After a high-level meeting on February 13, CCTV issued a report that shows that only the surface of the building was damaged. The amazing fire we saw on the images and videos was actually the zinc alloy burning very fast (melts at 400ºC, versus 1000ºC fireworks can get). Anyway, a Chinese architecture expert puts this in doubt, saying that interior equipment had to be damaged. Now it´s up to the engineers to decide the future of the building.
Our green friends from Inhabitat sent us this interesting project. A new prefab recently built by the students at the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture. Their goal was to build a prototype prefab conducive to elegant and sustainable living within the heart of the desert landscape.
The masterplan will transform a site of a former slaughterhouse in the city of Horsens, Western Denmark into a mixed-use commercial, office and cultural complex that will include residential areas. Shla’s masterplan received particular praise for its dynamic design which will create a sense of cohesion between the city’s existing urban identity and the new retail and recreational areas.
More details, after the break.
Paul Murdoch Architects, with Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects, won the 2-stage competition for a national memorial and park to occur at the site where United Airlines Flight 93 crashed on September 11, 2001, in Somerset County, Pennsylvania. The memorial will honor the passengers and crewmembers of Flight 93.
A heart-shaped sculpture by Gage Clemenceau Architects will land on Times Square today. It will stay on Duffy Square until March 1st. The sculpture is constructed with DuPontTM Corian® strawberry ice and welded steel tubes. The heart is lit from within using color-changing LED lighting.
Sponsored by the BSA/Boston Society of Architects and Architectural Record, “In the Pursuit of Housing”, is a competition that invites architecture students and recent graduates to think critically about the housing issues facing their generation. The BSA challenged submitters to design housing that they themselves could afford. The submission deadline is March 3.
Following with our round ups of works by categories, this week we bring you a selection of Interiors previously featured in ArchDaily.
With the exhibition “Yes is more”, the Danish Architecture Centre zooms in on BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group. Using unconventional approaches, humour, and international focus, BIG has contributed to the renewal of the Danish architectural tradition.
The results of the 2009 Skyscraper Competition have just been announced by eVolo. The winners are, in first place, Kyu Ho Chun, Kenta Fukunishi, and Jae Young Lee. In second place, Nicola Marchi and Adelaide Marchi. And in third place, Eric Vergne. They were also 15 special mentions. 40 projects will be published in eVolo Magazine.
The AIA Committee on Design (COD) invites architects, students, and allied design professionals to submit sketches to the international 2009 COD Ideas Competition, entitled “Listening to the Past, Looking to the Future: A House for Today.” In this unique sketch competition, submitters are asked to explore the legacy of modernist design, through a concept design problem.
The European Commission and the Mies van der Rohe Foundation has just announced the final five projects that will compete for the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture, the Mies van der Rohe Award 2009. The winning building will be announced in May.
An amazing picture of the CCTV Building devastated by yesterdays fire was published in Gizmodo. Secrecy has sorrounded the whole event, but for now, the official story is that the Mandarin Oriental, located at the top of the building, caught fire from several fireworks set off to celebrate the Lantern Festival.
Last week, we started our round ups of previous works we’ve published in different categories, starting with Libraries and Sports Architecture. This week, we’ll start with our selection on Office Buildings, previously featured on AD:
“Urban China: Informal Cities”, is the latest exhibition to open in the New Museum in New York. The exhibition is a physical manifestation of the magazine Urban China, the only magazine devoted to issues of urbanism published in and about China.
Zaha Hadid is working on her latest project in Italy, in the Mediterranean city of Reggio Calabria. The project includes a museum and a performing arts centre on a sea strait that separates continental Italy from the island of Sicily. The centre will be visible from the Sicilian coast.
An exhibition on the works of German architect Juergen Mayer H., entitled “Patterns of Speculation”, just opened at the SF MoMA. Mayer joins two modes of exhibiting architecture in a gallery – installation and documentation – to present a unique, hybrid environment.
Schoener-Wohnen is holding the HÄUSER-AWARD 2010 in collaboration with Schüco and the Verband Privater Bauherren e.V. (VPB). Prize money of 15,000 euros is at stake. The results of the competition are scheduled for publication in HÄUSER in March 2010. The best projects will also be presented in a book to be published by Callwey Verlag at the same time.
Our dear friends over at CASE have been featured on Archinect´s Working out of the Box, a a series of features presenting architects who have applied their architecture backgrounds to alternative career paths. Personally, I don´t agree with this as I don´t feel that what they do is an “alternative” path, but something that should be into the core of any practice.