ABSTRACT
This chapter describes contemporary forms of architecture competitions in Denmark. It analyses trends in the design of architecture competitions, and illustrates the great variation between them by an extreme case. Kim Dirckinck-Holmfeld documents how architecture competitions came to symbolise some of the fundamental values from which Denmark's modern democratic society emerged in the beginning of the 20th century. When architecture competitions work well, they produce multiple creative design proposals. The general history of architecture competitions takes on a 'muddling through' character. However, in spite of some disenchantment, experimentation with radically new forms of architecture competition is easy to find. Architecture competitions are organised to build buildings, cities and societies. Even radically unconventional architecture competitions seem to end successfully, both in terms of the quality of the design proposals and the legitimacy of the winner.
