One of Toyo Ito's most iconic building is undoubtedly the Sendai Mediatheque. The latest Pritzker laureate completed the building in 2001, a cultural media center allowing complete visibility and transparency to the surrounding community.
French director Richard Copans made this documentary on the Sendai Mediatheque that you can't miss. You can watch part II and III after the break. And don't forget to check our complete coverage on the 2013 Pritzker Prize winner.
Construction is finished for Japanese architect Toyo Ito’s Solar Powered Stadium in Taiwan. The stadium’s roof is covered by 8,844 solar panels. The stadium is located in Kaohsiung, Taiwan and it was built to coincide with the opening of the World Games, to be held this July.
The “World Games Stadium” holds 55,000 spectators and it cost $150 million to build. The stadium will hold the record for largest solar-powered stadium in the world with it’s 14,155m2 roof. It could potentially generate 1.14 gigawatt hours of electricity every year, enough to power up to 80% of the sorrounding neighbourhood.
Seen at deputydog. More images, after the break.
As Mr. Betsky asserts, “Robots, connected computers, miniaturization, and etherization are taking the work out of both the social and the physical sphere.” But isn’t this just a fantasy because this has not yet happened on a large enough scale to produce a true paradigm shift? Or, if the shift has happened, then where is everybody rushing off to on the Monday morning commute? And what are all those buildings jammed in-between the roads for? Most of them seem to be for work as opposed to play.
We may all float in and out of working networks as we move around, untethered to carpeted cubicles, telecommuting, flex-timing, logging in at all hours, but we are still and will primarily be working in places designed by architects—often without access to sunlight, fresh air, or nature of any sort.
The European Postgraduate Masters in Urbanism (EMU) is a joint program that aims to produce highly qualified, university trained urban designers, physical planners and researchers. The EMU program brings together the strengths and richness of different design approaches and methods, and the long traditions and experiences in urban planning and design of each of the participating universities.
The master course is design oriented and affirms the role of design in the knowledge process, while integrating different levels of scale. Learning by doing, research by design, and the project as knowledge producer constitute the key concerns and standpoints of this European postgraduate master’s degree.
More info after the break.
Organized in 2006 by eVolo Magazine the Skyscraper Competition recognizes outstanding ideas for vertical living. After reviewing more than 600 projects from 83 different countries, the winners for the eVolo 2013 Skyscraper Competition have just been announced.
First place was awarded to Derek Pirozzi from the United States, currently an intern at Olson Kundig Architects. Second place went to Darius Maïkoff and Elodie Godo, from France. And third place was awarded to Ting Xu and Yiming Chen from China. Check the images and more info on the winners after the break.
Lats year, we asked our Facebook Fans to share with us their thought on the best smartphone apps for architects. The list was quite interesting and at number 9 we had [steel] an app for iOS and Android developed by our friends at The Mobile Engineer.
Last year, we presented you Archipendium 2013 as part of our Books & Magazines section. Now, we can proudly tell you that we've partnered with Archipendium 2014.
Archipendium 2014 showcases great examples of modern architecture from all around the world. 365 different architectural studios have been featured over the past few years, including; BIG, Chaix & Morel, COOP HIMMELB(L)AU, David Chipperfield, Delugan Meissl, Eisenman Architects, Foster+Partners, gmp von Gerkan, Marg und Partner, Graft, Jean Nouvel, King Kong, Massimiliano Fuksas, MVRDV, OMA, Steven Holl Architects, Tony Fretton, UNStudio and Zaha Hadid. In order to get a unique view of modern architecture, every featured architect personally chooses which project to submit. Each project is presented as a main photograph, with additional text and drawings on the reverse.
More than just a calendar, Archipendium 2014 is a collector’s item. This calendar is an impressive overview of the latest trends in both modern architecture and design. Become part of the Archipendium architectural calendar that shows different contemporary architecture for every day of the year. Participation in this publication is free of charge.
Interested? Please send us an email with the following information attached after the break.
This innovative post-graduate program is aimed at professionals who wish to play a leading role in cross functional teams engaged in architectural and urban design.
It covers five areas:
·Architectural Design
·Building and Energy Technologies
·Urban Studies
·Contemporary Culture
·Architectural Management
The program is designed to last one year, with rotations between Madrid and Barcelona and provide its students with exposure to the cultural and urbanistic design paradigms which characterize both cities. It is infused with the entrepreneurial and leadership spirit that defines the IE Business School programs. The curriculum integrates hands on design and theory in an environment that invites open experimentation and professional relationships.
In addition to the core curriculum, the IE Master in Architectural Design Academic Advisors offer an international network of professionals and contributors that ensures the program figures prominently within the context of current international architectural debates. More after the break.
Last year, we were reached by the organizers of Treehouses in Paradise Competition in order to help them spread the word. A couple of days later, we realized the competition was in fact a scam, so we took the call for proposals down, and published this statement.
The NY Times published this amazing video of a spectacular art installation on the Oakland-San Francisco Bay Bridge. Thousands of computer controlled LED lights can be seen during the night with this fantastic display. Enjoy!
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What are Live Projects? A UK term, it refers to collaborations between architecture schools and real clients on real projects. In the US, for example, these are merely referred to as industry collaborations. Clients are widely variant, from municipal governments and youth organizations, as well as galleries and community-based gardens.
There are many iterations of this teaching model in the UK so the issue is, how to determine a good fit for prospective students? One issue that is increasingly at the fore of students’ minds is how to balance idealism with practical skills. At Birmingham City University’sBIAD (Birmingham Institute of Art and Design), the program is structured precisely to help students achieve that balance.
Two dynamic post-graduate programs offered by the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) in Los Angeles have been charged with examining core contemporary issues facing architecture today. Spanning topics from advanced manufacturing methodologies and new building systems, to urban planning and design challenges faced globally, these post-professional tracks allow students to rethink architecture and design through the creative lens of the SCI-Arc community.
The architecture school’s Emerging Systems, Technologies & Media (ESTm) and Future Initiatives (SCIFI) programs are conceived as intensive one-year (three semesters) post-professional degrees in architecture, functioning as think tanks and research engines within the larger framework of the school.
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Architects could never explain space. When we think about space, we have only looked at its containers. As if space itself is invisible.
Rem Koolhaas
History has granted architecture the role of dividing up space. It manifests itself in providing lodging and orienting humankind, who inhabits this fragmented whole we call space and which is interwoven with time at a tacit and essential level.
We live in space, in these spaces, in these cities, in these fields, in these corridors, in these gardens. It is plain to see. And yet, it is not possible to quantify space or give shape to it: it is extension and connection, fact and certainty through time and movement. Space may be travelled through and narrated, experienced and actuated. Space contains and is contained, situates and signifies.
With a continuing interest in the exploration of socially important and relevant issues, encouraging the creation of spaces for dialog and the participation of architects resolving concerns through proposed projects; Arquine summons participants to its 15th International Architecture Contest to Re-inhabit the 21st century. Social Housing from the Modern Paradigm.
For this edition of the competition, Arquine joins forces with CANADEVI (National Chamber for the Development industry and promotion of Housing), with the aim of expanding its reach and assuring the participation of the main social contributors faced with the proposed subject matter, Housing in the 21st Century.
In 1992, the artist, Christo, with his now late-wife and collaborator, Jeanne-Claude, had a vision to suspend miles of silvery translucent fabric over the Arkansas River in Colorado. Would you expect anything less?
Christo usually works at such massive geographic scales—land interventions that can be discerned by satellites passing overhead. Here his ambition stretches for 42 miles (67.6 km) of scenic river with no less than a total of 5.9 miles (9.5 km) of fabric suspended over the eight different sections of the river.