Greeen! Architects have been awarded an honorable mention for their Eco Towers, an office building in Hamburg, Germany for the Building and Environment Authorities. The office will accommodate 1400 people and will include several public areas as well as green gardens to “give room to nature and a create a green ambiance to all workers and visitors.”
More about the Eco Towers after the break.
After winning a limited competition, UNStudio will move forward with their design of a 38,500 m2 stadium for the Dalian Shide FC, China’s most successful club in the Chinese Super League. The new stadium will be located in the Shide’s hometown of Dalian, on the southern tip of Liaodong peninsula. Working with the idea of layering and overlapping, an aesthetic deeply rooted in ancient Chinese cuju football, Ben van Berkel has created a stadium where the articulation of the structure and its openings and overlapping moments serve as “the starting point for visitor experience”.
More about the stadium after the break.
Amanda Levete Architects shared with us their submission for the extension for the Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester.
The form intends to compliment the 19th century gallery, yet still maintain its individuality as a separate element. The extension, then, becomes not “one building connected to another but as something more abstract: a gesture that merges landscape with building.” The urban gallery’s setting within Whitworth Park allows the building to merge with the landscape to “create a dynamic and inhabitable” space. “As the park becomes the folds of fabric, these folds are sliced, peeled, and pulled to house, expose, and articulate the new program of activities of that embodies the new Whitworth Gallery,” explained the architects. The park seems to be gathered together and drawn into the building, creating an extension that fosters a relationship between interior and exterior, object and landscape.
More images after the break.
MAD Architects shared their recently completed design for the Taichung Convention Center with us. Conceived as “a continuous weave of architecture and landscape that blurs the boundary between architecture, public space and urban landscape, proposing a futuristic vision based on the East’s naturalistic philosophy,” the convention center is the first project in Taiwan commissioned by the Taichung city government. The project is meant to surpass the traditional metropolitan landmark to become something that pushes Taichung “into the arena of world class cultural cities…. through unique architectural concepts and proposing a new kind of architectural philosophy.”
More about the convention center and more images after the break.
Allied Works Architecture was selected to design the National Music Center project in Calgary’s East Village. The firm, led by Brad Cloepfil, will have the opportunity to “invent a new kind of institution,” as the center will be the first of its kind for Canada and will be part museum, part education and part performance. The proposal is comprised of a five-storey building that will incorporate the historic King Edward Hotel, a legendary house of blues, and provide 80,000 sf of new space for the Cantos Music Foundation’s growing collection. This project marks the first stage of the redevelopment of Calgary’s East Village and the creation of a new music district in the historic heart of the city.
More images and more about the winning proposal after the break.
Alison Brooks Architects, one of the leading talents in the UK, was awarded first prize for their master plan for the University of Northampton. The two stage master plan will play a vital role in enabling the university to meet both the need for short term accommodations and longer term plans for future growth. “The School of the Arts embraces new technologies in a dynamic cross-discipline mix that will drive our vision for a creative technologies campus. I believe the chosen proposal will provide a powerful statement which captures and projects our collective values and ambitions,” explained Paul Middleton.
More about the master plan after the break.
Controversy is surrounding the latest design of the 400 meter tower for Gazprom, a Russian energy company. Designed by RMJM, the tower, known as Okhta Center, will dominate the skyline, towering over the spire of St. Peter and Paul Cathedral. The new design may actually become the tallest building in Europe, which begs the question that even though we have the capability of building taller and larger, should that be our priority?
More about the tower after the break.
Resting on the outskirts of Naples, Renzo Piano latest Volcano Buono is a mixed use center that aims to become integrated into the landscape, rather than just occupying it. The central piazza of the Volcano includes a 150 meter-wide space that holds an outdoor theater and market, while a series of concentric rings form the center’s commercial areas. Piano explained that the Volcano is “a contemporary take on a Greek marketplace, a void as a place for events, meetings, dialogue and the gathering of people”.
More about the Volcano and more images after the break.
Designed and built by second year students of the Alice Studio at Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, the Evolver is a wooden alpine structure that “provides a more interactive way to take in the views of the glorious mountains – especially the Matterhorn.”
More about the project after the break.
Lara Calder Architects’ prefab parasite project is meant populate the unused spaces found in urban landscapes. Fittingly, the parasite will cling to old facades, rock faces and even bridges as a way to “achieve sustainable densification.” Designed using a parametric 3d modelling software, the form is a flexible entity as all components, such as the structural system, facade, cladding, floor levels and stairs are integrated into a sole parametric model. The integration of the design system increases efficiency and accuracy of the construction process.
More about the parasite after the break.
Located in Niihama in Ehime, Japan, the Café la Miell lacked the space needed to accommodate the number of daily customers. To combat this shortcoming, the client wished to open a new café across the street that would be able to hold 80 customers. To create the new Café la Miell, Suppose Design Office utilized the one meter drop of the site so that instead of having a standard two story café, as the client requested, the café would become a split level space with one floor at the building’s base level, and one at street level.
More about the cafe after the break.
A few days ago, Thom Mayne unveiled his $185 million museum design for the Perot Museum of Nature and Science at Victory Park in Dallas, which is set for groundbreaking later this fall. ”As instruments of education and social change, museums have the potential to shape our understanding of ourselves and the world in which we live…As our global environment faces ever more critical challenges, a broader understanding of the interdependence of natural systems is becoming more essential to our survival and evolution. Museums dedicated to nature and science play a key role in expanding our understanding of these complex systems,” explained Mayne.
More about the museum after the break.
Designed by Matsys Designs, Sietch Nevada is a response to the idea of a water-poor world becoming a reality, especially in the American Southwest. With so much of the press focused on wars over oil, the world is often unaware of the slowly depleting water sources, which are indeed exponentially more valuable than oil. This futuristic urban prototype addresses the water situation as a complex underground network of tunnels and canals offers protection and the “storage, use, and collection of water essential to the form and performance of urban life.”
More about Sietch Nevada after the break.
EXP Architects and teammates Studiomustard Architecture, Sempervirens Landscape Designers and Even Conseil have won the design for the Ecodistrict “Heudelet 26” in Dijon, France. Located in proximity to the city center, the new urban design will be the first of Dijon’s Ecodistricts and serve as a model for later developments. The district will enhance “the neighborhood’s identity and density by favouring mixed income and mixed generational housing, thus testifying to a new way of conceiving urban development.”
More about the Ecodistrict after the break.
OFF Architecture , along with Duncan Lewis Scape Architecture and Jean de Giacinto, has completed the design for the reconstruction of Lycee Jean Moulin in Revin, France. The new college is perfectly integrated into the existing site conditions, creating a dynamic educational facility. The new building seeks to become a part of the terrain as the form follows the protruding and receding nature of the undulating hills. The form creates a ripple-like effect across the site and provides a sense of movement to the surrounding region. When the college is completed in 2012, users will find themselves benefiting from the natural qualities of their immediate environment and enjoying a learning environment unlike any other.
More images after the break.
Against tough competitors, such as Rafael Viñoly, Allford Hall Monaghan Morris and Foreign Office Architects, the competition to design the Jewish Community Center was awarded to Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands. The 30,000 sqf JCC project will emphasize an arts and community center that aims to bring “light, life and activity back to the street.” Situated on a heavily trafficked road, the JCC will include a three story linear pavilion that will create a “landscaped piazza and relate to the Camden Arts Center’s gardens” opposite the site.
More about the JCC after the break.
The Bamboo Lantern designed for the Gwamgju Design Biennale in Korea by Atelier FCJZ (a prominent chinese firm who is also designing the Shanghai Corporate pavilion for the Expo 2010) appears to be a solid heavy mass. Yet, as visitors separate its two halves and occupy its interior, the mere cubic form turns into something else completely. The lantern is a “ dialogue between opposites” , as its plan is comprised of a circle nested within a square. The circle and square illustrate strong symbolism from the Ancient Chinese tradition, with the former representing the heavens, and the later, the earth. These two shapes are inherently different and yet, when combined, they work together to organize the exterior space and provide a new sense for the interior. “The directionality in the square is used to organize the surrounding exterior viewing space while the stillness of the circular shape that defines the interior intimately collects the rest space,” explained the architects.
More about the lantern after the break.
Bruce Ratner originally looked to Frank Gehry to design the Atlantic Yards’ basketball arena, a 22 acre development project in Brooklyn. Gehry’s scheme looked promising as the arena and surrounding buildings were carefully categorized in different zones and then reassembled to create “startling urban moments.” When Gehry was fired early in the summer and replaced by Kansas-based firm Ellerbe Becket, many were worried that the project would not be realized with the care Gehry had given it. When Becket’s original design seemed below par, Ratner quickly hired SHoP Architects to get the design back on track.
More about SHoP’s addition to the Atlantic Yards after the break.