The proposal by Aétrangère for the Bangalore International Center Complex Open House seeks to show a unique path to allow a soft transition of values from urban to nature and from modernity to local culture. Hybridizing the urban space with landscape and ecology, their design introduces and enhances new ways of urban, cultural and natural dialogue and fosters a shared sense of belonging and a strong sense of place and ‘ownership’. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Designed by Studiomobile, the ‘Networking Nature’ installation is on display until November 25th as part of the Venice Architecture Biennale 2012, within the exhibition, “Traces of Century and Future Steps”. Their project is a living machine where it is impossible to see the dividing line between naturalized architecture and artificial organism. It deals with the issue of desalination of seawater and its integration into a Smart Water Network. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Taking place 6:30pm-8:00pm on Tuesday, October 30, the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C. will be presenting a lecture by Madrid-based studio Ábalos + Sentkiewicz arquitectos. The event, which is part of the ‘Spotlight on Design’ series, focuses on their integration between architecture, environment, and landscape. This “thermodynamic beauty” is seen in a variety of international projects, including the Highspeed Rail Station in Logrono, Spain; Atelier Albert Oehlen in Bühler, Switzerland; and plans for a performing arts center in Taipei. Presented with the Embassy of Spain as part of Preview: Spain Art and Culture. The ‘Spotlight on Design’ speaker series is sponsored by Lafarge, the world leader in building materials, with additional support from the American Institute of Architects. For more information on the event, please visit here.
Toronto-based practice Lateral Office has shared with us their proposal for the Warming Huts v.2013 competition, entitled “Drift-Pass”. Inspired by the act of manipulating a snow fence, the plywood pavilion offers ice skaters shelter alongside the longest naturally frozen trail in the world in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Continue reading for the architects’ description.
Architects: Buchner Bründler Architekten Location: Basel, Switzerland Project Leader: Nicole Johann, David Merz, Lukas Baumann Client: Implenia Generalunternehmung AG, The Real Project AG Landscape architect: Dipol Landschaftsarchitekten Photography: Paul Clemence, Ruedi Walti
Architects: Burgos & Garrido arquitectos Location: Madrid, Spain Architects In Charge: Alberto Pieltain, Justo Fernández-Trapa Collaborators: Saúl García, Ángeles García, Agustín Martín, Almudena Carro, Beatriz Amán, Pilar Recio, Alberto López, Héctor Pérez Project Year: 2008 Photographs: Ángel Baltanás
The construction of the National Museum of Afghanistan aims to celebrate the richness of the country’s cultural heritage and the spirit of its people. The “Timeless Cube” design proposal by Matteo Cainer Architects awakens the nation’s cultural heritage through powerful symbolic references, where physical fragments and traces inform us of its past. This concept is well illustrated in the ‘negative spaces’ of the artist and sculptor Rachel Whiteread that highlight the memory of an object, rendering the invisible visible through a reversal of solid and void. More images and architects’ description after the break.
To enhance its belonging to the green world the new Olympic Golf Camp Headquarters aims to become a landscape icon merging with the nature of the site. Designed by Group8, the buildings are made by cutting the ground at different points and then by lifting it up at some corners. The newly created landscape is oriented according to the context and the program offering good protection from the ‘superblocks’ complex next to them. More images and architects’ description after the break.
The driving force in the proposal for the Daegu Gosan Public Library Competition was how new technologies can apply to libraries. Gillot + Givry Architectes, therefore, created a library that would mainly use virtual components. As thinking about South Korea as a world technology leader, could these skills change the way to design architecture? Since use of tabs is a common thing in Korean urban population, it is possible to create a library based on a wireless network. More images and architects’ description after the break.
The second prize winning proposal for the Busan Opera House, designed by designcamp moonpark dmp, aims at resolving the issue of a lack of much needed public space where people can stroll and enjoy the waterfront activity. The Opera House is an opportunity to give this luxury of space, this water’s edge back to the citizens. Inspired by opera itself and its dramatic scenographies, the facility is designed to create dramatic vignettes of the harbor, the city and the mountains. More images and architects’ description after the break.
WRNS Studio and Rudolph and Sletten, Inc., recently won a design/build competition for a new faculty office building at UC San Francisco’s Mission Bay campus, which takes cues from the workplaces of high-tech companies. When completed, the 7-story academic office building will house UCSF physicians, faculty, and students in an interdisciplinary, flexible, light-filled environment. Drawing on the principles of the activity-based workplace, the design gives each occupant a “home base” workstation, but also a variety of other spaces for specific work and social activities, ranging from huddle rooms and breakout areas to conference rooms. More images and architects’ description after the break.
With industrialization came unchecked suburbia and car-centric lifestyles. But now, in the rapidly approaching age of the super city, our current standards of living will not suffice. According to MIT Research Scientist Kent Larson, 21st century cities will account for 90% of global population growth, 80% of all global CO2, and 75% of all global energy use.
Understanding that the global population faces serious issues of overcrowding, affordability and overall quality of life, Larson presents new technologies that intend to make future cities function like the small village of the past. Folding cars and quick-change apartments with robotic walls are just a some of the fascinating innovations he and his colleagues are currently developing.
The Wall Street Journal announced Wang Shu as architecture’s “Innovator of the Year 2012”, commending his “deceptively simple” vision that is “drafting a new architectural blueprint for his country”. The 49-year-old Chinese architect, whose work has been described as China’s “new regional style”, is one of the most influential architects in what is becoming one of the most important countries in the world.
After founding Amateur Architecture Studio with his wife, Lu Wenyu, in 1997, the Pritzker Prize laureate has created a succession of acclaimed projects throughout China, from civic buildings to private homes to exhibition pavilions. Some of his most prominent works include the monumental Ningbo Museum of Art, constructed of locally salvaged materials, and the uniquely crafted Xiangshan Campus for the China Academy of Art. Both projects exhibit Shu’s innovative balance between traditional and contemporary Chinese architecture that remains deeply rooted within it’s context.
As part of the Sukkahville Design Competition in Toronto, organized by the Kehilla Residential Programme, Christina Zeibak and Daphne Dow were selected as winners for their ‘Hegemonikon’ exhibition. The seat of the soul which rules and guides all the others, the project is considered to exist within the heart of all living things. The complete development of the human Hegemonikon comprises absolute rationality; it chooses action according to reason. This philosophy was the foundation and inspiration behind the design concept of this project. More images and the designers’ description after the break.
Designed by A-001 Taller de Arquitectura and BNKR Arquitectura, their proposal for the new National Museum of Afghanistan turns to the Afghan people for their version of history. Through an eloquent architectural plan and a daring museographic concept, the integration of a new building into the site in Kabul offers a whole new reading of the Afghan History through its ethnic and archaeological treasures, intertwined with multiple multi-sensory strategies. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Architects: Burgos & Garrido arquitectos Location: Paseo de la Cuba, Albacete, Spain Architects: Francisco Burgos & Ginés Garrido / BGAA Collaborators: Agustín Martín, María José Arquero, Pierre Banchet, Carlos Carnicer, Myriam López-Rodero, Javier Malo de Molina, Elena de las Moras, Emilio Ontiveros, Pilar Recio, Marta Rogado Project Year: 2010 Project Area: 9.778,25 sqm Photographs: Ángel Baltanás
The winning proposal in the Daegu Gosan Library competition, by architect Gorka Blas, conceives the library as a cultural and social space for the local community. For this purpose the project focuses in obtaining a functional, attractive and confortable facility that constitutes an essential element for neighborhood´s everyday life. In order to achieve this objective, the project translates the scale of the domestic space to a public facility, without lack of its public dimension. More images and architects’ description after the break.
The New York Time’s Michael Kimmelman described it as an “ennobling experience, a gift,” a lesson on what architecture, at it’s best, can be.
Indeed, entering the Main Concourse of Grand Central Terminal is a pleasure that rivals few others. For me, it took me by surprise: walking, as New Yorkers do, in a determined beeline through an undistinguished tunnel, I was suddenly struck by light. I stopped, as New Yorkers never do, to observe a vaulted, starry ceiling, the changing light, and multitudes of people whipping by.
Grand Central is one of New York’s most beloved icons, one of the few which tourists and natives share alike. Which is not to say, of course, that it isn’t in need of a face-lift.
The Terminal’s upcoming centennial, which corresponds with proposed re-zoning laws that would completely change the face of Midtown, makes now the perfect moment to consider how Grand Central’s grandeur can be preserved and its neighborhood reinvigorated. Last week, the Metropolitan Art Society (MAS) invited three firms to share their visions - and while SOM’s gravity-defying “halo” may have stolen the show, only one truly captured the spirit of Grand Central, and explored the full potential of what it could - and should - one day be.
Last week, Donaire Arquitectos was selected as the winner of the international competition, organized by ArchiFolio, to build the new A.M. Qattan Building, which is a charity that has worked towards the development of culture and education, with a particular focus on children, teachers and young artists. Located in Ramallah, Palestine, the winning proposal for the Quattan Foundation is perceived as a lighthouse bringing enlightenment to the Palestinian people. This role as flagship of Palestinian culture is in need for a recognizable image worthy to represent its social leadership with a physical landmark. More images and architects’ description after the break.
At about the same time as Kenzo Tange’s two huge Olympic arenas for the Olympic Games in the summer of 1964 in Tokyo, there was built in the southern part of Japan a much more modest sports arena of Takamatsu in Kagawa Prefecture between 1962 and 1964. More after the break.
Sou Fujimoto Architects have shared with us their first place proposal for the Beton Hala Waterfront Centre in Belgrade, Serbia. Contrasting the medieval fabric of the capital city, Sou Fujimoto’s “floating cloud” intertwines an array of social and transportation programs into an organized tangle of suspended ramps that emerge from the static platform of the Beton Hala. It was lauded by the jury to be a “brave proposal” that holds the “highest emblematic potential among all of Beton Hala entries”.
Learn more after the break.
SOM recently shared with us their new tower located in Manila’s Makati Central Business District that has been shortlisted for a 2012 MIPIM Asia award. Rising 33 stories to height of 160 meters, the Zuellig Building is the first premium office tower in the Philippines to be erected since 2000. It is also the first building in Makati that has been pre-certified by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) at the LEED Gold level, and is expected to achieve LEED Platinum certification by September 2013. More details after the break.
The Brazilian Institute of Architects and Rio de Janeiro department (IAB-RJ) have announced architects Pedro Évora and Pedro Rivera of RUA Arquitetos as winners of a competition to design the 2016 Olympic golf course clubhouse. The competition, open to professionals who graduated within the last 15 years, attracted entries from 82 teams of architects and landscape architects from across Brazil.
RUA Arquitetos’ winning scheme captures the atmosphere of Rio by showcasing the lush tropical landscape of Barra da Tijuca with a large veranda whose lightweight roof collects rainwater to irrigate the course.
Continue reading for the architects’ project description.
