Being awarded the Pritzker means you’ve hit it big. Having that ribbon placed around your neck proves you’re top dog in the architecture world and you’ve practically become a household name….doesn’t it? While that may seem that case for Gehry and Hadid, even Piano and Meier, the Pritzker’s seventeenth honoree, (France’s first laureate, in fact) Christian de Portzamparc sometimes feels forgotten.
Established by Aga Khan IV (the current Islamic leader responsible for the interpretation of Islam and the improvement of his followers’ lives), the Aga Khan Award for Architecture rewards architectural achievement that meets the “aspirations of Islamic societies.” Every three years, the honor is awarded to multiple projects and it recognizes projects, teams, and stakeholders, in addition to buildings and people. This year marks the 11th award cycle (which began in 2008) and the short list has just been announced. The projects are quite varied ranging from a mosque in Bangladesh, to a textile factory in Turkey, to a community center in Sri Lanka.
More about the award after the break.
The proposal created by German duo Felix Yaparsidi + Valentin Ott was awarded first by the cultural department of the Federation of German Industry. Entitled Instant Kiez, the idea is an instant neighborhood that would create a kind of ‘sociocultural social’ to support the new urban base.
Designed by Office of Architecture in Barcelona, this urban landscape snakes along the Benidorm seascape in Spain. The region is a popular attraction outfitted with high rise buildings, promenades, the bars, and the water. Yet, OAB’s addition to the thriving seaside has created an identifying element which sets this area apart from similar places.
More images and more about the landscape after the break.
As part of the Triennial program at the Cooper Hewitt, the showing exhibit Why Design Now? presents some of the most innovative designs of contemporary culture. The exhibition, which addresses human and environmental concerns, includes designers dappling in all areas of the design field – from architecture, to fashion, and graphics to materials.
More about the exhibit after the break.
Eli Broad, an American philanthropist, is getting ready to design the newest home for his extensive art collection. For his latest museum project, on the corner of Grand Avenue and 2nd Street in Los Angeles, Broad invited six of the professions’ leading minds to compete. Resting across the street from Gehry’s Walt Disney Concert Hall and Arata Isozaki’s 1986 Museum of Contemporary Art, Broad’s museum with include approximately 40,000 square feet of top-floor exhibition space, along with offices for the Broad Art Foundation.
Built in memory of Ernst Koller, a businessman and inventor, BBK‘s pavilion is a multipurpose space open to the educational community for meetings, workshops and exhibitions. The pavilion, in the spirit of Koller, will serve as a creative center where students on the Basel University campus can come together to brainstorm and design.
More about the pavilion after the break.
Brain Fit, by Nutthawut Piriyaprakob of Thailand based NPDA Studio, is a learning studio specifically designed to enhance brain function, imagination and co-ordination for small children. Comprised of 4 zones, (the Reception, the Gym, the Testing Room, and the Computer Testing Room), each zone is designed as the imitation of the brain cell, blood vessel and body membrane to imply the meaning of the learning activities conducted. Trying to balance a space that will cater to a child’s imaginative side, yet not pose a distraction, the studio seeks to foster development and encourage exploration.
More images and more about the different zones after the break.
The Guggenheim Musuem’s newest exhibit features the work of Julie Mehretu, an abstract painter best known for her densely-layered paintings. Her work expresses an obsession with architecture, in particular, densely populated urban environments. In her pieces, Mehretu takes recognizable architectural components, such as the column, façade, and elevation, which are then compressed and combined to capture different perspectives. “Her paintings present a tornado of visual incident where gridded cities become fluid and flattened, like many layers of urban graffiti.”
LA Times shot by Isaac Brekken
For the Gruškovje Border Shop commission, Slovenian architecture firm Enota designed a 550m2 store situated between two roads. Since the project has an “undemanding program”, the architects decided to create a recognizable entity that would be treated in two different ways, depending upon which road the object was viewed.
More about the shop after the break.
Vir.Mueller Architects designed a prototype for community toilets in Rajasthan, a rural area of India. Public sanitation services are vital in India, yet the country is severely lacking such facilities. With this in mind, the National Foundation of India asked the architects to create a prototype, with the hope that the model could be distributed around the area, helping all the families in the village of Delwara.
At an exhibit in Gothenburg, architects Fredrik Kjellgren + Joakim Kaminsky from Kjellgren Kaminsky Architecture have designed a sustainable city as a ”glimpse of a possible sustainable future” for Sweden. The project, entitled Super Sustainable City, takes the analytical findings of a previous green initiaive,”Gothenburg 2050″ and presents a new “architectonic vision.”
More about the exhibit after the break.
A friend shared Joseph Ford’s fun idea for an architectural world for ultimate gamers. Ford‘s photography, with art director Mohamed Bareche, takes a series of game based consoles and turns them into reality for the If I were President project. The work will be published in the eighth edition of Amusement Magazine. Enjoy!
More images after the break.
Global Architecture Development (GAD), an Istanbul and New York based firm, is working on a 25,000 m² shopping center in Turkey. The new retail area injects the area with a larger sense of urban renewal. The center’s facade consists of alternating surfaces that respond to their different orientations. The scale of materiality and designs of the facades try to respond to the different surrounding conditions, whether it be residential, commercial, or urban infrastructure.
More images after the break.
Pantone Inc’s claim to fame began 45 years ago with its revolutionary color matching system that allowed designers to reproduce accurate color anywhere in the world. Currently, the company is branching out and moving into lifestyle- oriented industries using the same color numbering system to guarantee an exactness of hue. As the company began expanding, Pantone decided to construct a hotel as part of the new “Pantone Universe” campaign. Designed by Michel Penneman and Oliver Hannaert, the hotel fully embodies the company, as “the hotel of colors… showcases the color of emotion with a distinctive hue on each colorous guest floor.”
More about the design of the hotel after the break.
Yesterday, architect William McDonough and chemist Dr. Michael Braungart launched their Green Products Innovation Institute, Inc. , an addition to their Cradle to Cradle Movement® (C2C). This new non-profit organization is focused on being a valuable resource for all consumers, and ultimately, will help people achieve a higher level of environmentally safe and healthy products. The driving force behind the movement is that through the innovation of “redesigning products and ingredients to become nutrients, and enabling old products to become the raw material for new goods and services” a cycle of reusing elements will eliminate waste.
Note: The original title for article was “Gehry vs Sustainability” and it was changed to “Gehry vs LEED” on May 22nd for accuracy.
Frank Gehry can usually spice things up. And, his recent comments about sustainability prove that the 81 year old starchitect still remains as provocative and shocking as he always was. In an interview with Blair Kamin from the Chicago Tribune, Gehry basically dismissed LEED and its efforts to make our built environment more eco-friendly. While his opposition may be targeted predominately toward LEED’s point system, rather than the overall green movement, his comments, like usual, stirred up some controversy.
Check out the interview and some responses after the break.