Designed by Mjölk Architekti, a high seat was installed on the main square in České Budějovice where it stayed for a month. It is situated high up so that it does not interfere with everyday life on the ground and offers sufficient privacy to its occupants. Over the month of the exhibition, this space with a floor area of 6.25 m2 hosted several inspiring personalities, the so-called “urban hunters”. They are the masters of their time and space. All the necessities needed for comfortable living are provided. More images and architects’ description after the break.
As an entry for the Land Art Generator Initiative Competition 2012 – Freshkill Park New York, ‘Wind Fountain’ is based on an adaptation of the piezoelectric effect – a well known property of certain materials to produce electrical power when they undergo strain and stress. Designed by Gembong Reksa Kawula, the project is shaped as an artificial tree, with each unit consist of 450 flexible thread 30 meters high made of carbon fiber reinforced resin pole that will sway in the wind. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Building: Inside Studio Gang Architects, is the first solo exhibition dedicated to the work of Studio Gang, which will be on view at the Art Institute of Chicago until February 24, 2013. The show immerses visitors in the energy of the studio’s creative process and the stream of ideas that connects its growing body of work. More images and information on the exhibition after the break.
The first prize winning ‘e(CO)stratègia’ proposal for the ‘Les 16 portes de Collserola, porta 13′ Competition weaves biological and urban flows in order to improve society and ecosystem together as a whole. Designed by Sau Taller d’Arquitectura, their concept aims to define the edge between the city and the mountains as a surface, a space occupied by domesticated fields, a place between nature and city where you can find community vegetable gardens, and open air green spaces. Therefore, this domesticates nature between the concrete sense of the city and the wildness aspect of the natural park. For images and architects’ description after the break.
Nemetschek Vectorworks, Inc. recently launched The Vectorworks Young Architects Student Scholarship, which will provide a $2,500 award to an outstanding student who is pursuing either an undergraduate or graduate degree in architecture in the U.S. This new scholarship will be paid directly to the recipient’s educational institution, and can be used to pay for tuition and fees. Their goal is to engage and encourage more students to pursue architecture and apply their skills to push this field into new and exciting directions. The application deadline is November 30 and the winner will be revealed on Friday, December 14. For more information, please visit here.
Team innergy, composed of Frank Marcus, Pieter Wackers, Gerben Pennings, Gertjan Rohaan, Chris Van Der Zwet, recently won the first prize in the Energetic City 2050, competition about the sustainable future of the city of Arnhem, Netherlands. The jury felt that the vision of Innergy was “hopeful, with a strong belief in humanity & technology”, “focusing on individuals, for the city of the future will be the people themselves” and that “housing subscriptions and building material plazas will turn the city into a fluid place full of creativity “. More images and architects’ description after the break.
In their second prize winning design in the international competition, ZA Architects aimed at developing a few new principles of hotel organization. Instead of separating visitors from the environment, the architects intends to embed peoples’ lives in local city life. For this reason, there is no hotel building itself, instead they propose hotel rooms placed in existing buildings (offices, residential) connected with web of hung pathways. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Taking place now until January 13 at the Carnegie Museum of Art, the ‘White Cube, Green Maze: New Art Landscapes’ exhibition consists of a worldwide survey of art sites that break open the “white cube” gallery space. These sites typically mix old and new, featuring collaborative plans by several designers and encouraging exploration outdoors as a new type of museum is emerging — one that fuses inventive architecture and landscape design with radical conceptual and installation art. More images and information on the exhibition after the break.
Kengo Kuma & Associates, together with Holzer Kobler Architekturen, won the architectural design competition launched in 2012 to develop Cosandey Square at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). Their project, “Under One Roof,” will unite an experimental Art & Sciences space and a demonstration pavilion under a single, long stone roof at the Montreux Jazz Lab. To connect science and culture at EPFL, the university’s campus will boast a novel “backbone” that stretches the length of Cosandey Square. More images and architects’ description after the break.
This latest architectural publication for CLOG seeks to highlight a defining architectural style of the postwar era — characterized by severe, abstract geometries and the use of cast concrete, block and brick — Brutalism arguably produced some of the world’s least popular public buildings.The style’s international propagation brought modern architecture to ever-larger constituencies, and some argue that the perceived shortcomings of these Brutalist structures led to the demise of the Modernist project. While today often admired (and even loved) by architects, many Brutalist projects are now threatened with demolition. Judging by the work of many contemporary practitioners, however, the influence of Brutalism only seems to grow. Before the wrecking balls swing, it is time to look back on, debate, understand, and learn from Brutalism. Submissions are due November 5. For more information, please visit here.
The competition winning proposal for the three metro stations of the second metro line at Wola district in Warsaw focuses on showing a clear connection between designed stations and the context of the surroundings. Designed by a collaboration between KiR Biuro Projektowe and a group of independent architects, one can interpret the stations as a specific indication and an invitation to interesting, though perhaps a bit forgotten places “on the surface” corresponding to the stations. The context of the place gave a separate, unique character to each of the stations. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Designed by TAAT (Theatre as Architecture, Architecture as Theatre) and exhibited at the World Horticultural Expo 2012, Khor I is a specific challenge to perform a play without any guidance or introduction. The dramatic situation is simply available and can be ‘filled-in’ and approached freely. The theatre installation represents a common ground between theatre, architecture and the visual arts with its monumental quality. More images and architects’ description after the break.
L&L Holding just unveiled an exhibit of conceptual designs created by the four finalists in its recently-concluded international architecture competition to design a new 425 Park Avenue tower in Manhattan’s prestigious Plaza District. The exhibit is running as part of the Municipal Art Society’s 2012 MAS Summit for New York City being held at Jazz at Lincoln Center on until today, October 19.
The two-day exhibit includes brief narratives and a host of visuals that were included as part of each finalist’s submissions, which were first presented to L&L Holding in July. The submissions on display are from the following international firms, each led by a Pritzker Prize-winning architect: competition winner Foster + Partners (Lord Norman Foster), Rogers, Stirk, Harbour + Partners (Lord Richard Rogers), OMA (Rem Koolhaas) and Zaha Hadid Architects. More images and information on the finalists’ proposals after the break.
The Daegu Gosan Public Library Competition Entry by Eduardo Lopez arises from two considerations; in the first place, understanding the importance of the facade as a foreground and background to the library site and secondly, taking up the radical change to the direct link between the ‘green belt’ and the surrounding area. To resolve this, the architects attempt to merge the library volume with the buildings next to it and create a movement in the facade, where the trees of the ‘green belt’ carve the facade vertically, creating a sense of dynamism. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Named in tribute to Ken Roberts, a Dallas-based architect, the annual Ken Roberts Memorial Delineation Competition has grown from an event that recognized hand-drawn renderings of local area architects to a competition that encompasses architectural delineation made in a variety of media by students and professionals the world over. Organized by AIA Dallas, “KRob” is the longest-running architectural drawing competition anywhere. New to this year’s competition is a category dedicated to travel sketches, open to all students and professionals. Prize winners in all categories will receive a generous assortment of hardware from Doghouse and Wacom as well as software provided by Corel.
MAS Context, a quarterly journal created by MAS Studio, recently released their fifteenth issue: VISIBILITY. Making visible the invisible. That was the title of their interview with interactive designer George Legrady. Conceived for the Seattle Public Library, it visualizes the circulation of books going in and out of the library’s collection. This issue continues to make visible the invisible conditions present around us that inform the way we engage with the city. At the same time, they are bringing forgotten landscapes, hidden away systems and lost environments back to the forefront of the discussion, all of them significant in our history and waiting to be reexamined. To download the journal, please visit here. More information after the break.
Constructed for Beijing Design Week 2012, the ‘Ban’ pavilion draws inspiration from floral petals in the way the shape of the flower is created by its bent petals. Designed by Orproject, Ban is constructed from bent polymer sheets which form a self-supporting structure and create shapes and volume from a multitude of leaves. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Scheidt Kasprusch Architekten shared with us their first prize winning proposal in the competition for the new building of depot and workshops for the regional authorities for culture and preservation of historical monuments and state museum in Schwerin, Germany. Located on the former barrack ground on the Johannes‐Stelling Street, the proposed concept completes the former military base in the southern part. Records and documents from over 60 different sites are combined in the central repository and its associated workshops while a connecting structure combines three different depots to the workshop building in the South. More images and architects’ description after the break.
