White Architects was recently named the winner of the competition for the Forumtorget project in Uppsala, Sweden. The proposal, with its subdued paving, expressive sofa and generous plateau, is powerful, substantive and empathetic. Here, the people of Uppsala have a natural meeting place and an open breathing space within the built-up business district. More images and architects’ description after the break.
The main concept in the Dead Sea Resort & Opera House by Accent Design Group is to create a resort that naturally blends in this special site, by having the built up areas merge naturally with the surroundings, appearing as terraces in the landscape. These terraces, or strips, would contain the individual housing units, amidst a natural/artificial landscape of palm trees and water pools. The idea again is to have something that infringes as little as possible on the experience of the Dead Sea, and that would provide an antidote to the other reigning ideas of suburban recreational facilities, which create completely artificial surroundings. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Informality, which was first categorized and described in the 1970s, is now pervasive — across cities, in the places we live, work, and move through the everyday. For many, the informal is no longer a discrete sector appended to the workings of the “formal” city, but an integral effect of the structuring of cities and landscapes by contemporary economic, political, and technological change. Self-built architectures and urban agglomerations, ambivalent landscapes, nomadic and temporal spatial manifestations of informalized are situationally specific, but globally ubiquitous. Design Tactics and the Informalized City symposium, being put on by Cornell University on April 13-14, brings a discussion of this reality to disciplines that work on the city in material and spatial terms: architecture, urban design, landscape architecture, engineering, media and product design. More information on the event after the break.
The proposal for the Wimmer Medien Business Center and Urban Development in Linz, Austria by Atelier Thomas Pucher recently won the third prize in the international invited competition. Their main concept is the creation of a 33,600 m2 gross floor area central public space that recovers the mystical feeling of the Italian piazzas, offering flexibility to host the most variety of events and activities, like ice-skating, Christmas market or outdoors cinema. This piazza is also a central point for the social life of the building, providing outdoors spaces for the offices, significant synergies for the commercial area and a feeling of the life of the city to the apartments. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Papers, projects and drawings that consider and reflect on any aspect of the changing nature of architectural teaching, practice and research, at a national or international level are welcome. Topics may include emerging technological developments; the role of the architect today; and, the value of architectural training to such diverse fields as regeneration, disaster management and sustainable development. They welcome a short description of your proposed submission in the form of an abstract. This should be in English and should not exceed 500 words. Send us your abstract by e-mail to: scroope@aha.cam.ac.uk by 1st February 2012.
LYCS Architecture won an invited competition for a 32,000 sqm testing and assessment research center in the city of Shenzhen. It is a mixed-use building including offices, residential and commercial. The project conceptually begins with the traditional Chinese urban design idea of a ‘miniature city’ and divides the site into 10 equal volumes. Then, the volumes are aligned corresponding to the scattered programs across the landscape. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Shanghai Zhangpu civic center, designed by Kalarch Design Group, is an administration and government complex organized like a city and structured in three concepts, government, business and public services. The overall circular layout is based on the shape of local traditional jade ware, which symbolizes peace and harmony. The open layout with a central courtyard also expresses their hope for a more modern and friendly government. More images and architects’ description after the break.
The series of a pavilions with different public functions and programs by AWP + HHF Architects are part of a future 113 hectare large public green space along the Seine river, in Carrière-Sous-Poissy, at the end station of the RER line A and close the renown Villa Savoye from Le Corbusier. The Park designed by the Paris based landscape architects Agence TER will be a public park and ecological showcase for local residents and a leisure destination for people living in and around Paris. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Portland State University’s Department of Architecture recently announced that architect and professor Gilles Saucier will deliver the third presentation in their inaugural lecture series, titled “Firsts,” given by the department. Saucier is currently a design partner of Saucier + Perrotte Architects in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and an invited professor and critic at a number of Canadian and American universities, most recently at MIT in 2011.Saucier will speak on Thursday, February 23, at 7pm, at Shattuck Hall Annex on the Portland State University campus. These lecture series, which are free to the public, explore the concepts of origins and beginnings, long a subject of interest among architects. More information on the event after the break.
Mellat Bank, with its 3000 branches in Iran, is considered one the most important Iranian banks. Due to the tough competition among the Iranian banks for renovating their image, in January 2009, Mellat Bank management asked the above mentioned designers to design a new façade for its branches. In order to evaluate the sociological, technical and visual consequences of such new corporate concept, the bank decided to apply it first in the façade of an existing branch. More images and project description after the break.
The project by CHYBIK+KRISTOF Associated Architects for the Faculty of Fine Arts, Brno University of Technology is based on the idea of maximal respect to the character of the park’s locality in the city center for which it is designed. It is a complex of separate pavilions based on the floor plan of the existing built-up area of provisional assembled buildings, so-called likusáks. The concept of the project presupposes an interaction between education, culture and the public. Its realization will significantly contribute to revitalize the neglected eastern part of the park on Kraví hora. More images and architects‘ description after the break.
The main concept of the Alternative Car Park Tower, titled ‘Sky Street’, by Hugon Kowalski, Adam Wiercinski and Borys Wrzeszcz was to create parking spaces as an extension of the street. Typical city-street features with a traffic lane, parking spaces, sidewalk and tram was taken out which helped to shape their building form. More images and project description after the break.
Ocubis Ltd, development manager for owners Laffly Ltd, has announced that planning permission has been granted by the London Borough of Camden in early December for the comprehensive renovation and redevelopment of 150 Holborn, situated at the corner of Holborn and Grays Inn Road. The building designed by Make Architects, which is located immediately adjacent to Chancery Lane Tube station, will be substantially remodelled and extended to create 80,000 sq ft prime office space and six one, two and three-bedroom apartments, which together complement the existing 30,000 sq ft of retail space at ground-floor level. More images and project description after the break.
The ‘Multitalented City’ by PUPA (Public Urbanism Personal Architecture) is a winning proposal for the Europan 11 which creates a new identity for an old university campus at the periphery of Reims, France. The campus is transformed into a flexible and self sustaining district which is able to adapt to changes – environmental, societal, and economic. More images and architects’ description after the break.
The story of the phoenix is a well-worn metaphor for the history of Atlanta. Reborn from its own ashes, the mythological bird symbolizes reinvention, difficulties and breakthroughs, a resurgent spirit and a shining unwritten future full of hope. Likewise, the newly designed Atlanta History Center by Stanley Beaman & Sears, which came in second in the international competition, must be reconceived to capture and reflect the uplifting energy coursing through the city. The diversity and spirit of Atlanta can no longer be reflected by a series of linear, static, black box galleries and dusty displays. In short, the time for the Atlanta History Center is not the past – the time is right now. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Shebraber School is a collaborative project designed by EthiopiaStudio2.0, a second-generation team of eleven Arizona State University M.Arch graduate students, led by practicing local architect Jack DeBartolo 3. This fall, students had the unique opportunity to travel to a remote village community 120 miles southwest of Addis Ababa, the capital city of Ethiopia, Africa, to research, develop, and design new classrooms and administration buildings for a school serving children within a 10km radius, many of whom walk hours for the chance to attend. More images and project description after the break.
The design for the First People’s Hospital by HMC Architects aims to create a sustainable healthcare architecture, an idea new to the practice of the region. The project, which was the winner of the national AIA Academy of Architecture for Health 2011 Unbuilt award, features green design elements which optimize building performance. In addition, these elements create a healing environment, further its mission for community outreach, and evolve with cultural uniqueness. Its iconic architecture engages the local historical values and building industry/material. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Lidköping Police Building is LETH & GORI’s proposal in the open competition for a new police headquarter and public parking facilities in Lidköping, Sweden. The project site is an open square on the border of Lidköping’s historical urban plan from 1672. The site is an important entrance point to the historic city and one of the design objectives of the competition was how to emphasize this. More images and architects’ description after the break.