Idyllically located on the mud flats of the Exbury bank of the Bealieu River, The Egg is a project that young architectural practice, Perring Architecture + Design (PAD), are developing in partnership with ArtSway, a contemporary visual arts organization based in the New Forest . The project was initially conceived to bring together architects, artists and engineers to collaborate on exploring new models for rural architecture, through a series of temporary buildings in the New Forest National Park. The buildings will be a resource for interaction and debate on issues of sustainability, recycling, energy conservation and rural development, with artists’ inhabitation and activity as the catalyst. More images and architects’ description after the break.
The winners of the 3rd International Holcim Awards competition for sustainable construction projects and visions from Africa Middle East have been announced at a ceremony in Casablanca. A total of USD 300,000 was presented to ten outstanding projects submitted by architects, planners, engineers and project owners. The winning projects illustrate the broad scope of applying sustainable approaches in construction including school infrastructure, community renewal, urban redevelopment, and energy-efficient design. More information on the awards after the break.
The New Taipei City Museum of Art conceptual design proposal by Yi-Hsiang Chao Architects and Infinite Studio was initiated from a basic question: How does a museum allow the public to experience a seamless fusion between life and art? A museum is usually located at a specific place and carries certain cultural tasks. Corresponding to the competition’s objectivities, is it a dilemma or a contradiction to expect a museum to allow lives happen seamlessly with the architecture? More images and architects’ description after the break.
Our sponsor GRAPHISOFT recently launched their new mobile device, called GRAPHISOFT BIMx™, which is their latest innovation for the iPad/iPhone. The development makes BIMx an interactive environment with game-like navigation, available to anyone, even those that do not hold a license of the professional authoring software in which the building model was originally created.
BIMx models can be viewed on the iPad/iPhone through a purpose-built app directly linked to the BIMx community for “social” model sharing on Facebook.
More information on their innovative product after the break.
With a primary focus on schools, kindergartens and housing design, (se)arch Architekten, a German architectural firm, based in Stuttgart, shared with us their proposal for an elementary school and kindergarten which won the first prize in an international competition. Situated in Uhland Park, in the outskirts of Tübingen, south of the Neckar River Channel and neighbouring the Lindenbrunnen Elementary School building, the two squared-plan volumes are designed as a replacement to the existing school. More images and architects‘ description after the break.
Located in Ljubljana, Slovenia on a corner site at the western entrance to the city, the composition of the West Gate office building, designed by Studio Kalamar, is defined by two office towers. The southern tower rises over the intersection, accentuating the direction towards the city with its sharp projecting corner while the lower northern wing serves as a background to the principal motive as its composition approaches the dynamic of railway traffic behind it. More images and architects’ description after the break.
There’s a new Trump in town — and it’s ten feet tall! Chicago’s Trump International Hotel and Tower has been given the LEGO treatment, thanks to designer Sean Kenney. The LEGO expert has been creating sculptures from the children’s toy, and paying tribute to the country’s finest buildings over the last few years, choosing Trump’s Apprentice headquarters as his latest project and using 65,000 pieces to complete it! More images and project description after the break.
Columbia University’s School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation recently shared with us their event schedule for Fall 2011. The event series will run from September 9th to November 29th and start at 6:30pm in Wood Auditorium, Avery Hall, unless otherwise noted. The events are free and open to the public. More information on the events after the break.
Pritzker Prize-winner Kevin Roche is one of America’s most influential and prolific architects, acclaimed for his skillful integration of man-made and natural environments. Drawing on material originally presented at the Yale School of Architecture, Kevin Roche: Architecture as Environment, which runs from September 27nd-January 22nd, has been expanded to highlight Roche’s contributions to the fabric of New York City, including the Ford Foundation building and more than four decades of master planning, design, renovations, and new additions at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The exhibition features original drawings, models, photographs, and ephemera documenting Roche’s career, along with extensive video presentations of projects and interviews with the architect.
Architect Joshua Prince Ramus (REX architects), just awarded as one of the five greatest architects under 50 in the world, will hold a main lecture at the MAXXI at 6:00pm on September 16th during the event Y1 – Independent Architecture Stuff organized by Cityvision Mag and curated by Francesco Lipari and Vanessa Todaro. More information on the event after the break.
Black Spectacles, who has teamed up with the Chicago Architectural Club, has recently created The Un-Competition Project. Invent a project, design it, and post your design on our Facebook page, with a 60 second video. They want to hear how you came up with your project, what your design is, and how you are going to get it built.
So, no, there is no competition brief, and no, they’re not going to get your project built. You make the project up yourself, big or small- you sell it, and you figure out how to get it built. Then document it in a video, and they’ll show it to the world. More information on the competition after the break.
AWR recently announced the winners of the LOFT London Farm Tower Competition. Population growth and urban centralization lead to increased demand for real estate market and for food. One possible solution is vertical farming. AWR therefore proposed the design of a new kind of skyscraper on the Thames waterfront, inserted into the new city skyline.
The goals to achieve were to meet the requirements of the World Green Building Council, determine which materials are best suited for the construction of a vertical farm, identify resistant, light, transparent and long-term materials and experiment with innovative materials. Information on the competition winners after the break.
The Barcelona Ecological Center (BEC) is a proposal of Vilalta Architects about the future of the Bullfight Plaza ‘Monumental’ in Barcelona, Spain. The concept is radical: Transforming the bullring into a center of research and leisure regarding to environmentally friendly activities, especially the ones that respect and take care of animals. In other words, to use all the elements that already exist now in the ring to be reused in the opposite way. More images and architects’ description after the break.
This proposal, by architects Eirini Androutsopoulou & Dimitra Maniaki, defines a new icon and a strong identity for the city of Busan and drives a direct link between Korea’s past and Korea’s future image. In order to do so, the proposed scheme describes the idea of the Korean garden within the building’s shell and the new Opera House within the Korean garden. More images and architects’ description after the break.
This proposal for the New Taipei City Museum of Art by DCPP Arquitectos is an open and welcoming design that erases the barrier of exclusivity normally surrounding the world of art, patrons, and experts. As such, the architecture is one that embodies this idea of erasure through eliminating the traditional borders between exhibition space and circulation, as well as exterior and interior. Every part of the museum is represented by a space without limits that can hold any type of expression. More images and architects’ description after the break.
The shaping concept of the buildings for the Busan Opera House by PAPER | TOTEMENT is based on placing simple forms together with their capacities and location determined by their functional tasks. The outside shape of the achieved agglomerate is made by cutting off the surpluses to make a cube form put on its edge. The aesthetics of the given object depends neither on a separate turn of any of its parts nor on their size or quantity, but is defined by a lot of similar but different elements with its external shape of an ideal Platon body in an unusual twist. More images and architects’ description after the break.
The new museum proposed by Lyons has been designed in response to its context – to the park, river, city and the surrounding mountains. The concept connects the building and its spaces with the unique features of the site and its surroundings. Its form, spaces and circulation patterns have also been designed to provide a rich and scenic experience for museum visitors and to offer maximum flexibility in the display and presentation of artworks and multimedia. More images and architects’ description after the break.
‘Avant-garde of tomorrow?‘ which is an exhibition on young Polish architecture, will inaugurate the opening of the Centre for Architecture and Design in Łódź, Poland on October 7th. The exhibition gathers 14 of most promising Polish designers and puts focus on individual design process rather than the final product. They prefer to observe how all the participants achieve their goal and which path they take. Whether it’s a generative process or traditional way of form-finding, the exhibition aims to bring these processes closer to a wider audience. More information on the event after the break.
