LEGO® has just announced the newest classic building to join the collection of renowned architectural replicas in their Architecture series, the Villa Savoye, designed by Le Corbusier. Capturing the essence of the modernist villa, the small scale replica also makes sure to touch on Corbusier’s well-known ‘five points’. One of the most easily recognizable and renowned examples of the International style, the LEGO version will be available September 1 at a suggested price of $69.99.
Lying on the outskirts of Paris, France, Villa Savoye was designed as a private country house in 1931 and quickly became one of the most influential buildings and cemented Le Corbusier’s reputation as one of the most important architects of the 20th century. More images after the break.
Armi OPEN Workshop – Urban Brain Stream is an international workshop that aims to develop our urban environment. It is part of the program of both World Design Capital Helsinki 2012 and the Helsinki Design Week. In a series of workshops, to be held around the world in a span of 24 hours on September 6, professionals in architecture, art, business, construction, design, graphic design, media and traffic planning, together with city residents, discuss current challenges in urban planning in the context of each city involved. The workshops will discuss topics that have to do with movement and communication – the redesigning of the experience of moving and communal urban spaces. The findings of the workshops will be summed up in an open public meeting at the Huutokonttori information center in Jätkäsaari, Helsinki, on Septmeber 7, from 3pm to 7pm. For more information, please visit here.
Organized by Singapore Institute of Architects, the annual month-long architecture festival is back for the sixth year running to celebrate the urban environment and the communities that make it alive. With the theme of ‘Rethink Singapore’, the event aims to consider the city in new ways – its people, spaces and the way we inhabit it. Taking place October 6-31, they hope to place Singapore under new light and be seen through new lenses, rethinking and re-framing it as an urban ecosystem, beyond singular architectural projects. For more information, please visit here.
Docomomo US welcomes all to their 6th annual Tour Day, which has become one of the largest national events devoted to the appreciation of American architecture, which will be taking place October 6 and continue throughout the week. Featuring architectural tours of buildings and interiors of the Modern Movement, the event seeks to raise the awareness of and appreciation for buildings, interiors, neighborhoods and landscapes designed in the United States during the mid-20th century. For more information, please visit here.
The first prize winning competition proposal for the Fishing Boat Harbor and ‘River’ of Liopetri was designed by the collaborative effort of architects Iereidis Vasilis, Michael Aimilios, Zomas Alexandros, Mitakou Eleni, Raisi Alexia, Hatzopoulos Dimitris, Fanou Paraskevi, and Lada Anastasia. With the challenge for a proposal that would provide all the necessary facilities for the fishing boat harbor and create a park that focuses on environmental education, this design stands as a binary between experience and function. As an outcome there are no clear boundaries between the fishing boat harbor and the park or in that sense between any other of the proposed interventions. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Designed as an iconic building in Ahmedabad, the hotel proposal by Studio Symbiosis focuses on interweaving the concepts of waves in nature. Using fold lines as movement trajectories and perception along with programmatic requirements, the project’s form demonstrates a sense of elegance with soft, subtle touches. Seamless waves flowing on the landscape and flowing on the façade are the focal point for this full service five star property. More images and architects’ description after the break.
The video above follows Roots Design Workshop, a group of young architects, as they embark on the tall task of constructing a lighthouse on the isle of Tiree, a beautiful remote Scottish island. This film, created by Martin Glegg, highlights the emerging gap between the world of digital design and getting one’s hands dirty and aims to inspire a new generation of architects to stop staring at their computer screens. Text Courtesy of Martin Glegg.
With Greenland’s glaciers turning into icebergs, this could be considered as a sustainable motive force for Greenland economy by reactivating “white gold rush”. In response to this, the Iceberg Trading Post project, by Alexandre Bralerest, proposes icebergs as mass shipping supported by a constellation of ice-recycling trading posts along the west coast of Greenland. The “21st century Iceberg Trading Post” is a central rig system that mediates local market, iceberg transportation, price setting, harvesting deck and scientific facilities. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Designed by, RMC (Raafat Miller Consulting) Architects & Engineers, their proposal for the National Museum of Afghanistan aims to best represent the heritage and the people of the country through a practical, innovative and enduring physical plan. This building would provide a clear and simple organization for the visitor to follow a natural progress through the site. They accomplish this by using a spatial concept where the visitor of the museum is led through a sequence of visual and physical experiences to draw them to the next encounter. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Established in June 2010, 100Landschaftsarchitektur shared with us the current status of Jardin de la Connaissance which is still up and thriving. With the knowledge truly disappearing into the forest, the book structures have decayed in the natural setting, but have also provided various micro-environments for a range of local creatures. Interacting with the forest, seedlings and insects have activated the walls, carpets and benches while mushrooms – those cultivated and those who have come by themselves – have made the garden their home. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Taking place September 4-15, the AA Muscat Visiting School, held by Kamvari Architects, will generate new architectural and urban solutions based on an investigation of patterns – which are seen as a means to translate the performance or appearance of historical structures into new concepts. Proposals will also take into account issues such as manufacturing, assembly and constructability. The aim is to apply these solutions to various scales, from facades and buildings to cities and regions. The workshop, taught in collaboration with professor Nikolaus Knebel of the German University of Technology, will end with a public exhibition of projects which will enable the students to present their ideas in a public forum and to discuss their views on the future direction of architecture in Oman. More images and workshop information after the break.
The Koloro Exhibition by Torafu Architects features their complete range of ‘koloro-desk / koloro-stool’, including versions which they collaborated with Mina Perhonen. Shown in CLASKA Gallery and Shop “DO” in Tokyo, the name ‘koloro’ is an Esperanto word, meaning color, many colors are used at the exhibition. They also display many colorful “airvase” throughout the space, including a new version where we collaborated with photographer Mikiya Takimoto, and a special version of“airvase”, which is enough large to cover your whole body, floating up and down with the help of a motor. More images and architects’ description after the break.
The proposal for the Natural History Museum of Denmark, designed by Kengo Kuma & Associates, Erik Møller Arkitekter, and JAJA Architects, focuses on creating a coherent and inseparable experience which mixes the experiences of the conventional museum and the classical garden into a series of remarkable spaces. Its location within the beautiful and historical setting of the city’s botanical garden creates a potential for a museum that is more authentic, more engaging and more open for everyone. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Designed by Megabudka for Sretenka Design Week in Moscow, the key aim of the Tube Pavilion is to demonstrate how a space can be completely transformed with simple means. Created using one hundred lighting, or mirror tubes, at such a density of supports, the roof structure can be reduced to a minimum. If a mirror surface is used in combination with numerous tubes and a thin roof structure, a very interesting effect is created. More images and architects’ description after the break.
The Campus 54 office building, designed by Pelletier de Fontenay, aims to create a setting where spaces for leisure, stimulation, relaxation, health, nature and ad hoc encounters would seamlessly blend into the work spaces. At the heart of this project is the notion of the campus. Planned as a multi-tenant office complex for over 4000 employees, the first challenge was to keep an intimate, personal feeling within such a large building. The strategy was to use the scale of the project as an opportunity to create the complexity and variety desired. More images and architects’ description after the break.
On view in the Israel Museum’s Billy Rose Art Garden through September 5, the 720° installation, designed by internationally renowned Israeli artist, architect, and designer Ron Arad, is of monumental proportions. Composed of 5,600 silicon rods suspended from a height of eight meters to form a perfect circle 25 meters in diameter, the silicon cords serve as an empty digital canvas on which works by prominent video artists from Israel and around the world – among them Mat Collishaw, Ori Gersht, Christian Marclay, and David Shrigley – are being screened each evening. Above is a time lapse video of the installation courtesy of Ram Matz, Jerusalem Season of Culture. For more information, please visit here.
Designed by MUS Architects, their proposal for the Tokyo Fashion Museum was recently named the winner of the World Architecture Awards 20+10+X. The whole structure of the building, from the entry yard to the top of the tower has been wound with a homogenic lether relating to the basic fabric of every fashion designer and constituting the base of every collection. Fibers of the fashion museum are lead in two rows – one layer of fiber winds around the building clockwise, the other one counter-closkwise thus resulting in a kind of a plaiting. Due to the small dimensions of the parcel being located in the intensely urbanized city tissue of Tokyo, the wide program of the fashion museum has been set up vertically on 22 levels (19 of which above the ground level). The result is a functional ‘pile’ of layers – ‘program squares’. More images and architects’ description after the break.
The staircase for dogs, by 07BEACH, was part of the design method for this simple house in Vietnam. The architects envisioned not just a comfortable place to live, but a space where daily life will be more fun than usual. Therefore, as a unique design feature, the house represents the client’s affection for their two dogs. More images of the project after the break.
