Today Amsterdam city planning councilman Maarten van Poelgeest announced the winner of the adaptive reuse design competition for the two former sewage treatment silos in Amsterdam’s Zeeburg district: the Annie MG Schmidt House. Annie MG Schmidt (1911-1995) is Holland’s most famous author of childrens books.
The winning plan is a mutifunctional cultural center, housing a wide range of diverse activities, including a spectacular open rooftop playground on one silo, and restaurant Praq op ‘t daq built on the rooftop of the other. The doors to the exhibition spaces and media center, movie theater and theater hall, tower room and shops, as well as those of the restaurant, are open seven days a week the whole year through, welcoming visitors and locals alike. The project breathes new life into the silos, transforming them into an inspiring and lively place which will help shape the character of the new Zeeburgereiland housing district.
The plan is the result of the inspired cooperation between the development companies AM and De Alliantie, the Annie MG Schmidt Huis foundation, restaurant Praq, Arons en Gelauff architects, landscape architect Rob Aben, and Janneke Hooymans (This is Jane-interior design).
The Annie MG Schmidt House is expected to be completed in 2011. Images by Arons en Gelauff architects / Pixel Pool, after the break.
For the June issue of Icon, they invited an international panel of experts to help them pick the people who are making the future. The result is the Icon 20/20, a list of the 20 architects and 20 designers who are already changing the way we work and think. You can vote for your favorite on Icon’s website.
Full list of architects and designers after the break.
Housing may come in different ways, different forms, and different places. So to start this week of Round Up, we bring you previously featured “Housing” works on ArchDaily.
Storefront for Art and Architecture, in collaboration with Goethe Institute New York, present Spacebuster, a project by Raumlabor. Spacebuster is a mobile inflatable structure that serves as an entirely portable, expandable pavilion. A new iteration of a past Raumlabor project, the Küchenmonument (presented in Europe in 2006-8), Storefront will bring Spacebuster to the US for the first time this April, when it will travel throughout New York for 10 consecutive evenings hosting various community events.
The pavilion is comprised of an inflatable bubble-like dome that emerges from its self-contained compressor housing. The dome expands and organically adjusts to its surroundings, be it in a field, a wooded park, or below a highway overpass. The material is a sturdy, specially-designed translucent plastic, allowing the varying events taking place inside of the shelter – dance parties, lecture series, or dinner buffets – to be entirely visible from the outside and likewise the exterior environments become the events’ backdrops.
Each of these ten evenings will be organized in conjunction with a community group, nonprofit organization, university, or arts organization. Events will include artist talks, film screenings, communal dinners and many other events. For full information on the lineup of events please visit the official site.
Foster + partners decided to base on a sand dune for their UAE Pavillion design for the Shanghai Expo 2010. The pavillion is a reference to the symbolic feature of the desert landscape shared by all seven emirates.
The peak rises to 20 meters in height and it is entered via a glazed lip at the pavillions base. light penetrates the building’s business center and VIP area through glazed vertical strips which illuminate the pavillion from within by night. With a capacity for 450 people and enclosing 3000 square meters of exhibition space, the pavillion is one of the largest structures to be built for shanghai expo 2010.
Italian architect Alberto Catalano of Teknoarch has just won the international competition to design the New Arts and Culture House in Beirut, Lebanon. Catalano won a $75,000 prize and a comission for the project. The Arts and Culture House will be the first of its kind in Lebanon and is funded by a $20 million gift from the Sultanate of Oman. The project should be complete in 2013.
The second prize went to Beatriz Ramo Lopez de Angulo with STAR strategies+architecure, from The Netherlands. The third prize went to Grigoryan Yury with Project Meganom from Russia.
What’s Your HistoricLA? Do you know a special story about a local building or the neighborhood you live in? Come join like-minded amateur historians and Los Angeles aficionados for the public kickoff of SurveyLA, Los Angeles’ first-ever citywide survey of its historic resources. A full day of activities will include opportunities to share your knowledge on L.A.‘s hidden gems, screenings of the SurveyLA video, and a panel discussion moderated by Larry Mantle, host of KPCC’s Air Talk.
After a week of hard work, nothing’s better than a perfect place to relax. So for this Friday’s Round Up, we bring you our previously featured leisure works. So relax, and enjoy.
The Smithsonian Institute has announced the finalists for the new National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington D.C. The museum will be located at the end of the Washington Mall, being the latest addition to this location. The design concepts will be on show at the castle building until April 6. The, a jury will select a winner. The museum will open in 2015, at a cost of 500 million dollars.
Amanda Levete Architects is to develop a major retail and hotel complex in central Bangkok, Thailand. Central Embassy, located on Bangkok’s primary commercial artery Ploen Chit Road, will be a new architectural landmark for the city and region.
The 145,000 m2 project will occupy the former gardens of the British Embassy in Nai Lert Park, and will consist of a 7-storey retail podium and a 30-storey 6-star hotel tower. Work on site is scheduled to begin in 2010 and to complete in 2013.
Innovative developer, Eli Karp of Supreme Builders, partners with world-renowned artist, Edin Velez, to showcase fascinating video art in techno-chic condo lofts. The Opening Reception will be on Thursday, April 2nd, from 7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. at The Sydney, one of the Hello Living buildings, located at 957 Pacific Street in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn. Check in for the event will be at The Madison, located at 925 Pacific Street. Guests are invited to watch Velez at work and become art subjects in a special video featuring couples kissing.
With the right equipment, you can build a school anywhere. If you don’t think so, ask the children that goes every day to Mid-Cave Primary School. Built in 1984, this school sits in one of three caves inside a mountain.
Nowadays, it accomodates 186 students with a teaching force of 8 staff. Of course, this may not be the right conditions for a child to go to school, but personally, I think it’s better for a child to go and learn in a cave, rather that don’t go to school at all.
What was the proposed population of Superstudio’s Continuous Monument? What would the density of Rem Koolhaas’ Exodus plan for London have been had it ever been realized? How would they compare in scale to Kenzo Tange’s Tokyo Bay project, or to Corbusier’s Ville Radieuse? Which of the three would have contained more green areas? 49 Cities sets out to crunch the numbers of several centuries of unrealized urbanism, all the way from the Roman city to the great utopian projects of the 20th century. Through plans, sections, diagrams, charts and scale drawings, 49 cities are observed statistically and presented in an unprecedented comparative study, the result of a research project conducted over several years. Despite the fact that they never actually existed, this history of utopian urbanism provides a remarkable insight into our understanding of the contemporary metropolis.
You can follow everything about Postopolis! in Los Angeles here. We will be continuously updating this post to bring you the latest on Postopolis! So be sure to check this and don’t miss anything about this great event.
A month ago, we announced that architects Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, of the leading Japanese practice SANAA, were chosen to design the Serpentine Gallery Pavillion 2009, in the UK. Yesterday, SANAA released the first rendering of their design.
Last week, ProMéxico announced the winning projects for the national competition to design the Mexico Pavillion in Shangai 2010.
First place was given to SLOT, Mónica Orozco, Moritz Melchert, Juan Carlos Vidal, Israel Álvarez, Mariana Tello, and Édgar Ramírez, from Mexico City.
Second place was given to the proposal by Salvador Macías, Alejandro Guerrero, Margarita Peredo, Iván Orozco, Christian Delgado, and Alejandro Arias from Guadalajara.
