Together with the surrounding Design Museum and the Museum of Finnish Architecture, the Pavilion is the heart of the World Design Capital Helsinki 2012. An open and easy to approach building designed by Aalto University Wood Studio students and specialists, their design enables the organization and integration of many types of functions and events through its physical shape and function. The pavilion, which will be open until September 16, offers free of charge program and recreation for everyone during the 105 days it will be open. More images and project description after the break.
The 13th Venice Architecture Biennale is about to start, opening to the public on August 29th. ArchDaily is already in Venice preparing our intensive coverage during the press preview starting Sunday. On this video by the Biennale you can see a small part of the team’s efforts preparing this fascinating event.
More photos of the upcoming exhibits at the Giardini below:
Designed by Aleph Zero + Juliano Monteiro, the dobrar Memorial is a space composed by reflective elements which is therefore a cloudy limited space: in, out, far and near, front, back, unique, multiple, real reflection. An important element of the project is one that activates and gives meaning to the objects: the user / observer. Unlike a mere passive spectator, is the observer who composes the piece through its position and its motion in space. Such movement is yet ‘reflected’ by objects that “dance” as the passage of passersby and accuses them of being they, too, actors in a multiple reality, dynamic and interconnected. More images and architects’ description after the break.
The ‘Clopen’ shelf panel, designed by Torafu Architects, is constructed from elaborate aluminum parts, and at 34mm thick, it looks as if it’s made of natural wood. Attaching sliced veneer to a thin structure, they made space between two boards which can be opened using magnetic keys. When pulled, a secret 23mm thick drawer appears, which is of minimal thickness to store your valuables such as stamps and passbooks. More images of their product after the break.
The 2012–13 season at the Yale School of Architecture Gallery opened on August 20 with Palladio Virtuel. The exhibition, which is on view until October 27, presents a groundbreaking new analysis of the work of Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio by Peter Eisenman, renowned New York architect and Charles Gwathmey, Professor in Practice at Yale. It represents the culmination of ten years of study of Palladio’s villas by Eisenman, adding an important contribution to the sixteenth-century master’s already robust legacy. The exhibition proposes a reading of the buildings that undermines the traditional view of Palladio’s architecture as founded on ideal forms. For more information, please visit here. More images and information on the exhibition after the break.
Russia’s leading creative think tank, Strelka Institute, is hosting a series of discussions with preeminent voices in architecture and urban design in the pre-opening days of the 2012 Venice Architecture Biennale. Inspired by the Biennale’s theme of Common Ground, the conversations will focus on how architecture and design can drive the physical, social and economic regeneration of urban environments. Using Russian cities as a starting point, the talks will explore wider issues in urban design around global metropoles. Featured speakers include OMA’s Reinier de Graaf, Teddy Cruz, Stefano Boeri, and more.
The discussions will take place on August 27 and 28 at the Strelka Palazzo. All events are free to attend, but space is limited. Please email venice@strelka.com to reserve a seat.
For the first time ever, Design Onscreen – the Initiative for Architecture and Design on Film – will present the Design Onscreen Film Festival at the Venice Architecture Biennale, August 27 through the 29th at the Arsenale’s Teatro Piccolo. All sixteen screenings are free and open to the public and most will be followed by dynamic in-person discussions and audience Q&As, featuring top architects and design experts from around the globe, including Lord Norman Foster, Peter Eisenman, Rick Joy, Steven Holl, Vittorio Garatti, Deyan Sudjic (Director, Design Museum London), Barry Bergdoll (Chief Curator of Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art); Moshen Mostafavi (Dean, Harvard Graduate School of Design), Mark Wigley (Dean, Columbia Univ. School of Architecture), and David Chipperfield (Curator and Director of the 13th Annual International Architecture Exhibition, Venice Biennale).
Continue after the break for trailers and more information.
Join the authors and editors of Lars Müller Publishers for a rare book signing opportunity with architects Wang Shu, Sou Fujimoto, and Steven Hollon August 28th at the 2012 Venice Architecture Biennale! This event will kick off the exhibition Lars Müller Publishers – Book Fever, which will feature sixty publications – new releases, bestsellers, milestones from the past, and rare treasures – for the public to explore.
Founded thirty years ago, Lars Müller Publishers’ carefully edited and designed publications on architecture, design, and contemporary art has lead them to become a renowned international publisher. One milestone you may remember was their release of Peter Zumthor’s Works (1998), which was the first survey of the oeuvre of the architect now known worldwide that set new standards for the monograph as a book genre.
Continue after the break for more details on the book signing and exhibition.
Last week, thanks to the courtesy of Cicada Books, we gave you the chance to win three copies of: ‘Draw Me a House‘. To participate, we asked you to answer the following question:
As reported by David W Dunlap for the NYTimes, the safety-restoration applied to Philip Johnson and Richard Foster’s Elmer Holmes Bobst Library on the NYU campus near Washington Square is close to completion. While the library, which was constructed in the early 1970s, remains intact, the tremendous atrium space – a soaring 150 ft void – is proving to be more of a safety hazard than the magnificent architectural experience the architects intended. Since 2003, the library has been marred by claiming the lives of three students who leaped to their deaths (even after the university installed 8ft polycarbonate barriers). Charged with the task of eliminating the possibility for such a future occurrence, Joel Sanders Architectresponded with a perforated alumium screen that completely walls off the atrium from the library’s levels.
Architects: Askim/Lantto Architects Location: The Edøy Island, Smøla, Norway Project Leader: Niels Marius Askim Project Year: 2008 Photographs: Courtesy of Kvernberget Print og Reklame AS, Niels Marius Askim, Bjarne Ytrøy
I spent much of the nineties living in Tokyo, but it wasn’t until I had left that Ryuichi Sakamoto’s(1) music began to inform me about its complex environments.
His album, somewhat ironically (I think) titled BTTB, or, Back to the Basics, came out way back in 1999. Though post-dating my Tokyo Period, it sonically completed my memories of that city. Having leapt through time, it resolved my incomplete Tokyo soundtrack.
BTTB tries to be minimal, but, like the city it came from, struggles with complexity(2). Its opulent density made it seem like the piano had been miked on the inside, my ear forced down to the machinery of strings. The tension between richness and absence I perceived reminded me of trying to find my way in and around all of Tokyo’s jumbled systems.
Taking place October 6, Woodbury University in Burbank, CA is hosting the Advancing Sustainability 2012 Business + Design Symposium that focuses on the “cardiovascular system” of a city—its infrastructure. The discussion will investigate how various infrastructures—providers of core operational supply (transportation systems, energy and water supply, communications, built environment)—perform, exchange, and are incorporated into the natural environment. The discussion will address the extent of their influence on lifestyle and the overall dynamics of the city, as well as their management and opportunities for advancement. The event will curate a conversation amongst the most innovative minds within the fields of architecture, urban planning, landscape architecture, engineering, and design to investigate the potential of sustainability within lifestyles and soft infrastructures. For more information, please visit here.
The Greek pavilion for the 2012 Venice Biennale will focus on the particular dynamics of Athens during a period of economic meltdown by addressing the deterioration of Athenian urban space, plummeting standards of living, and the need to redefine the priorities of architectural design. Architects and creative groups have already begun to shape a new “common ground” within Athens. With the exhibition “Made in Athens”, the Greek pavilion aims highlight these positive forces emerging during this crucial present moment in an effort to foreshadow a better future for the city and its architecture.
Continue after the break to learn more about “Made in Athens”.
By invitation of Director David Chipperfield, MVRDV and The Why Factorywill participate in the 2012 Venice Biennale. The main contribution consists of the collaborative project ‘Freeland’ forming part of the single exhibition in the Central Pavilion at the Giardini. Further contribution is made by Winy Maas and The Why Factory with ‘Porous City’ to the EU CITY Program, initiated by the European Forum for Architectural Policies (EFAP) representing Europe for the first time at the Venice Architecture Biennale.
More details on the two exhibitions after the break.
99% Invisible is, by far, our favorite radio show on architecture and design. Although, granted, there aren’t that many. As Roman Mars, the show’s host and producer, admits: ”since these are disciplines usually appreciated through the eye, you might be thinking: well, that’s the stupidest idea I’ve ever heard. Fair enough. It turns out , I don’t need pictures to talk about design, I like making stories that tell us about who we are through the lens of the things we build.”
Despite being an auditory medium (and a low-budget project, sponsored by KALW and AIA San Francisco, but produced in Mars’ garage), the show works because it gets to the heart of any design project: its story.
Well, it turns out we’re not the only ones into Mars’ quirky approach (Aside: if you are too, stay tuned, we’ll be interviewing him for our Disruptive Minds series next week). After launching a modest Kickstarter campaign to help offset costs, a goal promptly smashed in 24 hours, Mars upped the ante. But not to a price tag. Rather, he wanted a show of support. 5,000 backers.
The results for this little-show-that-could were nothing short of extraordinary.
In celebration of the Nordic Pavilion’s fiftieth anniversary, thirty-two architects born after the year 1962 have been invited to present a model of a conceptual “house” that reflects their personal philosophy of architecture at the 2012 Venice Biennale exhibition “Light Houses: On the Nordic Common Ground”. Eleven architects from Finland and Sweden, along with ten architects from Norway will each respond to the sobering economic constraints and diminishing environmental resources that challenge architects today.
Contemporary Nordic architectural culture offers both exemplary approaches and significant constructed works addressing these challenging circumstances. The classic hallmarks of Nordic architecture – simplified form, frugal use of materials and sensitive treatment of daylight and the natural setting – embody the basic principles of responsible, sustainable architecture.
![[DES]dobrar Memorial / Aleph Zero + Juliano Monteiro - Image 19 of 4](https://images.adsttc.com/media/images/55e8/9690/6c9d/b5b8/8400/007d/medium_jpg/desdobrar10.jpg?1441306238)
