Designed and built by a very talented student team at Arizona State University, the Peritoneum shade structure reflects their collaboration and interdisciplinary skills as they employed their respective talents for this temporary shade structure. Originally built on a plaza space on the university campus, the project was recently moved to be displayed in a major art district in downtown Phoenix along Roosevelt Row. The design, which won the ASLA Student Award of Excellence 2012, is an undulating blue structure that evokes a calming, cooling environment, and captivates others by its daring interpretation of typical shade structures. More images and the students’ description after the break.
Designed and built by Dániel Baló, Dániel Eke, and Zoltán Kalászi, the concert hall installation in the Archabbey of Pannonhalma was intended for the classical concerts of the Arcus Temporum Festival. Fitted for the gym of the abbey’s boarding school, the installation uses just two elements as the artwork’s clear but complex structure still engulfed the spacious dimensions of the gym. The light bulbs’ strict geometrical grid and the parallel waving layers of the translucent textile, which also improved the gym’s acoustics, were dropped from the ceiling into the space below. More images and architects’ description after the break.
The initiative by h2o Architectes for the renovation of the first cinema for art house film follows the tradition of innovation and evolution that have been a part of this establishment’s history. The main project for the Studio des Ursulines in Paris was concentrated on the lobby, as the existing theatre has been simply refurbished. Founded in 1925, by the actors Armand Tallier and Laurence Myrga, this theater continues it’s tradition today by catering to the younger Parisian public by providing a locale to discover cinema in it’s many facets. The small theater offers selective programming as well as the opportunity to meet those who make films. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Located in the “Albufera de Valencia”, one of the national territory´s most singular natural areas, the winning proposal for the Inspiration Hotel is formed as a huge ring shaped wooden pier 160 meters in diameter that rises above the Albufera´s water surface. Designed by Paul Dieterlen Architecture, the building is resolved with two main rings, one with an eight meter section which contains the architectural program and the public areas, and another one, with a three meters section turn to the interior that works a continuous circular path. More images and architects’ description after the break.
The proposal for a Jinzhou New Area Medical Center by Design Initiatives is located as closest as possible to the existing wing of the hospital in order to shorten the routes and form one integrated complex with that existing wing. The architects believe that the everyday experience of the users is critically important for the hospital typology. They shifted and offset the four different wings so every room that needs it has an access to natural light and ventilation – something so rear in medical buildings and hard to get organized with an area of 185,000 m2. More images and architects’ description after the break.
The 3rd China Architecture Media Awards (CAMA) is now open for individual submissions. As a biannual program, CAMA is the first architectural award established in Greater China to advocate the construction of civil society through engaging architectural practice. Through an independent and rigorous jury process, the program promotes architectural works with high ‘social value and humanistic concern’ in Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan. The CAMA expresses its value orientation with the slogan “Towards a Civil Architecture” – referring to the works that engage with the issues of civic life, such as living, community, environment and public space, and that serve the public interests, express humanistic concerns, and actively search for high quality cultural expression. The deadline for submissions is October 1. For more information, please visit here.
The architecture firms of Kunckel Associates and Stefan Gzyl joined forces under the Glocalstudio platform to develop their entry to the recently completed ideas competition for La Carlota park in Caracas, Venezuela. They propose that the new park is an opportunity for a lot more than supplying a quantifiable amount of park space: they understand it as an opportunity for the (re)foundation of the city. The park will become the city’s new vital nucleus, a space from which to (re)conquest and (re)claim a preexisting and often hostile territory. In a city in which nature is in constant decline and hardly available as public space, the 100 hectare military airfield site constitutes a unique chance for a metropolitan-scale park in the very heart of the city. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Located in Berlin Zehlendorf, the Truman Plaza parallels the adjacent Clayallee and is part of a larger master plan that balances its historical urban context with its integration of a delicate onsite forest. Designed by Wiel Arets Architects, the project, which is currently in progress, includes offices, retail, health and sports facilities, which together form an urban setting situated around a central plaza within this leafy borough on the edge of Berlin. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Designed by Prompt for the IMMB Institut Municipal de Mercats de Barcelona, the new flea market will play a key role in the economy and urban identity of the city. Their video above highlights the construction process taking part in the dynamic city environment.
Chybik + Kristof Associated Architects, in collaboration with Viennese office BKK-3, shared with us their third place winning proposal for the ‘Green City’ housing complex which will include 700 apartments in Graz, Austria. The whole concept of their project is to create a clear hierarchy of public and semi-public spaces by means of simple volumes of apartment buildings. Their design is based on repeating the same three objects and interlinking them through a common yard ranked among three best projects. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Created by media artist group : J o n p a s a n g, the Hyper-Matrix is an exhibition pavilion gathering which plays with the walls of the structure to create three-dimensional effects to the viewers. Designed to showcase Hyundai Motor Group, this represents how there are various applications of mechatronic solutions. Comprised of thousands of 30x30cm cubes that make up the facade of the structure, the blocks extrude from the surface of the walls to create a variety of patterns and configurations. Also entertaining are the viewers’ reactions which reveal the excitement surrounding the pavilion.
Data Lab, a two-day workshop put on by modeLab September 29-30, focuses on advanced topics and data structures in grasshopper for rhinoceros. In a fast-paced and hands-on learning environment, they will cover the fundamental concepts of data structures as well as strategies for working with lists, sequences, and data trees in the newly released version of Grasshoppper 0.9. They will engage a series of design problems which highlight the limitations of standard parametric design workflows and serve as catalysts for discussions related to best practices, linear versus non-linear design processes, and the re-use of files. Each design problem will require either the specific use and manipulation of data structures or the extension of Grasshopper through add-ons. To register and for more information, please visit here.
The Grasshopper Webinar, presented by modeLab, is a free event that will introduce participants to the fundamental concepts and essential skills necessary for effectively designing with Grasshopper for Rhinoceros. They will cover concepts such as object attributes/parameters, data types, data structures, and designing with algorithms. Specifically, this webinar will focus on creating and manipulating both lists and data trees as well as best practices for integrating Grasshopper into your professional workflow. Also, due to the high demand, they opened up a second date, which is set for September 24. To register and for more information, please visit here.
Created by Carniolus, the video above very elegantly gives you a pretty good description of the Baroque Court Apartments, designed by OFIS Architects. A residential block in the historic city center of Ljubljana, Slovenia, the project is positioned to feature an internal courtyard and open-air contemporary glass light well. The inward-facing transparent enclosure was revitalized to create opportunities for communication between apartments at different levels.
The City of York Council recently launched a competition seeking nationally and internationally renowned architects to submit their design proposals which clearly demonstrate potential future uses for York’s historic Guildhall and riverside complex. Registered architects are invited to develop their ideas for the Guildhall, the associated office accommodation, river frontage and boat yard, as part of an ‘Open Ideas’ competition, run by The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA). Entries will be sought from architects putting forward innovative ideas on how the potential of the Guildhall site and riverside could be maximized for the benefit of the city and its residents. The competition submission deadline is November 6th and the results will be announced early December. For more information, please visit here.
The design for the Nowa Huta of the Future focused on the exploitation of the close relation to the nature and the nearby river landscape, fresh food supply from the local agriculture production fields, and a variety of recreational activities to add to the distinctive quality to the plan. Designed by Basic City A+U, in collaboration with Felixx landscape architects, and Ania Molenda & Magdalena Szczypka (mo.st), they believed Nowa Huta should become a city where the entrepreneurial spirit and optimism are combined with an active and healthy lifestyle in close relation to the nature. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Cannon Design recently announced that they are teaming up with Maya Lin and Toshiko Mori, FAIA to design a new, innovative research campus for Novartis, a global leader in the pharmaceutical industry. The new $600 million laboratory and office complex will serve as the centerpiece of the company’s worldwide research operations based in Cambridge, Massachusetts and change the way Novartis conducts research. Doing so will help in promoting increased collaboration, idea-sharing, and teamwork. The entire project is slated for completion in 2015. More images and architects’ description after the break.
The International New Town Institute is organizing the ‘New Towns New Territories: New Players in Urban Planning’ conference taking place September 27th from 9am-7pm. The event, which will be held at the NAi in Rotterdam, will explore the latest innovations in global urbanization, privatization and new organizational models of urban development as well as the impact and challenges for professional practice. Global urbanization is moving at a faster pace than ever before and it is showing a fundamental shift in its structure and organization. Hundreds of economic, eco and satellite cities are being developed by private companies. Not only in Asia, but also in Europe. Who are the new players in the field of urban development? What visions, ambitions and strategies do they have? What innovations and financial models make these cities possible? These are just a few of the questions that will be answered and discussed. For more information, please visit here.
