The Architectural League and Socrates Sculpture Park is currently inviting architects to submit proposals for the 2013 Folly Competition, a design/build studio residency, and chance to build an installation at Socrates Sculpture Park, a unique urban waterfront park in Queens, NY. Socrates and the League welcome proposals from all emerging architects and designers for large-scale projects and installations that explore contemporary interpretations of the architectural folly. The deadline for submissions is January 7. For more information, please visit here.
Shipping container architecture has gained a lot of ground over the past few years for its simplicity, affordability and flexibility. Yes the very same containers that make transatlantic voyages and are carted around hitched to trucks have become a tool for architects to design restaurants, to serve as retail or pavilions and even homes. According to an article by Matt Chaban on the New York Observer, NYC plans to prepare for the next disaster with apartments built out of shipping containers to be used as disaster relief shelters.
The University of California Davis (UCD) has selected three pairings of architects and contractors to compete to design a $30-million art museum, expected to be completed in 2016. The university has decided against a traditional competition in favor of a design-build competition, requesting that each of the prospective architects - WorkAC, SO-IL(working with Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, of Apple store fame), and Henning Larsen Architects- work with specific contractors in order to develop holistically conceived museum schemes. More information after the break.
Six firms, Agence Ter (France), Burns + Nice (UK), Gustafson Porter (UK), James Corner Field Operations (USA), jmarchitects (UK), and John McAslan & Partners (UK), were recently shortlisted in the project for a major redevelopment of George Square in the heart of Glasgow, Scotland. The 13 statues and monuments that stand in the square are to be moved to other sites in the city while the area is given a makeover ahead of the 2014 Commonwealth Games. Planned to submit their plans by the new year, the six designs submitted to Glasgow City Council will be put on public display at the Lighthouse in early January. The design competition winner will then have the prestigious task of redeveloping the square to further enhance Glasgow’s reputation as an international city.
The “Phantom. Mies as Rendered Society” installation by architect Andrés Jaque will be on display from December 13th until February 28th at the Mies van der Rohe Pavilion in Barcelona. Presented by the Mies van der Rohe Foundation and the Banco Sabadell Foundation, the installation hopes to bring the figure of the architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, one of the most important icons of the modernist movement, back into the public eye by using objects, elements and materials that will rebuild and bring recognition to Mies’ historical importance. More information after the break.
Located at the Poznań Plaza mall in Poland, mode:lina architekci accepted a challenge to create a temporary store for Swedish watch brand TRIWA. Their goals included using renewable materials, low cost, speed of constructing, and most importantly, to further increase global brand awareness. More images and architects’ description after the break.
The main purpose of the design for the Istanbul Camlica Mosque, which won the second prize in the architectural competition, was to create the largest worship place that has ever been designed, and cover it with one single roof. SN Architects successfully did this by using the load bearing properties of one of the traditional systems that often used “vault systems” and using contemporary architectural and engineering facilities. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Just this past Monday, gmp Architekten was awarded the contract to design the new Kunsthalle Mannheim, a decision made by the Kunsthalle‘s jury. Their winning design portrays a symbolic identity, both on the outside and on the inside. The idea was to create a place that is easily remembered, and which appeals with its functional and urban quality. Analogous to the chess board type layout of Mannheim’s inner city, the design is a composition of several cubes, the regularity of which is however broken by an offset arrangement in terms of height and width, and also by the arrangement of squares within the development. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Michael Maltzan, an award winning American architect and founder and principal of Michael Maltzan Architecture, Inc., was recently selected to design the Inuit Art and Learning Centre at the Winnipeg Art Gallery. The selection committee was unanimous in choosing Michael Maltzan as the winning architect from 65 prospective teams from 15 countries. This recommendation subsequently received overwhelming approval from the WAG Board of Governors. The Centre houses one of the largest and most celebrated collection of contemporary Inuit art in the world; it’s also home to Studio Art and Learning programs. More information after the break.
Complications could be on the rise for Snøhetta and AECOM, who were recently announced as the Golden State Warriors’ architects of choice to design their new sports and entertainment complex on the San Francisco waterfront. Despite the complications, however, the architects still have time to execute the hoped-for ‘slam dunk’. More information after the break.
Designed for Lausanne Lumieres (Urban Light Festival), Flux Cocoon was selected as one of the winning projects of the the city’s first Light Festival, which inaugurated on November 23rd and will run until early January. Designed by Allegory, the project was installed in the heart of the city and was inspired by its location at the crossing between vertical and horizontal pedestrian movements (flux). The project is also an abstraction of the knot created by the crossing of each pedestrian’s path at this precise point in the Flon area, which is city’s major transportation hub. More images and architects’ description after the break.
A few months ago we informed you about a competition to re develop the massive “wedding-cake” style building at 425 Park Ave in NY, near Mies’ Seagram Building and SOM’s Lever House. The objective of the developer, L&L Holding, was to turn this project into the next iconic building of the city, and for that they invited a group of eleven renowned practices, including ten Pritzker laureates.
Over the last days, the presentations of the architects to the clients appeared on YouTube, and now we have the opportunity to see these interesting group of architects doing a fundamental part of their work. In the videos we see each architect using their own presentation style, either a PPT, video or just physical boards, connecting it to the practice’s research and discourse, projecting their passion about certain features of their projects and engaging with the client around their main objective: to turn this into an iconic project.
Four videos that take us further into how we understand projects, showing insights that we often don’t have access to, turning the competition into a particular moment of architecture this year.
Zaha Hadid Architects, OMA and Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners presentations after the break:
Artist Gijs Van Vaerenbergh shared with us his recent project, Framework, a monumental geometric sculpture, which was recently on display in Leuven, above the ring road on the Artoisplein. With this sculpture, Vaerenbergh has once more produced a work in the public space that is based on the language and expertise of the architecture to create an autonomous art object. The result has become a tangible spatial drawing that plays on the visual experience of the object in space as well as the environment. Both interact and determine each other’s ‘view’. More images and artist’s description after the break.
Designed by Tomas Ghisellini Architects, the first prize winning proposal for the Domus Vitae, a new city morgue and social facilities complex, is aimed at being a new architectural presence with a continuous but porous body. The design includes balconies, porches, patios, terraces, overhangs and suspended volumes which capture, tame or magnify natural light. These features create spaces for which the atmospheric quality is supposed to be a decisive added value. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Moving from concept sketch to parametric model, this webinar by modeLab, which takes place this Friday at 2:00pm-4:30pmEST, will cover the ins and outs of working with and managing data trees in Grasshopper for real world design applications. Through a series of short presentations and “live” case studies, learn to streamline your parametric workflows using complex data structures. With two instructors offering guided curriculum and continuous support, their goal is to provide you with an in-depth and personal learning experience. A video of the webinar as well as instructor files will be uploaded after the broadcast. To register and for more information, please visit here.
To honor the great Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer, who died today, we've selected few of his inspiring quotes. Take a moment to read his words, which truly advocate architecture's higher purpose, and remember the great work he accomplished...
Perhaps his most famous quote, which not only describes his work but also his way of life: "I deliberately disregarded the right angle and rationalist architecture designed with ruler and square to boldly enter the world of curves and straight lines offered by reinforced concrete. […] This deliberate protest arose from the environment in which I lived, with its white beaches, its huge mountains, its old baroque churches, and the beautiful suntanned women."
With his incredibly prolific portfolio of architecture, sculpture, furniture and design, the late Oscar Niemeyer truly left his mark on Brazil, and the world, over his 104 years. The Brazilian great is proof that quantity needn't destroy quality.
Check out the extensive list of Niemeyer's major works, after the break...
