The scope of this competition embraces a wide field of design expertise is such areas as Government Buildings. Residential, Water, Energy and Agriculture.

Tristan da Cunha is the remotest inhabited island in the world. Situated within the South Atlantic Ocean, the island lays approximately 1,750 miles (7 to 10 days sailing) south-west of Cape Town and is only accessible by sea, on approximately 60 days per year.

Tristan da Cunha is internally self-governing and part of the UK Overseas Territory of St. Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha. Tristan da Cunha actually consists of four islands – Tristan (the main island), Nightingale and Inaccessible, which together form a group, and Gough Island that lies to 220 miles to the south-east. Inaccessible and Gough are both UNESCO World Heritage sites with Gough being home to a small meteorological station where up to 9 scientists live for a year at a time.

Tristan is the only island with a permanent community, known as Edinburgh of the Seven Seas and referred to locally as ‘The Settlement’, with a population of around 270 people. Tristan is of volcanic origin and the lava flow responsible for the island’s temporary abandonment between 1961 and 1963 dominates the settlement’s immediate landscape.

To coincide with the island’s 200th Anniversary in 2016, the Tristanians are keen to see how the built environment and energy efficiency of all homes and government buildings can be improved. Design teams (to be led by a practising registered architect) from around the globe are invited to participate in this unique design competition that is seeking ideas to help the community become self-sustainable and ensure that Edinburgh of the Seven Seas is viable for future generations.

The competition is seeking innovative, cost-effective approaches for the re-design and consolidation of the Island’s government buildings; initiatives to significantly improve the living standards and performance of residential properties; together with improvements to the Island’s agrarian systems to better support grazing and the year-round growth of fresh produce.

The design competition is being managed on behalf of the Government of Tristan da Cunhaby RIBA Competitions.

The competition will be held over two phases:

Phase One:
Submission of design proposals which will be assessed anonymously. A long-list of up to 20 schemes will be selected by the Judging Panel, which will convene when the Administrator – who is resident on Tristan and the Head of Government – is next back in the UK around mid-June 2015. The long-listed design proposals will be subject to review by the Island Council (together with input from government departments) when the Administrator returns to Tristan, with a shortlist of up to five schemes identified in September 2015.

Phase Two:
Anonymity will be lifted and the authors of the five schemes invited to develop their ideas in response to feedback from the Phase1 assessment. The Shortlist will need to assemble a cross-disciplinary team with appropriate skill sets to tackle the many different facets of the project and provide an indication of the potential costs associated with executing the propositions. The selection process will conclude with design teams being invited to present their proposals to the Judging Panel. The presentations will be held in London when the Administrator returns to the UK which is expected to be in early summer 2016.

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