Taking place at the Vranken Pommery Monopole in Reims, France, La Fabrique Sonore combines ancient paper folding techniques with contemporary computer-aided-design and manufacturing processes. Curated by Charles Carcopino and Claire Staebler and designed by Hyoung-Gul Kook, Ali Momeni and Robin Meier, the form is inspired by mathematician and origami expert Taketoshi Nojima, especially his work reproducing organic forms from folded paper. More images and information on the exhibition after the break.
Vulmaro Zoffi shared with us a proposal for the Disaster Prevention and Education Center in Istanbul. The design shows the events which involve earth, air and water in a friendly manner, enclosed by a public ETFE greenhouse, where all the inhabitants can found harmony with nature, under the shade of the trees. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Building Trust International recently announced that designers Amadeo Bennetta and Daniel LaRossa, of Berkeley, California have won the School 4 Burma Design Competition. The winning design, for a modular school for migrant and refugee children in the Thai-Burma border town of Mae Sot, beat entries from all over the world as the competition generated progressive, contemporary design solutions. Over 800 designers and academic institutions expressed interest. More images and description on the winning proposal after the break.
Located in the beautiful Marselisborg district, within the center of Aarhus city, is Marselisborg High School, one of Denmark’s most renowned schools, rich in tradition and history – often featured in books and movies. Today, Marselisborg High School is very popular among the students within the city of Aarhus. With this first prize winning new addition, designed by GPP Architects, the school will continue to meet the high demands of modern and visionary high school education requirements. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Our friends from architectural videos told us about this video of Norman Foster‘s Humanitas, Oxford University Lecture which took place on November 28th. The lecture considers ‘Heritage and Lessons’ where Foster encourages us to imagine how differently we might understand the modern world if we could travel back in time. We would discover that the cathedrals, the castles and the viaducts that form our ‘heritage’ were once new themselves and were seen as quite alien at the time; and that many of the landscapes we revere as ‘natural’ were in fact shaped subtly by man — some the outcome of the Industrial Revolution itself. We would also find that many of the challenges we face now have been met before.
Today, the existing station in Helsingborg is built into an anonymous office block. In the proposal by Metro Architects, the standalone station is expressed as a modern equivalent of the old train station from around 1860 which was located on the same site. The new structure will thus be an identity building and unifying node – for the station area as well as for Helsingborg as a whole becoming a signature building for the city. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Every industrial energy system inscribes its technological order into the urban fabric. Therefore, what shall be the shape and the fingerprint of the next zero carbon economy in the big cities? While the world is looking for alternatives to fossil fuels, Algae is an unlimited source of energy, food, and most important, a remarkable natural CO2 absorber. So, which spatial implications shall have Algae’s new technologies, and which potential integrations could be imagined for Algae bioreactors in central urban areas? Influx Studio believes re-use is by far the most sustainable option: that’s why the key issue is how to anticipate Algae’s green future in the core of the major cities, transforming existing buildings, where most people live and where emissions of CO2 are the most important. More images and project description after the break.
OFF & Duncan Lewis SCAPE Architecture shared with us their proposal for the Anglet Logements where they were invited to conciliate a project where the interests of protagonists are sometimes contradictory: the density of needed housing, the neighbors’ quality of living as well as the conservation of fauna and flora. This is an opportunity to invent new scenarios and to propose a strategy that reconciles history and development. More images and architects’ description after the break.
The concept for the new UNO Charter School by STL Architects has been conceived as a response to the organization’s bold vision for the Latino community in Chicago. Rather than replicate a tired, traditional school archetype solution, the design embraces the challenge of modernity with heroic determination. The heart of the building is an abstract yet powerful multinational expression of the neighborhood cultural identity – an environment to fuel the aspirations of students and community. More images and architects’ description after the break.
The Cloud: Two Connected Luxury Residential Towers by MVRDVis a residential development of the Yongsan Business district. A 260 meter tall tower and a 300 meter tall tower are connected in the center by a pixelated cloud of additional programs offering amenities and outside spaces with wide views. The towers with a total surface of 128,000m2 are expected to be completed in 2015. More images and project description after the break.
Solid Objectives – Idenburg Liu (SO – IL), the New York-based firm of Florian Idenburg and Jing Liu, won the second prize in an invited competition for the new Province Hall of Antwerp, Belgium. SO – IL was one of five finalists for this important governmental project organized by the Flemish Government Architect. Their proposal reshapes the modernist typology of ‘tower on plinth’ into a supple building volume that combines autonomy with connectivity. More images and project description after the break.
The proposals by ECDM Architectes for the Zac Seguin consisted of both a high rise and a non high rise building which were both designed as individual elements in an urban mixed composite, where residential, commercial and green spaces combine to form a whole. In their projects, there is a firm horizontal component which proposes a frame, defining the boundaries of the park, the Seine and its emergences, punctuations designed in resonance with other high points on the bend in the river, such as the Horizons tower or the buildings to come on the Seguin Island. More images and architects’ description after the break.
MoederscheimMoonen Architects recently presented the final design for a multi-purpose sports facility buidling in Houten, Netherlands. The building will be used by several local sports clubs of Houten like hockey, baseball and handball. Besides the use for sports, the building will be used for educational activities and will be a social meeting point for the whole area. More images and project description after the break.
The design proposal for the mobile school for Burmese refugees, by in situ studio with Matt Weiss and David Hill-AIA, is made of a series of collapsable frames that can be easily demounted and rearranged to accommodate a change of location or growth in a community. The proposal for the school, which won an honorable mention in the Building Trust International Competition, can be erected in one day in a collaborative effort, with twelve people assembling the frames and small groups cutting and weaving bamboo on site. The school provides a center for the community and claims territory for sustaining the community’s future. More images and project description after the break.
Under rapid housing developments in the past years, Hong Kong has benefited much in terms of economy. However, important values such as value in sense of community and individual identity were lost. This thesis hereby critically reviews current and past housing projects in Hong Kong and stating the notion of verticality as the only solution. The ambition of Y Design Office is a new alternative high-rise residential typology, in which its inhabitants are given unique units and allocations in accordance to specific zoning strategy within a tower structure, thus creating a phenomenal living experience through bonding and acquiring needs by each and every single individual. It is a re-interpretation of the balance between genericity and specificity aiming at formulating an extraordinary democratic living concept. More images and architects’ description after the break.
The winning proposal for a new iconic pedestrian footbridge in the city of Be’er Sheva by Bar Orian Architects is a symbol of the current city’s development. The proposal creates a connection between the university and the future Hi-Tech industrial zone. The perforated steel cladding provides a shaded yet well ventilated space to shield the pedestrians from the harsh desert climate. More images and project description after the break.
The Ptuj Archaeological Museum, design my Enota, fills the gap in the natural edge of the town and recreates the green belt along the entire northern edge of the town. The establishment of the contiguous green belt articulates the transition from the old town core by creating a clear divide between the historical and the later urban structure. The building of the museum of archaeology is placed on the very edge of the former medieval city walls and is dug in as much as the conditions permit it. This way, a view of the renovated complex of the Dominican monastery opens over the new building from the north side, allowing the monastery to re-assume its role as the city’s dominant. The recreation of the monastery’s north courtyard with its original outline further returns the monastery to its former spatial boundaries. More images and architects’ description after the break.
An ecologically designed city quarter for living and working is currently being developed in China’s Qingdao, on the coast of the Yellow Sea, to plans by architects von Gerkan, Marg and Partners (gmp). The construction of the Chinese/German Eco-Park in Qingdao goes back to an agreement between the two countries, which was signed by the Federal Ministry for Economics and the Federal Ministry for the Environment during Angela Merkel’s state visit in July 2010; it is scheduled for completion in 2015. More images and project description after the break.
