Designed by the Austrian architecture office soma for EXPO 2012, the Thematic Pavilion dubbed One Ocean will celebrate it’s grand opening tomorrow (May 11) in Yeosu, South-Korea. Since winning first prize in an open international competition in 2009, One Ocean has captured the attention of the international community with its gill-like kinetic façade and sustainable climate design.
Continue reading after the break for more images and information.
The Garage Center for Contemporary Culture – a non-profit international arts space based in Moscow founded by Daria Zhukova – has unveiled plans for a new building in Gorky Park. Designed by OMA, Garage Gorky Park will renovate the famous 1960s Vremena Goda (Seasons of the Year) restaurant, a prefabricated concrete structure that has been derelict for more than two decades. Garage is expected to complete and occupy this 5,400-square-meter building sometime next year, with plans to later expand to the nearby Hexagon pavilion (or Machine Pavilion).
Rem Koolhaas: “We were able, with our client and her team, to explore the qualities of generosity, dimension, openness, and transparency of the Soviet wreckage and find new uses and interpretations for them; it also enabled us to avoid the exaggeration of standards and scale that is becoming an aspect of contemporary art spaces.”
SADAR + VUGA, in collaboration with LENS°ASS Architecten, has been selected as winner of an invited competition to design three new buildings on the Campus Schoonmeersen of the University College Ghent in Belgium. The campus development master plan will include a new building for the Study of Social Work (SOAG), a Sports Hall Extension and the Renovation of Building B that includes the adjoining Student Plaza. This highly anticipated project is expected to commence in late May. Continue after the break to learn more about each new facility.
Emmen Theatre and Zoo, designed by Henning Larsen Architects and Van den Berg Groep, is an unusual cultural building that brings together culture and nature. The building design, which won the first prize in the international competition, will constitute the entrance to a large zoological park of 10 hectares and comprises two main stages with a capacity of 1,150 people in total, an additional stage, exhibition and conference facilities. The building in itself covers 16,000 m2. More images and architects’ description after the break.
The winning proposal for the Albi Major Theatre, designed by Dominique Perrault Architecture, aims at transforming the texture of the city as well as its cultural influence. Appearing as an outstanding architectural symbol, on the outskirts of the historic center, the architects gave priority to the presence of the Major Theatre instead of the cinemas, in order to organize around it a network of public spaces and of cultural facilities. Therefore, the Major Theatre will be its center. More images and architects’ description after the break.