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.
Continue after the break to learn more.
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.”
Learn more 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.
Directed: Evan Burns Cinematography: Garyle Morgan & Mitzi Morrow Produced: Eduardo Tobias
The Building and Social Housing Foundation is now accepting entries for the 2013 edition of the World Habitat Awards!
The World Habitat Awards were established in 1985 by the Building and Social Housing Foundation as part of its contribution to the United Nations International Year of Shelter for the Homeless. Two awards are given annually to projects from the global North as well as the South that provide practical and innovative solutions to current housing needs and problems. An award of £10,000 is presented to each of the two winners at the annual United Nations global celebration of World Habitat Day.
The deadline for submission is 1st November 2012.
What is the connection between sex, architecture and design? Opening tomorrow, September 29, Playboy Architecture, 1953-1979 explores the role of architecture in the famous men’s magazine Playboy. Colomina, along with the curators of NAiM/Bureau-Europa in Maastricht, The Netherlands, centers the exhibition around the research of Beatriz Colomina, a professor at the Princeton University School of Architecture and founder of their Media and Modernity program, who has been studying the connection for the past three years.
Playboy Architecture, 1953-1979 illustrates how cities, buildings, interiors, furniture and products have always played an important role in the fantasy world of Playboy. Ever since Hugh Hefner launched Playboy in 1952, its erotic spreads have featured the likes of Frank Lloyd Wright, Mies van der Rohe, Buckminster Fuller, Moshe Safdie, and Paolo Soleri. As Colomina’s program argues, “sexual revolution and architectural revolution are inseparable.” The exhibition reveals how Playboy reshaped masculinity with the influence of architecture and design.
Grace Farms Foundation, a not-for‐profit charitable organization in New Canaan, Connecticut, has submitted a proposal to the town’s Planning and Zoning Commission for a SANAA-designed, meandering structure dubbed the “River”. The project prioritizes the needs of the community by preserving the 75-acre Grace Farms property as a permanent offering of open space and providing an array of public amenities, such as a library, gymnasium and church.
“We are thrilled to be sharing SANAA’s wonderfully sensitive design with the members of the Planning and Zoning Commission and with the community we serve,” stated Sharon Prince, President of the Grace Farms Foundation. “Grace Farms is a place where people can walk their dog, read a book by the lake or simply relax in a beautiful natural setting. By blending so seamlessly into the landscape, the River enhances this experience, almost erasing the barrier between the spaces sheltered within and the natural world outside.”
If approved, the River will be SANAA’s first United States commission since receiving the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2010. Continue reading for the architects’ description.
Today, the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) honored Swiss architect Peter Zumthor for his significant influence on the advancement of architecture by naming him the recipient of the 2013 Royal Gold Medal.
It all started in Switzerland, in 1979, when Zumthor founded his “small yet powerful and uncompromising practice”. Since, he has built a prestigious, international reputation for creating “highly atmospheric spaces through the mastery of light and choice of materials”. From his small rural chapels to the Thermal Baths at Vals, the Zumthor experience ignites the senses, with “every detail reinforcing the essence of the building and its surroundings.”
RIBA President Angela Brady, stated: “Peter Zumthor’s work renews the link with a tradition of modern architecture that emphasizes place, community and material practice. His writings dwell upon the experience of designing, building and inhabitation while his buildings are engaged in a rich dialogue with architectural history. I will be delighted to present him with the Royal Gold Medal.”
Continue to learn more.
The results of the 9th Annual Emirates Glass LEAF Awards have been announced, honoring the architects designing the buildings and solutions that are setting the benchmark for the international architectural community.
The winners were selected from an impressive shortlist by an international jury of architects that included Irving Brauer (chairman, principal of Brauer Associates), Phil Holden (managing director of Pascall+Watson architects), Lucy Bullivant (architectural curator, critic, author), Paolo Brescia (partner of Open Building Research), and Kasia Fiutowska (founding partner of Sketch Design).
The 2012 award winners are:
UP Projects and The Architecture Foundation has announced Duggan Morris Architects as winner of the Open Architecture Challenge to design the next phase of the acclaimed Floating Cinema project. This project has been commissioned by the Legacy List with corporate partner Bloomberg as part of the Bloomberg East series of artist-led programs to animate the waterways in East London working in partnership with the Canal and River Trust.
Continue after the break to learn more.
With a world plagued by the current economic crisis, David Chipperfield fears that the architects’ role is shrinking and the professions ability to influence the shape of our cities is diminishing.
Since the inauguration of this year’s Venice Biennale, Chipperfield has been amidst of a few heated debates, most notably debunking the harsh criticism of Coop Himmelb(lau)’s Wolf Prix – who claimed the “hollow” event was “no longer about lively discussion and criticism of topics in contemporary architecture” – by affirming Prix “hadn’t even visited Venice”.
Interestingly, Chipperfield has now initiated a debate, using similar rhetoric as Prix, that calls attention to the dwindling role of the architect and the impotence of contemporary architecture. The catch? He blames politicians.
Continue after the break for more.
The American Institute of Architects (AIA) has announced a ten-year commitment to develop design and technology solutions for cities that address challenges faced on public health, sustainability, and resiliency to natural disasters. AIA EVP and Chief Executive Officer Robert Ivy, FAIA, announced the Commitment to Action at the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) Annual Meeting, where more than 1,000 global leaders are gathering to address the theme, “Designing for Impact.”
“This commitment by the AIA represents an all-out effort to demonstrate the link between building design and the health of building occupants,” said Ivy. “And it will enable us to bring the force of design to bear in the public health arena and debate.”
The Winnipeg Art Gallery has selected six architectural teams to be shortlisted for the design of its new Inuit Art and Learning Center (IALC). The Center will house the WAG’s celebrated collection of contemporary Inuit art, the largest of its kind in the world, and the Studio Art and Learning programs.
Selected from 64 international submissions, the six shortlisted teams are:
Design: Jason Kelly Johnson & Nataly Gattegno at Future Cities Lab Team: Ripon DeLeon (lead), Osma Dossani, Jonathan Izen, assisted by David Spittler Client: ZERO1, San Jose Public Art Program, National Endowment for the Arts Consultant: Elliot Larson created the Twitter trends [xml link] Technology: Text to Speech Module by TextSpeak, Arduino Mega and Uno, WiFly Shield by Sparkfun, Verizon Mifi, LCD panels by Sparkfun, LEDS by superbrightleds.com, IR sensors by Sharp Photography: Peter Prato
As we announced earlier, Pritzker Prize Laureate Wang Shu of Amateur Architecture (China), Rahul Mehrotra of RMA architects (India) and Francine Houben of Mecanoo (The Netherlands) participated in GREENHOUSE TALK at the 2012 Venice Biennale. The informal discussion focused on the current reality of design culture in the great countries of Eastern Asia and Europe.
The video begins with an introduction (in Italian) by architect and Senior curator of MAXXI Roma, Pippo Ciorra, which then leads into some fascinating commentary (in English, with Italian subtitles) by the highlighted protagonists.
The GREENHOUSE TALK event was promoted by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Rome, in collaboration with MAXXI and NAi.
In November 2010, we announced that Kengo Kuma & Associates was selected over a competitive A-list of international architects to design Scotland’s landmark building, the V&A at Dundee. Well now, the £45 million, waterfront project is moving forward as it has just been approved by the city council!
As reported on BDOnline, Philip Long, director of the V&A at Dundee, stated: “This now allows us to move further with elements of the design and building program, including procurement and tendering, and we will be doing that in due course.”
Continue after the break to learn more about Kengo Kuma’s design for the museum.
Since it’s founding in 1986, Reiser + Umemoto, RUR Architecture P.C. has become a widely published, internationally recognized practice with a diverse collection of projects ranging in scale. On multiple occasions, the firm has been awarded for their contributions to architectural practice and theory – the most recent being The Cooper Union’s 2008 Presidential Citation and the 2011 John Hejduk Award – as they treat “each project as the continuation of an ongoing inquiry, delving into relationships among architecture, territory and systems of distribution.”
Today the Nederlandse Tuinbouwraad (NTR) announced the City of Almere, along with it’s MVRDV-designed proposal, as winner of the prestigious world horticultural expo, Floriade 2022. The event takes place once every ten years in the Netherlands and is currently ending in Venlo.
The MVRDV plan for Almere is not a temporary expo site but a lasting green Cité Idéale as an extension to the existing city centre. The waterfront site opposite the city centre will be developed as a vibrant new urban neighborhood and also a giant plant library which will remain beyond the expo.
The ambition is to create a 300% greener exhibition than currently standard, both literally green and sustainable: each program on the site will be combined with plants which will create programmatic surprises, innovation and ecology. At the same time the site will be with a vast program such as a university, hotel, marina, offices and homes more urban than any other Floriade has ever been before, it is an exemplary green city. Continue after the break for more!