London: The Latest Architecture and News

Egyptian architect, Ahmed Zayed has shared his design proposal for the 2012 London Olympic Games, a interactive installation along one of the iconic structures of London. Additional images and a brief description after the break.

A few days ago, we shared Visiondivision’s Nature’s Choice – a series of vacation homes that attempt to blend into their unique site placement. The firm just shared their latest competition entry for a hotel room atop a cloud. Presented in a comic strip, the proposal delivers a temporary hotel room to accommodate visitors of the 2012 London Olympic games.

More about the hotel room after the break.

The areas for expansion are either through the current high density processes, which begin to populate flood plains, or to move eastwards denseifying east London breaking through the green belt towards the Thames estuary, where a new second generation London could rise from the waves. The idea is not new, the Thames estuary has been the topic of intense debate through the possibility of building a floating island airport off the coast of Kent, and a nature reserve with a flood gate connecting Essex and Kent in its core via a high speed monorail. These radical approaches cannot be discarded without intense exploration, could the next east London generation be a floating one?

The Victoria and Albert Museum wishes to create a major new gallery with the capacity to deliver its high-profile programme of temporary exhibitions, a new museum entrance and a courtyard to create an informal and inviting relationship with Exhibition Road.

This autumn, the London Design Museum is presenting a major exhibition on John Pawson. Often labelled a ‘minimalist’, he is known for his rigorous process of design. By reducing and editing he creates architecture and product designs of visual clarity, simplicity and grace.

Marco Zanta shared with us some photographs of the exhibition you can visit until January 30, 2011.

Italy-based NOVAE Architecture shared with us their project “0°01’ W Network in motion”, their proposal for a competition to design an adaptable floating gallery in London, UK. More images and architect’s description after the break.

Renzo Piano’s Shard is quickly climbing up London’s skyline. The 1,016 ft high skyscraper will provide the mixed use density the city needs, as it incorporates apartments, office space, a spa, hotel and restaurants within its sleek pyramidal form. Inspired by perhaps a ship’s mast from the Pool of London, or a modern take on the church spire, the Shard will become a prominent fixture in the skyline as it nears it completion. Check out these images illustrating the Shard’s progress – the crisp aesthetic commonly found in Piano’s projects is becoming evident as the low-iron glazing is applied to the structure.

More images after the break.

This summer, the V&A has commissioned seven architects at the forefront of experimental design to create their first built structures in the UK (see Rintala Eggertsson Architects’ structure here). The structures are installed in a number of locations across the landscape of the Museum and are designed as immersive spaces – places both of encounter and reflection – where visitors can escape the chaos of everyday life and directly experience the architecture first hand. 19 architects were originally invited to submit proposals, the designs and models of which are on display in the V&A+RIBA Architecture Gallery.

A space for theatre and performance that fragments the stage into six micro-stages, Vazio S/A created a series of inter-connected booths set around a central spiral staircase in the V&A’s Porter Gallery. The structure takes as its inspiration elevated dwelling spaces in high-density areas in Brazil. A number of practitioners from London working across theatre, dance and music were commissioned to devise new pieces of work in response to the structure, to be performed in the six booths at various points during the exhibition.

See more images after the break.

The Architecture Foundation is pleased to announce the launch of an open international competition to design a permanent yet flexible, free standing group of kiosks in Meridian Square, Stratford, London, for use before, during and after the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The Bartlett’s BSc degree programme aims to develop a creative, diverse and rigorous approach to architecture and design from the outset. Year 1 is centred on the design studio and is taught to the year as a whole. Students observe, draw, model and design, based in the School’s design studios and workshop from the first week onwards.

You can now see three videos of the Year 1 program, including a sketchfilm by Brook Lin, who sketched for 13 hours, transformed in a 10 minute film. For more information click here. See the other two videos after the break.