The luxury car brand Maserati organized a competition to search for the finest architectural garages. The competition was divided into two sections. One for existing garages and other for concept garages.
The existing competition was won by Holger Schubert from Archisis. This garage was designed with two main objectives in mind: to create a pure and restrained minimalist environment that allows one to focus on the car as a piece of art and to create the ultimate experience for the driver to arrive at home.
The concept garage winner was Chris Altman from Stubbs Muldrow Herin Architects. The design approach seeks to redefine the relationship between car, driver and garage. Unlike the typical garage of today, the design redefines the notion of the garage from a space of storage to a place that exhibits the quality and prestige of a Maserati. In concept, the garage is designed to refocus one’s attention on the car.
You can see more info on the winners and other entries in the competition’s official website. More images and a great video after the break.
Last week, we asked all of you to send photos of your architecture office through our Facebook Fan Page. Your response was huge, as we received a lot of photos from all over the world. Selecting the best was not easy, but we decided to focus on diversity, creativity and image quality. Thanks to everyone who got to send their photos and we hope you keep participating through our Facebook Fan Page.
The picture above was submitted by Catherine Dilly and belongs to Jasmax Studio in Auckland, New Zealand. You can see all 14 offices after the break. And remember, you can also become a fan of ArchDaily in Facebook, just click here!
Rotterdam’s Cube Houses, an iconic building designed in 1984 by Dutch architect Piet Blom, has been renewed and transformed into a new Stayokay hostel. The building consists in 38 small cubes and two bigger ones all attached to each other.
The expressive and colorful cube-shaped houses on concrete pillars are located right in the heart of the city, near the ‘Old Harbour’. Spending the night in a tilted cube is quite a unique experience. In addition to the 49 spacious rooms, Stayokay Rotterdam also has a restaurant, bar and two rooms for meetings and workshops. The interior concept of Dutch designer Edward van Vliet (SEVV) was used as a starting point. Kees van Lamoen and Personal Architecture were the rebuilding architects. More images, after the break.
PS: In the last Mark Magazine there’s an article with interviews to people who have lived in remarkable buildings, and the cube house was included.
Metals, as surface or structure-as the generators of space-play a role in nearly every strain of modernization in architecture. Bringing together a wide range of leading architects, engineers, and scholars, the Columbia Conference on Architecture, Engineering, and Materials is a multi-year project to explore the dramatically changing limits of known and new materials in an era of rapid urbanization and within unprecedented forms of technical measurement, coordination, and production that increasingly blur the boundaries of professions and of materials.
As you all may know, last month we started featuring a selection of the best pictures from our Flickr pool. The pool has been growing a lot lately so we will keep on showing you some pictures in the future. You can also add yours, just click here and learn how! And remember that besides our Flickr pool you can also follow us through Twitter and our Facebook Page.
The picture of the Neuer Zollhof in Düsseldorf, Germany, was taken by arne boell. Check the other four after the break.
The 2010 World Cup to be held in South Africa is less than one year away. Being perhaps the most important international competition in sports in the world, we would like to start featuring some of the stadiums that will host this magnificient competition.
Soccer City Stadium is located in Johannesburg and it was originally built in 1987. Among other important events, it hosted the first massive speech from Nelson Mandela after his liberation in 1990. However, it was completely renewed for the upcoming World Cup, becoming the stadium where the starting and the final game will be played.
Designed by Boogertman Urban Edge and Partners in partnership with Populous, it will allow for 94,000 spectators to enjoy the best soccer in the world. The design of the stadium was selected from a series of concept designs ranging from acknowledgement of Johannesburg’s disappearing mine dumps; the kgotla (defined by the tree) of the African city state; the African map as a horizontal representation, which included the roof as a desert plane supported on tropical trees set within the mineral wealth of Southern Africa; to a representation of the protea, South Africa’s national flower.
The calabash, or African pot, was selected as being the most recognizable object to represent what would automatically be associated with the African continent and not any other. The calabash, or ‘melting pot of African cultures’, sits on a raised podium, on top of which is located a ‘pit of fire’. Thus the pot sits in a depression, which is the ‘pit of fire’, as if it were being naturally fired.
In case you didn’t know, a couple of weeks ago we started with our Facebook Fan Page (different from ArchDaily’s group on Facebook). The interaction that we have been experiencing with you has been awesome, so we decided to turn things upside down for a change.
This is a sustainable design for a future development that possibly will be built. BURO II already built a project of this amplitude in Guangzhou (China) and won with this ‘Baiyun International Convention Centre’ an international prize at the World Architecture Festival in Barcelona in 2008.
The design of this hotel beach resort is a concept whereby a sustainable relationship with the local economy, culture and natural heritage is central. The hotel assimilates with the natural habitat of the island. The development of this exclusive residential resort of 22.000m² is situated along Mero Beach on the west coast of the Commonwealth of Dominica.
More images and architect’s description after the break.
Housing projects, a new City Hall for an Estonian city, a master plan for an island and the Danish Pavillion for Shanghai Expo 2010 are just some of the enormous variety of projects designed by BIG. Check them out on our first Round Up of the week.
What does ‘neighborhood character’ mean to you? Why is it important and what is the role of architecture? Join AIA Seattle as our own local characters Steve Scher of KUOW’s “Weekday”, author Knute Berger, activist Kent Kammerer, and real estate maven Bob Melvey debate and discuss specific projects shaping the future of residential architecture in our region.
Jacques Ferrier Architects were selected to design the French Pavillion at Shanghai Expo 2010. Their project ‘The Sensual City’ is a simple building with a big style French garden inside. Surrounded by water it appears to be floating.
The 6000 square meter pavillion will use advanced building materials and environmental protection technology including solar panels on top of the roof.
Last week, we featured the Quingpu Pedestrian Bridge designed by CA-DESIGN. The project received many good reviews from you, so they sent more images of the bridge, taken by Nacasa & Partners. See all the fantastic images of the project by day and night after the break.
There are few things more entertaining than enjoying a good show in a good theatre. From all over Europe and USA, we bring you our Round Up of previously featured theatres in ArchDaily.
The structure of a brain cell is the dominant conceptual image for the pavilion. It aims to evokes the artistic and scientific richness of Belgium and the country’s central position within Europe.
The brain cell also refers directly to the role of Belgium as one of Europe’s main gathering centres and cross-points of 3 great cultural traditions: the Latin, the Germanic and the Anglo-Saxon. Belgium, closely connected to its surrounding countries, has always been a ‘place of balance’ where people have gathered with common interests that surpass their national needs.
The Dutch have been fighting the rising and falling tides for centuries, building dikes and pumping water out of areas that are below sea level. Now, rather than fight the water infiltrating their land, the Dutch will use it as part of a new development called ‘New Water‘, which will feature the world’s first floating apartment complex, The Citadel.
This “water-breaking” new project was designed by Koen Olthuis of Waterstudio, and developed by ONW OPP/BNG in the Netherlands, and will use 25% less energy than a conventional building on land thanks to the use of water cooling techniques.
The Pavilion of Ideas, designed by Heatherwick Studio, beat five other short-listed designs, including plans put forward by the creators of the London Eye – the largest Ferris wheel in the world – to becomes the winner. The pavilion looks like a box with thousands of spines that hover without visible support above a public square.
All the spines, which can swing in the breeze, are tipped with tiny colored light sources which can display a variety of images together.
Inside the pavilion, visitors will see an enormous digital screen showing various contents. The outside area of the pavilion will be an exhibition space and auditorium as well as a cafe and shops surrounded by two strips of grass. The pavilion will be as ecological as possible and the designers are trying to make all the aspects recyclable and carbon-neutral. It is light, without heavy concrete foundations and will “touch the ground softly,” according to the introduction by Heatherwich.
