For years, we’ve kept a watchful eye on the entries of the Solar Decathlon competition -an amazing student collaborative effort which showcases the latest in sustainable design. Today, we’re bringing you a sneak peak of the 19 houses for the 2011 competition. The form and materiality may be different from one team to the next, yet the projects’ attitudes toward optimizing solar gain and having the design serve an educational example of clean energy is all the same. While the winner of the competition best blends affordability, consumer appeal, and design excellence with optimal energy production and maximum efficiency, we enjoy seeing each team’s proposal and learning about their process. Over the course of the next few weeks, we’ll be sharing more information about some of the projects of the 2011 competition (check out our in-depth look at Team New Jersey’s eNJoy House). Which would you like to learn more about?
Check out a sampling of the teams’ models and renderings after the break and let us know which you’d like to learn more about.
Check out a preview we spotted on PublicInterestDesign of Tulane University’s School of Architecture URBANbuildprogram, a total collaborative effort of “individuals, organizations, and businesses committed to revitalizing New Orleans’ rich cultural and architectural heritage.” Working with Professor Byron Mouton, Make It Right and Neighborhood Housing Services of New Orleans, students have designed and built several LEED-certified homes such as URBANbuild 04 featured in the clip. This particular residence is situated in Central City of New Orleans and completely breaks with the traditional “shotgun homes” that line the streets. The young homeowner, Tami, appreciates the students’ talents and abilities to go beyond what the neighborhood, and even the city, is comfortable with to create a new urban identity. Challenged by Mouton to introduce new ideas, the students have created a beautiful residence that they can certainly be proud of and one that Tami loves View her story and a bit of the project’s journey in the video.
Rafael Viñoly Architects have just announced the official groundbreaking of their Math Institute at the University of Oxford. Prior to the project, Oxford’s mathematics department was scattered across the University in different locations. RVA was commissioned to provide a design solution that provided a centralized building for the entire department, to create a balanced environment for academics’ need for privacy with the increasing importance of interdisciplinary collaboration.
Tune into the Discovery Channel tonight at 8 E/P for executive producer Steven Spielberg’s Rising: Rebuilding Ground Zero. This two part 6-hour documentary (the second installation will run September 1st) will take viewers on the journey of the process and struggles behind constructing One World Trade Center. As George Pataki, former New York governor, explains, the construction site is vastly different from any other site as it is hallowed land. Working to keep the memory of those fallen alive, and provide a symbol of strength, the rebuilding process continually faces challenges as the complex’s four skyscrapers, transportation hub, museum and memorial are “all being constructed at the same time and on the same location.” Watching this short clip we spotted on The Hollywood Reporter gave me chills – especially the part about “Big Red” and its fallen ones. Let us know what you think of the documentary this evening; we are sure it won’t disappoint!
We’ve been coveringCEBRA + JDS + SeARCH + Louis Paillard’s geometric harbor project for Arhus, Denmark. The huge project, which measures over 21,000 sqm, will include mixed dwellings types and commercial space. CEBRA has shared a few short video clips with us, highlighting the progress of the project. This featured clip is shot from the bridge connecting the future harbor promenade across the nearby canal. The grey concrete wall shown is the beginning of the southern facade (the actual floor is on top of the wall) and behind the wall is where the parking is situated.
Another video, as well as a few construction photos, after the break.
To say New York’s High Line is a successful project is putting it very lightly. From the moment the overgrown landscape opened, thousands have flocked to experience the amazing public space and dozens have been inspired to incorporate similar urban reuse attitudes in their cities. Ruth Samuelson sharedMexico City’s inspired project which seeks to apply the New York High Line’s sense of serenity to a busy intersection by mid-2012. “The High Line in New York seemed to me a fresh breath of air, completely. Mexico City just needs – within so many streets, so many avenues – respite like this,” explained Daniel Escotto Sánchez, the general coordinator for the city’s Public Space Authority.
The statistics are in for the ABI July, and as we shared in our coverage for June, the numbers are quite bleak. After June’s 46.3, July measured in more than a full point lower at 45.1. The new projects inquiry index dropped dramatically from 58.1 in June down to 53.7.“Business conditions for architecture firms have turned down sharply,” said AIA Chief Economist, Kermit Baker, PhD, Hon. AIA. “Late last year and in the first couple of months of this year there was a sense that we were slowly pulling out of the downturn, but now the concern is that we haven’t yet reached the bottom of the cycle. Current high levels of uncertainly in the economy don’t point to an immediate turnaround.” Regional averages include the South at 46.9, West at 46.6, Northeast at 46.4, and the Midwest at 44.9. Hopefully, for our coverage of the ABI August, we’ll have more positive data to share.
Last year, we had great feedback when we proposed the question of which books to include in an architecture library. After spending the better half of the year in Scandinavia, I have found my architecture library to be filled with new additions.
Last Fall, we introduced the collaborative effort between the Guggenheim and BMW to create a modern day public form exploring a variety of urban issues. The New York Lab, designed by Atelier Bow-Wow, has just opened in the East Village on a leftover 2,000 sqf plot squished between two existing buildings. With the ground level open to passersby, the museum focuses on creating a transparent and welcoming atmosphere to house discussions, lectures and the like. “We wanted the Guggenheim Labs to be in the middle of an urban environment where people live, work and hang out,” Mr. van der Leer, a curator for the Guggenheim, told the Times.
Last summer, we sharedSHoP’s 270,000 sqf office and research building for Botswana, Africa, a winning proposal that surpassed 17 international competitors. The Innovation Hub is a huge investment for the Botswanan government as an attempt to diversify its ecomony which is primarily based upon diamond extraction to move toward a more “knowledge-based economy.” A lot is at stake for this $50 million project. With thousands of sqf of office space to fill, many wonder if the building and its location can attract the latest researchers; yet, SHoP’s initiative to create an environmentally friendly haven attempts to do just that. “The goal was to create an incubator to invite new startups and other companies into Botswana,” says SHoP principal William Sharples, “and get the country into another economic line besides just diamonds.”
San Francisco-based IwamotoScott Architecturehas just shared their latest project with us – a renavoted 1940s warehouse that holds media company Obscura Digital as well as the architects’ new office space. Upgrading from an unorganized and dimly lit timber warehouse, Obscura looked to Lisa Iwamoto and Craig Scott to outfit the 36,000 sqf building in Dogpatch to suite their needs, while extending the invitation for the firm to set up its practice in the building, as well. “It wasn’t a formalized agreement but a pretty casual thing,” Iwamoto told Lydia Lee for Metropolis. “Obscura by nature is collaborative. The hope is that by sharing space, we’ll have the advantage of seeing their process and what can be done with digital media, and they’ll get an idea of the architectural possibilities.”
In addition to this great refurbishment, we are fascinated by the architects’ dividing wall entitled BookCaseScreenWall, an amazing hybrid of surface projection technologies with a “traditional” bookcase which sits between their office space and Obscura Digital’s.
Be sure to view our comprehensive photo set of construction photos, finished work, and of course, the BookCaseScreenWall after the break.
Visiondivisionis back with their latest funky design for a concession stand for 100 Acres: The Virginia B. Fairbanks Art & Nature Park. Commissioned by the Indianapolis Museum of Art, the Swedish team has proposed an innovative stand that focuses specifically upon the idea of harvesting “something as gently as possible so that the source of what we harvest is displayed in a pure, pedagogic and respectful way—respectful to both the source itself and to everyone visiting the building,” explained the architects. The main component of the design features Indiana’s state tree, a yellow poplar measuring 100 ft. The tree becomes the focus of the project as it runs horizontally, seemingly suspended in midair.
After patiently evolving the design of 837 Washington Street, the Meatpacking District’s newest addition, New York-based Morris Adjmi Architects are happy to announce the project’s recent approval from the Landmarks Preservation Commission. The new office and retail building, which will rise from a 1930s warehouse, will be Adjmi’s fourth building in the Meatpacking District. The project has been struggling to gain approval, primarily due to its height, as the building was originally conceived to stand 100 feet tall; however, the most recent design scheme shows the building measuring just below 80 feet, allowing it to blend more graciously with its surroundings.
The architectural profession has been greatly influenced by the recession that began over three years ago. With hundreds of projects, on a variety of scales, being stalled or completely canceled, and firms forced to lay off extreme numbers of employees, many estimate that our profession has taken one of the hardest hits of this economic downturn.
We are constantly, and optimistically, seeking that metaphorical silver lining to get back on our feet hoping our industry will revive itself. Yet, back in March of this year, the Chief economist for the AIA, Kermit Baker, warned, “We’ve been preaching patience and cautious optimism for a full recovery because there continues to be a wide range of business conditions for architecture firms that are also influenced by firm size, practice specialties and regional location. We still expect the road to recovery to move at a slow, but steady pace.”
Roll It, a cool experimental house, resulted from the collaboration among different institutes within the University of Karlsruhe. This cyclindrical design is a modular protype that provides flexible space within a minimum housing unit. Three different sections are dedicated to different functional needs: there’s a bed and table in section, an exercise cylinder, and a kitchen with a sink.
More images and more about the prototype after the break.
The Xi’an Expo 2011 has officially opened and, as expected, the international horticultural event has attracted a staggering 200,000 in just the first weekend! We’ve been covering the Expo beginning with Plasma Studio + GroundLab’s conceptual design, and we have been featuring updates about the project over the course of the last few months. The Expo embodies the idea of transformation as the site was formerly a sandpit where the water was severely degraded during the 1980s. Efforts over the past two decades have restored the ecosystem and now the Expo is able to demonstrate what can be accomplished through the use of the most advanced technology, ideas, and materials. As we reported earlier, the 37 ha complex includes three buildings that are interconnected with a dynamic landscape of unfolding paths and networks of water, circulation and foliage.
We were excited to receive Mackintosh School of Architecture’s 36th addition of MacMag – a student publication that catalogues the work of the student body in a way that is as much about the graphical expression as it is about the architectural projects it contains (check out our coverage for the 35th addition of MacMaghere). “MacMag 36 is a proud statement of where we are now, as students relating to contemporary and future architecture,” explained the student editors Joe Barton, Marguerita Kyriakidis, Heather MacSween, David O’Reilly and John Robson. The book is divided into 5 different stages – to coincide with the years of study – beginning in Stage One with creative and explorative work and moving through the fifth stage which showcases the architectural growth of the students in more comprehensive works.
