Designed by Complex City in an area of Toulouse, France, the Mediatheque is built through network connections and brick concepts. As a place of network connections, the media library becomes a space which preserves and gives access to audio-visual contents, sound documents and video recordings, material considered as cultural testimony with the same value than written documents. This building also has the purpose of exalting the brick, an architectural material considered as a cultural patrimony of this region. More images and architects’ description after the break.
AIA San Francisco and the Center for Architecture + Design is currently hosting their ninth annual Architecture and the City Festival, which will be going on until September 30. The event, which takes place in San Francisco every September, is the nation’s largest architectural festival of its kind. The month-long celebration features behind the scenes and walking tours, films, exhibitions, lectures and more, providing opportunities for participants to engage with the local architecture community and experience design in a myriad of ways throughout the city. For more information, please visit here.
Challenged to define a distinctive image that would reflect Al Hilal Bank’s unique brand while also setting an international aesthetic, Goettsch Partners designed a bold, contemporary tower that shifts in massing as it rises. The flagship commercial development, located in the heart of Abu Dhabi’s Al Maryah Island, formerly known as Sowwah Island, conveys a timeless image through its distinct architectural form. With an expected competition in the last quarter of 2013, the new 24-storey speculative office tower will be a key element for the central business district. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Chad Oppenheim, the founding principal of Oppenheim Architecture + Design, will deliver a lecture at the annual HD Boutique Exposition and Conference on September 12th from 11:15am-12:15pm. Taking place at the Miami Beach Convention Center, the boutique-style trade show is know for the best in hospitality design, architecture, operation, and development. Oppenheim’s design strategy is to extract the contextual essence from the building program – creating an experience that is dramatic and powerful. His landmark designs demonstrate a climatic response while strengthening the relationship between people and nature. During the event, he will be showcasing his designs that simultaneously solve complex challenges while engaging all the senses.
Speculating on the potential and possibilities to develop culture in the Gold Coast, professor Sir Peter Cook and Gavin Robotham, directors of CRAB Studio, investigated this idea through the making of a large hanging sculptural piece: The WRAP, and a set of drawings and watercolors. The result is a public art exhibition, ‘Speculator’ in collaboration with Bond University, in Contemporary Temporary Gold Coast Arts Gallery, Surfers Paradise, Australia. The ‘WRAP’ aims to inspire that architecture can be the catalyst for transformation. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Located in Chengdu’s prosperous and rapidly expanding business district, the innovative office building design for Pinncale One by Make Architects will be an impressive addition to the growing urban landscape, known as the financial hub of Western China. Currently under construction, the new international Grade-A office tower forms part of the Chengdu Daci Temple Cultural and Commercial Complex, a mixed-use development by Sino-Ocean Land and Swire Properties. More images and architects’ description after the break.
de Architekten Cie. and Lada Hršak from Bureau LADA recently won the competition for the Public Service Hall in Georgia. Held by The Ministry of Justice of Georgia, the project supports the countrywide reform for renewal of public services. Their design proposes an elevated square being the roof of the building to connect the public space with the roof auditorium which becomes the new civic place for the city. More images and architects’ description after the break.
The Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), together with the Foundation for Design and Architecture in Norway and Dokkhuset, recently launched their Fall 2012 Guest Lecture Series in architecture. The lectures take place at 7pm in Dokkhuset, Dokkparken 4, Trondheim, Norway and are free and open to the public. Many keynote speakers are featured including EM2M, Rintala, and Moussavi. For more information, please visit here.
The lighting for the Central Bus Terminal in Munich by pfarré lighting design aims at giving the appearance of a building floating on a cushion of cold white light. As a result, warm light is used in the upper floors and in the exterior space while a softly shimmering façade evokes a powerfully glowing orange. More images and their description after the break.
Taking place September 14-16, Open House Helsinki, which is free of cost, allows visitors into places which normally are not available to the public. Guided by designers and specialists, the weekend event includes guided walks in fascinating interior spaces, interesting parts of the city, and both old and new architectural points of interest. No tickets or enrollment is required. The participants are taken in the order of arrival or drawn out in a lottery. For more information, please visit here.
Ever wonder how you could have the ability to replicate the historic ‘Italianate’ buildings without having to be artistically skilled? Well, all you need is a set of Paper Neighborhood Stamps. Twenty-one pieces make up the collection of wood and rubber branding objects that can be used after their simple depression against an ink pad. Steam Whistle Brand delivers this Cincinnati Society of Rubber Architects kit, comprising individual components of civic and residential structures—more specifically, ‘Italianate Trappings.’ Cornices, friezes, dentils, columns, round-headed and bracketed hood windows, decorative capitals, doors, arches and ornaments enable you to build your own classically inspired edifice in your notebook. Text courtesy of Amelia Roblin on trendhunter.com.
To celebrate the 150 year anniversary of the Utility and Amenities Company of the city of Zweibrücken, Germany, the company decided to donate a roundabout to the city which was to deal with the present and the future of Zweibrücken and the company itself. Located at the point dominated by advertising, commercial buildings and an enormous amount of tall lighting masts, Molter-Linnemann Architekten was asked to design the third, last roundabout, aka “the roundabout at the movies”. Just as at the time of the movies creation, when traffic began to dominate the environment, today again we are facing chances that will shape our world anew. To make this new condition visible, the architects wanted the design to be larger-than-life, similar to the portrayal of Tatis “modern world”. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Inspired by a reaction to the tsunami, the proposal for the Istanbul Disaster Prevention and Education Center is symbolically and practically rising above the streams. Designed by CRAB, the studio of Sir Peter Cook and Gavin Robotham, the building sits with its blades resting into the ground, ready to divide the streams of water if and when they come. Organized as a series of five clusters, it meanders along the site as a chain of events and somewhat in the manner of a chain of flowers. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Luis Carli and Rafael Passarelli developed an interdisciplinary work between wooden architecture and information design through their research on wood dimensional changes. Known by many, especially in the field of architecture, construction, and design, most of the challenges of utilizing wood involve an understanding of wood-moisture relationships and its influence in wood properties. With this in mind, their work intends to provide a more comprehensive form for visualizing how different climate conditions influence different wood species regarding their dimensional stability. This also aims to provide a design tool for most wood-workers (from architects to cabinet-makers) that could quickly estimate the behavior of some wood species in a specific location along the year and, then, implement necessary design modifications in order to accommodate dimensional changes. More images and their description after the break.
Designed by AVP Arhitekti + Sangrad, the intention for the World Football Museum ‘Crystal Ball’ is to reaffirm Qatar’s worldwide position through a landmark to become a symbol of future architectural design. As a standard within the sustainability and energy renewable field, they take advantage of the natural resources and latest technology in structural design, façade materials and functionality of the whole development. This results in low energy consumption and aims for a zero-carbon emission solution. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Curated by Vladimir Belogolovsky, the ‘Harry Seidler: Architecture, Art and Collaborative Design’ travelling exhibition will be starting its world tour October 4 in Tallinn, Estonia and will then travel to 6 more places in Europe, North America, and Australia until mid-January 2015. Celebrating the ninetieth anniversary of the birth of Harry Seidler, the first leading Australian architect to fully express Bauhaus principles of the twentieth century, the exhibition identifies his distinctive place and hand within and beyond modernist design methodology. The fifteen featured projects—five houses and five towers in Sydney, and five major commissions beyond Sydney—focus on Seidler’s lifelong creative collaborations, a pursuit he directly inherited from Bauhaus founder Walter Gropius, with progressive artistic visionaries. For more information, including all dates and venues, please visit here.
The design for the Axiom Town Headquarter Complex by MBAD Arquitectos + X Architects aims to have good urban quality, a young and smart-casual feel, an outstanding look, and an innovative solution to all functional and operational objectives. In order to achieve these desired workspace qualities, the concept includes integrating the landscape with the building and blurring the edge between the interior and the exterior. The architectural edge becomes an active edge not only between the immediate interior and exterior of the building, but also between the interior and the created exterior space within the building while also forming the program spaces. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Storefront for Art and Architecture is opening up its fall exhibition season starting September 25th with ‘Past Futures, Present, Futures’. The exhibition, which will be up until November 17th, presents 101 unrealized proposals for New York City, with 101 reenactments by invited artists, architects, writers, and policy-makers to create alternative visions for the present and future of the city. The exhibition is curated by Eva Franch and designed by Leong Leong. An opening reception will take place on September 25, 2012 from 7pm to 9pm. For more information, please visit here.
