Architects: Duch-Piza Arquitectos Location: Mexico City, Mexico Technical Architects: Oscar Menendez Vinent Partner Architect: C. Hernández Project Year: 2009 Photographs: Jaime Sicilia

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The relationship between social dynamics and architecture has always been intimate. It is a constant dialogue between social norms and politics, stylistic trends and aesthetic choices, individual preferences and the collective good. The Modernist Period was a time when architecture took on the challenge of many social problems. In all the arts – architecture, design, music and film – the period was highly politicized and the choices often gave way to a utilitarian ideal that was a hybrid of efficiency, simplicity and comfort. Jake Gorst’s new film Modern Tide: Midcentury Architecture on Long Island, supported by Design Onscreen, is a message of preservation that takes us through the history of the modernist housing boom that took place on Long Island, NY in the period between the Great Depression and the 1970s.

On August 14th, Cook+Fox Architects hosted a private film screening at their office on 641 Ave of the Americas, presenting the treasures along the island’s shore that have fallen between the cracks of history. The film looks at works from Albert Frey, Wallace Harrison, Frank Lloyd Wright, Marcel Breuer, Philip Johnson, Charles Gwathmey, Barbara and Julian Neski and many others.

Follow us after the break to catch up on the history of the development of these houses on Long Island.

Founded 30 years’ ago by one of Taiwan’s most respected architects, J. J. Pan & Partners has been steadfastly pursuing its vision of creating lasting, beautiful architecture that is appropriate to its role, harmonious with its time and place, and that best expresses the cultural, social and technological environment. A must have companion to the original J.J. Pan and Partners title, this publication is fully illustrated with photographs and plans of J.J. Pan’s most interesting projects.

Design Corps, the Social Economic Environmental Design® (SEED) Network, and their 2013 partner, the University of Minnesota College of Design, are pleased to announce the Third Annual SEED Awards for Excellence in Public Interest Design.

Thanks to the courtesy of Cicada Books, we are giving you the chance to win this amazing and entertaining book: Draw Me a House (see our review here). We have 3 copies of the book and all you have to do to participate is become a registered user (if you’re not one already) and answer the following question in our comments:

Staten Island, arguably New York’s most often forgotten borough, may finally be getting its moment in the spotlight. Talks are in the works of creating a giant 600 ft Ferris wheel near the Staten Island Ferry Terminal to generate activity for the waterfront. To put 600 feet in perspective, think bigger than the Singapore Flyer at 451 feet and the London Eye’s 450 ft marker, and much bigger than Coney Island’s Wonder Wheel at 150 feet. While millions enjoy the free trip across the harbor on the ferry every year, few venture far from the boat. The Ferris Wheel is intended to capitalize on the Island’s amazing views of Manhattan and build up the Island’s visitor flow. “It’s the greatest thing that has been proposed for Staten Island, especially on the waterfront. This could landmark us. We have 2 million tourists a year on the ferry, so we have a built-in audience to use it, and it’s a different audience every day. Once you can attract them off that boat, you got them here,” James Molinaro, the borough president, stated.

More after the break. 

A project funded by the city of Bat-Yam, the abandoned Riviera nightclub on the beach of Bat-Yam, south of Tel-Aviv, has been turned into a seaside art gallery and artist colony. Designed by Derman Verbakel Architecture, the 1,200 square meter grid of concrete columns and beams, which had been the décor for a lively night scene in 1950s and 60s, was reconverted within only a few weeks last summer. This project then became a space for artists to live and create on-site art inside and outside the gallery. More images and architects’ description after the break.

The Non-Linear Lab, a two-day workshop by modeLab September 8-9, will focus on growth systems, parametric detailing, and digital fabrication. This lab is the next installment in their coLAB series and is the result of collaborative research undertaken by Skylar Tibbits [SJET + Previous coLAB Instructor] and Ronnie Parsons + Gil Akos . In a fast-paced and hands-on learning environment, they will cover fundamental concepts of programming and parametric design as well as an introduction to laser cutting constraints and best practices. Emphasis will be placed on iterative prototyping, allowing for a thorough investigation of a series of growth, unit, and detailing scripts while working directly with their CNC equipment. For more information, please visit here.

Architects: ART & BUILD ARCHITECT Location: Strasbourg, France Project Area: 800 sqm Photographs: Courtesy of Art&Build

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Designed by ANMA to act as a natural machine, the new headquarters of the Ministry of Defense, located in southwestern Paris, includes a health center, restaurants, media and sport centers as well as a crèche. This complex structure, designed around the strictest security requirements, is the largest public building to be built in France for 20 years. The structure aims to present an image of the armed forces, not only as a protective force, but a strong and stately force as well. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Architects: Alejandro Beautell Location: La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain Project Year: 2012 Project Area: 207.46 sqm Photographs: Efraín Pintos

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Architects: Florian Busch Architects Location: Kisami, Shizuoka, Japan Design Team: Florian Busch, Sachiko Miyazaki, Seiko Yuki, Tomoyuki Sudo, Holger Pausch (intern) Project Year: 2011 Photographs: Florian Busch Architects, Hiroyasu Sakaguchi (AtoZ)

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The social issues of today has changed the course of architecture. Once “good” architecture spawned from untouched sites and endless budgets; now, the trend is shifting more towards affordable and sustainable alternatives, such as adaptive reuse. As the epidemic of vacant buildings continues to flourish, the creators of the Dutch pavilion for the 2012 Venice Biennale continuously work to evolve their understanding of these desolate spaces and offer an array of possibilities that can successfully reanimate them.

Curated by Ole Bouman, Director of the Netherlands Architecture Insitute (NAi), the Dutch exhibition Re-set, Inside Outside / Petra Blaisse will remain in constant flux as a “mobile, tactile intervention” visually transforms the 1954 vacant building of the Dutch pavilion throughout the entire length of the Biennale.

Continue reading to learn more.

It’s time for another Flickr Round Up! Remember you can submit your own photo here, and don’t forget to follow us through Twitter and our Facebook Fan Page to find many more features.

The photo above was taken by Rober1000x in Cordoba, Argentina. Check the other four after the break.

BoomSPDesign is at it again! Now in its fifth addition, the creative design, architecture and art forum has quickly become known for attracting elite creatives from around the globe to share their passions in this unique, Sao Paulo forum. Centered around all things creative, the three day event will commence on August 22nd at the Centro Universitario Belas Artes de Sao Paulo.

Curator and cultural promoter Roberto Cocenza stated: “This year we are connecting, via Sao Paulo, two continents, Old World with the New World: We have the German Juergen Mayer H. bringing the sophistication of European thought and sensibility, with his intricate architectural patterns, and then we have Fernando Romero, a young talent from Mexico that with his rambunctious Sumaya Museum quickly entered the pantheon of iconic contemporary architecture.”

Continue after the break to learn more!

“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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