“Erupting Stability: Tornado Proof Suburb” is a project being developed by Ted Givens, AIA, of 10 Design in Hong Kong. He and his team are researching ways to apply kinetic design to architecture in order to provide safe options for shelter in climatically unsafe environments. The goal is to break free from static ways of building and create a method of using technology that learns from and responds to the environment in a dynamic way. ”Erupting Stability” assesses the forces of tornadoes and high velocity winds, specifically, by the way that he and his team are thinking about architecture opens up a range of possibilities for applications in any disaster scenario.

Join us after the break for more on the project and a video that demonstrates how it works.

Architects: Paz Gersh Architects Location: Ramat hasharon, Israel Architect: Paz Gersh Project Year: 2011 Project Area: 250 sqm Photographs: Amit Giron

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A while ago I was talking to someone about designing a Buddhist temple. I began to think about the subject of sacred spaces: their configuration, their meaning, and most importantly, how people use those spaces to give their religious practice meaning. I realized that designing sacred space is a pretty unique endeavor. And given the nature of commissions these days, the chances that people are unfamiliar with a particular religion is pretty high.

So here’s a hypothetical for you: imagine someone unfamiliar with Christianity has been commissioned to adaptively re-use, say, a building for a Catholic church (L.A is full of such storefront churches). And this person has discovered from an online source that of central importance is the altar and the altar table. But, if that person is not a practitioner, it’s possible that s/he might think, given the limitations of the pre-existing structure, that the altar could be placed in one corner and the altar table in another.

Sounds ludicrous, doesn’t it? Well, something similar was proposed for this Buddhist temple: the altar was placed to the side of the North-South axis. But you can’t place Buddha off to the side. Placing a Chinese Buddhist altar along the North-South axis is of paramount importance. This was, in essence, a big cultural mistake

While perusing the internet, I re-discovered talk about Architect Barbie by Alexandra Lange for Dwell. As part of Mattel’s Barbie I Can Be series, Architect Barbie was added to the company’s list of other arguably atypical professions for women (computer engineer, martial artist, marine biologist, race car driver, etc) in 2011 after partnering with AIA San Francisco. Equipped with a model dream house, hard hat and drawing tube, Mattel boasts that Architect Barbie will empower girls to play out different roles and “try on” fabulous careers. But, this doll was about more than giving young children a new outlet for their imaginations during play time; for, Architect Barbie would serve as a social experiment to generate long term feminine interest in a field where 17% of professionals are women.

More about Architect Barbie after the break.

Architects: Serie Architects Location: London, UK Design Architects: Serie Architects Executive Architects: Franken Architekten Structural Engineering: AKT II Project Year: 2012 Photographs: Edmund Sumner

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Designed by 24° Studio for the Santorini Biennale 2012, Daphne is made entirely of self-supporting paper panels to create an enclosure that intervenes the visitors’ perception of the existing conditions. Their installation, which is being displayed until September 30, achieves this perception as being a container of conglomerated memory as the paper panels age and take their shape accordingly to the local condition. Located within the tunneled stairway, it interplays with the notion of concealing and revealing the ancient interior surfaces of the tunnel leading to the peak of Pyrgos. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Focusing on the relationship between tall buildings and sustainability, the ‘Beyond Green! – Tall Buildings in a Sustainable Future’ international symposium will take place October 10-12 at the University of Stuttgart, Germany. Due to urbanization and land being a fixed commodity, metropolitan areas become denser and can only respond with the typology of tall buildings to satisfy the demand for space. However, with respect to the provision of infrastructure, use of energy, shortage of resources and the demand for ecological compatibility there is the inevitable need to design green and sustainable cities. This seemingly contradicts the typology of tall buildings. The aim of the symposium, hosted by the Institute for Lightweight Structures and Conceptual Design at the university, is to evaluate and investigate in detail the green and sustainable credentials of tall buildings regarding their economy, ecology and functionality. More information on the event after the break.

With the intention of expressing the meaning of the Stock Exchange for the city of Tehran, EBA + VMX Architects aims to combine contemporary with traditional culture to generate a place where all the necessary activities are facilitated, but next to this physical presence there is also a symbolic representation of a distinction from its surroundings. Their project brings balance between the private and public functions and symbolizes the stable future position of the Tehran Stock Exchange. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Architects: Nuno Silva Location: Torreira, Murtosa Project Year: 2011 Photographs: Ivo Tavares Studio

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Architects: 1100 Architect Location: Jamaica, NY, USA Architect In Charge: Juergen Riehm Design Team: Jessica Spiegel, Texer Nam, Chen-Whei Su, Joanna Chen, Sebastian Kaempf, Peter Heller Principal: David Piscuskas, FAIA, LEED AP Project Architects: Heather Braun, RA; Christine Harper, RA Project Captain: Ersela Kripa, RA Project Year: 2011 Photographs: Michael Moran / ottoarchive

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Grimshaw Architects have released submitted a proposal for a major commercial office development planned above the Crossrail station at Paddington in London. The 15-story structure, located at the junction of Bishop’s Bridge Road and the Grand Union Canal, will also provide retail space, a grand colonnade along the canal frontage, and a new entrance to the Hammersmith & City and Circle Line stations below.

Grimshaw Associate Director Declan McCafferty said: “We are delighted to be working once again with Crossrail on what is an exciting and challenging project. We have utilized all of our experience in both the commercial and transport sectors to create a scheme which will provide significant public realm improvements, while integrating the new station entrance and taxi ramp into a coherent and dramatic piece of commercial architecture.”

Continue reading for more.

For Taiwan’s seventh year at the Venice Biennale, the Taiwanese team will present Architect/Geographer – Le Foyer de Taiwan. The exhibition will embody the main theme of the 2012 Venice Architecture Biennale which is “Common Ground”. The aspects of Taiwanese culture and architecture will be presented through the perspective of a geographer as mapping that can uncover a new understanding of Taiwan through international eyes. The team is supervised by the Ministry of Culture, organized by the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, and curated by Ke-Fung Liou. The exhibit will be displayed at Palazzo delle Prigioni.

Follow us after the break for more on the exhibit.

Draw Me a House is an interactive colouring book for children, budding architects and anyone interested in the built environment. Come on a journey across time and around the world. Color in, think about it , doodle and engage with architectural elements from Malian houses to New York skycrapers. Draw a new top on the Chrysler building, design a deluxe doghouse, color in a gargoyle and fix up the Parthenon.

The American Institute of Architects, California Council (AIACC) has announced the 2012 Design Award Recipients. Since 1982, AIACC has recognized excellence in architecture and design through the AIACC Design Awards Program. An esteemed Design Awards jury has selected these award winners out of 300 submittals. Continue after the break to review the projects!

Architects: Rojkind Arquitectos Location: Mexico City, Mexico Architects: Michel Rojkind, Gerardo Salinas Design Team: Alonso de la Fuente Obregón, Rafael Cedillo Sánchez, Phillip Schlauch, Birgit Hammer, Djurdja Milutinovic, Alfredo Hernández Soto, Rodrigo Medina, Juan Manuel Ortuño, David Stalin Vergara, Dolores Robles – Martínez Gómez,Isaac Smeke, Andrea León Project Year: 2012 Photographs: Courtesy of Guido Torres, Rojkind Arquitectos

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So what exactly is BIMx and how can it be used? Graphisoft BIMx is an interactive 3D presentation tool that allows all the stakeholders in a project to have access to the building model, without requiring any specialized BIM skills. BIMx is a game changer that allows for innovation with the types of models created and the presentation/utility of these models.

The Architect, is not a renowned film. We have to admit that there’s not that much unique about it in terms of cinematography. However, for us the plot of this movie is quite relevant. The director uses an specific example, one built utopian residential complex in United States to illustrate the issues that were not considered during design of these uniformity-driven blocks.

Tell us your thoughts about this topic, and what is the kind of responsibility that relies on architects, or on the whole profession of architecture?

Sitting on the brink of a waterfall near Loddgard farm in central Norway, the sauna, designed by Formløs Architecture, is simple and sculptural. As if cut from one piece of wood, the sauna hovers one foot above the ground and stretches out over the water. The idea for the sauna came from a wish to bring festival guests together in an atmosphere where all social constructions from daily life can be forgotten and the opera singer from the capital sits shoulder to shoulder with the local farmer. More images and architects’ description after the break.

The proposal for the National Museum of Afghanistan by Paul Preissner Architects reconsiders the method of the museum, which is dedicated to collections of historic artifacts and archeological evidence of past cultural moments. By allowing for the collection to be endlessly linear, and removing the separations between items in an era, eras in a past, and pasts within a culture, the museum incorporates a significant number of breakthroughs. The architects do so in terms of the architectural design, the notion of a cultural campus and the design thinking on curatorial endeavors, to revolutionize the way a museum works today. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Keeping the material library organized is a difficult task for many architects, let alone keeping it up-to-date with the latest, most innovative materials. Well, today we stumbled on this video, by The Economist, that highlights Andrew Dent, vice-president of Material ConneXion, and his thoughts on the evolution of material science. Material ConneXion has created the world’s largest resource for advanced, innovative and sustainable materials and processes. Their online archive and material libraries, based in seven cities world-wide, feature over 6,500 of the world’s most cutting-edge materials that are all commercially available for use.

Andrew Dent believes Material ConneXion will help bridge the gap between science and design as we move from the “synthetic century” into a “biological century”, where intelligent, nature-inspired materials consume less resources and less energy.

As we reported yesterday, the LEGO Group, the company responsible for everyone’s favorite LEGO bricks, just turned 80. We’ve often talked about LEGO’s major impact on young architects’ development, but few are aware of architecture’s influence on LEGO… so we thought we’d keep the LEGO celebrations going by sharing this cute (if unabashedly cheesy) video on the birth of LEGO.

At a time when sustainability is high on the agenda and construction costs continue to soar, many Cambridge residents are questioning a proposal to demolish a sound and respected school building to replace it with a new school one that will strive to be a “green facility”. The Martin Luther King Elementary School (1968-1971) was designed by Catalan architect Josep Lluis Sert (Sert, Jackson and Associate). As it stands today, the school compliments the many other buildings in Cambridge that Sert worked on while also teaching at Harvard University, including the Peabody Terrace Graduate Housing complex just across the street.

Read on to find out what the community is doing to save the building from demolition and why it can prove to be a more sustainable option for the city.