Herzog & de Meuron’s exhibition at the Biennale is focused on the architecture of a symbolic project, with a complex history: The Elbphilharmonie, a concert hall on top of a former industry in Hamburg, which also includes a 250 room five-star hotel, and 47 apartments. The project, in a very advanced state, remains halted since last year due to legal issues with the contractor.
In the exhibition, the history of the project is documented with three-dimensional representations of the complex building services; camera shots panning through the construction site; and large-scale models, whose spatial and physical presence represent what the architects wished and still wish to foreground: architecture.
DesignByMany’s latest challenge: Superhero Landmark sponsored by Autodesk and media partners ArchDaily. With the rise of superhero movies dominating the movie screens, we need a permanent place of celebration to honor these great characters and their awesomeness. DesignByMany suggests building a Superhero Theme Park! Designing an entire theme park is way too big of a task to tackle for this scope, but luckily every park has an element that embodies the ethos of the park.
This challenge is to design the central landmark of your Superhero Theme Park. The landmark will serve as the iconic image of the park and the primary means of orientation for the park. It can be inspired by a single character, a group of characters, or event your own imaginary character! The more creative the better!
Architects: a3gm + Mata y asociados Location: Atapuerca, Burgos, Spain Architect In Charge: Salvador Mata Pérez Project Year: 2009 Photographs: Courtesy of Mata y asociados
In the context of the ongoing financial crisis, cities and citizens are going through profound and as yet uncharted transformations. Tomorrow in Naples, Italy, UN-Habitat’s World Urban Forum will bring together mayors, international organizations, governments and civil- society organizations to discuss the Urban Future.
This debate aims to blur the boundaries between designers and politicians; researchers and eco- nomists, to highlight new policies and practices which do not require funding from strained public coffers. Can new forms of city development be thought about without the contribution of private enterprise? Can the political and design worlds find “Common ground” in the face of urban decay and austerity? How can policy making and urban planning come together to bring about appropriate norms for improving urbanites’ lives? This will be one of the focus areas for the ANMA Architects’ new foundation ANMA-F.
Architects: EDU Medellín Location: Medellín, Colombia Design Team: Juan Mejia, Gustavo Adolfo Restrepo, John Octavio Ortiz, Alejandra Gomez, Maria Elena Arango, Adolfo Emilio Arboleda, Julian Yepes, Isabel Mejia, Alba Milena Garcia, Diego Alberto Serna, Victor Hugo Garcia, Jerónimo Franco, Jose Puentes, Andres Montoya, Gustavo Ramirez Project Year: 2011 Photographs: Courtesy of EDU Medellín
We’ve already introduced you to the Danish Pavilion exhibition Possible Greenland, on display at the 2012 Venice Biennale, featuring possibilities that lay in store for Greenland in light of geographic changes caused by the increased rate of ice and snow melt. Henning Larsen Architects has now shared with us their portion of the exhibit, Greenland Migrating, a project developed in collaboration with David Garcia Studio and KITAA Architects. Curating the exhibit are Danish-Greenlandic Professor in geology Minik Rosing and Copenhagen-based NORD Architects.
Join us after the break for a closer look at the project.
When people think architecture school they think of training that teaches them how to make things: build spaces or develop sites for, primarily, human use. Over the years, this concept has expanded to encompass social activism. In the States, for example, there are programs like Architecture for Humanity, Project Row Houses, and Make It Right that address issues of poverty, displacement, and housing. Human Rights, however, extends beyond creating spaces for the economically disadvantages or impoverished. In fact, the term Human Rights often conjures up people’s rights within the context of conflict. Most people, however, do not think of architecture as encompassing the lack or destruction of structures.
In his Op-Ed for The New York Times, called “Architecture and the Lost Art of Drawing,” American architecture legend Michael Graves laments the loss of drawing in our computer-dependent age. While Graves realizes the usefulness of computer technology to present a final product, he maintains that the act of sketching (particularly those first, fleeting “referential sketches”) is vital to the process of design:
For the first of our “Recessionary Interviews,” we spoke with Portuguese architect Luis Pedra Silva, of Pedra Silva Architects, who gave us a first-hand account of the situation, the Darwinian mindset he’s been forced to adopt, and his (he’ll admit) stubbornly optimistic belief that Portuguese architecture, which boasts a particularly plucky history, will survive this crisis to the end.
Read the Complete Interview with Luis Pedra Silva, after the break…
The 2012 IIDA Best Interiors of Latin America Competition was created to recognize, honor and celebrate outstanding Interior Design/Architecture projects that represent the highest level of creativity, originality and design excellence in the following countries: Argentina, Aruba, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Falkland Islands, French Guiana, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela. The design project(s) must have been completed between January 1, 2010 and June 31, 2012. The deadline for submission is September 14. For more information, please visit here.
The Palace of International Forums is a centrally located venue in the cityscape of Tashkent , Uzbekistan for hosting official state receptions, conferences and concerts. With the request from the client for an atmosphere of festive glamour, pfarré lighting design created the illumination of interior spaces to encompass a total of 40,000 m2. They augmented the work of the interior designers by designing many lights, light systems, light objects and crystal chandeliers manufactured specifically for the project. More images and their description after the break.
Photographer Patricia Parinejad has shared with us her images from the Japanese Pavilion at the 13th Venice Architecture Biennale. Presenting “Architecture. Possible here? Home-for-all”, the exhibition tells the story of three emerging architects collaborating with the exhibit’s curator, Toyo Ito, to design for the Rikuzentakata residents who lost their homes during the devastating 2011 tsunami. “The humanity of this project” impressed the Biennale jury and was awarded the top honor of the Gold Lion.
Check out our previous coverage on the exhibit for more information and continue after the break for more images.
This year, the American Institute of Architects conferred its highest honor – the AIA Gold Medal – upon Steven Holl. I had the opportunity to talk with Steven about his sources of inspiration, a mid-career enlightenment, and his recent recognition as one of the most celebrated “American” architects.
Andrew Caruso: Balancing your practice with teaching and art is clearly a part of the designer we know you to be. How do these explorations shape your design point of view?
Steven Holl: Every project is unique: a site and a circumstance, a culture, a climate, a program. All of these forces are unique and you need a concept to hold the manifold pieces together, an idea that makes the project significant in its place and for its purpose. That is always the way I begin projects.
The Leeds Housing design by Kamvari Architects proposes terraced housing which meets the criteria of modern day living. The proposal refers to the context and the interesting site surrounded by canals and a waterway. This was seen as an opportunity to generate a central hub for the community which would separate them from vehicular routes and create a sanctuary for the entire community to enjoy. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Zaha Hadid, who has been making her mark in product design, such as with her footwear design, has most recently collaborated with Donna Karan to design the powerful new scented perfume. The scent, which evokes the complexity of a woman, is accompanied by a curving, fluid-seeming container made of ombré charcoal glass. With a shape that is distinctively elegant, the bottle represents a strong sense of femininity, while demonstrating the confidence of a woman. “The bottle’s dark, translucent qualities offer a sense of mystery that awakens our curiosity,” Hadid, the Pritzker Prize winner explains. The perfume, which is sure to awaken many, retails at $85, per 1.7 oz.
The basic idea of the Adana City Hall and Cultural Center building by MTF Proje was based on the surrounding of the building, which is mostly captured with green areas. Half of the building is designed just under the green land which is coherent due to the topography. Here in Adana Çukurova, the building is designed due to the human scale. The building is consisted of a four story city hall, a culture center which has the capacity of nearly 500 people, a city library, a wedding place, city information center and the ateliers. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Dutch architect Erick van Egeraat recently won the international competition for the new 32.000m2 Sberbank corporate University. As Russia’s largest and oldest state run bank with over 250.000 employees and 20.000 branch offices in the country, the new Sberbank University will provide education, seminars, and team building programs to the company’s top professionals to continuously improve their performance within the corporate standards. The Sberbank University is expected to be completed in 2013. More images and architects’ description after the break.
KPF recently shared with us their latest design for a 530 meter mixed-use tower in Guangzhou’s Zhujiang Xincheng CBD – the CTF Guangzhou – which is currently under construction. Joining an already impressive skyline, the new tower will form an urban triumvirate with its immediate neighbors – the 440 meter International Finance Center and the 600 meter Canton Tower.
At the 13th Venice Architecture Biennale, three competing projects have been announced winners of the Future Cities: Planning for the 90 per cent compeition: ateliermob (Portugal), Municipal Housing Secretariat of São Paulo (Brazil), and Interazioni Urbane (Italy). The projects were narrowed down from the exhibition’s ten participants, which were selected from more than 100 international submissions. Portugese practice ateliermob has shared with us their winning entry, “Working with the 99%”, a case study on the progress and community work of Lisbon’s self-built PRODAC neighborhood.
The jury, comprised of Anna Detheridge, Joseph Grima, Richard Ingersoll, Fulvio Irace, and Mary Jane Jacob, stated: “Ateliermob, “Working with the 99%” a participatory project in Lisbon Portugal based on a different approach which redefines the architect’s role. Ateliermob have envisaged for themselves a central function stemming from the attempt to answer a basic question: how can architects attempt to solve the many problems they see around them working for clients that do not have the money to pay for their services. The answer they found is to place themselves at the center of a process in which the architect becomes mediator, fundraiser, creating an essential link between the public administration, the financial system and the community enabling the local residents without property or rights to achieve social status and dignity.”
Continue after the break for the architects’ project description.
The village of Kigutu in Burundi, Africa is on its way to rebuilding a rural, off-the-grid medical site designed by Louise Braverman, Architect in collaboration with Village Health Works. The 40-acre master site plan is a feature of sustainable design that includes several new buildings, all of which embody East African cultural elements. To feature the progress of the five-year plan, Louise Braverman will also be presenting “Kigutu in Formation” at the 2012 Venice Biennale as part of Traces of Centuries and Future Steps event at PalazzoBembo between August 29th and November 25th.
Join us after the break for more on Village Health Works Master Plan and the upcoming exhibit.
