ABSTRACT
Architectural competitions are about projecting and selecting the best solution among many parallel and competing proposals to a design problem. Rhetoric is essential because all levels of presentation involve purposeful and persuasive discourse in which the speaker deliberately attempts to bring others round to his or her way of thinking. The competition rhetoric must convince a wide and differentiated audience, which is prejudiced in terms of preconditioned skills and knowledge, desires and emotions. The chapter looks in particular at contemporary trends in competition rhetoric, and also includes a historic case to demonstrate change and continuity. The pretence of transparency, openness and attractiveness, and even mass consumerism, is blurring the invisible power relations and the relentless, gross exploitation of sites typical of contemporary urban areas. Competition rhetoric must be prepared to meet increased aggressiveness and critique of the elites, and at the same time not compromise the factuality and credibility that sustain architectural quality.
