committee for the duration of the project. 

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