Located in Maintenon, 65km southwest of Paris, France, the Villa Toiture by Kotaro Horiuchi Architecture inhabits a family of three married couples and children. Spontaneous grounds are surrounded by vast grasslands and forests which open as a place of rest for the weekend to give healing to life in the city while enjoying the open-air bath in nature. More images and architects’ description after the break.
The best way to preserve and develop the Kiev Islands in keeping with the aim of the project would be to improve the way people access the islands. Being sensitive to the existing conditions, the proposal by Triple O Studio is not to build new bridges, but to enhance the existing ones; make them more comfortable for all means of transport but more importantly for the pedestrians, cyclists and public transit users. Through the existing access systems of elevated bridges allowing for experiencing the site from an elevated promenade, its majesty can be fully discovered. More images and architects’ description after the break.
The hill of Montabo looms over the city of Cayenne and provides a dramatic backdrop for an architectural project which addresses the raw and unremitting power of nature. The winning competition entry by OUALALOU + CHOI derives from a dual strategy to conserve the natural environment and to protect the building from an undesirable degree of the jungle’s encroachment. The project preserves as much of the natural hilltop as possible, transforming it into a public space by creating a park at the crown of the hill. Thus, the highest point in the city becomes a part of the public realm. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Kengo Kuma & Associates recently won the proposal for the Towada City Plaza. The facility will be developed as part of a plan by the city of Towada to activate the city center by introducing the “Plaza for Education” and “Plaza for Social Communication”. Through the introduction of these two facilities, the city intends to improve public welfare and the environment for lifelong learning by attracting the public of all ages and through numerous social events improve the ties and social exchange between the communities. More architects’ description after the break.
Steinberg Architects, an international design firm, recently announced they will manage the design of the extensive Changsha Songya Hu mixed-use project in China after winning an intensely competitive bid process. Key aspects of the project include a waterfront business district, an entertainment district, and an ecological model community mixing residences and green public spaces. More images and project description after the break.
Todd Saunders of Saunders Architecture will be giving a lecture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich on January 25th at 7:30pm. Led by a strong contemporary design sensibility, Saunders has worked on cultural and residential projects right across Norway, as well as England, Denmark, Italy, Sweden and Canada. The studio believes that architecture must play an important role in creating place, using form, materials and texture to help evoke and shape memory and human interaction.
Weysen & De Baere Architects shared with us their design for an apartment building in Flanders, Belgium which includes four units and an office on the ground floor. The construction site exists of two parcels, lying back to back, each with its own entrance from the street. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Iwan Baan, who has photographed many well-known architectural works, many which have been featured on ArchDaily, recently shot the Hiroshi Senju Museum, designed by Tokyo based architect Ryue Nishizawa who won the Pritzker Prize in 2010 and is known for his works of various scales throughout Japan.. The museum opened in October 2011 and possesses around 100 works by Hiroshi, a Japanese painter known for his large scale waterfall paintings. More photos of the museum can be viewed after the break and the complete photoset in Iwan’s website.
Danish practice 3XN is the architect behind ‘Green Solution House’, a new experimental conference center and hotel, where everything is adapted to the circulation of nature and where guests will get an idea of how it feels to live in a world without waste. Located on the Danish island of Bornholm, it is designed and developed in accordance with the principles of Cradle 2 Cradle®. This means that all materials used in the building are either fully recyclable or biodegradable. Hence, the building design takes on the ambition to eliminate the concept of waste. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Since the beginning, it has been very interesting to discover how, despite the fact that we have reached such an advanced state of urbanity (meaning the way we produce our more or less shared space), it is still possible to scrape the bottom of the barrel and find residual urban spaces, with enormous, unexpressed potentials. In a world where design contaminates every possible field of technical knowledge and theoretical thinking, landfills still represent and exceptional void of intentions. The strategy of the Active Edge by 2A+B embodies Grønmo’s landfill as an urban organism able to constantly re-produce its own components (soil, landscapes, trash) and the relative network of socioeconomic processes behind it. More images and architects’ description after the break.
The main idea behind AME, the first concept by Wesh for a business incubator, is to re-create a small world where different companies can develop themselves and get bigger, with all services provided. The design questions the future of small companies in the periphery of the city for the next 20 years. How can a building enable many companies, each having their own singularity and size, to get along together and evolve? AME is all about wrapping plenty of entities into a bioclimatic greenhouse. For a monthly subscription, each company has its own space, which can be extended or reduced thanks to the company development. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Over an area of almost 150 hectares in the locality of Andermatt, the year-round tourist resort Andermatt Swiss Alps is being built. Hotels as well as apartments, an 18-hole golf course and a sports center will provide housing and recreation for up to 3000 guests. Despite the substantial size of the resort, the main goal of Holzer Kobler Architekturen is to create a sustainable, high-quality tourist experience. More images and architects‘ description after the break.
The RIBA just launched the 2012 Norman Foster Travelling Scholarship award, open to students of all RIBA-accredited architecture schools in the UK and abroad.
Morris Architects shared with us their Houston Pavilion for the 8th China International Garden Expo in Chongqing, China, which is a showcase for a variety of landscape typologies throughout China and the world. The theme, “Better Garden, Better City”, promotes harmony between landscaped and built spaces. The City of Houston is one of thirty-two international cities invited to participate in the Expo. Morris Architects partnered with SWA Group to design the Houston Pavilion. More images and architects’ description after the break.
The project by AQSO Arquitectos, a high density residential complex in Guangyuan, China, is conceived as a strong element in consonance with the surrounding hilly scene. The buildings rise over the landscape becoming a milestone, a sober and expressive landmark. This massing makes it possible to archive the desired plot ratio and increases the green areas on the ground, minimizing the building footprint. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Richard Meier & Partners revealed today their most recent work in Mexico City. The new Mitikah Office Tower is the third project designed in Mexico by Richard Meier & Partners which will be a state-of-the-art building in the Delegacion Benito Juarez area. The tower will be part of a mixed use master plan designed by Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects and developed by IDEURBAN/IDCity from Mexico. The scheme consists of commercial space, low-rise residential buildings, and a hotel and residential tower. More images and project description after the break.
Through a range of strategies and carefully selected interventions the porcelain-city of Selb in the Fichtelgebirge region in Germany will be elevated to a regional center for art, trade, tourism, and culture. The winning Europan 11 proposal, titled Dornröschen – Reinitializing Selb or ‘Kissing awake the sleeping beauty’, by NAP (Network of Architects & Planners) will act as the nucleus for future development. In juxtaposition to the well-established and intact city center around the church and market square, the porcelain factory will be a second center of gravity creating a new and desired field of tension in between both. More images and architects’ description after the break.
The Metro Station 20 proposal by Peter Ruge Architekten on Metro Line 1 in Sofia, Bulgaria acts as a primary metro connection between Sofia’s city center and the airport, and the hub of a major commercial redevelopment plan. Their design seeks to establish clear pathways, form active connections and harmonize architecture and landscape. More images and architects’ description after the break.