Upcycling design proposals in urban design competitions: Bandirma Park competition

Are design proposals as an outcome of the competition processes merely a waste of creativity, time and money; or can they be utilized as the rich resources for knowledge production that they are? Design competitions are an ancient model for obtaining the best possible design solution comprising more than one design team responding to the same brief under the same circumstances. Unlike multiple competition entrants there is only a single winner in every competition. Following the results of a competition all of the design proposals except the winner becomes an unused surplus. Considering the short life of a design proposal which begins by the submission date and ends -If it is not a winner- soon afterward the results are announced, this study tries to construct the so called 'revival' and 'second life' of the design proposals as a research material to find the voice and common sense of a competition. By studying the outcome of a competition through analysing all the entries the design proposals will be upcycled from short-lived underdogs to everlasting knowledge material. Although competition research is an emerging field and there are many studies conducted on design proposals of various competitions, the acclaimed potential of design proposals is mostly evaluated by the authors' specific research questions with regard to shed a light on a subject outside the very competition itself. More often than not we never search for the tendency of the outcome of a competition which can be useful in various ways. Consequently, the following questions seem important to investigate, is it possible to contribute to the city, urban design and competition scene with the knowledge that will be derived from the systematic analysis of design proposals from a competition? Does identifying the trends of a competition contribute to the way in which subsequent competitions are organized? Is it possible to create a template for studying design proposals that is applicable for subsequent competitions with the goal of finding the common sense? How can an ordered, refined and holistic system be designed to study design proposals? This can happen through a strategized analytic approach done by the rapporteurs of the competition. With that being said, how can the attempt upcycling of design proposals become a part of the competition process? The hypothesis is that the upcycling of design proposals after competitions will generate knowledge that will contribute to both the city and the profession as well as the competition environment. After the competition we can create knowledge by refining or distilling the given data on design solutions. The scope of this thesis includes a literary review of the general topic and a theoretically linked case study of an open international urban design competition which was announced in 2016 and resulted in 2017: Bandırma Park Competition. Keywords: Urban design, competitions, upcycling, data analysis