This week we propose you to see this interesting film that came to the big screen from the sci-fi animation serie of the same name. Locations for the movie were carefully selected to generate the futuristic environment where the story takes place. Recorded mainly in Germany, from a crematorium and parks, to an embassy and a world cultures centre were used in the different scenes.
I guess most of our readers already know this movie. If not, it is time for you to find it, enjoy a great film and tell us your thoughts!
Tangentfield and Fourth Door Review’s Roots Architecture Workshop which is back again this year. They are bringing a hands-on practical lo-tech sustainable building experience to a corner of WOMAD festival in Wiltshire UK from July 26-29. Each ticket entitles you to 4 full days of collaborative workshop challenge, WOMAD camping, 3 delicious lunches and full access to the wonders of WOMAD festival each evening. A unique experience and memorable experience, team leaders and helpers this year include representatives from ‘Workshop’, Charley Brentnall, ‘Bamboo’ Jack Everett, Architecture Sans Frontiers, Engineers without borders, Article 25, Architecture for Humanity, and even acclaimed Superbolt Theatre Company. All are invited to participate. For more information, please visit here.
The hand-drawn work of Chris Dent takes on the modern metropolis – depicting architecture in a way that is at once meticulously accurate & playfully imaginative.
Among the rushed atmosphere of the Singapore Changi Airport, ART+COM has created an installation in which brings all the commotion to a halt. Located in the departure check-in hall of Terminal 1, “Kinetic Rain” is composed of 608 lightweight aluminum rain droplets, coated in copper, that are suspended from thin steel ropes on two opposing escalators. Each droplet seemingly floats into its precise location during a 15-minute, computationally designed choreography where the two parts move together in unison. The entire installation spans a total area of more than 75 square meters and spreads over 7.3 meters in height.
Maggie’s has proudly announced that the Glasgow architects of NORD have agreed to design the Maggie’s Centre in the grounds of Forth Valley Royal Hospital in Larbert. The principle funder from Walk the Walk is expecting a “beautiful, unique and ground breaking building” from the award winning practice who was established in 2002 and has become known for their distinctive projects that often draw inspiration from social and cultural issues. This news comes shortly after Norman Foster and Steven Holl were announced as the next architects of two new Maggie’s Centers in south Manchester at the Christie Hospital and in London at St. Barts.
Director of NORD, Alan Pert said: “This is a fantastic way to celebrate 10 years of NORD and we look forward to working with the amazing team behind this network of centres. At a recent visit to the Maggies London Headquarters we came across a collection of architectural models of the various centres built over the years including Richard Murphy’s first one from 1996. It is an incredible achievement that so many of these buildings have been realized and to contribute to this vision is a huge privilege.”
With the support of the Minister for Local Government Greg Clark MP in the UK, ResPublica and RIBA have launched a discussion paper that changes the fundamental system of neighborhood planning by proposing that communities should have a much greater influence and more power in the design process of urban planners. The paper, fittingly titled “Re-thinking Neighbourhood Planning: From consultation to collaboration“, discusses the value of “real community-led planning” in which professionals, developers, local authorities and communities create partnerships in preparation for planning and design work. The report supports community engagement and outreach, investing in the belief that partnerships and collaboration will bring trust and understanding to the relationship between planners and the communities that their policies affect.
The Alvar Aalto Museum’s first mobile-phone service, AALTOsites, brings the Alvar Aalto-designed buildings in the Metropolitan Helsinki region to your smartphone. AALTOsites, downloadable free for smartphones, puts an interface to Aalto’s architecture and design directly into the user’s pocket.
Erottaja Pavilion, the Otaniemi campus, the Sähkötalo Electricity Building, and Artek, founded in 1935 as a showcase for Aalto’s design, are just some of the numerous Aalto sites shown by the service. More information on the mobile guide after the break.
The bank architect’s goal is to create a secure edifice. The bank robber’s? To subvert the edifice. And yet consider their commonality: their interaction with space. Both analyze plans and consider inefficiencies, both inhabit the space much differently than your average spectator. In fact, the Robber’s relationship with space is far more physical, urgent…nuanced. As Mehruss Ahi, a recent graduate from Woodbury University, puts it in his senior thesis: “The Architect is the Bank Robber…and the Bank Robber is the Architect.”
Ahi suggests a Robber-like “spatial hack” of the bank: an identification of its inefficiencies/vulnerabilities/paths of circulation. He also notes the necessity of giving priority to large storage space for goods rather than money (due to “the migration of banking services to the Web”). This new perspective, Ahi argues, will allow architects to design a smarter, more secure bank. The bank of the future.
Ahi’s assertion about the need for physical storage space (as banks turn to the Web), got me thinking. Our world depends less and less on physical storage, and more and more on the bits of information flying through the wires and cables of the internet. Ahi’s theory, while an interesting insight into bank design, is even more powerful when applied to the bank’s modern day equivalent: the Data Center.
The disappointment generated by the Shard’s opening laser light show is not so surprising for a project that has been grounded in controversy for over a decade. Since 2000, when Piano sketched his initial vision upon meeting developer Irvine Sellar, the project has consistently met obstacles such as English Heritage and the financial crash of 2007. But, the biggest opposition of the tower has been its height. English Heritage claimed that the tower, formerly known as London Bridge Tower, would “tear through historic London like a shard of glass” (ironically, coining the new name of the tower), and Piano counters that, “The best architecture takes time to be understood…I would prefer people to judge it not now. Judge it in 10 years’ time.”
Leading us to wonder…does the Shard simply need time to be fully appreciated?
The first prize winning design for the Technology Center in Bologna by gmp Architekten converts a former industrial heritage building into a modern technology park. With an area of about 110,000 square meters, the center includes an exhibition hall, laboratories, offices, a seedbed center for research affiliated with the university, and teaching facilities such as lecture halls and university institutes. In addition, there will be conference facilities, including hotel and service areas such as shops, a day nursery, restaurants and refectories to be established in the former power station. More images and architects’ description after the break.
WOHA‘s traveling exhibition, ‘Breathing Architecture’, is on its way to Taichung, Taiwan after a successful run at the acclaimed Deutsches Architekturmuseum (DAM) in Frankfurt. Taking place at the Taichung Info-Box July 26-September 23, the exhibition features concepts of open structures which embrace aspects of community and permeability of form in response to climate and nature.
MASS Design Group was announced as winner of the Zumtobel Group Award for their innovative and cost-efficient Butaro Hosptial in Rwanda. They triumphed over the 230 projects from 30 different countries that competed in the “Built Environment” award category. Additionally, Atelier d’architecture autogérée (France) was selected as winner of the “Research & Initiative” category for developing a strategy of urban resilience known as the R-URBAN project in Paris.
“Through their decision this year, the jury have underlined the fact that it takes a holistic approach to make truly sustainable improvements in the built environment,” said Zumtobel Group CEO Harald Sommerer, who was also a member of the 8-strong jury. “We are particularly pleased to see that, this year, young and dedicated architectural practices have won the award with approaches to resolving social and ecological issues, both in the industrialized world and in developing countries.”
The New York office of Grimshaw and LA based Gruen Associates were officially awarded the Los Angeles Union Station master plan last Thursday. The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) Board of Directors, chaired by Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, approved a nomination that sets in motion a two year master plan creation process to generate a new vision for Union Station, in conjunction with the general revitalization and growth of downtown Los Angeles as the city and metro look to the future. More architects’ description after the break.
The building of the Municipal Library and Archives Grândola by ER Studio aims to be a timeless reference, an icon that represents not only the past and present of the town of Grândola, but also their future ambitions. Their idea of the Monolith reminds us of the past buildings that have withstood the time, a library and an archive are nothing more than a large repository of knowledge that makes the bridge between past and present. More images and architects’ description after the break.
MoederscheimMoonen Architects recently won the competition for a new community center, ‘Het Anker’, in Zwolle, The Netherlands. The new building will include a multi-purpose sports hall for diverse sport activities and educational purposes, a community center, and diverse multifunctional areas. The design for the competition expresses the first ideas and intentions for a sustainable, transparent and green ‘landscaped’ building. More images and architects’ description after the break.
The participants should take into consideration the advances in technology, the exploration of sustainable systems, and the establishment of new urban and architectural methods to solve economic, social, and cultural problems of the contemporary city including the scarcity of natural resources and infrastructure and the exponential increase of inhabitants, pollution, economic division, and unplanned urban sprawl. More information on the competition’s official website.
The 10 winners of the fifth VMZINC® Archizinc Trophy awards program, sponsored by the Umicore Group, were unveiled this month at the Terrass Kardinal in Paris. The bi-annual competition for architects requires that the submitted designs use VMZINC solutions in original projects. VMZINC is the international rolled zinc products brand manufactured and marketed by Umicore Building Products USA, headquartered in Raleigh, North Carolina. Winners included six projects in the categories “Private Housing,” “Commercial Buildings,” and “Public Buildings”. More information on the winners after the break.
Architects love LEGOs, this is a well-known fact. So what could be better than a real-life bridge made out of the colorful toys themselves?
Unfortunately, of course, the LEGOs are actually an optical illusion designed by street artist Martin Heuwold of MEGX - but that doesn’t make the project look any less awesome. The bridge, painted last fall, is part of an Urban renewal project in the city of Wuppertal meant “to reinvigorate the city and increase residents’ quality of life.” The High Line-style bridge is actually part of a larger 10-mile cycle path being built on what was once the city’s Northern Railway.
The design for a new 7,500 sqm Deinze Town Hall & Administrative Center, designed by Tony Fretton Architects, sets the administrative accommodation in a 5-storey reconfigurable loft building and the council chamber as a projecting double height room, with the public entrance foyer below. Commissioned by the City of Deinze following an international competition held in 2009, the building accommodates Deinze’s municipal departments, offices for the mayor and aldermen together with a new council chamber. The project is set to begin construction in early 2013. More images and architects’ description after the break.
World Monuments Fund (WMF) is inviting nominations for the 2012 World Monuments Fund/Knoll Modernism Prize. The prize will be awarded to a design professional or firm in recognition of innovative design solutions that preserved or saved a modern landmark at risk. Established in 2008, the goal is to raise public awareness of the contribution modernism makes to contemporary life and the important and influential role that architects and designers play in preserving modern heritage. Nominated projects should have enhanced a site’s architectural, functional, economic, and environmental sustainability while benefiting the community, and must have been completed in 2007 or after. Nominations must be submitted by July 31, 2012. More information on the competition after the break.
