Taking place September 27 - October 13 at DhobyGhaut Green, Singapore and various satellite venues, Archifest 2013: A Festival of Ideas for the City returns with a brand new theme - Small is Beautiful. Organized by Singapore Institute of Architects (SIA), and curated by Shophouse and Co., this annual architecture event will use the city as a laboratory and frame Singapore as an urban ecosystem beyond singular architectural projects. It will explore and celebrate projects, design studios, communities and ideas that might be small by choice and circumstance, but are large in ambition and impact. Festival highlights include Archifest Pavilion Design Competition, Archifest Conference, SIA Design Awards Presentation Ceremony, School of Urban Ideas, Architours and Fringe. Early bird registration ends August 31. To register, and for more information, please visit here.
With the theme, 'Rethinking Comprehensive Design: Speculative Counterculture,' the conference is influenced by Buckminster Fuller’s holistic worldview as the concept of Comprehensive Design was proliferated by the publication of the Whole Earth Catalog, an American counterculture publication, by Stewart Brand in the late 1960s and early 1970s. 45 years have passed since then, and now the concept of Comprehensive Design has evolved from a utopian idea to an actualized design tool. More information after the break.
In his day, John Jacob Astor's name was closely associated with the most innovative real estate projects and pioneering commercial buildings as he became a successful, results-focused real estate tycoon. In his honor, EXPO REAL is now seeking the most extraordinary and fascinating contemporary commercial real estate projects through the medium of the John-Jacob-Astor Competition. All new and converted commercial real estate developments or mixed use real estate completed between 2007-2013 are eligible for submission. Submissions are due no later than September 13. For more information, please visit here.
Focusing on the subject, 'architecture in metamorphosis,' the 13th edition of The Architecture Days festival will include over 150 events taking place in various places throughout Alsace, France, Bade-Wurtemberg in Germany and Basel in Switerzland. WIth about 50,000 visitors expected to attend, exhibitions, workshops, lectures, movie screenings, tours, etc. will be going on from September 25 - November 7. The festival is the result of the work of the association Maison européenne de l'architecture - Rhin supérieur (European House of Architecture), its more than 200 volunteers, and cultural and institutional partners. The opening ceremony will take place at 6:00pm in Mulhouse. At 7:00pm, 2012 Pritzker Prize winner Wang Shu will give a lecture about his work and his view of change and metamorphosis in architecture. For more information, please visit here.
Courtesy of AIANY Emerging New York Architects (ENYA) Committee
Launching August 22 at 6:30pm at the Center for Architecture, the QueensWay Connection: Elevating the Public Realm Competition supports Friends of the Queensway and The Trust for Public Land in their efforts to transform an abandoned rail right-of-way into a greenway serving diverse neighborhoods in central and southern Queens. Presented by The Emerging New York Architects (ENYA) committee of the AIA New York Chapter, this sixth biennial competition seeks to supplement the ongoing feasibility study for the railway’s transformation by proposing ways the future park can be activated in addition to recreation and leisure. With emphasis on the park’s access points the competition brief provides an opportunity to speculate about programming and design to extend street activity onto the railway. Submissions are due in January. For more information, please visit here.
gmp Architekten's touring exhibition, 'Designing in Dialogue: The Architecture of von Gerkan, Marg and Partners' is currently being hosted by the Chinese National Museum in Beijing until August 25.In this exhibition, gmp will provide an overview of their work: sketches and drawings provide an idea of the conceptual thoughts, models present designs in three dimensions and photos document the completed buildings. The exhibited gmp projects are grouped regionally by continent and in six categories which cover important fundamental, practical and theoretical aspects of gmp’s work. More information after the break.
Despite its drastic evolution in the past 50 years, New York's historic Garment District remains one of the most authentic neighborhoods in the city. From August 5 through October 31, The Skyscraper Museum is presenting a free exhibition on its architecture and urban history in a pop-up space at 1411 Broadway. The installation reprises the exhibition The Skyscraper Museum originated last year in its lower Manhattan gallery. This exhibition is a great opportunity to explore a place that was once known as having the largest concentration of skyscraper factories in the world with more than 100,000 manufacturing jobs. For more information, please visit here.
Established by Fenn Designers in 2008, and open to all young creative minds from all parts of the world from the ages of 18-33, their annual Fenn Young Designers Awards celebrates excellence in creativity and innovation in the world of design. With this year's focus on 'a new learning environment,' entries can be made across a very broad spectrum of project types. Buildings, interiors, landscaping, refurbishment, urban projects, fine art, furniture and product designs are all eligible. This year's main challenge is: How can the “library” be re-imagined and re-engineered to provide such an environment for the Millennials? This comes at a time where advances in technology are changing our lives dramatically. The registration deadline has been extended to September 6, and submissions are due November 6. For more information, please visit here.
This year's Seattle Design Festival, hosted by Design in Public and AIA Seattle, will feature large scale installations, home tours, walking tours, films, lectures, exhibitions, competitions, activities, pop-up parklets, and more which is open to the general public. The city-wide event takes place September 13-22 with the hub of the festival at the ‘Design Block’ in Pioneer Square. This year's theme is ‘Design in Health’ exploring the connection between environmental design and health & well-being. Design can improve health by: promoting physical activity, increasing access to healthy food, reducing injuries, improving air and water quality, minimizing stress, and strengthening the social fabric of communities. More information after the break.
Russian Green Building Council just announced the start of the international competition for the concept and financial model for Park "Russia" which is to become the largest theme park in Europe. Destined to become a unique tourist cluster, oriented to both domestic and foreign tourists, the park will be the first entertainment and educational park where visitors will have the reason to stay for more than one-two days. “Russia” Park will become a trademark of the country, where the promotion of healthy living, entertainment and educative functions are closely related to educational and recreational infrastructure, which, moreover, will be commercially attractive. The park will fully reflect the positive developments in the Russian society in recent years. The deadline to register is September 1. To register, and for more information, please visit here.
Taking place August 31-September 14, the 3rd annual AA Visiting School Tehran will be examining the quality of our urban spaces, we will be looking at infill sites, leftover spaces which have been generated as a result inefficient use of public roads to examine the potential for the generation of usable public space, or in other words the third place (the first being the home, the second the workplace). Using the theme 'The Third Place-Urban Machines,' they will be using our experiences from past years in regards to prototyping and simplex manufacturing to inform proposals for urban machines and interventions. These Proposals will attempt to specifically address site concerns and conditions. Our ambition is to produce and implement these proposals on site across the city. Applications are due no later than August 17. For more information, please visit here.
nycobaNOMA (New York Coalition of Black Architects and New York Chapter of the National Organization of Minority Architects) is inviting all to come out and join professionals in the design, architecture, development, real estate, and construction fields for an evening of networking at the Urban Office Showroom in New York City. Taking place Tuesday, August 20th, from 6:30-8:30 EST, participants can expect not just networking, but good spirits at the beautiful midtown showroom. Fore more information, please visit here.
Taking place at the Hartell Galley at Cornell University, 'Vers un climat: Building (with) the Unstable' is an exhibition by AWP Architects focusing on the nocturnal face of architecture - how buildings contribute to the urban nightscape. From August 26 - September 16, the exhibit features both realized and proposed projects by AWP while revealing the practice’s in depth research on the many ways in which the intangible dimensions of architecture – such as atmosphere, climate, and light - materialize in buildings. Part of AWP ’s ongoing challengeis to translate recurrent themes of impermanence, evolution, and the uncontrollable into design. More architects' description after the break.
dSPACE Studio’s “Historic Wicker Park 2-Flat Conversion and Modern Addition”
Currently on display until August 22, AIA Chicago is honoring its Small Project Awards winners at 23 E. Madison in downtown Chicago as part of the Chicago Loop Alliance’s Pop-Up Art Loop initiative. Designed in collaboration with Chicago-based branding firm a5, the exhibit offers yet another opportunity for AIA Chicago and its Small Practitioners Group to showcase the smaller-scale innovations that architects work on in their day-to-day practice. The third annual Small Firm/Small Project Award program recognizes high quality work from small Chicago architectural firms and exceptional small local projects. More images information after the break.
The Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation recently announced the international competition for the architecture concept of the Museum and Exhibition Complex of the National Center for Contemporary Arts.The two stage competition is open to any architectural bureaus, professional architects and early career professionals or young company to propose their design concept of the future museum complex. Participants can submit their proposals August 20 - September 20. To register, and for more information, please visit their official website here.
CityVision just announced the winners of the Rio de Janeiro Competition, their fifth international ideas competition which was launched earlier this year with the purpose of providing a vision on Rio de Janeiro’s future. Upon receiving 68 proposals from all five continents, this year's jury selected a winner and 9 honorable mentions. The first place was awarded to Donghua Chen from China, for his project "Ceu de Janeiro" which doesn’t focus on monopoly or unity, but an interchanging environment or integration. More images and information on the winning proposals after the break.
Malcolm Reading Consultants (MRC) recently announced the results of the first stage of the design competition to re-program and re-design Oriel College, Oxford’s social spaces. The shortlist, a fascinating cross-section of British architectural talent ranging from the contextual to the contemporary, is made-up of established practices with extensive portfolios. More than sixty teams submitted Expressions of Interest for the competition, which was launched in late June. The shortlisted teams include: AL_A,Allies and Morrison, Caruso St John Architects, Panter Hudspith Architects, and Wright & Wright Architects. More images and information after the break.
Opening October 4, The Architecture Foundation in London is delighted to present 'Futures in the Making,' a group exhibition showcasing prospective architectural futures explored in the work of recent architecture graduates. From spectacular pollution capturing facades to innovative agrarian settlements, projects will include a global range of case studies that test new ideas for architecture and infrastructure by a rising generation of architectural talent. The exhibition will be on display until November 13. For more information, please visit here.
