Exhibition

Image George Gastin

The Lighthouse, Scotland's Centre for Architecture, Design and the City will be putting the winning submission and some of other shortlisted proposals on display shortly after the judging process concludes in August.

Get your Entries in

The competition continues to grow apace and emails keep popping in from all over the place. Just to confirm, as I know a lot of people have been asking, the competition is open to anyone anywhere. You can be a designer from Norwich, an architect from Rio or a plumber from Alaska - if you have a good idea we want to hear about it.

Speaking of which - get your ideas in - we'll be picking a few more to pass round the press and to post onto this site at the beginning of next week so to be in with a chance of having yours selected send them in soon.

22 days til the dead line closes

Analysis

A very interesting programme on Radio 4 last night all about MP's and the possible psycology as to why they may not have realised they were doing anything wrong when claiming all those expenses. Click here to listen to it.

Judge: Ruth Reed

So we now have a quartet of judges with Ruth Reed the latest to join the band.

Ruth Reed is Course Director of the Postgraduate Diploma in Architectural Practice at the Birmingham School of Architecture and a Partner of Green Planning Solutions. She has also sat on the RIBA's Council, been Vice President of Membership, Chaired the RIBA's CPD Sub-committee and served as President of the Royal Society of Architects in Wales.

Ruth has also been elected the next President of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA). www.ruthreed.co.uk/

For your eyes only

So the expenses have been published - albeit with large portions blacked out. (To see all expenses click here.) or to find out what your own MP has been up to, try the BBC's "Find you MP" link here.

Spot the Difference: Kitty Ussher

On the eve of the full MP's expenses being published on the Parliament website anther minster has bitten the dust. (For the full story click here.)

Judge: Crispin Kelly

More good news, Crispin Kelly is the latest judge to join our expert panel. Cripsin is the chief executive of Baylight Properties and is a former president of the Architectural Association. He has also written about design and architecture for the Guardian and the Telegraph.

Spot the Difference: William Hague

Happy one week birthday

Well the site officially began accepting submissions exactly one week ago and we are pleased to say that so far its been even more popular than we could have hoped. Loads of people have been in touch and told us that its a really good idea and that they are developing designs for it. Strangely the vast majority seem to have come from outside the UK - America and India proving very popular. Come on UK designers get the pens out.

Talks continue with more judges, with a couple of big design names showing interest. We have also been able to persuade a few more companies to donate prizes so there will be treats for the short listed entries as well as the main winner. We are also in discussions over the venue for the results exhibition to show off all your hard work.

Speaking of which - get your ideas in. We've had a lot of interest from the press and they want to see your designs. Get them in early and you stand a chance of getting your image into the papers.

Entries: The duck island houseboat

We read today that the duck house is up for auction and that the auctioneer is quoting as stating that "This is the notorious duck house". This must surely be the first duck house to ever reach this status?

Spot the Difference: Andrew MacKay

Its interesting how many MPs are advising they will not be standing at the next elections. Not, they hasten to add because they have done anything wrong - but because of "other commitments".

It has nothing to do with the fact that if they did stand they'd get well beaten by even an independent who was standing on a campaign of free rights for garden gnomes. Thats got nothing to do with it - as we all know that they "have done nothing wrong".

Entries: Underground Home

Entries: Cruise Ship Home

Judge: Ken Livingstone

More great news to announce - Ken Livingstone has just signed up to be the second of our judges. He should make a brill judge - knowing both all about life in Westminster and with an inside knowledge of London from his time as an MP and his time as the Mayor of London.

Entries: High in the sky

ENTRANT
I've lost my red shoe

Judge: Kieran Long

Glad to announce that the first judge on our panel will be Kieran Long the Editor of The Architect's Journal.

More names to be announced soon.

Spot the Difference: Boris Johnson

Fresh from his dipping yesterday - "good egg" Boris is here to greet you all with a happy morning smile.

From A to the J

We are very pleased to announce that the AJ has come on board with our project and is helping to spread the word. Already there are debates kicking up on a few design websites and that's really the aim of the competition to get us all thinking about these issues from a different point of view. Hopefully by the end of today we will be able to announce a few more big name partners but in the mean time we've uploaded the submission form and the rules and regulations onto the DOWNLOADS page.

We are really looking forward to seeing what you come up with.

Spot the Difference: Sir Peter Viggers

Spot the difference - Jack Straw

A classic - everyone knows this one, but its still quite startling how much they really do look alike. Its like Superman and Clark Kent. Spooky.

FAQ (A work in progress)

When does the competition close?
The competition closed on 22 July 2009 but if you have come to the project late we are still welcoming ideas to add to the site and to the forthcoming exhibition (You just won't be eligible to win the competition.)

Who won?

The competition was won by Glasgow based architects Jude Barber and Phil Zoechbauer of Collective Architecture for their winning design “Common Houses”. The runners up were Sarah Siena Edwards and Neil McGuire. [Click here for info on the winning entries.]

Where did the idea for the competition come from?
We were sitting reading the paper one day - on one page was an article all about the second home expense problems and accusing some minister or other of having done a diddle of his accounts and on the other page, an article about the huge rise in unemployment within the architecture Industry. The two seemed destined to cancel each other out and so we decided to set about killing two birds with one stone.

Who are the judges?

Ruth Reed (President Elect RIBA), Kieran Long (Editor of the AJ), Crispin Kelly (Baylight Properties), Cathy Hawley (Riches Hawley and Mikhail Architects) and Ken Livingston (Ex Mayor of London). [See Here for more info]

Is the competition fun or serious?
Both. While we want to encourage people to think out the box and suggest any and all manner of possible solutions to the problem - the basis of the competition is to encourage an open and thoughtful debate about some serious issues facing our society and hopefully generate some actual proposals on how to solve them. We really want to see beautifully thought out and crafted buildings capable of both dealing with the brief but being future symbols of the UK. Who can come up with an idea that both solves the problems but also creates a modern UK design icon – something that will become as beloved as the post box or the old red phone booths?

Though in saying all that, we also really want to see more "interesting" and humourous proposals with robot servants, giant towers, jet packs and elephants in waistcoats.

What are the submission requirements/ the brief?
Take a look at our downloads page for more info.

How much does it cost to enter?
The competition is free to enter. Full brief and rules can be found on the downloads page

What is the prize?
The main prize is for you to choose. Each participant is asked to also include a fake expense claim/ receipt for something they would like to win. If your design wins then we will try to make your expense request come true. Obviously due to budget constraints there may need to be a great deal of artistic license used in the representation of your prize.

We are also currently in discussion with project partners over prizes that they can supply for the main winner but at the judges discretion there may be more than one prize or there may even be the opportunity to develop some concepts to a further level.

Why have the "spot the difference" images?
Well we wanted to try and make sure that people realised that this is a competition that you can have a bit of fun with and can try out new ideas. We also wanted some way of constantly updating the site but mostly we couldn't understand why no one had pointed out that Michael Martin is the spitting double of the late great Roy Kinnear and thought it about time that someone should. It is not our intention to offend anyone, they are just a bit of fun.

Who are Hole in my Pocket?

The himpsters at work (giving a lecture on astro pyhsics to the Nobel prize committee)

'Hole in my Pocket', are a dynamic art duo whose multi-disciplinary antics include film, painting, sculpture, design, architecture, illustration and travelling around Scotland with an air hostess trolley.

Their first project together saw them win the Pigeonhole City competition run by GLAS in conjunction with The Lighthouse in Glasgow and judged by Cedric Price.

In recent times they have directed some short short films for Channel 4, written some mini books, participated in various art exhibitions, created the smallworld experiment and designed a Storytelling Machine as part of the permanent exhibition collection for the new museum and gallery in the Shetland Isles.

Basically they jump around from one project to another depending on what interests them at any particular time. They are always looking for new work and new opportunities so if you have an interesting project in need of a tip top design team with an eye for the unusual then give them a call.

(They also make very fine pancakes - contact them and they might send you one. )

To find out more about our further adventures and details of all our other exciting projects then please visit our main site at http://www.holeinmypocket.com/

If anyone has any further questions then please drop us an email

info@commonofhouses.co.uk

Spot the Difference: Elliot Morley