VAUMM shared with us their first prize winning proposal in the competition for the remodeling of Molinao Park and the location of a covered and open fronton in Spain. Their design pretends to be the continuity of the park situated along the riverside and the eastern end of the town to the highway and Don Bosco slope. The fronton (sports space) is situated at the southern end of the park, next to the pedestrian access from the Oarso street bridge, so that releases the largest area of the open space to the north, near the train viaduct and the possible accesses through it to create a space which allows the use of it with temporary uses. More images and architects’ description after the break.
As the winner of ‘Environmental Quality Mention’, the proposed scheme for the HOf – Horizontal Farm International Ideas Competition is conceived of an intricate weave of the ‘farm’ and the ‘dwelling’. Drawing from the traditional Indian courtyard typology, the project, designed by ETT Architecture, enables community living (and farming) through a modular, scalable model that offers residents the benefits of low purchase cost, flexibility to expand as per means, and the potential of skill development and employment through self-build. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Authoring: Re-placing Art and Architecture challenges traditional assumptions about the relationship between art and architecture. From 2008 through 2010, David Adjaye, along with Marc McQuade, taught three studios at the Princeton School of Architecture. Each studio focused on a collaboration with three distinguished artists—Matthew Ritchie, Teresita Fernández, and Jorge Pardo—on interventions in three vastly different sites: the state of New Jersey, the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn, and the city of Mérida in Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula.
The government of Turkey is considering the possibility of constructing a second canal in Istanbul that would result in carving out one billion cubic meters of soil from Turkey’s main land. In response, Turkish developer Serdar Inan has commissioned New York designer Dror Benshetrit to design a proposal that would reconstitute the soil into an innovative, net-positive community for 300,000 residents off the shore of Istanbul. Inan’s only wish is that the proposal blends “innovative design ideas, state of the art technology and cultural legacy with inspirations from the work of chief Ottoman architect Mimar Sinan”.
After six months of exploratory, interdisciplinary discourse with a team of experts – such as the Buckminster Fuller Institute, Buro Happold, Shoji Sadao from Fuller, Sadao & Zung Architects – Dror has unveiled his radical vision this weekend at Istanbul Design Week. Check it out after the break.
Foster + Partners has broke ground on the Hongqiao Vantone SunnyWorld Centre, new dynamic mixed-use community centered on a four-hectare public park in the heart of Shanghai Hongqiao CBD. The large-scale urban plan that extends from Shanghai’s main station and brings together highly efficient, flexible office buildings, animated at ground level by shops, restaurants and a range of new civic spaces.
Today, the Southbank Centre announced its appointment of Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios (FCBS) as lead architect to refurbish and renew the Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room and Hayward Gallery complex. The UK-practice beat OMA, Heneghan Peng, Allies & Morrison, Eric Parry, van Heyningen & Haward and Grimshaw Architects to the job (see shortlist here). A formal appointment will be made after the statutory 10-day standstill period in accordance with EU regulations.
Rick Mather, Southbank Centre’s Masterplan Architect and a member of the selection panel, said: “We heard a huge amount of high quality and serious thinking demonstrating six quite different approaches to this part of the site. Feilden Clegg Bradley Studio’s proposals won because they best understood the Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room and Hayward Gallery complex and how it can be enjoyed and used more effectively. I look forward to seeing their designs develop over the coming months.”
Visionary architect, MacArthur Fellow and National Academician Jeanne Gang joins Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and architecture critic Paul Goldberger as part of the Academy’s annual Architects in Conversation series. Together they will discuss Studio Gang’s past, present, and future projects, as well as Gang’s role within the important architectural tradition of Chicago. The talk will be on Wednesday, October 3, 2012, at 6:30pm at the National Academy Museum. For tickets and for more information, please visit here.
After publishing our 10 Best Apps For Architects, getting your comments, and then polling your votes on Facebook, we are finally ready to introduce our new (and improved) list: The 4 Apps every architect should download now! And we mean now. Trust us.
Find out the 4 contenders who stood out from the pack (and a full list of other awesome Apps) – after the break…
We are happy to share on the beginning of this working week that the Architecture Billings Index has moved into positive territory for the first time in five months! The drastic three-point leap has launched the ABI to 50.2, up from last month’s 48.4, and the new project inquiry index moved to 57.2, up from mark of 56.3. As we have reported previously, the ABI is our profession’s economic indicator and any score above 50 indicates an increase in billings. Regionally, the South leads with 52.2, followed by the West with 51.2, Northeast at 45.5, and Midwest at 45.3. In terms of architectural sectors, multi-family residential and institutional place above 50 while institutional, commercial/industrial, and mixed practice all remain above 46. “Until the economy is on firmer ground, there aren’t likely to be strong increases in demand for design services,” said AIA Chief Economist, Kermit Baker, PhD, Hon. AIA. “In the meantime, we can expect to see design activity alternate between modest growth and modest decline.”
Architects: Pitagoras Group Location: Guimarães, Portugal Design Team: Fernando Sá, Raul Roque, Alexandre Lima, Manuel Roque Project Year: 2012 Photographs: Jose Campos
A huge creative and technical challenge was recently undertaken by Moment Factory. They were invited by the City of Barcelona and the City of Montreal to create the first sound and light spectacle to be projected on the complex façade of the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona. This 15 minute-long multimedia show, using video mapping techniques and their X-Agora playback system, was presented within La Mercè Festival in Barcelona this weekend. The inspiration: to realize Antonio Gaudi’s dream. The architect wished for the façade to be full of colors.
Design Museum Boston recently announced the call for entries for Street Seats Design Challenge — an international outdoor furniture design challenge that will culminate in new waterfront seating, an outdoor design exhibition, and a walking tour around the channel. The Fort Point Channel links the waterfronts of downtown and South Boston – the seam between the Financial District and the emerging Boston Innovation District. o=Open to local and international artists, designers, and enthusiasts, Street Seats falls into the stated goals for the Fort Point Channel Watersheet Activation Plan, a 2002 vision to establish the Fort Point Channel as the next great (public) place in the City of Boston. Submissions are due no later than February 1. For more information, please visit here.
Designed by Urban Playground, the ‘Lighthouse for the Dutchman’ project was proposed for the chapel at the entry of the Los Dutchman State Park in Phoenix, Arizona. Through a rearrangement of an embryological, mathematical reference known as “Shrek’s Surface”, spatial varieties are derived as a way to alter the combined experiences of both the spiritual and natural environment in the Arizona desert. The prototypical, curved surface is morphed and manipulated, creating contextual and functional relationships that are then translated into a series of parameters for the building’s morphology. More images and architects’ description after the break.
The Small Project Practitioners (SPP) Knowledge Community presents the ninth annual Small Project Award Program to recognize the work of small project practitioners and to promote excellence in small project design. This Award Program strives to raise public awareness of the value and design excellence that architects bring to all project types, including renovations and additions, no matter the limits of size and budget.
The Junk King – Vince Hannemann - has spent much of his life constructing the Cathedral of Junk in Austin, TX. In 2010, the City of Austin requested a building permit and Vince was forced to tear down nearly half of his creation. Despite this traumatic event and with the help of many supporters, Vince was still able to keep the Cathedral alive and continue its legacy.
Designed by Tokamarch Architects, the XishuangbanNa Residence deals mainly with the relationship between the modern building and local natural environment. The traditional “Dai” village keeps a great balance with the natural environment in XiShuangBanNa. The boundary of every family is divided by bamboo fences or green plants. Luxuriant and multi-layered primitive woods have brought people a green and lively village, The relationship between the living space and the natural environment is in a harmonous compatible symbiosis. More images and architects’ description after the break.
The RA-50 proposal for the HOME Competition, designed by in situ studio and David Hill, AIA, focuses on building density through alleyway living. By assessing each existing residential parcel in the city of Raleigh, it was apparent that most downtown parcels are larger than the current zoning requirements and will be even larger proportionally once the new UDO is ratified. Therefore, their proposal establishes a new zone within the UDO – alley residential, or RA-50. This new zone would be allowed in any block that is bisected by an existing or potential alleyway and where lots backing up to the alleyways have a surplus of land to shave away and form new, smaller lots that could front the alleyway. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Open to everyone, OUTR (Office of Urban Transformations Research), along with RMIT University School of Architecture and Design, just announced the release of Transiting Cities International Open Design Ideas Competition. How can we rethink, regenerate, rebrand, rework, reactivate cities dominated by singular economies for a vibrant and innovative future? Designing Possible Futures for growth and adaptation of rehabilitated mines, associated infrastructures and the townships that are dependent on their futures. Integrated social, economic, environmental and infrastructural design outcomes. Produce intelligent innovative short and long-term transition strategies for an adaptive and vibrant regional center. Submissions are due November 30. More information on the competition after the break.
Taking place until October 17th, the Academy of Architecture in Amsterdam is exhibiting ‘OJO – From Solid to Air’ which showcases a selection of the work of the architectural practice Office Jarrik Ouburg. The exhibit can be visited Monday-Friday from 9am-11pm and The address of the Academy is Waterlooplein 211-213 in Amsterdam.
