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1- The Idea of Design Competition
2- Aims & Objectives of new Design
3- Competition Conditions
4- Competition Prizes
5- The Judges of the Competition
6- Competition Time Table
 

The Idea of Design Competition

Since the city centre of the holy city of Karbala has a major role in defining the movement and overall design of the Master Plan of the city, and more importantly the location of two holy Shrines there that represent highest Islamic features and the city was formed because of them, it is vital that the designer considers both religious and urban aspects of the design for this city centre and its Shrines.

 

Aims & Goals

  1. Highlight the importance of the holy Shrines due to their religious and cultural importance as discusses above.
  2. Protection of existing old city structure and its cultural, historic, and religious buildings in a way to keep their historical and religious importance via introduction of restructuring policies.
  3. Planning and urban design for those urban structures that are affecting negatively on old city's structure and its Shrines.
  4. Create visual and movement accesses to Shrines in order to express their importance as well as maintaining the existing ornaments.
  5. Create enough space for pilgrims as well as services needed for them such as lavatories and ablution places in a modern way.
  6. Creation of respectful places and yards in line with the holiness of the Shrines as it is the case in old religious complexes, and in line with the urban structure.
  7. Provision of hotel accommodations that provide proximity to Shrines and visual access to them in order to serve religious needs of pilgrims.
  8. Provision of enough and adequate market spaces for pilgrims.
  9. Improving the overall environment in such a way that complies with its new modern structure as well as environmental issues and the traditional Islamic culture.
  10. Design the transportation in the city centre in such a way to keep the areas close to Shrines car free, yet provide close access to shrines to the pilgrims.

 

Competition Conditions

Candidates are required to comply with the following conditions:

  1. The foreign or local participant should be a consultancy office or a person with more than 10 years experience in providing similar designs.
  2. Participants should be well aware of Islamic Architecture especially on ornamental designs of Shrines.
  3. Designers should comply with the following specifications:
    • Spaces for pilgrims should accommodate at least 500,000 pilgrims.
    • The first row of buildings around Shrines should not be taller than 12m which is the existing height of their outer walls.
    • The buildings behind the first row should not exceed 4 storeys and buildings near the boundaries of the city centre can have up to 6 storey height.
    • Movement accesses should be in line with visual lines in order to provide maximum visual contact with Shrines' ornaments.
    • Any design should comply with existing ornamental designs of the holy Shrines.
  4. The design should keep all traditional, cultural or religious places in their location and try to exhibit them as mush as possible.
  5. Participants should provide an implementation plan considering the ownership rights.
  6. All mosques and Hyssainiyas that fall within the new design should be kept at their locations but could be moved only if it was extremely vital to do so. In this case, they should be restored in a better form and location.
  7. Participants should provide their conceptual ideas in A1 sheets and their supporting documentations as well as an implementation plan in Arabic or English on A4 sheets. Both data should be provided on a CD format as well.

 

Competition Prizes

International Centre for Technical Research, the contractor for upgrading the Master Plan of the holy city of Karbala and Hur will give the following prizes to the selected winners:

  1. The first prize for best design and implementation plan is $20,000.
  2. The second prize for best design and implementation plan is $15,000.
  3. The third prize for best design and implementation plan is $10,000.

Note:

  • The Ministry of Municipalities and Public Work (General Directorate for Planning) is not obliged to give the detailed drawings, working drawings or any further work to the winners of the competition.
  • All drawings and studies submitted for this competition will be the General Directorate's copyright and nobody can object their use wholly or partly by the Directorate in this project.
  • The winners of this competition will be announced in the General Directorate for Planning.

 

The Judges of the Competition

The Ministry of Municipalities and Public Work (General Directorate for Planning) will select a team of referees from experts and consultants under chairmanship of the General Director and supervision of HE the Minister of MMPW.

 

Competition Time Table

  1. Details of the competition could be obtained from the General Directorate for Planning, offices of the International Centre for Technical Research on CD, or directly from Internet (www.KarbalaPlan.com) from 15/9/2008.
  2. Proposals should be submitted in sealed envelopes to headquarter of the General Directorate for Planning located at Meidan, Baghdad, Iraq no longer than 15/12/2008.
  3. Results will be announced a fortnight after the submission deadline.