Designed by United Design Group (UDG China), their proposal for the Contemporary Art Museum faces the main artery crossing the city of Jinan east to west. With the ambition to become the landmark of this urban sector, the first step of the process was to establish a relationship with the existing buildings; the main idea was to complete the sequence of boxes, maintaining the symmetry of the system. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Designed by NAAU for the Australian ‘Transiting Cities’ competition, their Cultured Landscape proposal examines generative strategies for re-purposing the region, which is currently a center of brown coal fired power production, into a center of clean energy research and development, sustainable agriculture and eco-tourism. Drawing on an analysis of the existing agglomeration of towns, roads, infrastructure, and social and cultural sites, the project is configured around a generative network that will act as a growth structure for the future development of the region. More images and architects’ description after the break.
The design proposal for NAAS Springs, a well-known wellness center and place of relaxation in Beirut, is formed by a series of walls projecting into nature. They alternate between large living spaces with roofs for residences and uncovered elongated spaces for the passages, which form an extension of nature. Designed by Hapsitus Architects, the architectural landscape is created in the spirit of water following down a sloped terrain. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Inspired by the school’s strong community spirit, C.F. Møller Architects’ first prize winning design for University of Southern Denmark’s student housing project includes 250 student residences that are located in three interconnected 14-storey buildings. This means that the residence has no front or back, but appears attractive from a 360-degree perspective. The building’s distinctive shape will make it easily recognizable on the campus, and clearly advertises its distinct residential content. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Inspired by the desert landscape, the design of Rock Stadium by MZ Architects celebrates the game it hosts as much as it celebrates the site in which it lays. Sunken 200,000sqm into the cooler depth of the desert sand, the Rock Stadium, like a hidden treasure, presents itself to the visitor as a series of sharply inclined planes emerging from the ground. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Entering their fifth cycle of the WDC (World Design Capital) initiative, Icsid (International Council of Societies of Industrial Design) is currently calling for submissions of applications for the biennial designation, where a combination of many factors contributes to the final selection. Although applicants are encouraged to prepare a creative proposal for review, it is essential, that applications clearly define the aims and objectives of the city to hold the designation, as well as provide a detailed account of the city’s contribution to design from a social, economical and cultural point of view. More information after the break.
Austrian architectural office AllesWirdGut were recently commissioned to build the corporate headquarters of the international WAZ Media Group at their corporate home base in Essen, Germany. With a gross floor area of 36,000 sqm, the architects create a landmark and sustainable business model as shown in their future-oriented concept. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Phil Bernstein is a Vice President at Autodesk and teaches at Yale (see our interview with him here). This post, originally published in 2011 on his blog as "Winter Commencement," offers timeless advice for architecture students about to enter the job market.
As December now rolls around it's the eve of my last lecture in my professional practice class at Yale. Although I've been teaching for almost twenty-five years, I still can't believe how quickly the semester accelerates into Thanksgiving, and suddenly it's all over but the shouting (or, in our case, final projects and juries). About the same time as the term slammed to a closed I received a note from a student at Prarie View A&M, asking many of the existential questions that must be facing architecture students nearing their degrees. Seemed like a good time to speculate a bit about that future, and what this year's graduates might be facing as they confront the job market in the spring, with enough time between now and then to contemplate their options and plot their strategies, so here goes:
Read on to find out Phil Bernstein's 5 tips for future grads, after the break...
modeLab‘s upcoming webinar, Dynamic Behaviors in Processing, focuses on developing rich and responsive behaviors from scratch – think of bouncing balls, particle systems, or flocking boids – can be tricky without an object-oriented approach to our program design. Through a series of short presentations and “live” exercises, which takes place January 25 from 2:00pm-4:30pm EST, you will learn how to successfully structure and implement classes in Processing to create fun and dynamic object behaviors. To register, and for more information, please visit here.
Open now until February 21, the Atlas of an Irish City exhibition, hosted by the Irish Architecture Foundation at the Oonagh Young Gallery in Dublin, features an architectural survey of Galway and design projects that explore new ways to think about the future of the city by students of Studio Tom Emerson at the ETH Zurich. The exhibition is free and open to the public Wednesday-Friday 12pm-6pm. For more information, please visit here.
By Design is a two-day inaugural event taking place January 25-26 that aims to build a platform of innovation by engaging key stakeholders through the creative process. The event includes a speaker series and a design challenge at the newly constructed Harvard Innovation Lab, Harvard Business School, and the Graduate School of Design. With a focus to reframe the future of education, the model and structure of the conference allows participants to unpack tacit, hidden, and evident knowledge from each corner of the university, through simple yet uncommon dialogue between each school. More information after the break.
As part of Ajman University of Science & Technology‘s series of architecture workshops by architects and designers, Emilio Ambasz will be presenting the ‘Towards Green Buildings/Architecture for UAE?’ workshop. The event will take place at the Ajman University February 4-10. To register and for more information, please feel free to contact the workshop coordinator: Dr. Jihad Awad: Dr_jihadaa@yahoo.com, j.awad@ajman.ac.ae.
Opportunity. Challenge. Innovation. These words form the backbone of RMIT University (Melbourne Institute of Technology University) in Australia. Too often, architecture schools become enamored of the aesthetics in the field to the detriment of all else. Not so at RMIT. Here, the approach is an ideal combination of meaningful research with design solutions. The architecture program achieves this by teaching design skills based in their practical application and framed by social idealism and cross-disciplinary training.
Taking place January 23rd from 2:00pm-7:oopm EST, the Reyner Banham Symposium, ‘On Error’, focuses on how error can be many things. In its most common display, however, it is something we are taught to avoid. It is often characterized by mannerisms that were once trends but are now condemned or qualified by a lack of command over formal logic, material tolerances, construction techniques, and space planning, to name but a few. The accepted belief is that by avoiding error we promote progress. It seems only fitting to surrender to this logic as it is much easier to agree on what constitutes a mistake than it is to admit to a measure of success. The event is organized by the University at Buffalo School of Architecture and Planning and will be held at the Darwin Martin House’s Greatbatch Pavilion. For more information, please visit here.
Wilmotte & Associés recently won the competition to design the 2018 FIFA World Cup Stadium in Kaliningra, Russia. Their design features an urban facade that wraps the stadium, consisting of a series of orthogonal screens that respond to the surrounding urban context. The project will be constructed from a primary steel structure, but the upper tier of the stadium will be temporary. The stadium has been designed so that after the tournament completes in 2018, the stands can be dismantled and the upper canopy can be removed. Construction of the 45,000 seat football stadium will begin in 2014. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Seen as geologic formations rising from the land, the design for the KAFD Men’s and Women’s Portal Spas by WORKSBUREAU form great shade porticos beneath long cantilevered masses. Located in two of the civic Attractor beacons of the dense urban King Abdullah Financial District of Riyadh, the project also forms the gateway to the masterplan, framing the main park as it flows into the Wadi pedestrian artery. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Recently destroyed by the 2010 Earthquake, Port-au-Prince’s new design for the National Cathedral is presented as an absolute plain wall of concrete which expresses the true character of the construction. Designed by NC-Office, the concrete material is not only structurally appropriate, but it also produces a somber cool space that absorbs light – forming an architecture of shadows. More images and architects’ description after the break.
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American author Robert Greene has shared with us an excerpt about the work of Santiago Calatrava from his newly released book Mastery.
We live in the world of a sad separation that began some five hundred years ago when art and science split apart. Scientists and technicians live in their own world, focusing mostly on the “how” of things. Others live in the world of appearances, using these things but not really understanding how they function. Just before this split occurred, it was the ideal of the Renaissance to combine these two forms of knowledge. This is why the work of Leonardo da Vinci continues to fascinate us, and why the Renaissance remains an ideal.
So why did Santiago Calatrava, now one of the world’s elite architects, decide to return to school in 1975 for a civil engineering degree after asserting himself as a promising young architect?
Continue reading for the complete article.
Now in its fifth year, the DawnTown Design/Build competition announced that the international collaboration between Manuel Clavel-Rojo (Murcia, Spain) and Jacob Brillhart (Miami, FL) has been tasked to present their design to the public in the next 30 days. With the challenge of creatiung a low cost, temporary installation on the topic of Evolution in Miami, their winning design will be turned into a reality. ‘Up-Downtown’, the title of the project, is defined by Rojo defines as a metaphor for Miami, “A city is a complex machine, where everything is interconnected and any movement affects the other.” More images and architects’ description after the break.
NACO, its Saudi Arabian branch SADECO, and global architect HOK were just awarded the contract to design the expansion of King Khaled International Airport (KKIA) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The design consists of the expansion of the existing terminals 3 and 4, which will enable the airport to handle 20-25 million passengers per year. Currently, the 30-year-old airport is handling approximately 15 million passengers annually. NACO, Netherlands Airport Consultants, a Royal HaskoningDHV company, and HOK will lead the design team for this prestigious project. More architects’ description and their press release after the break.
Confronted with an original form of the pyramid, the shape of the Operlab Theatre Pavilion proposal, designed by UGO Architecture and Design, is the result of a consistent analysis of the building of the Grand Theatre. The character and function of a row of interior spaces, including the entrance, auditorium, and stage, finds its reflection in the arrangement of forms composing the body of the building. The pavilion then becomes a repetition of this arrangement and gives it additional meaning. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Slums, shanty-towns, favelas - they are all products of an exploding migration from rural to urban areas. Over the last half century, people living in or near metropolises has risen in proportion to the global population. Migrations from rural areas to urban areas have grown exponentially as cities have developed into hubs of economic activity and job growth promising new opportunities for social mobility and education. Yet, with all these perceptions holding fast, many people who choose to migrate find themselves in the difficult circumstances of integrating into an environment without the proper resources to accommodate the growing population. Cities, for example, like Mumbai, India's largest city and 11th on the list as of 2012 with a population of an estimated 20.5 million. According to a New York Times article from 2011, about 60% of that number live in the makeshift dwellings that now occupy lucrative land for Mumbai's developers.
More to come after the break.
Designed by Studio Alfirevic, their proposal for the Operalab Theatre Pavilion competition represents ‘live’ theater, in which different performances and experiments take place in the field of art. The suggested position of the pavilion is in the fringe area of the park, in the direct vicinity of the building of the Great Theater. The circular form of the pavilion is a subtle response to the conditions of the natural environment and it allows an equal visual experience from all sides. More images and architects’ description after the break.