bustler

UIA 2011 TOKYO

Vanilla Hustler — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 10:45:00 -0700

The XXIV World Congress of Architecture will be held in Tokyo during the autumn months of 2011 – just 12 years since the first congress was hosted by Beijing in 1999. The theme of the XXIV World Congress, “Design 2050,” will provide the opportunity for architects from all over the world to exchange views and share their visions of sustainable architecture, as well as help define the immediate future for the world’s cities and the environment. Tokyo is a fascinating city where the past meets the present and Japanese tradition coexists with contemporary culture. Such diverse contrasts will be evident just outside the main venue for the congress, where the Royal Palace and Akihabara (Japan’s premier showcase for state-of-the-art consumer electronics) are located in the same neighborhood.
Tokyo’s exemplary economic growth during the past several decades has fueled its development as a viably sustainable city. Consequently, Tokyo in itself is a harbinger of what we may expect from sustainable architecture by the year 2050. With this in mind, participants at the XXIV World Congress can expect to be welcomed and embraced by Japan’s rich architectural culture, which showcases they unique, yet contemporary, face of Japan.

http://www.uia2011tokyo.com/en/

2010 IDSA International Conference and Education Symposium

Vanilla Hustler — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 23:55:23 -0700

Each year, between 600 and 800 design practitioners, educators, students, business leaders and vendors working with designers from all over the world gather for IDSA’s International Conference and Education Symposium. These events combine provocative speakers with practical information and solutions, as well as plenty of time for building personal and professional connections.

2010 International Conference and Education Symposium
Sohrab Vossoughi, IDSA, Conference Chair
August 4-7, 2010
Hilton Portland and Executive Tower
Portland, OR

http://www.idsa.org

Global Challenges: Architectural Solutions, Global Convention and Expo of Architecture

Paul Petrunia — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 23:07:37 -0700

Few career paths inherently aspire to advance the conditions of populated environments like those idealized in architecturally-related professions. In celebration of Architecture Week 2010, product leaders, design professionals, and academics will gather at the campus of Illinois Institute of Technology for the 1st Annual Global Convention and Exposition on Architecture. The event will feature a professional exposition, a product exhibition, a design college and university connection event, a seminar series, professional and mock firm competitions, and will conclude with the first Amazing Architectural Race. For more information, visit chicagoarchitecturetoday.com

GLOBAL CONVENTION & EXPOSITION ON ARCHITECTURE: CHICAGO 2010

Paul Petrunia — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 21:57:38 -0700

APRIL 15-17, 2010 ON THE CAMPUS OF THE ILLINOIS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

GLOBAL CHALLENGES: ARCHITECTURAL SOLUTIONS
Few career paths inherently aspire to advance the conditions of populated environments like those idealized in architecturally-related professions. In celebration of Architecture Week 2010, product leaders, design professionals, and academics will gather next Spring in Chicago - a global leader in architectural excellence and innovation - for the 1st annual Global Convention and Exposition on Architecture. Sponsored by the College of Architecture of the Illinois Institute of Technology and Chicago Architecture Today LLC, this gathering presents a unparalled opportunity to experience the latest technologies, learn about professional organizations, market your qualifications to corporate firms and even compete on a world stage. What better venue to convene on architecture than on the world-renown Miesian-influenced campus of the Illinois Institute of Technology located in the conveniently accessible, world class city of Chicago? Join us April 15-17, 2010 for what promises to be the architectural event of the season!

FEATURED IN THE 2010 GCEA

PRODUCT EXHIBITIONS
PROJECT EXHIBITIONS FROM PROFESSIONAL DESIGN FIRMS
INFORMATIONAL EXHIBITS FROM PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
CREDITED WORKSHOPS & SEMINARS
COLLEGE FAIR FEATURING DESIGN SCHOOLS NATIONWIDE
MOCK FIRMS AND PROFESSIONAL DESIGN COMPETITIONS
INTERNATIONAL ARCHITECTURAL ENGINEERING ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
TOURS, A FIRST EVER ARCHITECTURE RACE AND MORE!

OPPORTUNITIES EXIST FOR THE FOLLOWING:

VARIOUS LEVELS OF SPONSORSHIP
VENDOR EXHIBITS
TEACHING SEMINARS & WORKSHOPS
JURORING ON THE AWARD COMMITTEE

Contact

For sponsors and additional information on any of the above,
contact us at 773.410.1314 or email us at convention@chicagoarchitecturetoday.com or write to us at:

Chicago Architecture Today LLC
c/o GCEA
P.O. Box 3714
Merchandise Mart
Chicago, IL 60654

Venue

The campus of the Illinois Institute of Technology
College of Architecture
3300 S. Federal
Chicago, IL 60616

Call For Papers - Positioning Global Systems, Symposium Yale School of Architecture

Paul Petrunia — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 21:56:41 -0700

POSITIONING GLOBAL SYSTEMS

The 5th Annual Graduate Student Symposium
In conjunction with the Roth-Symonds Lecture

Keynote Speaker:
Professor Saskia Sassen
Columbia University & London School of Economics

Yale School of Architecture
April 15-16, 2010

CALL FOR PAPERS
This symposium, Positioning Global Systems, explores the relationship between networks and locality in the built environment.

New innovations in communication and information technologies form the basis of an expanding virtual geography. Yet the physical manifestations of our interfaces with these systems are often less considered. While contemporary architecture looks towards ways to model the global, our heightened perceptions of geographical specificity instead call for new visions of local articulation. Popular mobile GPS applications, for example, allow us to directly interact with our environments through a play of social, and even cultural, databases.

Through similar narratives of the local, this symposium seeks to reposition our broad and often vague definition of the global.

Participants are invited to submit proposals for papers that investigate a broad range of themes around this topic, including:

Networks and Actors
How does our interaction within globally dispersed networks, such as information, capital, media, and politics, materially structure our local collective and individual identities?

Perception
How is our shared overlap of information, landscape, and technology expressed through evolving understandings of local environments?

Representation
How do representations of our environment, while deployed across larger socioeconomic and cultural systems, give form to our conceptions of territory, statehood, region, and enclave?

Contributions are sought from a wide range of disciplines. Positioning Global Systems aims to bring together efforts from the fields of architecture, art history, sociology, human geography, science, cartography, media studies, political science, and history.

The symposium will open with a keynote address by Professor Saskia Sassen, a Professor of Sociology at Columbia University and Centennial Visiting Professor of Political Economy in the Department of Sociology at the London School of Economics. Sassen is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and a member of the National Academy of Sciences Panel on Cities. An eminent scholar in globalization, economics and labor, network technologies, and the nation-state, her books have been translated into a dozen languages. Sassen established the term “global city” in her benchmark text The Global City: New York, London, Tokyo (Princeton University Press, 1991), which positioned her at the fore of globalization theory. Her more recent books include Territory, Authority, Rights: From Medieval to Global Assemblages (Princeton University Press 2006), Deciphering the Global: Its Scales, Spaces and Subjects (Routledge 2007), and Digital Formations: IT and New Architects in the Global
Realm (Princeton University Press 2005).

After the student paper presentations, members of the Yale School of Architecture faculty will provide responses.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
Interested graduate students should submit an abstract of no more than 300 words along with a curriculum vitae. Each proposal should clearly articulate the subject matter and its relevancy to the symposium’s theme. All submissions shall be received by Friday, January 8, 2010.

Successful candidates will be notified by the middle of January. Initial drafts of papers for a 20-minute presentation will be due on February 26, 2010. Final drafts will be due by March 29, 2010.

Email to: david.sadighian@yale.edu

Picasso: Themes and Variations

Vanilla Hustler — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 23:55:44 -0700

March 24, 2010–September 6, 2010

Featuring approximately one hundred works, Picasso: Themes and Variations explores Pablo Picasso’s creative process through the medium of printmaking, tracing his development from the early years of the twentieth century, with depictions of itinerant circus performers in the Blue and Rose periods, to his discovery of Cubism. The exhibition follows his evolving artistic vision through decades of experimentation in etching, lithography, and linoleum cut, demonstrating how each technique inspired new directions in his work. A focus on specific themes demonstrates how Picasso’s imagery went through a constant process of metamorphosis. Printmaking, in particular, allows this fundamental aspect of his art to become vividly clear, since various stages in building a composition can be documented. One series of lithographs shows Picasso progressing, step-by-step, from a realistic depiction of a bull to one that is completely abstracted in simple, schematic lines. Other examples reveal changing interpretations of the women in Picasso’s life, as they became the subject of his art and the catalytic force behind his creativity.

In conjunction with this exhibition, MoMA will launch a major online project featuring its collection of over one thousand etchings, lithographs, and linoleum cuts by Picasso, allowing this extraordinary group of works to reach a global audience. Digital images of these prints will be available online and, in many cases, will be accompanied by interpretive texts.

MoMA

David Chipperfield Architects – Form Matters

Vanilla Hustler — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 22:55:21 -0800

David Chipperfield has emerged as the key British architect of his generation. Deeply interested in the world outside architecture, he has collaborated with the designer Issey Miyake and the artist Anthony Gormley. His work concerns ideas rather than spectacle. With exquisite large-scale models, newly commissioned photography and film, this exhibition will show recent work as well as works drawn from the Chipperfield archive. Key projects featured within the exhibition include Ninetree Village, Hangzhou China; City of Justice, Barcelona, Spain; a new island cemetery and chapel at the San Michele Cemetery in Venice and the reconstruction of the Neues Museum, Berlin, set to become the first masterpiece of Chipperfield’s career.

Fundación Pedro Barrié de la Maza
Design Museum London

Brit Insurance Designs of the Year 2010

Vanilla Hustler — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 22:55:22 -0800

Now in their third year, the Brit Insurance Designs Awards have become established as leading design awards showcasing the most innovative and forward thinking designs from around the world. Last year’s winner, the unofficial Barack Obama poster campaign by Shepard Fairey, demonstrated the power that design can have even from grass-root level. Which design will triumph in 2010? The new 100 strong shortlist will be on display in the exhibition, many for the first time.

The winner will be decided by a panel of experts and announced in March but as soon as the shortlist is announced you can vote for your favourite at designsoftheyear.com

Design Museum

Contemplating the Void: Interventions in the Guggenheim Museum Rotunda

Paul Petrunia — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 21:42:10 -0800

On the occasion of the museum’s 50th anniversary, the Guggenheim has invited approximately 250 artists, architects, and designers to imagine their dream intervention in Frank Lloyd Wright’s rotunda. A salon-style installation of two-dimensional renderings of their visionary projects will emphasize the rich and diverse range of inspired proposals.

http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/exhibitions/upcoming/contemplating-the-void

TED2010: What the World Needs Now

Vanilla Hustler — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 22:55:01 -0800

A new decade. A new U.S. president. A global financial crisis. Some are predicting the worst of times. But we think it’s a time to regroup, re-evaluate and then to dream. Dream big. Because the world of ideas has never mattered more. Behind the headlines, innovation and invention are alive and flourishing. And it’s here that the key to a better future will be found. At TED2010 we will be hotfoot in pursuit of that future. We’re assembling an incredible lineup of speakers whose ideas and ingenuity will thrill, enlighten and inspire. It’s What the World Needs Now…..

The TED2010 experience will include:

A fast-paced, highly curated 4-day stage program featuring TED’s famous 18-minute talks, plus music, comedy, dance, short talks, video interludes and other surprises
TED University: The hugely popular, pre-conference sessions where attendees share their areas of expertise, from “How to negotiate a term sheet” to “How to break a board with your bare hands.”
Immersive evening events (including the TEDPrize Gala) designed to extend the conference experience and facilitate conversation
Art exhibits, tech demos, test drives, and other immersive on-site experiences
Caffeine-fueled conversation breaks, where attendees and speakers develop ideas between sessions
Our unique simulcast room, where you can watch the entire conference in an informal setting—on couches, beds, beanbag chairs; while blogging, tweeting, eating ...
The famous TED gift bag, free to all attendees and filled with complimentary goodies
Online tools for connecting with other attendees, before and after the conference
TED Book Club mailings, five times each year

http://conferences.ted.com/TED2010/

Tex-Fab Digital Fabrication and Parametric Modeling Workshop

Vanilla Hustler — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 22:55:56 -0800

Tex-Fab: a digital design and fabrication event that will include exhibitions, lectures and a workshop series. This event is open to professionals, educators, and students.

WORKSHOPS
5th - 6th, February 2010

Workshops include Paneling Tools with Rajaa Issa, Rhinoscripting with Marc Fornes, and Grasshopper with Andrew Payne. All workshop sessions are certified by the AIA for CES credits. Administration of these credits will occur at UT Arlington, School of Architecture.

LECTURES

AXEL PAREDES
Universidad Francisco Marroquin in Guatemala
DESIGN RULES
Wednesday 02/03/09, 4:30PM University of Texas Arlington School of Architecture Auditorium

SCOTT MARBLE
Marble Fairbanks / Columbia GSAPP, NYC
DESIGNING PARAMETERS / DESIGNING ASSEMBLIES
Thursday 02/04/09, 7:30PM DALLAS ARCHITECTURE FORUM

EXHIBITION

Partial Architectures
UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS ARLINGTON SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE
OPENING: Friday, 02/05/10

TEX-FAB

designing for children

Vanilla Hustler — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 14:55:45 -0800

‘designing for children’ - an event being held from 2nd to 6th of February 2010 at the Industrial Design Centre (IDC), Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT Bombay).

This is an invitation to be a part of a series of events concerned with designing for children with focus on ‘play’ and ‘learn’:

The major events during the week are:

Design Education Meet (2-3, February 2010)
International Design Conference (4-6, February 2010)
Exhibition of projects on ‘Design for Children’ (2-6, February 2010)

http://www.designingforchildren.net

OPEN:POLAND Challenging the Paradigm: Polish Urban Development in the 21st Century

Paul Petrunia — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 20:27:30 -0800

In recent years a new wave of Polish talent has offered critiques of the standard forms of urban planning. Aleksandra Wasilkowska, author of numerous proposals for
Warsaw including Plac Defilad talks with Joanna Rajkowska, artist of the recent Oxygenator Project in Warsaw and Grzegorz Piatek, co-curator of OPEN:POLAND.
Chaired by Alejandro Gutierrez, Associate Director, Arup.

tickets £8, £5 concession to book please visit http://www.architecture.com/programmes

OPEN:POLAND
Architecture and Identity
In association with Arup
A major exhibition and talks programme as part of Polska! Year 2009 – May 2010 A cultural programme co-ordinated by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute

8 Fitzroy Street, London W1

Interior Design Show

Paul Petrunia — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 22:51:24 -0800

The Interior Design Show/IDS 10 is Canada’s largest contemporary design event. Since our inception in 1998, over 500,000 design professionals, consumers and media have attended. The newest and most innovative in international and Canadian products are annually presented by 300 exhibitors. Inspirational exhibits feature both emerging and established designers; and highlight international interior design, architecture and industrial design trends. The most influential architects and designers from around the world share their design philosophies and experiences within the international keynote speakers program.

IDS is more than just a show. It is the total design experience.

http://www.interiordesignshow.com

contractworld 2010

Vanilla Hustler — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 22:55:12 -0800

In 2010, contractworld will again confirm its reputation as a leading platform for knowledge transfer and networking. Every day, there will be four lectures on the keynote themes of the event from well-known architects. For the first time, experts from other fields have also been invited to speak so that they can offer their views. Lectures by occupational psychologists, communication experts and hoteliers will give professional people who are not architects the opportunity to say what they think should be required of modern architecture. Talks chaired by professionals and panel discussions will also provide ample opportunity for dialogue and debate between trade visitors and speakers.

At contractworld.congress some of the best-known and most highly regarded architects and designers of our time will be talking about the latest developments and trends in designing Offices, Hotels and Shops. In addition to these three standard categories, the Congress boasts a fourth topical category, which alternates from year to year. This year’s topical category is Change of use/Conversion, which focuses on the transformation of existing buildings on the basis of new concepts or fundamental reconstruction work.

contractworld.exhibition - communication between architects and manufacturers

contractworld - an international forum for architecture and interior design - provides companies in the furniture, lighting an floor covering sectors with first-class opportunities to showcase their products, concepts and future-focussed ideas within an exclusive setting.
contractworld affords a complete overview of contracting for office, hotel and shop interiors.

contractworld is geared towards highly professional, high calibre target groups: architects, interior designers, interior decorators, planners, building developers and other professionals for whom this forum serves as a unique summit.

contractworld is sponsored by leading international professional associations representing architects and interior designers. These organizations will also be represented at the event.

http://www.contractworld.com

SHIFTboston Forum

Paul Petrunia — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 20:00:02 -0800

6:00-7:00 PM Cocktail Reception
7:00-8:30 PM Presentation
Local After Party, TBA

25 Ideas, 3 Hours, 1 BOSTON. . .join us as we present and celebrate the ideas and the winner of the SHIFTboston Ideas Competition. This international competition gathered innovative, radical ideas from visionary architects, artists, landscape architects, urban designers, engineers, and others by challenging anyone to answer the question: WHAT IF this could happen in Boston?

Please visit http://shiftboston.org for details and updates.

Sponsored by SHIFT, the Boston Society of Architects, and The Institute of Contemporary Art / Boston.

Current Work: Field Operations

Paul Petrunia — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 18:00:55 -0800

Current Work: Field Operations
James Corner
Moderated by Ken Smith and Kate Orff

James Corner, the founder and director of Field Operations, will present his firm’s recent and current work, which includes the development of Fresh Kills Park on Staten Island and the transformation of the High Line. Landscape architect Kate Orff will moderate a conversation with Mr. Corner following his presentation.

Field Operations, based in New York City, is a landscape architecture and urban design practice, comprising 35 professionals, many with cross-disciplinary backgrounds in landscape architecture, urban design, architecture, and communication art. Field Operations’ mandate is to create “intelligent, high-quality design solutions for cities, landscapes, and public spaces.” The practice works collaboratively with some of the world’s leading architects, planners, engineers, ecologists, and artists, including Richard Meier, Frank Gehry, Thom Mayne, Renzo Piano, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Tomato, and Olafur Eliasson.

Field Operations’ expertise is reflected in a diverse range of projects, from the design of entire sectors of cities to intimate garden spaces; the design of large public parks and urban spaces to housing and mixed-use urban developments; the reclamation of landfills, derelict brownfield sites and other post-industrial landscapes for new public uses and private development; to the preservation of large-scale natural resources.

Current projects include transformation of the 2,200-acre landfill site Fresh Kills on Staten Island, into what will be one of the world’s largest urban parks; the High Line in New York City; the transformation of 83 acres at the heart of San Juan, Puerto Rico into a 7-million sf state-of-the-art Science City; the Busan Civil Park on the site of a former US Army base in Busan, Korea; the 925 acre Lake Ontario Park on the Toronto waterfront; the Botanical Garden of Puerto Rico; a 4-million sf urban redevelopment project, with 20 acres of public open space, in Westport, Baltimore; the transformation of a former penal farm into a 4,500-acre urban park in Memphis, Tennessee; a new waterfront city in Chuncheon, Korea; a master plan for the University of Puerto Rico Rio Piedras Campus; and the master plan of the 40-acre Great Falls Park in Paterson, New Jersey.

The work of James Corner and Field Operations has been recognized by the New York City Arts Commission Award for Excellence in Design; the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award for Design; the Daimler-Chrysler Award for Design Innovation; the Architectural League of New York; and other professional design awards and prizes. The firm’s work has been published and exhibited internationally, including at the Venice Biennale; the Lisbon Triennale; ArchiLAB, Paris; the Royal College of Art, London; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; and the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum.

James Corner is also chair of and professor in the Department of Landscape Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania School of Design. He received his Bachelor of Arts in landscape architecture at Manchester Metropolitan University, England and his Master of Landscape Architecture and Urban Design at the University of Pennsylvania.

Tickets are required for admission to League programs. Tickets are free for League members; $10 for non-members. Members may reserve a ticket by e-mailing rsvp@archleague.org. Member tickets will be held at the check-in desk; unclaimed tickets will be released fifteen minutes after the start of the program. Non-members may purchase tickets at http://www.archleague.org > events from December 2 until noon of the day of the program.

Co-sponsored by The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture of The Cooper Union. AIA and New York State continuing education credits are available.

This program was made possible in part by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.

Unpacking My Library: Architects and Their Books

archidose — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 19:00:34 -0800

Unpacking My Library: Architects and Their Books

Tuesday, December 8, 6:30 – 8:00 p.m. Reception to follow.
Join us to celebrate the book launch of Unpacking My Library: Architects and Their Books and to enjoy the next “conversation” in the series. Barry Bergdoll, the Philip Johnson chief curator of design at MoMA will moderate a discussion among Stan Allen, Billie Tsien, Bernard Tschumi, and Tod Williams. These architects will talk about their personal book collections and the importance of them to their careers and lives. $15, $10 MAS members. Reservations and pre-payment requested. Reserve online
https://dnbweb1.blackbaud.com/OPXREPHIL/EventDetail.asp?cguid=510682C4-2ED2-4153-8E97-30609146D6BA&eid=26214&sid=55086C30-D2AC-47B1-B203-7856D7E2287F
or call 212 935 2075.

http://mas.org/programs/

Unpacking My Library: Architects and Their Books

Paul Petrunia — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 19:00:14 -0800

Unpacking My Library: Architects and Their Books
Tuesday, December 8, 6:30–8:00 p.m. Reception to follow.

Join the Municipal Art Society to celebrate the book launch of Unpacking My Library: Architects and Their Books and to enjoy the next “conversation” in the series. Barry Bergdoll, the Philip Johnson chief curator of design at MoMA will moderate a discussion among Stan Allen, Billie Tsien, Bernard Tschumi, and Tod Williams. These architects will talk about their personal book collections and the importance of them to their careers and lives.

$15, $10 MAS members. Reservations and pre-payment requested: MAS.org/calendar or call 212 935 2075.

DesCours

Paul Petrunia — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 16:59:59 -0800

This December, downtown New Orleans will showcase DesCours, a week-long, contemporary architecture and art event that explores the latest in design and technology with new media and interactive art installations. After a competitive review of proposals from internationally recognized architects and artists, thirteen installations were chosen to nightly transform hidden spaces across the French Quarter and Central Business District of New Orleans.

During the week of December 7-13, this free, public event invites locals and visitors to view New Orleans historical spaces in a new way. The private courtyards, vacant buildings, and rooftops will be activated with an eclectic variety of site responsive installations by artists including Sadi Brewton, Marshall Brown + Dana Carter, Felipe Correa of the Somatic Collaborative, Gregoire Diehl of Smoothcore, Hiroyuki Futai of F-TAI Architect, Mary Hale, Jennifer Hiser, Tiffany Lin + Mark Oldham, Leah Nanpei + Koko Hovaguimian of nan.ko studio, Virginia San Fratello + Ronald Rael of Rael San Fratello Architects, Junji Watanaabe, and Jimmy Stamp + Sergio Padilla. These artists represent cities from seven US states, including two teams from New Orleans, and the international cities of Tokyo and Paris. The installations will be paired with nightly changing entertainment by musicians and a total of three public parties will be held to commemorate the start, midpoint, and end of the event.

DesCours goes beyond traditional art mediums to explore creativity, culture, and expression within urban settings. “With DesCours now in its third year, we are looking forward to increased exposure and awareness for this event, and the highest caliber of unique installations from top designers as we uncover more hidden spaces for the public to see.”, said Melissa Urcan, Executive Director of the American Institute of Architects New Orleans Chapter (AIA New Orleans). “While DesCours is a great means of cultural outreach within the city, it also showcases the unique architectural identity of New Orleans and puts our city on the map with other major art destinations worldwide.”

AIA New Orleans is presenting the event in partnership with the Downtown Development District (DDD), the City of New Orleans, and numerous private businesses, organizations, and individuals. DesCours is recommended to be viewed either on foot or by use of bicycle, and will have self-guided and docent-led tours leaving from the new Center for Design on Lee Circle on a nightly basis during the event. More information can be found on the website, http://www.descours.us.

Thom Mayne and Frédéric Flamand for the inaugural John Edwards Lecture

Paul Petrunia — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 22:46:08 -0800

The Architecture Foundation presents Thom Mayne and Frédéric Flamand for the inaugural John Edwards Lecture

The Architecture Foundation is pleased to announce the participants in the inaugural annual John Edwards Lecture are founder of Morphosis Architects, Pritzker Prize Winner and newly appointed Member of President Obama’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, Thom Mayne, and Director of the National Ballet of Marseille and renowned choreographer Frédéric Flamand. The lecture takes place at 7.00pm, on Monday 7 December 2009 at Tate Modern.

The John Edwards Lecture is a new annual dialogue, curated by The Architecture Foundation, which presents leading international architects in conversation with influential figures from other disciplines, from artists and filmmakers to writers and philosophers.

Thom Mayne is an architectural provocateur, fearlessly devoted to the present and the future and the negotiation between concept and reality. His architecture appears as futuristic constructivism; its jagged forms are loaded with rigorous ecological and social considerations. As founder and design director of Morphosis, Mayne speaks for a practice dedicated to interdisciplinary research and design, and architecture as a collaborative enterprise. Morphosis’ work has been the subject of major solo exhibitions at the Centre Pompidou and the Netherlands Architecture Institute and has been featured in the past four Venice Architectural Biennales. This year, their new building for Cooper Union in New York opened to widespread international acclaim; major projects for Shanghai, Dallas and Paris are currently underway. In 2003 Mayne completed a 2,400 square foot stage set for Frédéric Flamand’s production of Silent Collisions.

Frédéric Flamand has staged dance performances in empty swimming pools, abandoned churches and steel mills: anywhere that allows him to investigate the point of intersection between the body and built form. This interest has led him into a number of fruitful and acclaimed collaborations with some of the most important figures in contemporary architecture, including Zaha Hadid, Jean Nouvel and Elizabeth Diller & Ricardo Scofidio. His choreography freely mixes the traditions of ballet with his own formative grounding in avant-garde theatre and contemporary dance. It never seeks a signature style, but rather allows the changing environments of his work’s setting to evolve an ever-translating physical language in constant dialogue with technology, the city, and other art forms. For his next collaboration in 2010, Flamand will work with Chinese artist and architect, Ai Weiwei.

In 2003 Mayne and Flamand’s Silent Collisions inaugurated Body ↔ City, the first International Festival of Contemporary Dance at the Venice Biennale, programmed by Flamand as Artistic Director. Freely inspired by Italo Calvino’s book Invisible Cities, they collaboratively developed an approach to the city that emphasized urbanity as a place of exchanged words, desires and memories through the medium of the human body. Choreographed as a dynamic system of tensions, ruptures and conflicts, these were in turn framed and influenced by a moveable, jointed set design.

The first John Edwards Lecture, a conversation between Mayne and Flamand, supported by the Estate of Francis Bacon, will investigate the rhythms of urban life, the structuring of space through the built environment and the body, and architecture as a form of urban choreography.

The Architecture Foundation is a non-profit agency for contemporary architecture, urbanism and culture. We cultivate new talent and new ideas. Through our diverse programmes we facilitate international and interdisciplinary exchange, stimulate critical engagement amongst professionals, policy makers and a broad public, and shape the quality of the built environment. We are independent, agile, inclusive and influential. Central to our activities is the belief that architecture enriches lives. http://www.architecturefoundation.org.uk

modeLab Parametric Design Workshop

Paul Petrunia — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 08:00:06 -0800

Parametric Design Workshop | NYC | December 2009

Description :
This workshop will focus on the conceptual context and technical understanding of parametric design through a carefully constructed 2-day curriculum. Participants will learn to engage the parametric modeling plug-in Grasshopper in a meaningful and productive way that draws upon the collective sensibility present in the group.

Emphasis will be placed on strategies for deploying constraint-based design, associative modeling techniques, and environmental influencers for parametric geometry creation, analysis, and documentation.

Attendance will be capped at 15 to provide each participant maximum one-on-one time with instructors.

Details :
Instructors | Ronnie Parsons + Gil Akos | Partners, Studio Mode
All experience levels are welcome.
All participants are required to bring their own laptops. Trial software will be made available.
Registration Pricing (limited enrollment) : $550.
Workshop Location : Gansevoort Studio | Meatpacking District, Manhattan.
Workshop Hours : 10AM-6PM

Dates :
2009.October.20 | Workshop Announced.
2009.October.27 | Registration Opens.
2009.November.30 | Registration Closes.
2009.December.05 | Workshop Begins.

http://modelab.nu/?p=1839

Detour

Paul Petrunia — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 17:00:23 -0800

What can rest stops, information centers, and observation decks tell visitors about a culture? The School of Constructed Environments at Parsons The New School for Design will explore this question when it presents Detour, a traveling exhibition documenting notable architecture and design along 18 Norwegian National Tourist Routes. The exhibition, which is sponsored by the Royal Norwegian Consulate General and presented in collaboration with the Architectural League of New York and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, will be on view December 4 through January 19 at the Arnold and Sheila Aronson Galleries at the Sheila C. Johnson Design Center at Parsons.

Detour features photography and architectural models of key works from Norway’s National Tourist Routes Project initiated by the Norwegian Public Roads Administration, which encourages designers across the world to propose alternatives to the traditional tourist-route architecture, which tends to value function over aesthetic beauty. The architects and designers make structures that harmonize with the surroundings and reinforce travelers’ appreciation of the great outdoors and unspoiled countryside. A centerpiece of the exhibition is a large viewing chamber that lets visitors peek inside at a film that winds alongNorway’s scenicroads and bike paths and explores in detail some of the projects.

The initiative has so far resulted in close to 200 built projects, ranging from stopping points, information centers, picnic areas, rest stops, and observation platforms; including works by architect Peter Zumthor in collaboration with artist Louise Bourgeois, and Snøhetta. The project emphasizes creativity and innovation over cost efficiency, and has served as a way for young architects to launch themselves as independent designers. Two of the earliest participants, Jan Olav Jensen and Børre Skodvin from Jensen & Skodvin Architects, have become internationally recognized names, and their viewing platform at Gudbrandsjuvet was nominated for the 2009 Mies van der Rohe Award for Architecture.

In timing with the opening, there will be a panel discussion featuring participating architects on December 4 at 6 pm at The New School’s Theresa Lang Community and Student Center, 55 West 13th Street, followed by an opening reception in the galleries, which is free and open to the public. The event will feature Karl Otto Ellefsen, an architect and principal of the Oslo School of Architecture and Design, who chaired the Quality Council for Concept and National Considerations, which oversaw the development of the National Tourist Routes Project. Also participating are the Norwegian architects Marthe Melbye of PUSHAK and Ellen Hellsten of Ghilardi+Hellsten Arkitekter. For more information, visit http://www.newschool.edu/events.

On Tuesday, January 19, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum will host Detour: Art, Architecture, Cities and Landscapes, a symposium featuring an afternoon panel at 4:30 pm with architects and artists from Europe and the United States moderated by David van der Leer, Assistant Curator for Architecture and Design as well as two keynote lectures in the evening. Book signing and reception follows. Tickets for the symposium are $10; $7 for Guggenheim and Architectural League Members; and FREE to students and university staff with ID and RSVP. For information, call the Guggenheim Box Office, 212-423-3587, Mon-Fri, 1-5 pm. At noon, symposium participants can join a curatorial and artist walkthrough of the Detour exhibition. RSVP at igf@mfa.no or 212-310-1509.

Through the Architectural League of New York, AIA and New York State continuing education credits are available for both of these events. For more information, contact info@archleague.org.

The exhibition Detour is a collaboration between the Norwegian Public Roads Administration and Norsk Form - The Foundation for Design and Architecture in Norway with generous support from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Innovation Norway. Detour has been exhibited in London, Paris, Berlin, Stockholm, Brussels, Bologna, Bratislava, Caen, the National Building Museum in Washington, DC, and the Center for Architecture in Philadelphia.

“What Is Green Architecture?”: “Neues Licht auf das Sperrgebiet (New Light on the ‘Sperrgebi

Paul Petrunia — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 20:00:27 -0800

“What Is Green Architecture?” is a series of conversations, lectures, and events exploring the cutting-edge developments in the field and their impact on contemporary life as well as implications for the future. The series continues with a talk by noted architect Joyce van den Berg, followed by a discussion moderated by Dr. Andres Lepik. The Dutch landscape architect Joyce van den Berg presents her project “New Light on the ‘Sperrgebiet’,” which examines, where the former restricted area around West Berlin exactly was, how it changed, and how one can possibly change the ‘trauma-landscape’ into a recreation area.
Admission is free, no reservation required.

Goethe-Institut Wyoming Building: 5 East 3rd St (at Bowery), Closest Subway: Bleeker St.
http://www.goethe.de/ins/us/ney/kue/en4942229v.htm

Ann Schiffers: Bringing Materials to Light, the Secrets of the Professional Lighting Designer

Paul Petrunia — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 19:00:10 -0800

Ann Schiffers has dedicated her entire career to the interaction of light and architecture and recently celebrated her 20th year in the industry. She holds an MFA from Parsons School of Design and has taught at the master’s level at both Parson and New York School of Interior Design. She opened her own lighting design studio Ann Schiffers Lighting Design, LLC (ASLD) in 2002. Her completed projects can be seen throughout the United States, Japan, Indonesia, Hong Kong, and Korea.
New York School of Interior Design, 170 East 70th Street, New York City

Franzen Lecture on Architecture and the Environment

Paul Petrunia — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 18:00:20 -0800

Franzen Lecture on Architecture and the Environment
Werner Sobek, Werner Sobek Engineering and Design
Introduced and moderated by Toshiko Mori

Werner Sobek, founder of Werner Sobek Engineering and Design will present the 3rd Annual Franzen Lecture for Architecture and the Environment. The lecture is given by an international figure whose work has significant implications for understanding and reconceiving the relationship between architecture and the environment. The annual lecture was created in honor of long-time League trustee Ulrich Franzen. Toshiko Mori, principal of Toshiko Mori Architect, will introduce and frame Sobek’s presentation by identifying current issues in the intersection of architecture and the environment and will moderate a discussion following his lecture.

Werner Sobek is the Mies van der Rohe Professor at the Illinois Institute of Technology and head of the Institute for Lightweight Structures and Conceptual Design (ILEK) at the University of Stuttgart, where he studied architecture and structural engineering. As successor to architect Frei Otto and engineer Joerg Schlaich, Werner Sobek is an advocate for an interdisciplinary approach to architecture and engineering both in training and professional practice.

While the ILEK specializes in the research of new materials and new concepts for lightweight and adaptive structures, Werner Sobek’s office is one of the world’s leading engineering consultancies with offices in Stuttgart, Cairo, Dubai, Frankfurt, Khartoum, Moscow, and New York. The work of Werner Sobek is defined not only by its engineering and emphasis on sustainable systems but by a rigorous application of design. Founded in 1992, the studio’s emphasis lies on lightweight load-bearing structures, high-rise buildings, transparent facade systems, and special structures in steel, glass, titanium, textiles, and wood.

The works of Werner Sobek have been awarded numerous awards and distinctions, including the DuPont Benedictus Award, the European Gluelam Award, the Fritz Schumacher Award, the iF Design Award, the SEAOI Structural Engineering Award, AIA awards of the American Institute of Architecture, the Hugo Haering Award, the Fazlur Rahman Khan Medal, and the UIA’s Auguste Perret Prize.

Toshiko Mori is the Robert P. Hubbard Professor in the Practice of Architecture at Harvard University Graduate School of Design and was chair of the Department of Architecture from 2002 to 2008. She is principal of Toshiko Mori Architect, which she established in 1981 in New York City.

In 2005, she received the Academy Award in Architecture from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Medal of Honor from the AIA New York Chapter. She is Vice-Chair of the Global Agenda Council on Designing Complex Systems for the World Economic Forum.

Co-sponsored by The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture of The Cooper Union. AIA and New York State continuing education credits are available.

This program was made possible in part by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.

Open Platform: A Smart Geometry Event

Paul Petrunia — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 08:00:43 -0800

This event will complement Smart Geometry’s annual workshop and conference event, bringing many of SmartGeometry’s experienced tutors to guide participants in exploring computational design through a variety of technologies.

The event will run in two parallel streams: one stream will feature training in GenerativeComponents and Grasshopper, while the second will be a workshop where participants have the opportunity to propose and work on individual design projects using a variety of software platforms. Both streams will offer participants close interaction with tutors from practices and universities known for their accomplishments in computational design and analysis, and complex geometry. Additionally, the stream featuring GenerativeComponents and Grasshopper will feature tutors from the companies behind each platform, Bentley and McNeel.

Those working on individual projects will need to be proficient in their chosen platform but can draw on tutor’s skills in various technologies for instance Processing, C++/OpenGL, RhinoScript as well as tutors’ expertise in complex problems of geometry, structure, algorithms, and analysis.

Participants will be able to change streams as it suits the development of their work.

In the evenings, participants can attend presentations demonstrating the latest projects and research in computational architecture and engineering.

To register please visit: http://www.smartgeometry.org

The deadline for applications is November 15th.

Conference: Metaphors in/on architecture and urbanism

Vanilla Hustler — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 22:55:00 -0800

In light of recent critiques of metaphors in architecture – Diller and Scofidio reject any “metaphoric associations” for their blur building (2002) – and in urbanism – Atelier Bow-Wow wants to get away from “the attitude that the city can be summarized by metaphorical expression” (2001) – the question arises about the origins, the nature and the consequences of metaphors in these contexts. However, there is little theoretical work on the subject. Among the few exceptions are City Metaphors by Oswald Mathias Ungers (1976) and the work of Denis Hollier on Bataille in Against Architecture (1989).
On the one hand, the absence of theoretical responses is surprising, considering that Leon-Battista Alberti, in addition to his famous “large house/small town” metaphor, already utilized organic metaphors. Additionally there has been an explosion of metaphors in urban descriptions – networks, organisms, archipelagos – symptoms of the complexity of urban environments. The absence of such theories is on the one hand not surprising if we consider how the metaphor has been associated with rhetoric, which has long since been reduced to an ornamental dimension, forgetting its original richness and complexity. On the other hand, considering how metaphors have been reevaluated since 1940 in scientific discourse, through the research of I. A. Richards or Max Black (without forgetting the work of Karl Bühler and W. Stählin, or, further back, Friedrich Nietzsche). It is in this context that Zradko Radman speaks of a “metaphorical turn”.
Hence, we hope that this conference will address the discussion brought forward by science on the cognitive and model-making nature of metaphors.

The conference will provide an opportunity to discuss the implications of metaphor for architecture and urbanism, both from a theoretical and a historical point of view. The goal will be to explore the term, to open future perspectives, to understand the difference between metaphor and analogy as well as to consider the differences between metaphors about and metaphors in architecture/urbanism.
Architecture, like urbanism, is never neutral. Both disciplines are always in search of legitimacy outside their disciplinary borders: they push and question their limits “from inside” or are affected “from the outside” and try to understand this challenge to their limits. Metaphor, as an instrument of translation, appears to be fundamental to understanding the “transitional” nature of architecture and urbanism. In this regard, Peter Collins’ Changing Ideals in Modern Architecture (1965), is interesting in that it identifies four major analogies that influence architecture: biology, mechanics, gastronomy and linguistics. It is revealing, that Collins speaks of analogies and not metaphors.
At the same time, advances in programming and the application of algorithms in design in architecture and urbanism, question the nature and role of architecture. One of the most powerful and reoccurring metaphors being the biological metaphor.

The conference will last three days and will focus on three main topics: Metaphors as instruments of knowledge, metaphors in projects and metaphors in discourse. Each presentation will last 30 minutes and at the end of each day, a round-table discussion will connect the different presentations.
Unless specified, papers will be presented in English. Synopses of the papers will be available in both French and English during the conference.

The conference is organized by Andri Gerber, École spéciale d’architecture de Paris, in collaboration with the Centre Allemand d’Histoire de l’Art, Paris. The conference is generously supported by the Gerda Henkel Stiftung.

A selection of participants:
Gernot Böhme (Darmstadt),
Paul Virilio La Rochelle),
Andreas Tönnesmann (Zürich),
Stefano Boeri (Venezia),
Elisabeth Bronfen (Zürich),
Georges Teyssot (Laval)

Contact registration : Amina Chady / achady@esa-paris.fr / T : 00 33 1 40 47 40 24 / F : 00 33 1 43 22 81 16

http://esa-paris.fr/

International Dialogues: Architecture and Climate Change Masdar City to One Brighton

Paul Petrunia — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 22:27:54 -0800

What are the lessons to be learned from zero carbon communities being built across the world? Senior architects from two Stirling Award winning practices, David Nelson (Head of Design, Foster + Partners) and Peter Clegg (Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios) join Pooran Desai, International Director of BioRegional’s One Planet Communities programme to consider how world class design can make property development more sustainable.

£8, £5 concession to book please visit http://www.architecture.com/programmes
This talk takes place at RIBA, 66 Portland Place, London W1B 1AD

International Dialogues: Architecture and Climate Change
Sponsored by Gleeds
A series of talks that brings together visionary thinkers and innovative practitioners from a range of disciplines to provide a forum for engaging with some of the key issues affecting the built and natural environment now and in the future.

Stranger Than Fiction

Paul Petrunia — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 21:59:51 -0800

November 24th 2009, 6-9 pm
LA Forum Events @ Woodbury Hollywood Exhibitions.
6518 Hollywood Blvd.
(2 doors east of LACE)

The Berlage Institute* and the LA Forum invite you to an open dialogue on the past, present and possible futures of Los Angeles. Berlage studio participants will share observations…, findings, and ideas for the future of the city based on their recent fieldwork in LA for research led by Christophe Cornubert.

The event is hosted by the Los Angeles Forum for Architecture and Urban Design.

http://www.berlage-institute.nl/research/details/stranger_than_fiction

Jencks Award: Visions Built 2009 - Charles Correa

Paul Petrunia — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 20:27:02 -0800

Theory into Practice

This year’s award winner, Charles Correa, discusses his work and issues of architecture, low-income housing and urban planning in India. Correa is one of India’s pre-eminent architects and widely recognised for his outstanding contribution to architecture, having received the Royal Gold Medal in 1984. He is also a planner, activist, teacher and theoretician whose projects include, the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial, Ahmedabad, the State Assembly for Madhya Pradesh and housing projects and townships in Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Bangalore.
Chaired by Charles Jencks, designer, author and broadcaster.

RIBA, 66 Portland Place, London W1B 1AD

£8, £5 concession to book please visit http://www.architecture.com/programmes

Current Work: Grimshaw Architects

Paul Petrunia — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 18:00:17 -0800

Current Work: Grimshaw Architects
Andrew Whalley

Andrew Whalley, partner in charge of Grimshaw’s New York office, will present the firm’s recent and current work, including EMPAC (The Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center) at RPI in Troy and the Fulton Street Transit Center.

Founded in 1980 by Sir Nicholas Grimshaw, Grimshaw is an international practice with permanent offices in London, Melbourne, and New York. Grimshaw’s worldwide presence and commitment to sharing resources between offices allows the firm to approach each project with a collective knowledge base and shared aesthetic. Each city’s workforce is made up of a balanced mix of staff originating from the London office and staff who have joined the firm in each city; this blend ensures the continuity of Grimshaw’s design culture while enabling the firm to respond to uniquely local contexts. The firm’s work has been the recipient of numerous AIA, RIBA, and World Architecture awards and has been shortlisted for the Stirling Prize.

Grimshaw established the New York office because “our contextually sensitive design culture demands geographical and cultural knowledge. We believe that our best architectural responses are created when we understand the wider context within which our designs take shape, and when we are able to interact with clients, sub-consultants, and peers on a frequent and personal basis.”

Andrew Whalley has been an instrumental part of Grimshaw since the earliest days of the practice, and has been Partner in Charge of projects in diverse sectors including education, performing arts, transportation, and workplace. His award-winning projects include the International Terminal at Waterloo, the Eden Project in Cornwall, and the redevelopment of the historic Paddington Station in London. He is currently Partner in Charge of Grimshaw’s New York office, which is one of eight architectural practices selected for major public projects under Mayor Bloomberg’s design excellence program. The New York office’s current portfolio ranges from the renovation of the 1939 Aymer Embury New York Pavilion as part of a redevelopment of the Queens Museum of Art, to the new Fulton Street Transit Center, part of the regeneration of downtown Manhattan. The Industrial Design Group recently completed the New York street furniture contract. Whalley oversees all live projects in the A
mericas.

In the education and cultural arts sector, Whalley has been involved in a range of projects including state of the art science facilities for the Danforth Science Center; the strategic plan for the Royal College of Art in London; EMPAC; and is currently working on the Masterplan for NYU and the new Miami Museum of Science.

Whalley has taught at the Royal College of Art and Imperial College’s Industrial Design Department, the Architectural Association, University College London, Washington University in St. Louis, and the University of Pennsylvania. Whalley received his B.Arch at the Mackintosh School of Architecture and studied at the Architectural Association.

This program was made possible in part by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.

LaN Workshop: Digital ROCK|WALL

Paul Petrunia — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 12:00:20 -0800

Live Architecture Network (LaN) will be presenting a 4 day workshop starting on Tuesday, November 24 entitled Digital ROCK|WALL. The workshop will focus on the process of making complex physical objects digital (reverse engineering) and making digital models physical. With Boulder in mind, a climbing wall will be utilized as a complex surface and as the “medium” of experimentation for the workshop. Participants will work with LaN tutors to digitize a climbing route in order to manipulate it in Rhino software. By weeks-end, participants will work parametrically in order to reconstruct the rock wall for physical output.

http://www.livearchitecture.net/archives/4618

Icsid World Design Congress Singapore 2009

Vanilla Hustler — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 22:55:50 -0800

The Icsid World Design Congress is a high-profile international event of the industrial design industry. Held biennally in a member country, this prestigious event brings together an international audience to reflect, share and propose directions to advance the industry.

2009 is the 50th anniversary of the Icsid Congress. This year’s Congress will not be “just another Congress” and the agenda goes beyond industrial design. The Congress will directly address today’s global challenges which will shape the world of 2050, including issues around agriculture, climate, education, health and mobility.

Unlike conventional events which tend to feature one-to-many speaker sessions, the 2009 Icsid Congress will involve both keynote speakers, studio design leaders and delegates working together to chart a better future through design. The event itself embraces the future by featuring “Design2050 Studios”, inter-active and participative mini-symposia, led by world-renowned creative experts, including Chris Bangle of Chris Bangle Associates, and Stefano Marzano of Philips Design. In the months leading to the Congress, each of the design leaders will head a team of four to six individuals from multi-discipline backgrounds in various parts of the world to create a Design2050 proposition, by imagining, conceptualising and visualising a desired future.

Each Design2050 Studio will present, discuss and then refine their envisioned scenarios in partnership with delegates during the congress. The global public will also be able to contribute to inventing the future during open “ringside crowd-sourcing” sessions, and on-line social media forums.”

http://www.icsidcongress09.com

Tim Burton

Vanilla Hustler — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 22:55:09 -0800

November 22, 2009–April 26, 2010

Theater 1 Gallery
Theater 2 Gallery
Special Exhibitions Gallery, third floor
Museum Lobby

This major career retrospective on Tim Burton (American, b. 1958), consisting of a gallery exhibition and a film series, considers Burton’s career as a director, producer, writer, and concept artist for live-action and animated films, along with his work as a fiction writer, photographer and illustrator. Following the current of his visual imagination from his earliest childhood drawing through his mature work, the exhibition presents artwork generated during the conception and production of his films, and highlights a number of unrealized projects and never-before-seen pieces, as well as student art, his earliest non-professional films, and examples of his work as a storyteller and graphic artist for non-film projects. The opposing themes of adolescence and adulthood, and the elements of sentiment, cynicism, and humor inform his work in a variety of mediums—drawings, paintings, storyboards, digital and moving-image formats, puppets and maquettes, props, costumes, ephemera, sketchbooks, and cartoons. Taking inspiration from sources in pop culture, Burton has reinvented Hollywood genre filmmaking as a spiritual experience, influencing a generation of young artists working in film, video, and graphics.

The gallery exhibition focuses on work generated during the process of conception, development, and production of his films, and will cover Burton’s realized and unrealized projects. It will include works on paper and sculpted in various mediums, as well as work in digital and moving-image formats such as concept art, production designs, drawn and painted animation art, 3-D models, puppets and maquettes, script treatments, storyboards, screen tests, other audio-visual components, and examples of his work as a graphic artist for non-film projects. Burton’s films include Vincent (1982), Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure (1985), Beetlejuice (1988), Edward Scissorhands (1990), The Nightmare Before Christmas (as producer) (1993), Ed Wood (1994), Sleepy Hollow (1999), Corpse Bride (2005), and Sweeney Todd (2007); writing and Web projects include The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy & Other Stories (1997) and Stainboy (2000).

MoMA

NOT FOR SALE: IDEAL PERFORMANCE SPACE

Paul Petrunia — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 13:00:04 -0800

NOT FOR SALE: IDEAL PERFORMANCE SPACE
SUNDAY NOVEMBER 22ND, 11AM ; FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

A special Performa 09 discussion intended to probe questions of performance in relationship to architecture and the city, and to speculate on the future of Performa.

What is the ideal performance space for 21st century New York? This session will be dedicated to the discussion and speculation of what defines a performance space. It will examine past examples of performance spaces–whether deliberately designed or spontaneously invaded–and where they have succeeded and or failed. By utilizing the Public School platform, this session intends to bring together professionals in visual arts, performing arts and architecture to understand the complex issues involved in ensuring a successful performance.

This year Performa has a special focus on New York City itself - with commissioned projects that explore architecture, design, urban planning, typography, media, and public spaces - turning the city into an evolving platform for public engagement and inspiration.

With Performa 09, architecture has been added as a significant part of the biennial. More than twenty architecture related events have been organized, including the Performa Commission of nOffice in Berlin, for the interior design of the Performa Hub (located on the ground floor gallery of the new Cooper Union building at 41 Cooper Square), the fully functioning headquarters for the Performa 09 biennial, and the location for this event.

Moderated by Performa Director RoseLee Goldberg and curator Defne Ayas.

Participants:
- Didier Faustino
- Florian Idenburg
- Dana Karwas
- Carlos J. Gomez de Llarena
- Eric Liftin
- Shohei Shigematsu
- Christian Wassmann

Organized by Defne Ayas & Griffin Frazen as part of Performa 09 and the Public School (For Architecture)

Sunday, November 22nd, 2009
11 am
41 Cooper Square

sign up online http://nyc.thepublicschool.org/class/1589
see the Performa calendar for details http://performa-arts.org/blog/not-for-sale-ideal-performance-space/

“CAUTIONARY TALES - Feral Structures” Finissage and Discussion

Paul Petrunia — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 22:24:37 -0800

“CAUTIONARY TALES - Feral Structures” , an exhibition curated by Berenika Boberska - Finissage and Discussion

Please join our finissage and discussion, lead by Mohamed Sharif who currently serves as President of the Los Angeles Forum for Architecture and Urban Design (LA Forum) on Saturday, November 21st, 2009 from 6 to 8 pm.

Where: ARENA 1 Gallery, Santa Monica, CA 90405

http://www.santamonicaartstudios.com

Architecture and Design Museum Present: Architects Reaching Out

Paul Petrunia — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 12:00:40 -0800

Effective communicationwith potential clients, the media and the publicis a key to survival for architects. Two interactive presentations with seasoned professionals (including Frances Anderton, Sam Lubell, Lorcan O’Herlihy, Christine Anderson, Benny Chan and Shannon Vincent-Brown), moderated by architectural writer Michael Webb, will provide expert advice on establishing your identity, in print and on-line, writing and taking about your work, getting published and exhibited, and the value of exemplary photography. The course will be shaped to meet the needs of practicing and aspiring architects.

For more information and to purchase tickets: http://designguide.com/eblast/architects_reaching_out.htm

New Geographies #2: LANDSCAPES OF ENERGY GSD Book Launch

Paul Petrunia — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:00:38 -0800

Roundtable Discussion Followed by a Reception
Organized by Rania Ghosn, Editor-in-Chief

-Martin Felsen, IIT/Archeworks
-Mark Jarzombek, Architecture, MIT
-Sheila Jasanoff, Science and Technology Studies, Harvard
-Ajantha Subramanian, Anthropology, Harvard
Moderated by Hashim Sarkis, GSD, Harvard

Copies of the journal will be available for sale at the event.

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NEW GEOGRAPHIES #2: LANDSCAPES OF ENERGY
Energy infrastructures deploy space at a large scale, yet they remain invisible because the creation of value in the oil regime has long externalized spatial costs, sliding them out of sight and away from design’s agency. Contemporary environmental, political, and financial crises have brought energy once again to the forefront of design concerns. Rarely, however, do practices of sustainable designefficient building skins, islands of self-sufficiency, positive-energy machineaddress the spatiality of energy systems. Instead, they tend to emphasize a renewable/nonrenewable binary that associates environmental costs exclusively with the infrastructure of oil and overlooks the geographic imperative of all forms of energy.

Volume 2 of New Geographies proposes to historicize and materialize the relations of energy and space, and map some of the physical, social, and representational geographies of oil, in particular. By making visible this infrastructure, Landscapes of Energy is an invitation to articulate design’s environmental agency and its appropriate scales of intervention.

Contributors to New Geographies #2 include: Ivan Illich, John May, Carola Hein, Gavin Bridge, Abdellatif Benachenhou, El Hadi Jazairy, Santiago del Hierro, Gary Leggett, Andrew Barry, Center for Land Use Interpretation, Geoffrey Thun, Kathy Velikov, Martin Melosi, Maria Kaika, Geoff Manaugh, Pierre Belanger, Kazys Varnelis, Robert Sumrell, Jean Robert, and Mirko Zardini.

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New Geographies #2: LANDSCAPES OF ENERGY
Editor-in-Chief: Rania Ghosn.
Editorial Board: Gareth Doherty, El Hadi Jazairy, Stephen Ramos, Antonio Petrov, Neyran Turan.
Advisory Board: Bruno Latour, Mohsen Mostafavi, Antoine Picon, Hashim Sarkis, Charles Waldheim.
Editorial Advisor: Melissa Vaughn
Graphic Design: Tomas Celizna and Daniel Harding.
New Geographies is distributed by Harvard University Press.

For more information visit: http://www.gsd.harvard.edu/newgeographies

Volume Magazine at 20 - Storytelling Roundtable at the AA

Paul Petrunia — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:00:40 -0800

On the occasion of the 20th issue of Volume Magazine, the Architectural Association will be hosting a roundtable discussion about writing and storytelling with presentations by author Tom McCarthy, filmmaker Dave McKean, AA’s director Brett Steele, GSAPP’s dean Mark Wigley and Volume 20’s editor, Jeffrey Inaba.

Storytelling communicates facts, but it also builds upon real-life accounts to enrich public expectations and elevate beliefs. To these ends, it is worthwhile to get reacquainted with the children’s story. Although regarded as a vehicle to escape reality, it could again help to elucidate larger social and political storylines. Volume 20 presents storytelling as a means of understanding our time.

The contributors to the issue show the ability of the children’s story to make sense of hard-to-describe events, given that it addresses emotionally difficult, morally complicated and ethically charged issues in a simple concise format. Such constructions are especially relevant today since simple public narratives set the tone for actions in response to the very events (like crisis) which challenge our ability to distinguish fact from fiction.

Storytelling
2-4p
November 20, 2009

Architectural Association School of Architecture 
36 Bedford Square 
London WC1B 3ES 
+44 (0)20 7887 4000

Masters of Architecture Lecture Series: Peter Zumthor

Vanilla Hustler — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 22:55:24 -0800

Thursday, November 19 | 7:30 pm
LACMA and the American Institute of Architects/Los Angeles present:

In naming Peter Zumthor the 2009 Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureate, the jury noted that “All of Peter Zumthor’s buildings have a strong, timeless presence. He has a rare talent of combining clear and rigorous thought with a truly poetic dimension, resulting in works that never cease to inspire.” The son of a cabinet-maker who apprenticed to a carpenter before studying in Switzerland and New York, Zumthor began his career as an architect working for the Department of Preservation of Monuments of Canton of Graubünden, Switzerland. He established his own practice in 1979 in Haldenstein, Switzerland. Zumthor is a professor at the Academy of Architecture Università della Svizzera Italiana, Mendrisio and has been a visiting professor at the University of Southern California and SCI-ARC, the Technische Universität in Munich, and the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University. Among his many awards are the Praemium Imperiale from the Japan Art Association (2008), the Carlsberg Architecture Prize (1998), the Mies van der Rohe Award for European Architecture (1999), and the Arnold W. Brunner Memorial Prize in Architecture from the American Academy of Arts and Letters (2008). His works include the Thermal Baths in Vals, Switzerland; the Field Chapel to Saint Nikolaus von der Flüe near Cologne, Germany; the Kolumba Museum in Cologne; Protective Housing for Roman Excavations, Chur, Graubünden, Switzerland; Saint Benedict Chapel, Sumvitg, Graubünden, Switzerland; Homes for Senior Citizens, Chur, Masans, Graubünden, Switzerland; Spittelhof Estate, Biel-Benken, Baselland, Switzerland; and Kunsthaus Bregenz, Vorarlgerger, Landesgalerie, Breganz, Austria.

Bing Theater | Tickets: $12; $10 AIA & LACMA members; $5 seniors 62+ and students with ID | Ticket Sales: 323-857-6010.

LACMA

Zlín – Model town of Modernism. Exhibition

Vanilla Hustler — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 22:55:24 -0800

November 19, 2009 - Feburary 21, 2010
Opening: November 18, 2009
Architekturmuseum of the TU Munich, Pinakothek der Moderne

The modern development of the south Moravian town Zlín is closely connected with Baťa shoe factory. From 1923 to 1938 the entrepreneur Tomáš Baťa and his stepbrother Jan Antonín extended Zlín like a huge laboratory for collective life and work. According to the designs of František Lydie Gahura – a former associate of Le Corbusier’s – a “factory in the countryside” with spacious open areas, housing estates as well as cultural and social facilities was developed on a planning grid of 6.15 m x 6.15 m. Baťa combined clever entrepreneurship with Fordian mass production of shoes and social experiment. This sole worldwide example of a town erected according to strictly functional principles has been studied and admired as a showcase by modern architects and politicians of all kinds alike. The exhibition shows the Czech sample town by means of plans, photos, films and models.

An exhibition by the Architekturmuseum der TU Munich, the National Gallery in Prague and the Regional Gallery of Fine Arts in Zlín.

The exhibition is part of “A Utopia of Modernity: Zlín”, a project by Zipp - German-Czech Cultural Projects, an initiative of the German Federal Cultural Foundation.

Website

Andrew Zago (Zago Architecture) , with response from Jeffrey Kipnis

Paul Petrunia — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 20:30:01 -0800

Research & Deploy, The LA Forum’s fall lecture Series, examines the role of research in contemporary architectural practice.

Los Angeles’ Architectural history is deeply ingrained with technological, material, formal and cultural experimentation. Explorations including Wright’s textile blocks, the fabrication techniques of Charles and Ray Eames, and Gehry’s formal and material developments have all pioneered new territory for the discipline of architecture.

Today’s Pioneers continue westward expansion armed with a range of interests unique to the contemporary moment. This series will zoom in on a group of practitioners whose research at the margins of the discipline is expanding the architectural designer’s territory for play. From advanced technology to cultural aesthetics, a dizzying array of new trajectories is quickly taking shape. For these designers research is a practice based, not a project based activity. The cultural value of this approach is that it offers disciplinary intelligence without the shackles of sensibility.

For more information visit the LA Forum website: http://www.laforum.org

Space.City Presents Michael Maltzan Lecture

Paul Petrunia — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 19:31:51 -0800

This is the third lecture in a series featuring three award-winning architects presenting projects of strategic urban intervention.

Michael Maltzan Architecture (MMA) is an architecture and urban design practice committed to the creation of progressive, transformative experiences that chart new trajectories for architecture, urbanism, and the public realm. Led by Michael Maltzan, FAIA, the practice is dedicated to the design and construction of projects for the arts and education which engage their context and community. Through a shared belief in the role architecture can play in the contemporary city, this work has created new connections and catalyzed change across a range of scales, programs, and contexts from MoMA to Skid Row.

Seattle Central Library Auditorium

$10 Advance | $15 Door
Peter Miller Books - 1930 1st Avenue
http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/82786

There will be a FREE wine reception to follow the lecture. This lecture is made possible through the generous contribution of Schuchart/Dow.

TOWARD “ANARCHITECTURE”: A Conversation between Architects and Artists

archidose — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 19:00:37 -0800

TOWARD “ANARCHITECTURE”: A Conversation between Architects and Artists

When: 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 19

Where: At The Center

This is the third lecture in a multi-part fall series organized by the AIA NY New Practices Committee.

Moderator: Farnaz Mansuri, AIA, De-Spec

Speakers: Philip Verne (Dia), Joseph Grima (Storefront for Art & Architecture), Alanna Heiss (AIR), Katrin Sigurdardottir (Artist), Hernan Diaz Alonso (Architect), Didier Faustino (architect)

CES LUs 1.5; HSW 1.5

Free for members; $10 for non-members

http://cfa.aiany.org/index.php?section=calendar&evtid=1174

TOWARD ‘ANARCHITECTURE’
A Conversation between Architects, Artists, historian, curators, critics
Matta-Clark stipulated that the term did not imply anti architecture but was, rather, “an attempt at clarifying ideas about space which are personal insights and reactions rather than formal socio-political statements…”

Think of the work of the following figures: Friedrich Kiesler, Haus-Rucker, John Hejduk, Gordon Matta Clark, Rachel Whiteread, Maya Lin, Dan Graham, Diller Scofidio+ Renfro, Olafur Eliasson, James Wines, Walter Pichler, Heizer, Archigram, Sol Le Witt, Thomas Saraceno, Greg Lynn, Juan Downey, David Byrne, Gregor Schneider, Alex Amini, Gage/Clemenceau Architects, Urban A&O, Jan Decock, Lo-Tek, Alice Aycock, Didier Faustino and the many more Architects and Artists experimenting with Architecture and Art and essentially blurring those boundaries.

For many young architects, their education and that of their instructors have laid the ground work for the way they perceive the process and production of architecture. With changes in technology, theoretical discourse, the competition system, the process and importance of drawing or not, the manufacture of objects, 3D prints, and other rapid prototyping methods, there has been a greater expression of unprecedented form, and for other architects, the theoretical process has lead to more conceptual work or work transgressing other disciplines such as mathematics or computer science. There are also cases where the architectural work is not about form at all and is purely conceptual and/or psychological.

While ‘conceptual art’ is evolving rapidly, simultaneously there is also a revival of the architect and work for the sake of itself, not commissioned, and either without utilitarian premises or the pursuit of extremities of utilitarianism. This work often focuses on materiality or is land based or installed, yet it is not ‘installation art’, ‘land art’ nor ‘conceptual art’ so we ask what is it?

Art has also made such leaps and changes, the new ‘conceptual art’, ‘land art’ and ‘installation art’, finds itself in territory sometimes more familiar to architects, but the process and approach is vastly different. The Artists making ‘land art’, ‘installation art’ and ‘physical conceptual art’ have done away with many of the more rigid rituals and practices of process, production and geometry and have found far more lucid and active media through what may be considered architectural language.

As part of the overall conversation with artists, architects, curators, historian, critics and theoreticians, we aim to expose and evaluate the crossings of paths of these two disciplines once again, now in the 21st century and recognize the changes and cross pollinations through our findings.

Heather Rowe and Michelle Fornabai in Conversation

Paul Petrunia — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 19:00:25 -0800

Thursday, 11/19: Heather Rowe and Michelle Fornabai in Conversation

Co-sponsored by the Columbia University School of the Arts. Cross-disciplinary dialogue on materials and artistic and architectural practice with HEATHER ROWE, Columbia SoA alum, and MICHELLE FORNABAI, Columbia GSAPP.

Free and open to the public
RSVP: gdb2106[@]columbia[dot]edu

Studio-X
180 Varick Street, STE 1610
Between King and Charleton Streets
212 989 2398

[Studio-X is a downtown studio for experimental design and research run by the Graduate Architecture, Planning and Preservation of Columbia University.]

SUPERFRONT LA presents Architecture Live!

Paul Petrunia — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 19:00:10 -0800

SUPERFRONT is proud to present Architecture Live!, a group exhibit of architectural work that explores themes of live action and time. The exhibit features installations that incorporate live plants and light, as well as two projected works.

The exhibit features Paul Schuette, an architect and artist who was a fellow at the Whitney Museum of American Art’s Independent Study Program in 2005. Schuette’s work, Hydroloops, is comprised of living sculptures – live plants and light systems – that generate diagrams of their own behaviors and environment.

Architecture Live! also presents filmic pieces by two young Brooklyn-based architecture practices: Fake Industries Architectural Agonism and Decker Yeadon. ”Ay Caremelles”, a short live film, documents Fake Industries Architectural Agonism’s subversive approach to a municipal commission to activate a fenced-off square in Barcelona. ”Smart Screen” by architects Decker Yeadon is a brief painterly video of live footage of the architect’s thermo-responsive screen prototype opening and closing in response to ambient room temperatures.

Architecture Live! opens November 19th with reception 5pm – 8pm. On view through December 16.

Pacific Design Center # 208 | 8687 Melrose Avenue

http://losangeles.superfront.org/2009/11/architecture-live/

In he Americas: International Conference of Architecture School Deans (Bilingual, English/ Spanish)

Paul Petrunia — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 12:30:10 -0800

More information and Conference Program: http://www.bienalmiami.com

THEMES | TEMAS
• Professional Education for International Practice in Architecture
• International Accreditation

In the international threshold city of Miami, Florida, Bienal Miami + Beach 2009 invites
Deans of Architecture from across the Americas to take part in a unique conversation
on architecture education and global practice. We propose to advance vigorous
discussion on a range of topics: Professional design curricula; opportunities for
research and collaboration in an international context; the preparation of students for
global practice; and international models for accreditation.

In advance of the meeting we invite conference participants to contribute representative
examples of the work of their programs to an exhibition centered on design
education in the Americas. Presentations and a roundtable discussion will introduce
attendees to the range of work produced by professional design programs in our
hemisphere. Bienal Miami + Beach will publish proceedings of the meeting including
illustrations of all the exhibited work.

Marc Simmons: Front, Inc., Recent Work

Vanilla Hustler — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 22:55:07 -0800

Marc Simmons, founding partner of the specialist façade consulting practice Front, Inc., has collaborated with many of the most brilliant architects in the world to produce some of the most exciting façades in today’s world of architecture.

Many buildings are recognized by their façades more than their spatial qualities and this highlights the obvious role of a façade beyond its purpose to keep out the elements of nature. As Marc Simmons puts it, “Beyond its functional role, the façade is a signifier that evokes thoughts about what the building is about.”

Front is a cross-disciplinary group of creative individuals with professional backgrounds in architecture, structural engineering and mechanical engineering. The firm provides design and technical consulting services through intensive collaboration to realize innovative projects and responsible design. Front has been involved in a series of innovative projects including the Seattle Central Public Library with OMA; the Glass Pavilion at the Toledo Museum of Art with Sejima Nishizawa Associates; the Walker Art Center expansion with Herzog de Meuron; and the Morgan Library & Museum expansion with Renzo Piano Building Workshop.

Simmons is a faculty member at the Princeton University School of Architecture, and holds both Bachelor of Environmental Studies and Bachelor of Architecture degrees from the University of Waterloo, Canada. His specialist façade knowledge and experience in custom curtainwall and hybrid cladding system design is built upon previous work at Foster and Partners, Meinhardt Façade Technology, and the structural gall and façade consulting group at Dewhurst Macfarlane and Partners in New York.

The Nabih Youssef Lecture on Structural Design Innovation endowment, funded by USC Architectural Guild Life Member Nabih Youssef, provides support in perpetuity for a lecture to be given by a distinguished structural designer.

Lectures are free and open to the public. They are located in the Gin D. Wong, FAIA Conference Center, Harris Hall, on the University Park campus. No reservations are required. Parking is available on campus at Gate 1 off Exposition Blvd.

USC School of Architecture

CoD lecture - Dan Wood of WORK ac

Paul Petrunia — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 21:42:32 -0800

College of Design Lecture Series

Dan Wood
WORK ac, New York
Wednesday, 18 November, 6 pm
209 Pence Hall

http://www.work.ac/
http://www.uky.edu/Design

WORK Architecture Company (WORKac) was founded in 2003 by Amale Andraos and Dan Wood. Based in New York City, the firm believes in giving shape to ideas and the exploration of form through program. Since its inception, the firm has said “yes” to everything, designing over a hundred projects ranging from a dog house for the urban dog to a new 100 acre city in Las Vegas and a 10,000 square-foot house in Inner Mongolia. WORKac strives to develop architectural and urban planning projects that engage culture and consciousness, nature and artificiality, surrealism and pragmatism.

Recent projects include the new 35,000 square-foot headquarters for the Diane von Furstenberg Studio, selected by the Municipal Art Society for a MASterwork award as the best adaptive reuse of the year, an AIA award-winning store for Anthropologie in California, and the Master Plan for the new BAM Cultural District in Brooklyn. In 2008, WORKac was selected for the Architecture League’s prestigious Emerging Voices Series and has been featured in publications including profiles in MARK Magazine, Architectural Record, Men’s Vogue, and Metropolis.

Dan Wood, AIA, LEED received his BA at the University of Pennsylvania and a Masters degree from Columbia University. He has lived in Paris and for many years in the Netherlands before moving to New York in 2002. Wood has taught at the Cooper Union and, together with Andraos, at the Knowlton School of Architecture at Ohio State University where they were the Baumer visiting studio professors of Design. Wood is currently an Adjunct Professor at Princeton University’s School of Architecture.

Our mailing address is:
University of Kentucky / College of Design
117 Pence Hall
Lexington, KY 40506-0041

ARCHILD International Congress Architecture and Children

Paul Petrunia — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 21:00:40 -0800

The Organizing Committee for the ARCHILD International Congress Architecture and Children is pleased to announce that the Congress will be held at Ankara during November 18-21, 2009.

The goal of ARCHILD Congress is sharing the theoretical and practical experiences about city and architectural cultural works.

The congress will include oral and poster presentations of the ARCHILD working groups, in plenary format.

http://www.archildworld.org

OPEN:POLAND Tony Fretton, Aneta Szylak, Krzysztof Ingarden and Lukasz Zagala

Paul Petrunia — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 20:27:12 -0800

Architecture and the Polish Context
Talk, Arup, 8 Fitzroy Street
Wednesday 18 November, 18.30
Tony Fretton, architect of the recently opened British Embassy in Warsaw in conversation with Aneta Szylak, Director, Wyspa Institute of Art, Krzysztof Ingarden,
architect and designer of the Polish Pavilion, Aichi Expo 2005, Japan and Lukasz Zagala, Medusa Group, Polish architect.

Chaired by Vicky Richardson, Editor, Blueprint Magazine.

£8, £5 concession to book please visit http://www.architecture.com/programmes

8 Fitzroy Street, London W1

Build Boston

Paul Petrunia — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:32:38 -0800

Build Boston 2009
November 18-20, 2009

Join us in November as nationally and internationally recognized industry leaders team up with the Northeast’s best to share their expertise in over 200 workshops, sessions, symposiums and tours at the 25th annual Build Boston, November 18-20, 2009.

The professional development program focuses on a range of issues that are timely and of special interest to the building industry including energy, building technology, firm management and profitability, urban design, preservation, interior design and more.

Build Boston also features the largest design and construction industry exhibit hall in the Northeast. Visit more than 250 booths filled with the nation’s leading suppliers of building technologies, products and services while getting a glimpse at new products being debuted at the show.

For more information, go to http://www.buildboston.com.

Build Boston

Paul Petrunia — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 11:00:58 -0800

More than 240 workshops and other professional-development opportunities make Build Boston’s conference on November 18 through 20 the finest and most diverse program in the country. Conference attendees also can visit the exhibit hall at Greenbuild across the streetfree. View the entire program and take advantage of early-registration discounts at http://www.buildboston.com

THE GARMENT DISTRICT

Paul Petrunia — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 19:00:54 -0800

Tuesday, 11/17: The Garment District

What is the future of New York City’s Garment District?

MAGDA ABOULFADL, Member, Manhattan Community Board 5
BARRY DINERSTEIN, Senior Planner, New York City Department of City Planning
STAN HERMAN, Former President, Council of Fashion Designers of America
PATRICK MURPHY, Head of Fashion/Retail Growth Initiatives, New York City Economic Development Corporation
BARBARA RANDALL, President, Fashion Center Business Improvement District

Moderated by VISHAAN CHAKRABARTI, Director, Real Estate Development Program and Marc Holliday Professor of Real Estate Development, Columbia GSAPP

MIT HTC Forum: Producing Geopolitics presents Nato Thompson

Paul Petrunia — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 19:00:23 -0800

MIT HTC Forum: PRODUCING GEOPOLITICS
presents
Nato Thompson
Seeing Power: Art and Activism in the Age of Cultural Production

Tuesday, November 17
6:30 pm
Room 3-133
Nato Thompson is Chief Curator at the public art agency Creative Time, New York, where he has organized such projects as Paul Chan’s monumental Waiting for Godot in the streets of New Orleans (2007), Democracy in America: The National Campaign (2008) in New York City’s Park Avenue Armory, the roving cross-country discussion platform It is What it Is: Conversations about Iraq by artist Jeremy Deller, and PLOT09, which brought a number of art encampments to Governor’s Island, NY. Prior to this, Thompson was Curator at MASS MoCA, where his massive exhibition The Interventionists looked to contemporary art engagements across the social sphere — including conferences, nomadic housing, free taxi rides, media detournement, and shoplifting.

Thompson will discuss his book Seeing Power: Art and Activism in the Age of Cultural Production. Borrowing from his experience as an activist and curator, Thompson discusses the difficulties and potentialities of producing meaning under a neoliberal information economy.
The Fall 2009 HTC Forum, Producing Geo-Politics, considers creative production within geo-political systems. HTC Forum events are free and open to the public. Organized by the History, Theory, and Criticism Program of Architecture and Art at MIT with the generous support of the Lipstadt-Stieber Fund. For information about this and other forum events, please contact: htc@mit.edu.

Presentations by the 2008 Winners of Deborah J. Norden Fund Grants

archidose — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 18:00:11 -0800

Presentations by the 2008 Winners of Deborah J. Norden Fund Grants
Rémy Bertin and Angela Starita

Tuesday, November 17
7:00 p.m.
White Rabbit
145 East Houston Street

2008 Deborah J. Norden Fund Travel Grant recipients, Rémy Bertin and Angela Starita, will discuss their respective projects “An Architecture Suspended: Vann Molyvann and the New Khmer” and an exploration of the architect Lina Bo Bardi’s restoration plan for the historic center of Salvador, Brazil, the Pelourinho.

This evening is the second annual program, highlighting the travel experiences and research of the Norden Fund travel/study grant winners. The Norden Fund awards a total of up to $5,000 annually in travel/study grants to students and recent graduates in the fields of architecture, architectural history, and urban studies. The Fund, established in 1995, was created in memory of architect and arts administrator Deborah J. Norden.

Rémy Bertin’s project, “An Architecture Suspended: Vann Molyvann and the New Khmer,” will look at Cambodia’s most accomplished and well-known architect, who formed a new style of architecture following Khmer independence in 1953 before the rise of the Khmer Rouge in 1975. Rooted in European Modernism in both style and social ambition, the New Khmer architecture was contextualized by the nationalism of the period, proudly drawing from Cambodia’s ancient temples in its ornamentation and its planning strategies, as Cambodia and the Khmer sought a new identity after French colonial rule.

Rémy Bertin is currently Senior Designer at Richard Meier and Partners Architects, where he has worked since 2003. He holds an M.Arch from the Yale School of Architecture and a B.S. in Architecture from the University of Virginia.

Salvador, the capital of Bahia state in northeastern Brazil, is the center of Afro-Brazilian culture, renowned for its music and Baroque architecture, beaches, and syncretic religions. In 1986, the city government of Salvador asked architect Lina Bo Bardi to devise a plan for the restoration of the city’s historic center of Salvador called the Pelourinho. Angela Starita will give an overview of Bo Bardi’s work, her history in Salvador, and what remains of her largely unexecuted plan for the Pelourinho.

Angela Starita was a co-author of The Guggenheim: Frank Lloyd Wright and the Making of the Modern Museum and is a regular contributor to the Architect’s Newspaper. She holds a M.A. in journalism from New York University, a M.A. in art history from Hunter College, and a B.A. in English from Haverford College.

Tickets are required for admission to League programs. Tickets are free for League members; $10 for non-members. Members may reserve a ticket by e-mailing: rsvp@archleague.org. Member tickets will be held at the check-in desk; unclaimed tickets will be released fifteen minutes after the start of the program. Non-members may purchase tickets here from November 10 until noon of the day of the program.

This program was made possible in part by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council.

http://archleague.org/2009/11/travel-reports-2/

Symposium WPA 2.0: Working Public Architecture

Paul Petrunia — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 20:09:54 -0800

16 November 2009
10 AM to 6 PM
National Building Museum
Washington, DC

Federal attention to America’s infrastructure is a critical part of our nation’s economic recovery plan, but
we must also consider how that investment in the next generation of bridges, roads, and waterways will
create more sustainable, more engaging, more livable cities. This symposium gathers some of the country’s
most talented young designers –finalists in the WPA 2.0 competition, together with design talent
recognized internationally, to address a new future with policy makers. Innovative ideas drive the work that
will be presented; technical and practical sensibilities demonstrate that those ideas could be the basis for a
Working Public Architecture.

Continuing education credits will be offered to AIA, ASLA, and AICP members.

Visit Website

Commonwealth Lecture: ‘Cmmnwlth : Praxis Permutations’

Paul Petrunia — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 17:30:58 -0800

David Boira and Zoe Coombes of Studio Commonwealth will be giving a lecture on their most recent projects, practice model and future research in the field of art, design and architecture.
The School of Architecture, Northeastern University. Boston, MA - 6:30pm

Energy and Architecture: How Green is Green?

archidose — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 17:30:00 -0800

Energy and Architecture: How Green is Green?

Monday, November 16, 6:30 pm
$10 ($8 ASF members)

A panel discussion including American and Danish architects will analyze the benefits, compromises, and challenges in creating and designing sustainable buildings and communities in the U.S. and Denmark. Energy and Architecture: How Green is Green?The panel, which includes architects Stephen Kieran of the well-known Philadelphia firm Kieran Timberlake and Bjarke Ingels, head of the architectural practice Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), will explore the differences and similarities in the energy-saving measures used by architects in each country. Since the U.S. and Denmark vary greatly in size, climatic conditions, and commonly-used building materials and energy-saving features, the discussion will examine how each country can learn from the other. The moderator of the discussion is Suzanne Stephens, deputy editor of Architectural Record.

Co-Presented with Architectural Record and the Consulate General of Denmark, New York.

http://www.scandinaviahouse.org/events_lectures.html

AIA/COTE Top Ten Green Building Projects of 2008

Vanilla Hustler — Fri, 02 May 2008 15:09:00 -0700

Projects showcase excellence in sustainable design principles and reduced energy consumption

Washington, D.C., April 22, 2008 The American Institute of Architects (AIA) and its Committee on the Environment (COTE) have selected the top ten examples of sustainable architecture and green design solutions that protect and enhance the environment. The projects will be honored at the AIA 2008 National Convention and Design Exposition in Boston.

The project descriptions highlight both the design innovations and sustainable strategies, along with the metrics achieved in terms of reduced carbon emissions, reduced energy consumption and improved building functionality.

“These projects were judged against a rigorous set of criteria to determine the best examples of sustainable design concepts and intentions,” said Henry Siegel, FAIA, chair of the AIA Committee on the Environment. “In addition to examining their architectural innovation, the buildings had to have shown design elements within their regional / community context, land use and site ecology that benefits surrounding ecosystems, resource conservation through bioclimatic design and the health benefits associated with improved lighting and indoor air quality.”

The 2008 COTE Top Ten Green Projects program celebrates projects that are the result of a thoroughly integrated approach to architecture, natural systems and technology. They make a positive contribution to their communities, improve comfort for building occupants and reduce environmental impacts through strategies such as reuse of existing structures, connection to transit systems, low-impact and regenerative site development, energy and water conservation, use of sustainable or renewable construction materials, and design that improves indoor air quality.

Siegel added, “All of the projects succeed in all the measures. Some projects demonstrated true innovation in one or more measures, and all of them help illustrate how much farther the design and construction community will need to go in the coming years to reach truly sustainable design.”

Members of the jury include: Glenn Murcutt, Hon. FAIA, Glenn Murcutt Architecture; Jason McLennan, AIA, CEO of the Cascadia Region Green Building Council; Susan T. Rodriguez, FAIA, Polshek Partnership Architects; Gail Brager, PhD, University of California at Berkeley; Marvin Malecha, FAIA, North Carolina State University; and Rebecca Henn, AIA, PhD candidate at the University of Michigan.

The 2008 Top Ten Green Projects (listed in alphabetical order):

Aldo Leopold Legacy Center
The Kubala Washatko Architects, Inc., Cedarburg, WI
Completed in spring, 2007, the 12,000sf building includes office and meeting spaces, interpretive hall, archive and workshop. The Center was envisioned as a small complex of structures organized around a central courtyard. This design provides flexibility in managing energy use based on program requirements, creates outdoor spaces for work and gathering, and reduces the scale of the buildings on site. The Aldo Leopold Legacy Center is the first building recognized by LEED as carbon-neutral in operation.

Photo credit: Mark F. Heffron

Juror Marvin Malecha said, “Through its demonstrable energy conservation and reduced heating, cooling and operating costs, this is an excellent example of how a building can achieve carbon neutrality.”

Cesar Chavez Library
Line and Space, LLC, Tucson, AZ
In order to protect the outdoor and indoor space from the sun’s radiation, the building uses extensive overhangs to create a ‘hat’ in the desert. The scarcity of water led to roof top rainwater collection for irrigation, while water reducing fixtures are used indoors. Always a concern in the desert, an area of high consumption, the building was carefully cut into the site and the excavated material was used to berm the building for further thermal mass. The windows are also properly shaded to reduce solar gains.

Photo credit: Bill Timmerman

Juror Susan T. Rodriguez said, “We saw leadership on the part of the city here, given the selection of this site for this building—it’s in a place where it can help solve a problem. There’s a 37,000 square foot roofscape that is a part of irrigating a 40-acre park. We felt this showed strong vision to solve multiple problems at once.”

Discovery Center at South Lake Union
The Miller/Hull Partnership, Seattle, WA
A primary program element for this particular center, alongside numerous other environmental goals, was to create a building and core that could provide adaptable exhibit space, capable of being reconfigured and reused for the presentation of multiple residential neighborhoods throughout the South Lake Union Region over a lengthy period of time. In addition to creating flexible interior space, the building itself was designed to be demountable, separating at three integrated joints to break into four separate modules capable of being transported along surface streets.

Photo credit: Lara Swimmer Photography

Juror Jason McLennan said, “I really like the notion of saying, ‘This building type was supposed to be temporary, and we are going to reject that in favor of disassembly.’ This is sustainable at the elemental level.”

Pocono Environmental Education Center
Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, Wilkes-Barre, PA
The building is designed to reinforce the mission of environmental stewardship and education. Through careful site and materials selection, analysis and design of building systems, the structure outwardly expresses the principles of sustainable design. The building is a flexible, multi-purpose gathering space for dining, meetings, lectures and other environmental learning activities. As part of the site design, native grasses were planted to provide a landscape that is low maintenance and integrates the project into its natural surroundings.

Rodriguez added, “This is a dramatic transformation of a site by using the materials removed from its cleanup, to create the exterior envelope, which is exciting to see. The use of the recycled tires and the texture they produce are inventive.”

Garthwaite Center for Science and Art, Cambridge School of Weston
Architerra, Inc., Boston, MA
The facility is designed to advance sustainability, creating an exemplar and educational tool through a design process that engaged the entire community. This LEED Platinum design incorporates dozens of green features that students can view as well as measure and manipulate. The result is a compelling model for educational institutions. Fifty-five detailed sustainability goals included renewable energy, no water to be discharged to the local sewer, 100% storm water infiltration on-site, artificial lighting designed to less than one watt per square foot and minimal maintenance for 20 years.

Juror Rebecca Henn said, “There is a lot of education here; this is a true teaching tool. The students participated in the design of the building. They treat all their wastewater, and these strategies are integrated into the pedagogy. There are only three small spaces that are conditioned in this building; all other spaces are naturally ventilated.”

Lavin-Bernick Center for University Life
VJAA, Minneapolis, MN
The existing building was stripped to the concrete frame, expanded by 33% and redesigned with a variety of environmental systems. The hot and humid New Orleans climate is further tempered with strategies for expanding the comfort zone; including programming for thermal zoning, and technically innovative systems for variable shading, moving air and radiant cooling. Despite its high ambitions, the project had a modest budget and was completed for $189/SF, fourteen months after Hurricane Katrina. Since then, Tulane sees the project as a new model for sustainable design in New Orleans.

Photo credit: Paul Crosby

Juror Glenn Murcott said, “One intriguing feature of this project was that it has a Punkah, a traditional Indian system to move air.”

Macallen Building Condominiums
Office dA Inc. and Burt Hill Inc., Boston, MA
The 140-unit condominium is a conscious and deliberate effort by both client/developer and the architectural and engineering team to incorporate sustainable design measures. It utilizes green design as a way of marketing a lifestyle and concern for the environment, while simultaneously increasing revenue from the design project as a business strategy. The building, just completed in South Boston, is striving for LEED Gold certification in sustainable design. Some of the green building features include innovative technologies that will save over 600,000 gallons of water annually while consuming 30% less electricity than a conventional building.

Malecha added, “This project was built on an environmentally challenged site that was previously unused space. So not only does in enhance the environment, but it provides valuable inner city housing and shows a certain amount of urban savvy.”

Queens Botanical Garden Visitor & Administration Center
BKSK Architects, New York, NY
In looking to the future, the Garden has propelled itself into the front ranks of its field as the first botanical garden in the country devoted to sustainable environmental stewardship. The goal has been to integrate a beautiful contemporary building into the experience of its varied gardens and landscapes, heightening the visitor experience of the natural environment and conveying the key elements of successful sustainability. A water channel surrounds the building and weaves through the garden, fed by rainwater that cascades off of the sheltering roof canopy.

Juror Gail Brager said, “I especially appreciated the focus on water—which is a critical and often overlooked aspect of sustainable design. In addition to the project’s significant attention to storm water management, rainwater collection, and a graywater system, water was also used as a strong design element to unify the building and landscape, and raise people’s awareness of the water cycle at the site and building scale.”

The Nueva School, Hillside Learning Complex
Leddy Maytum Stacy Architects, San Francisco, CA
The 33-acre campus, located in the semi-rural coastal hills of the San Francisco Peninsula, features a thriving coast live oak woodland ecosystem, a variety of dispersed structures and dramatic views of San Francisco Bay. The design is grounded in the desire to integrate straightforward, appropriate and cost-effective sustainable design solutions within the broader language of contemporary architectural expression. Through a variety of simple, observable systems and strategies, reduce site energy use by at least 65% from the national average for schools and meet the 2030 Challenge.

McLennan added, “This seemed to be a very successful project. They did a good job of balancing design and performance; they had particularly notable energy and water metrics.”

Yale University Sculpture Building and Gallery
KieranTimberlake Associates LLP, Philadelphia, PA
Situated on a former brownfield site, the new complex is comprised of three new buildings. To provide maximum daylight and exceptional energy efficiency, a wall system was designed that incorporates solar shading, a triple glazed low-e vision panel, 8-foot high operable windows and a translucent double cavity spandrel panel. Consequently, the entire skin of the building admits natural light. The green roof on the gallery and native plant landscaping, which includes mature trees, serves as a connective habitat patch for avian species moving through the urban corridor between these parks.

Photo credit: Peter Aaron, Esto

Brager added, “The high-performance façade is impressive in the way it balances warm and cold season operation, integrating shading and alternating panels of operable windows, aerogel insulation, and ventilation aperatures in a double-skin thermal cavity.”

Honorable Mention 2008 Top Ten Green Project:

Internal Revenue Service - Kansas City Service Center
BNIM / 360 Inc., Kansas City, MO
Natural light and open views of the surrounding urban fabric were salient sustainable design features for this project. Through architectural techniques, including clerestories, skylights, atrium, and building orientation, an unprecedented 80 percent of workspaces are served by natural light. Internal courtyards provide views of vegetated environments that also serve as workday respites. From inside the IRS processing Center one gets a sense of being part of a bigger whole; one that represents equilibrium between nature and the build environment, public and private, community and government.

About the AIA Committee on the Environment Top Ten Green Awards
The AIA’s Committee on the Environment represents more than 8,700 AIA members committed to making sustainable or “green” design integral to the practice of architecture. The AIA/COTE Top Ten Green Project Awards initiative was developed by the AIA in partnership with the U.S. Department of Energy and BuildingGreen.com, publishers of Environmental Building News magazine. In 2003 The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s ENERGY STAR® Program joined as an additional sponsor.

Next Generation Competition Winner Announced

Vanilla Hustler — Fri, 02 May 2008 08:54:00 -0700

Architect and Professor Eric Olsen Wins 2008 Metropolis Next Generation® Design Prize

San Francisco, May 2, 2008 A Bay Area architect and professor at the California College of Arts has been chosen as this year’s winner of the prestigious Metropolis Next Generation® Design Prize.

Next Generation® Design Prize winner Eric Olsen (Image: Amy MacWilliamson)

The winner, Eric Olsen, was honored by the architecture and design community at a gala awards celebration last night at the BATH+BEYOND showroom in San Francisco. The event was cohosted by competition sponsors Duravit and Geberit. Herman Miller, Inc., Maharam, and Sherwin-Williams also sponsored the competition. Olsen was presented with the $10,000 Next Generation® prize for his innovative design of an easy-to-carry device for transporting and purifying water.

Image: Eric Olsen

Olsen’s design is a Solar Water Disinfecting Tarpaulin, a flexible, adaptable vessel that can be easily filled with water and carried home, where it works to make the water potable. The pleated tarpaulin-constructed from laser-cut clear low-density polyethylene (LDPE) and dark rubberized nylon-is designed to hold up to 20 liters of water and can be rolled into a bundle or worn as a shawl-like kanga for carrying. It can be laid across a rooftop, spread on the ground or hung vertically to allow ultraviolet radiation from the sun to disinfect the water inside. This World Health Organization-approved purification method takes only five hours in hot climates. The tarpaulin is designed for use in a wide variety of settings, from urban disaster sites to remote third-world villages. Ten additional Next Generation proposals were also honored as runners-up at the awards event. (See below for details.)

Image: Eric Olsen

“This year’s winner and the very noteworthy runners-up once again confirm our belief in young designers’ ability to address complex social, cultural and environmental issues with enthusiasm and a high level of creativity,” said Metropolis publisher Horace Havemeyer III. “I’m also proud of them for submitting clear-headed business plans,” adds Havemeyer, noting that the “competition is unique among design competitions in that it asks for entrants to submit a business plan.”
“It is clear to us that the next generation of designers cares deeply about our natural resources,” says Metropolis editor in chief Susan S. Szenasy. “Their inventive proposals were focused on water, an endangered resource worldwide, and serve to create a dialogue around a crucial topic. Designers, they’re saying, have useful answers to offer a thirsty world.”
The judges for the 2008 Next Generation Design Competition were Lance Hosey, director at William McDonough + Partners; Eric Chan, president of ECCO Design Inc.; Fiona Cousins, principal and mechanical engineer at Arup; and Pam Light, senior vice president at HOK. Szenasy moderated the deliberations.

Created by Metropolis magazine, the annual Next Generation Design Competition, now in its fifth year, recognizes outstanding ideas from young architects and designers for making our built environment better, safer and more sustainable. This year, entrants were asked to submit proposals relating to water.

Image: Eric Olsen

2008 Next Generation Design Prize Runners-Up:

Andrea Brivio, Davide Conti and Fabio Galli (Italy): “S_M_L,” a housing project designed for the city of Melaka, Malaysia, that harnesses the power of the region’s daily rainfall and uses it to produce electricity and replenish gray water systems

Yuichi Watanabe, Katz Miyahara and Yoshi Ogawa (Seattle): “Polarfloat,” large floating structures in the Arctic Ocean that provide places for polar bears to land as the ice melts

Joseph Cory and Eyal Malka (Israel): “WatAir,” a simple unit with an integrated infrastructure for collecting dew and rainwater

Paul Giacomantonio, Vera Templeman, William Sorich and Kat Taylor (Pescadero, CA): “The Sun Curve,” a self-sustaining aquaponic food growing system, powered by solar and wind energy

Charles Lee (San Francisco): “Pacific Coast Interpretive Center for Ocean Health,” living systems that recycle gray water and runoff by filtering wetlands, cooling the gray water with ocean water and producing energy with tidal generators

Lars Mayer (Germany): “Sustainable Water,” a surface water purification solution that is suited to the needs of developing countries and based on natural processes, using the seeds of the moringa tree

Robyn Perkins (Boston): “emergeMUMBAI,” a method of rainwater harvesting that is used as a spatial backbone, a flood mitigation tool, and a water source for redeveloping public housing lands in Mumbai, India

Gerald Lindner, Jeroen Tacx, Beate Lendt, Peter Heidman, and Martin Oostenrijk (Netherlands) “Water Harvester,” a double-tubed solar water distiller that is made of polyethylene film and uses a solar-powered water desalinator to make fresh water from polluted or salt water

Renata Fenton and Enrique Lomnitz (Mexico): “Isla Urbana,” small, modular, inexpensive and expandable rainwater harvesting systems that can be affordably purchased by the low-income households in Mexico City most affected by the rapidly increasing water shortages

Thomas Kosbau and Tyson Gillard (New York): “Vena: Water Courses from Air,” a biomimetic low-cost, low-energy solution for people in climates that lack consistent rainfall or clean ground sources to harvest vast amounts of drinking water from the atmosphere

cityLAB Design Competition WPA 2.0 Rides Perfect Storm in DC

Vanilla Hustler — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 10:10:38 -0800

WPA 2.0: Working Public Architecture, the design competition organized by UCLA’s cityLAB, culminated with the announcement of “Carbon T.A.P.// Tunnel Algae Park” as the winning proposal of the professional competition and “R_Ignite” and “Aquaculture Canal_New Orleans” as the winning proposals of the student competition – WPA 2.0 (SE).

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Winner of the professional competition: “Carbon T.A.P.// Tunnel Algae Park” by PORT architects Andrew Moddrell and Christopher Marcinkoski (Chicago/New York). Video by Richie Gelles

UCLA Architecture and Urban Design Chair Hitoshi Abe, Dana Cuff, cityLAB director, and Roger Sherman, cityLAB codirector congratulated the winners at the conclusion of a day-long symposium in Washington, DC on November 16. Housing and Urban Development’s Ron Sims and Adolfo Carrion of the White House Office of Urban Affairs urged those gathered at the symposium at the National Building Museum to think outside the box, and to “boldly lead us to places we have never gone before.” The federal administration is primed for innovative thinking about urban issues, creating a perfect storm for designers to lead the way. The WPA 2.0 winners do just that.

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Carbon T.A.P.// Tunnel Algae Park

“Carbon T.A.P.// Tunnel Algae Park” is the brainchild of PORT architects Andrew Moddrell and Christopher Marcinkoski of Chicago and New York. The proposal uses algae pontoons to capture mobile-source carbon-dioxide emissions along New York City’s transportation arteries and employ them in bio-fuel production, creating an urban park with structured wetlands, aquatic and avian habitat, recreation amenities, as well as high speed bike lanes and public promenades. The jury of Elizabeth Diller, Cecil Balmond, Marilyn Taylor, Walter Hood, Stan Allen, and Thom Mayne was unanimous in its decision, citing two primary qualities: The floating, carbon-capturing bridge between Brooklyn and Manhattan would be a visible marker for the tunnel hidden below, and the periodic rotation of the parkway across the river had the power to reshape the image of the city.

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Carbon T.A.P.// Tunnel Algae Park

Winning Projects of the WPA 2.0 Student Competition:

“R_Ignite” was designed by four graduate students of the Manchester School of Architecture – Peter Millar, Jamie Potter, Andy Wilde and Stuart Wheeler. This proposal revitalizes port cities and greens the shipwrecking industry through the addition of recycling and social activities.

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Joint winner of the student competition: “R_Ignite” by Peter Millar, Jamie Potter, Andy Wilde, Stuart Wheeler (Manchester)

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R_Ignite

“Aquaculture Canal_New Orleans,” by Fadi Masoud, a Landscape Architecture student at the University of Toronto, envisions the New Orleans’ Industrial Canal as productive infrastructure for flood control and aquaculture. The jury noted that the winning submissions were ideal as a pair, representing the range of innovative ideas relevant to WPA 2.0.

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Joint winner of the student competition: “Aquaculture Canal_New Orleans” by Fadi Masoud (Toronto)

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Aquaculture Canal_New Orleans

For the WPA 2.0 competition, more than 300 proposals – half from professional teams, half from student teams – , envisioned a new legacy of publicly-supported infrastructure hybrids. The projects explore the value of infrastructure not only as an engineering endeavor, but as a robust design opportunity to revitalize communities. Students from China to the United Kingdom submitted proposals to WPA 2.0 (SE) tackling the problems of America’s next generation of public works. Seven student finalists’ proposals were exhibited at the National Building Museum: Re-Ignite, Aquaculture Canal_New Orleans, Polytechnic HighSchool and Transportation Center by Douglas Segulja, Fluctuating Freeway Ecologies by The Crop, urban ConAgraculture by Dale Luebbert, Cash for Clunkers = Bike Sharing for Chicago by Matt Moore, and Topographic Infrastructure: Hollywood Freeway Central Park by Meng Yang.

The six finalists from the professional competition (previously on Bustler) presented their work at the symposium, and exhibited creative videos that animated their projects, bringing them to life. They are: PORT (Chicago/New York), Lateral Office / Infranet Lab (Toronto), Rael San Fratello Architects (Oakland), UrbanLab (Chicago), aershop (Los Angeles), and Nicholas de Monchaux & Collaborators (Berkeley).

The symposium, held in the impressive Great Hall of the National Building Museum, allowed experts to examine infrastructure from a range of unique yet critically integrated perspectives. In his keynote address, White House Director of Urban Affairs, Adolfo Carrion, praised all the finalists for imaginatively engaging the future of American cities. His words were echoed by HUD Deputy Secretary Ron Sims who called on designers to reimagine public works in terms of sustainability, community, and jobs. Director of cityLAB and UCLA Professor Dana Cuff, said the cityLAB team followed his advice. “The cityLAB team spent the entire day after the symposium taking the message to agency heads and legislators on Capitol Hill. We showed them that designers have the vision to bring innovative policies to reality. Our timing couldn’t have been better.”

Images: WPA 2.0

Rietveldprijs 2009 Goes to Business Park in Utrecht Papendorp

Vanilla Hustler — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 09:26:38 -0800

The design for Papendorp Business Park in Utrecht, The Netherlands, West 8 designed together with Wissing Stedebouw en Ruimtelijke Vormgeving, has won the Rietveld Award 2009. For the first time, a landscape and urban design project has won the award instead of a building.

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Winner of the Rietveldprijs 2009: Papendorp Business Park in Utrecht, The Netherlands by West 8 and Wissing Stedebouw en Ruimtelijke Vormgeving

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Papendorp Business Park

The awards ceremony took place earlier this week in Utrecht. The Rietveld Award is a bi-annual award and aims to stimulate the quality of the built environment of the city of Utrecht.

The jury commented: “The value of this plan for Utrecht is that it sends out a signal to the city, as well as to the Netherlands. This plan is the legitimate winner of the Rietveld Prize 2009.”

A public choice award was also given to Eindhoven-based DHV Architects for their Simed Health Care Group project in Utrecht.

Images: West 8

Bond Bryan to Design New Landmark Building for Sheffield Hallam University

Vanilla Hustler — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:45:49 -0800

Sheffield Hallam University has announced plans to develop a new £25m building that will become a city center landmark thanks to its innovative design.

The new 9,500 sqm building on Charles Street in Sheffield, England will enable the University’s Faculty of Development and Society - currently split between the City and Collegiate campuses - to move to one campus.

Sheffield architects Bond Bryan have been appointed by the University to design the building, which will sit within the city’s Cultural Industries Quarter (CIQ).

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New Landmark Building for Sheffield Hallam University by Bond Bryan

The building’s semi-transparent walls and glass front will allow light to pass through and at night it will shine across the city’s skyline.

The iconic design fits in with Sheffield’s current campaign Re:Defining the City, which is seeing the city reinvent itself for success in the 21st Century.

Professor Sylvia Johnson, Pro Vice-Chancellor for the Faculty of Development and Society, said: “The Charles Street development is very exciting for the whole University, but especially for the Faculty as many of our students and staff will be based in the new building. We’re delighted to be working with the architects on this landmark building, which will offer our students and staff a world-class learning, teaching and working environment.”

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New Landmark Building for Sheffield Hallam University by Bond Bryan

Alex Pettifer, Director of Estates at Sheffield Hallam, said: “This new building is part of the University’s plan to retain and develop state-of-the-art facilities for our staff and students. The building will allow us to house the Faculty of Development and Society entirely on the City Campus for the first time.

“Sheffield Hallam is known for developing iconic and innovative buildings and we were keen to ensure that the new building maintained these high architectural standards.”

Matt Hutton, an associate at Bond Bryan, said: “The need for the building to become a landmark within the city led us to developing a vibrant design concept that will radiate across the cityscape. The building will feature a top floor multi-use roof space incorporating the jagged saw tooth look of former factory roofs, to reflect the historical significance of the site.”

Kenyan Slum Youth Group Wins 2009 ONE Africa Award

Vanilla Hustler — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 11:08:01 -0800

A community organization founded by young people in Nairobi’s slums has won the ONE Africa Award, an annual prize given by the global anti-poverty group to honor ground-breaking work by African non-governmental organizations.

SIDAREC (the Slums Information Development and Resources Centres) have been awarded the prize of $100,000 for their work engaging and empowering disadvantaged youth in the urban slums of Kenya’s capital and actively preventing violence.

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Winner of 2009 ONE Africa Award: SIDAREC (the Slums Information Development and Resources Centres) in Nairobi, Kenya (Photo: SIDAREC)

The group’s initiatives include the “Slums News” newspaper, the “Ghetto FM” community radio station and a community training center. Their members also use the arts - drama, puppetry, poetry and dance - to provoke discussion of contentious issues, particularly among members of different ethnic communities. The slums where SIDAREC’s work began were not affected by the violence that rocked much of the country after the 2007 elections.

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Core of SIDAREC is the community library (Photo: SIDAREC)

“SIDAREC were selected for this award because they have pioneered innovative ways of engaging disaffected youth in urban slums, giving them the tools to be part of the solution to the poverty and deprivation they face,” said ONE’s Africa Outreach Manager Edith Jibunoh.

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Computer workstations in the library (Photo: SIDAREC)

“The group’s founders realize that Africa’s greatest resource is its youth, so they are tapping into the enormous potential that exists among Kenya’s young people to shape the next generation of home grown community leaders and activists holding their own leaders to account.”

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The community radio station “Ghetto FM” (Photo: SIDAREC)

SIDAREC started life as a youth group in 1996. The group’s work in the Nairobi slum areas of Pumwani and Mukuru Kwa Njenga has now been extended to Kibera, the vast slum that is home to more than a million people and bore much of the brunt of the post-election chaos. Citizens of these deprived areas have been provided with much needed community health services, community libraries and internet connections as well as media and arts projects.

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SIDAREC is dedicated especially to the education and recreation of children and young people (Photo: SIDAREC)

Through a SIDAREC entrepreneurship program many people in the slums, especially youth and women, have benefited from support to launch businesses - including a former criminal group that decided to ‘go straight’ and build a housing project and community toilet with SIDAREC training and startup funding.

The award was announced at the Mo Ibrahim Foundation Forum in Dar es Salaam Nov. 15, where over 1,000 attendees discussed issues key to Africa’s future progress.

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The center is amidst the urban slums of Kenya’s capital (Photo: SIDAREC)

The 2009 ONE Africa Award is the second annual award since the initiative was launched last year. It aims to recognize outstanding contributions by Africans to help advance one or more of the Millennium Development Goals. These goals address several critical issues to development, such as halving extreme poverty, halting the spread of HIV/AIDS and malaria and providing universal primary education.

New Zealand Institute of Architects Awards Wellington’s Best Buildings

Vanilla Hustler — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 10:38:34 -0800

From a writer’s residence powered only by sun and water to the massive new Regional Hospital project, excellence in design was celebrated in the 2009 Wellington Architecture Awards.

The landmark BNZ Harbour Quays Building, Moore Wilson Fresh and Chews Lane Precinct are also among winners in the Wellington awards program, organized and run by the New Zealand Institute of Architects and supported by Resene.

Jury convenor, architect Angela Foster, said the standard of entries had been very high and it was encouraging to see that sustainable principles were now integrated into the design process and evident across both commercial and residential projects.

“It is now something that is integral to projects rather than just added on and it is clear that it is something clients are asking for,” she said.

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Winner in the Commercial, Sustainable and Interior Categories: BNZ Harbour Quays by Jasmax Limited

The BNZ Harbour Quays building, by Jasmax Limited, took triple honors with awards in the commercial, sustainable and interior architecture categories.

The Five Green Star rated building was praised by jurors for its strong sculptural element, ecological and social considerations and as an invigorating environment.

Ms Foster said: “This is a totally different way of looking at an office building, the epitome of open plan and rather like a mini city.”

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Public Architecture: Wellington Regional Hospital by CCM Architects Limited in association with Rice Daubney

Wellington Regional Hospital by CCM Architects in association with Rice Daubney (early stages only) was among winners in public architecture hailed by Ms Foster as an innovative hospital design.

Jurors also said the project, based on the ‘model of care’ concept had worked extremely well making the building accessible despite its massive scale.

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Commercial Architecture: Moore Wilson Fresh by Athfield Architects Limited

Chews Lane Precinct and the Moore Wilson Fresh building, both by Athfield Architects, were also honored.

Chews Lane, a winner in urban design, was praised as having revitalized the site, achieving intimacy and diversity at pedestrian level, again despite being a project on a huge scale.

Moore Wilson Fresh was described as a “subtly detailed urban market” with jurors noting that the client/architect association of 40 years’ standing had resulted in a “dynamic relationship between shopper, product and space”.

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Urban Design: Te Puni Village - Victoria University of Wellington by Architectus

The new Te Puni Village - Victoria University of Wellington student residences, by Architectus, was seen as a “celebration of light and color within the urban landscape”.

Ms Foster said: “This could simply have been any multi-story building but instead is a refined gesture to the city. At night it is a sparkling lantern on the city ridgeline.”

The Herd Street Development in Wellington, by Archaus Architects Limited and Warren + Mahoney Architects in Association, was the sole winner in residential architecture - multiple housing. Jurors were captivated by the boathouse, described as “jewel of the harbor”.

Not all winners were buildings. The Wellington Waterfront Framework by WCC Architects, which guides the future development of Wellington’s central waterfront area, was a winner in urban design winning acclaim as “an example of “where urban design is about process rather than product”.

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Commercial Architecture: Villa Melina Boutique Homestay by Novak + Middleton Architects

The Villa Melina Boutique Homestay in Seatoun, by Novak + Middleton Architects, a winner in commercial architecture, “exuded comfort” while incorporating cutting edge sustainable approaches and many European ideas and products suggested by the Swiss clients.

The Central Forklifts Building at Avalon, by Designgroup Stapleton Elliott, also a winner in the category, won accolades as an elegant response to an industrial subject.

Heritage Awards

Heritage awards went to the Railway Social Hall behind Wellington Railway Station, by CCM Architects, and to Days Bay Changing Rooms by John Mills Architects.

The social hall won accolade for an elegant refurbishment which is contemporary yet sympathetic to the structure, allowing the hall to “regain its grandeur”.

The changing rooms have also been revitalized with a contemporary sculptural interior moving the focus towards the public beach while respecting the shell of the original building.

The Victoria University Coastal Ecology Laboratory by Pynenburg & Collins Architects, was a winner in public architecture with jurors remarking on the well resolved laboratory spaces feeding off a central core.

The “unashamedly lavish” Osteria Del Toro Restaurant, by Designgroup Stapleton Elliott, took honors in interior design, with the décor summed up as creating “a rich and unique dining experience”.

Residential Architecture

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Residential Architecture - Houses: Harding House by Athfield Architects Limited

Praised as an “elegant bunker,” the Harding house, an Athfield Architects designed hilltop home in Melrose, provides shelter from the Wellington winds while encasing a warm and tranquil interior.

Jurors hailed the property as simple, refined and “an outstanding example of site responsive architecture”.

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Residential Architecture - Houses: Collins Wiles House by Erin Collins

Other Wellington winners included the Collins Wiles House at Ngaio, by Erin Collins, described by Ms Foster “as a little gem on the side of a hill”.

The transformation of Two Karori properties, both by Herriot + Melhuish Architecture, were among winners.

Karori House 1: Stewart Dickens House is now “consumed by sun and views”.

Karori House 2: The Stonyer House has become an “entertainer’s dream” and effectively “a magnificent kitchen with four bedrooms attached”.

Other extensively remodeled properties included Winona in Khandallah, by Novak + Middleton Architects, described as “an elegant and sophisticated renovation”.

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Residential Architecture - Houses: Maupuia House by Tim Nees Architects

Another extensive makeover, a Maupuia House, by Tim Nees Architects, won acclaim for paying tribute to the 1970s structure while introducing innovative architecture.

A Writers Residence near Martinborough by Art +Architecture was a winner in the sustainable category, charming jurors with its simplicity, tranquility and harmony.

Ms Foster said the property, which is not connected to either telephone or power supplies, was “totally sustainable and like a Vitruvian Hut - so simple and making you truly feel detached from civilisation”.

Solar panels are used to heat water and, on dull days, a small turbine, powered by a nearby stream, takes over. Heating is provided by fireplaces with wetbacks.

An Aorangi House Building Upgrade by Studio Pacific Architecture, also won in the category, for “Intelligent sustainable interventions applied to an existing multi-story building.

The Pukaha Mount Bruce Wildlife Centre - Visitors Centre by Proarch Architects was a winner in small project architecture with the jurors noting how the original Lockwood structure had been “peeled back” to embrace the forest canopy beyond.

A Greytown Artist Studio by Accent Architects, which “leans up” towards a mature walnut tree, was described as “an extension of the garden canopy”.

Two new Eastbourne properties were among winners. A House for Gillian Watt, by WATT Architects, in Sorrento Bay, was described as a “celebration of light and space” and Bay House, by Novak + Middleton, as “simple yet complex” and “poised serenely in the hills of Days Bay”.

A “well detailed and seamless” Kapiti Coast House at Te Horo, by Bevin + Slessor Architects, was admired for the way it reaches out to the garden as an extension of the living environment”.

Enduring Architecture awards

Enduring architecture awards were made to two 1970s buildings, Wellington’s Westpac Bank Building which was formerly The Bank of New South Wales and designed by Stephenson & Turner NZ, and to the Ainsworth House at Korokoro, by Roger Walker Architects.

Jurors said the elegantly restrained facade and interior of the Westpac building had stood the test of time, transcending styles and fashions.

The Ainsworth House was a seen as “Very much a celebration of archetypal 1970’s Wellington architecture.

“It is what you think of when someone says ‘Roger Walker,’ “ said Ms Foster. “It’s like an adult’s playhouse, with lots of quirky spaces and little nooks and crannies”.

Jurors

Ms Foster was joined on the jury by Wellington architects Michael Melville and Morten Gjerde who lectures at the University of Victoria’s architecture department and is a consultant to the city council, and by visual artist Cathryn Monro who created the steel Per Capita sculpture on the corner of Cable Street and Tory Street.

As well as visiting all shortlisted properties, the judges met with the architects and clients. The buildings were judged against a series of key criteria including their contribution to the advancement of architecture as a discipline and enhancement of the human spirit.

Architect’s Eye Announces Winners of Architectural Photography Contest

Vanilla Hustler — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 09:34:05 -0800

The winners of Architect’s Eye, a competition which judges architects’ photography skills, were announced last Wednesday.

The winners were John Barr, an independent architect practicing in Glasgow, and Philippe Brysse, an Associate at Foster and Partners. Runners up were Paul Qi-En Lim, a Part 2 Architectural Assistant at Stride Treglown Limited in Bristol and Antonia Infanger of Antonia Infanger Architecture+ Interiors.

The competition, which attracted more than 200 entries, was open to all qualified architects practicing in the UK and is split into two distinct categories: Architecture and Place and Architecture and People.

Winner - Architecture and Place: “Church of the Light” by John Barr, John Barr Architects, Glasgow

John Barr won the Architecture and Place category with his image ‘Church of the Light’. The photograph featured a church in Ibaraki, which is one of Tadao Ando’s earlier works and will be known to many architects. The photograph depicts light flooding thorough a cruciform window in a manner which is immediately striking. George Kavanagh, professional photographer and judge said ” This photograph has is all - drama and narrative with its skillful composition, good use of light and technical competence .”

The winning photograph in the Architecture and People category, by Philippe Brysse was a contrast: an image was taken at a reservoir in North London, featuring a bride and groom on their wedding day. Margaret O’Regan, Art Consultant and judge, said of the piece: “I love the starkness of this photograph and the isolation of the building. The evidence that a wedding has taken place and the parked car outside add some humour and life to an otherwise nondescript piece of architecture. It illustrates the connection between the two. “

Winner - Architecture and People: “The Wedding” by Philippe Brysse, Foster and Partners, Associate

A brainchild of International Arts Consultants (IAC), the award is now in its second year. IAC developed the idea for the competition from observing architects’ enthusiasm for photographing buildings. Photography is an important part of all architects’ education and continuing professional development and is taught on most architecture courses in the UK.

Highly Commended - Architecture and Place: “Extension to Castelvecchio” by Paul Qi-En Lim BSc BArch, Part 2 Architectural Assistant, Stride Treglown Limited, Bristol

The competition was judged by Jack Pringle (Chairman of Pringle Brandon Architects), Keith Priest (Fletcher Priest Architects), Hugh Pearman (Editor of the RIBA Journal and architecture critic for the Sunday Times), leading architectural photographers Grant Smith and George Kavanagh, Nick Scott (Chair of Applied and Professional Panel, Royal Photographic Society), Charles Knevitt ( Director RIBA Trust) Jean-Francois Cardella of Construction Photography and Margaret O’Regan of International Art Consultants.

Highly Commended - Architecture and People: “Phaneo Science Center Wolfsburg” by Antonia Infanger, Antonia Infanger Architecture+ Interiors

Commenting on the results of the competition, the Chairman of the Judges Jack Pringle said: “Once again architects have proved that they have an “eye” for a good photograph. This made judging a challenging, but enjoyable task. Despite that, we were in agreement that the two winning photographs were both technically and artistically excellent which, we believe, demonstrates the importance of photography in architecture.”

The competition is organized by International Art Consultants, sponsored by Construction Photography and specialist property marketing consultancy tta Group and supported by the Royal Photographic Society and RIBA Trust.

Given the continued success of the competition, International Art Consultants announced to make it a regular biannual event and will be planning accordingly for 2011. Bustler will keep you updated.

BIO(da)TA - a Thematic Pavilion for the Yeosu Expo 2012 ‘The Living Ocean and Coast’

Vanilla Hustler — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 10:07:38 -0800

Yesterday, Bustler reported about the AIA Seattle 2009 Honor Awards that were presented to Washington State’s most outstanding architects and design teams earlier this week.

One of the award winners that received the Citation Award in the ‘Envisioned’ category was a team comprised of Seattle-based firms zero plus and STAVE for their proposal for a thematic pavilion for the Expo 2012 in Yeosu, Korea.

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AIA Seattle 2009 Honor Citation Award: BIO(da)TA - a Thematic Pavilion for the Yeosu Expo 2012 by zero plus and STAVE

Here’s a project description from zero plus and STAVE:

The theme of the Expo 2012 Yeosu was selected to raise people’s awareness about the values and the critical environmental problems of oceans; and to suggest a new ocean vision for future generations.

BIO(da)TA is an emergent, immersive and environmentally-integrated Thematic Pavilion for Yeosu Expo 2012. Our proposal amplifies the experience of the Thematic Pavilion by creating an architectural system of dispersal which allows visitors and researchers direct interaction with the ocean and coastal environment. This project is a living and adaptive building set into and on the water, adjusting daily with the tidal ebb and flow.

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Site plan

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Aerial view of the proposed pavilion

Emergence: This proposal emerges from the conditions of the ocean, the tides, the geologic strata and the atmosphere. It is partially fixed in proximity to the breakwater, with arms that flow in and out with the tidal movement.

Immersion: Environmental immersion is vital for a visceral, sensory understanding of the oceans, as well as the collection of data and physical sampling, testing and evaluation for research.

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Rendering

Environmental Integration: BIO(da)TA takes a holistic and systematic approach, integrating direct experience, exhibits, research, bioremediation, economic development and adaptive reuse into a cohesive whole. As an example of living building technology and its expressive potential, this proposal uses the elements of sun, wind, rain, water collection and tidal movement in a fully integrated system of engineering. The building becomes organism, and the participants are a part of that life form.

“We see the world piece by piece, as the sun, the moon, the animal, the tree; but the whole, of which these are the shining parts, is the soul.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Rendering

Credits:

Design Team:
Joshua Brevoort, 0-Plus
Ian Campbell, 0-Plus
Kai Chiu, Studio KC, Exhibits
Lisa Chun, 0-Plus
Cameron Hall, STAVE
Dan Lenander, Metastudio

Collaborators:
Peter Alspach, PE, Mechanical Engineer, Arup
Hans Erik Blomgren, PE, Structural Engineer, Arup
Cormac Deavy, PE, Arup Seattle (Engineering Team Leader)
Brian Glover, PE, Structural Engineer, Arup

Charles (“Si’) Simenstad, PhD, Research Professor
University of Washington School of Aquatic and Fisheries Sciences

Critics:
Wyn Bielaska, John Grade, Annie Han, Rob Hutchison, Daniel Mihalyo, Ana Pinto da Silva

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Plan

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Sections

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Walkways

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Waterbox

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Mariposas

Images: zero plus / STAVE

Pennsylvania Gets the First Ever National High School Sports Hall of Fame Museum

Vanilla Hustler — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 09:03:24 -0800

The National High School Coaches Association and Mayor Salvatore J. Panto, Jr. of Easton, PA announced the building of the first ever High School Sports Hall of Fame Museum this week at a press conference. The National High School Sports Hall of Fame Museum will be built in Easton, Pennsylvania and be the first of its kind.

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Rendering of the proposed National High School Sports Hall of Fame Museum by Spillman Farmer Architects

Funded by the City of Easton and donations, the building will feature Hall of Fame inductees, a Hall of Achievement, and a Sports Education Center to name just a few of its amenities. The NHSCA is a non-profit organization that selects a National High School Coach of the Year and National High School Senior Athlete of the Year for 20 sports, as well as, conducting national championship events in a variety of high school sports. These recipients will be inducted into the Hall of Fame.

The Mayor of Easton, Pennsylvania, Mayor Salvatore J. Panto, Jr, announced that the building will be built in the downtown Easton area. Mayor Panto is calling the structure a “huge benefit to Easton.” City officials last week announced plans to condemn the former Marquis Theatre and Perkins restaurant properties to build a two-story 350-space parking deck atop an eight-bay bus terminal. Panto also says, “this is going to be a nice compliment to the other museums and the Crayola Factory we already have in downtown Easton.”

Robert Ferraro, Sr, CEO/Founder of the NHSCA has been working on making this facility a reality for nine years. Mr. Ferraro states, “We are thrilled to finally have a home for our inductees. High School sports deserve notoriety and now it will get it. This is going to be a great addition to our organization as well as the sports world.”

Winners of AIA Seattle 2009 Honor Awards for Washington Architecture

Vanilla Hustler — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 09:14:44 -0800

Earlier this week, the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Seattle chapter honored architects and their project teams from across Washington State for projects exemplifying the best work in a broad array of sectors from single- and multi-family residential, to civic, to commercial.

AIA Seattle received 175 submissions — both envisioned and realized — ranging from commercial to residential and beyond. Award-winning projects, which were announced at a sold-out event at Benaroya Hall, served as powerful demonstrations of the agility, inventiveness and foresight architects bring to their work in this era of change – improvising and reacting quickly to new constraints, and going above and beyond to improve the built environment.

These are the four Honor Award winners:

Grand Teton Discovery and Visitor Center, Moose, WY
Bohlin Cywinski Jackson

Honor Award: Grand Teton Discovery and Visitor Center

Jury Comments: This Wyoming project was described by jurors as a significant asset to the future of our national park service. “The national park is the star, but somehow this building really holds its own – it is a timeless fit for that site.”

Design Team: BOHLIN CYWINSKI JACKSON Peter Q. Bohlin, FAIA, Principal for Design Raymond S. Calabro, AIA, Project Manager David Miller, Project Architect Jessica O’Brien Christian G. Evans, AIA Mark Adams Daniel Ralls Zeke Busch Michelle Evans

Mercer Slough Environmental Education Center, Bellevue, WA
Jones & Jones Architects and Landscape Architects

Honor Award: Mercer Slough Environmental Education Center

Jury Comments: This well-crafted, LEED Gold certified public project was a stand out because of its deep connection to its environment, distinguished by the ecological systems operating across building and landscape. Jurors described the project as a “vivid learning laboratory.”

Design Team: Architecture and Landscape Architecture: Jones & Jones Architects and Landscape Architects: (Johnpaul Jones, FAIA, principal in charge; Mark T. Johnson AIA, project manager / project architect; Nate Cormier ASLA, project landscape architect; Stephanie Ingram, architect; Wesley Simmonds, ASLA, landscape designer; Kevin Carl)

Vancouver Convention Centre West, Expansion, Vancouver, BC
LMN

Honor Award: Vancouver Convention Centre West, Expansion

Jury Comments: Describing the design as “the way a convention center should be done,” the jurors were impressed with how the project relates to the city and the water, as well as the inclusion of sustainable elements such as the green roof which “feels more like a rooftop park.”

Design Team: Christopher Baxter-Architect, James Brown-Project Designer, Tom Burgess-Project Manager, Hung Chau-Project Designer, Rina Chinen-Architect, Kirk Hostetter-Architect, Sung Lee-Architect, Hollace O’Brian-Interior Designer, Lori Naig-Interior Designer, Mark Reddington-Design Resource, Brian Tennyson-Project Architect, Michael Ward-Interior Architect, Rob Widmeyer-Partner in Charge, John Woloszyn-Project Architect

Wing Luke Asian Museum, Seattle, WA
Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen Architects

Honor Award: Wing Luke Asian Museum, Seattle, WA

Jury Comments: Jurors were unanimously impressed, noting that “this remarkable renovation defines architecture in a very holistic and sustainable way – remembering its past while projecting its possibilities into the future.”

Design Team: Rick Sundberg, FAIA, LEED AP: Principal in Charge; Stephen Yamada-Heidner, AIA, LEED AP: Project Manager; Martha Rogers, LEED AP: Project Architect (Construction Phase); John Kennedy, AIA: Project Architect (Design Phase); Misun Chung Gerrick, LEED AP: Job Captain; Debbie Kennedy, LEED AP: Interiors

Merit Awards were also given to Hinoki House in Clyde Hill, WA by Rex Hohlbein Architects, North Beach Residence in Eastsound, WA by Heliotrope Architects, Safari Drive in Scottsdale, AZ by The Miller|Hull Partnership, Topline Corporate Headquarters in Bellevue, WA by NBBJ, and Waipolu Gallery in Oahu, HI by Bohlin Cywinski Jackson.

Bates Masi + Architects Wins AIA 2009 Award For “Best Single and Multi-Family Residence”

Vanilla Hustler — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 09:50:34 -0800

The Long Island Chapter of the American Institute of Architects awarded Bates Masi + Architects the prestigious Archi Award for the Lakeside residence in Montauk, Long Island. The award was for the category “Best Single and Multi-Family Residence”.

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Award-winning residence: Lakeside Residence in Montauk, Long Island by Bates Masi + Architects

The Lakeside residence, completed in 2009, is situated in the hills of Montauk, a traditional fishing port and the most eastern village in Long Island. The 3,250 square foot home is designed to evoke the experience of camping, evidenced primarily by 36-foot-wide walls of retractable glass that allow the interior of the house and the yard to blend seamlessly. It is environmentally sensitive, with a geothermal heating and cooling system, organic finishes and materials, and pre-cast concrete foundation, which reduced waste and toxic chemicals in the ground.

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Montauk Lakeside Residence by Bates Masi + Architects

“As children, the couple spent their summers in Montauk,” says Paul Masi, a partner in the Sag Harbor, Long Island-based firm. “They wanted this house to be totally modern but to remind them of those happy times when they spent so much of day living outdoors.”

The competition for the Archi award is intense. The award recognizes outstanding architectural excellence for projects built on Long Island as well as projects designed by Long Island architects, built or planned anywhere else in the world.

The Archi is the 10th award Bates Masi + Architects has won since 2008.

Images: Bates Masi + Architects

Results of the Emirates Glass LEAF Awards 2009

Vanilla Hustler — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 09:38:14 -0800

The presentation of the 2009 LEAF Awards recently took place at a gala night in Berlin. The awards, sponsored by Emirates Glass, have rapidly become one of the most prestigious global architectural prizes acknowledging excellence in the international architectural, design and build professions. The awards are open to all companies, technologies and individuals that have made an outstanding contribution to the world of architecture and strive to set higher benchmarks for the design buildings of tomorrow.

The biggest names in architecture from around the world gathered at Berlin’s prestigious Ritz-Carlton Hotel. The event was hosted by actor, writer and comedian Neil Mullarkey and also featured entertainment throughout the night from Kit and the Widow.

This year’s event highlighted the keen international competition with many leading names in the architectural and design fields, and several new and less-well-known organizations vying for the coveted awards across the many categories. The 11 award categories, including the new Master Planning & Landscaping Award as well as the Residential Building of the Year Award (Single and Multiple Occupancy), attracted entries from 26 countries worldwide.

The winners of each category, designed to celebrate architectural excellence in the fields of innovation, structural and interior design across both private and public sectors, are listed below:

Commercial Building of the Year and overall LEAF Award Winner:
Woods Bagot for the Qatar Science and Technology Park in Qatar

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Qatar Science and Technology Park in Qatar by Woods Bagot (Photo: Trevor Mein Photography)

International Interior Design Award:
ATELIER BRÜCKNER GmbH for BMW Museum in Germany

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BMW Museum in Germany by ATELIER BRÜCKNER GmbH

Young Architect:
John Pardey Architects for Hind House in the UK

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Hind House in the UK by John Pardey Architects

Mixed-Use Building of the Year:
EAA-Emre Arolat Architects for 7800 Çesme Residences & Hotel in Turkey

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7800 Çesme Residences & Hotel in Turkey by EAA-Emre Arolat Architects

Residential Building of the Year (multiple occupancy):
David Chipperfield Architects for Ninetree Village in China

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Ninetree Village in China by David Chipperfield Architects

Residential Building of the Year (single occupancy):
Studio mk27 for Paraty House in Brazil

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Paraty House in Brazil by Studio mk27 (Photo: Nelson Kon)

Best Sustainable Development:
Chetwoods Architects for Blue Planet, Chatterley Valley in Ireland

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Blue Planet, Chatterley Valley in Ireland by Chetwoods Architects

Master Planning & Landscaping:
Strootman Landscape Architects & Palmbout Urban Landscapes for Wieringen Passage in the Netherlands

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Wieringen Passage in the Netherlands by Strootman Landscape Architects & Palmbout Urban Landscapes

Public Building of the Year:
gpy arquitectos for La Cisnera Community Centre in Spain

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La Cisnera Community Centre in Spain by gpy arquitectos (Photo: Joaquín Ponce)

Best Structural Design of the Year:
Amanda Levete Architects for Spencer Dock Bridge in the UK

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Spencer Dock Bridge in the UK by Amanda Levete Architects (Photo: Gidon Fuehrer)

In addition a Special Commendation Award was given to registered charity Article 25 for The Seismic-Resistant Housing in Pakistan.

The ceremony concluded with the presentation of The LEAF Award to Woods Bagot who scooped this top prize at the Awards with their project, Qatar Science and Technology Park. The award was picked by the judges as the best overall project to be entered into this year’s LEAF Awards.

This year’s panel of judges comprised leading figures from the construction industry; Irving Brauer, Principal of Brauer Associates; Nicola Leonardi, Editor of The Plan Magazine; and Armand Terruli, an architect at Vector Foiltec and video artist.

Plans for next year’s LEAF Awards, which are to take place in London, are now well underway.

ZELLNERPLUS Wins Russian Architecture Prize for Los Angeles Loft Interior

Vanilla Hustler — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 17:20:41 -0800

Domus (Russia) and the organizational committee of International architectural contest ARCHIP-2009 have named Culver City, California-based firm ZELLNERPLUS the winner of the ARCHIP-2009 Interior/Innovations award.

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Award-winning interior design at the TOY Factory Lofts in downtown Los Angeles by ZELLNERPLUS

ZELLNERPLUS Principal Peter Zellner has been named an ARCHIP laureate by Moscow-based publishing house “Salon-Press”, joint-stock company “Eidos Communications”, Domus (Russia) magazine and the ARCHIP-2009 organizational committee.

An awards ceremony for the ARCHIP-2009 will take place in Moscow on November 26th.

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TOY Factory Loft Interior

Project Description:

TOY Factory Loft, Los Angeles, California
Additions to this 1,500 square foot loft residence in downtown Los Angeles provided the client, a young filmmaker, with work and living spaces. Two MDF, Thermoclear, laminated ply and aluminum enclosures were manually fabricated and erected on site from a set of over 250 unique templates.

Project Team: Gordon Magnin, Peter Zellner
General Contractor: Roman Ribera

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TOY Factory Loft Interior

ZELLNERPLUS is an architectural design firm based in Culver City, Southern California that has designed public and private art galleries, residencies, institutional facilities and corporate spaces in Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York. Institutional spaces include the Sweeney Gallery at UCRiverside, LAXART and the Lounge at REDCAT. Private commissions include spaces for SONY, Napster, Matthew Mark Gallery and Susanne Vielmetter Berlin/Los Angeles Projects.

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Isometric View of the Construction

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Floor Plan

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Longitudinal Section

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Cross Section

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Sections and Elevations

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Over 250 unique templates were manually fabricated and erected on site

Images: ZELLNERPLUS

Georgia Tech’s NOMAS Chapter Sweeps National Student Competition

Vanilla Hustler — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 11:36:33 -0800

Georgia Tech’s chapter of the National Organization of Minority Architecture Students (NOMAS) prevailed at the National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA) nation-wide conference in St. Louis, MO. The group received the top prize for its entry in the design competition, and was named Chapter of the Year, besting heavyweight NOMAS chapters at Cornell, the University of Florida, Syracuse and University of Illinois, among others.

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The competition-winning entry ‘Casa de Espacio Chispa’ by Georgia Tech’s NOMAS Chapter

The NOMA competition guidelines set in Spring 2009 issued a challenge to analyze, absorb and engage the culturally fertile and diverse urban landscape of Benton Park—a St. Louis neighborhood in transition. The client for the competition is an immigrant family from Bogota, Columbia. Consisting of a husband, wife, two children, and two grandparents (one who uses a wheelchair), the family recently inherited a piece of land in Benton Park and needed a home. Georgia Tech’s entry, Casa de Espacio Chispa, “blew the jury away,” according to Bill Stanley, one of the first African-American graduates of the Architecture Program at Tech.

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‘Casa de Espacio Chispa’

The jury was made up of seasoned academics and professionals—Sean Vance, AIA, NOMA (NC State University); Chris Hinton-Lee, AIA, SES (US Army Corps of Engineers); and Michael Willis FAIA NOMA(MWA). They noted that Georgia Tech NOMAS’s passion for design was extremely evident in the team’s verbal presentation, and that the entry showed a was a clear notion of universally accessible design, which reflected their understanding for the client’s needs.

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‘Casa de Espacio Chispa’

The group’s work was guided by three volunteer instructors—Herman Howard and Nekia Strong of HOK Atlanta; and Georgia Tech instructor Dawn Trimble. Participating students included Chad Boone, Saa Camanor, Ashley Johnson, Inbeom Lee, Ken Mai, Arpan Patel, Audrey Plummer, Ralph Raymond, Joi Ricks, Chi Chi Ugenyi, Donniece Wright and Vincent Yee.

Students of the GT NOMAS Chapter

Georgia Tech NOMAS aims to build a strong chapter of design students and professionals whose sensibilities and interests include a strong promotion of diversity. The group’s recent activities include the highly successful Women in Architecture Symposium and mentoring program.

3XN Wins Cultural Project in Aarhus

Vanilla Hustler — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 09:31:30 -0800

Danish firm 3XN Architects has won an architectural competition to transform the former freight train halls in Aarhus, Denmark into a new and dynamic cultural center. The winning design was part of an collaboration effort with Nord Arkitekter, Hans Ulrik Jensen A/S, Exner Studio, and Søren Jensen Engineers.

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Competition-winning design for a Cultural Center in Aarhus by 3XN

A new cultural hub for scenography, visual arts and literature will soon be constructed within a historical framework in Denmark’s second largest city, Aarhus. The new cultural center is meant to be an inspiring setting that stimulates production of the arts and facilitates the interaction amongst the various artistic metiers, business, and education.

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Model Photo

The winning proposal adds elements of nature, with green spaces injecting a natural raw quality which plays up to the historic nature of the existing halls which were used for rail freight in the past.

The building is expected to be a flexible space with optimal usage of more than 9,000 m2. The project is comprised of the renovation of the existing freight halls along with a new building with rooms and large scale auditoria.

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Model Photo

The roof of the building will appear as an extension of the green space – and indeed will take the form of a green ‘carpet’ over the new building. There are a number of other green initiatives that will be brought to the project – primarily with a view to reducing the building’s electricity needs for ventilation, pumps and lighting.

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Model Photo

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Interior Rendering

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Conceptual Diagram

Images: 3XN

Winners in International Competition for Commercial-Residential Complex in Mashhad, Iran

Vanilla Hustler — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:17:45 -0800

Mashhad—home to the shrine of the 8th Imam of Shiites—is one of the most significant religious sites in Iran. It attracts many more visitors than the holy city of Mecca; almost 10 times as many per year. Given the economic and political power of the religious authorities in Iran, as tourism and travel overtake all industries around the world, Mashhad becomes the center of investment and development in this country.

The obvious need for accommodation and entertainment of the visitors has lead to major decisions in the recent Master Plan of the city. The Master Planning Vision has shifted from the strategy of isolation of the shrine via a green belt to a strategy of reconnection via boulevards. These boulevards are lined with large scale buildings with pilgrim accommodation and shopping as major functions. The site of the competition is located on one of the three main boulevards and acts as one of the three gateways to the religious site.

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Competition site in Mashhad, Iran

The competition called for entries for a 5-star hotel, hotel apartments, residential spaces, commercial spaces, a public park and a multi-story public parking in a development of about 80,000 m2. The site consists of 5 plots, however the brief allows for and the master plan of the city encourages the project to merge the 5 sites into one.

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Diagram of the area around the shrine

The competition was held by an architecture office; The Eight Company. The client was a private Iranian bank- Bank-e Pasargad. Of the twelve teams invited to the competition, 4 had been widely known foreign office associates (Atelier Bow-Wow from Japan, BIG from Denmark, BRT from Germany and Guallart Architects from Spain).

The Jury was composed of architects and developers from the city of Mashhad and prominent Iranian architects from the Association of Iranian Architects, including Iraj Kalantari, Abolfath Sepanloo, along with Seyed Reza Hashemi. Of the remaining 11 entries from 8 participating offices, 3 winners and 2 honorable mentions were awarded. The three winners of first to third place will be awarded monetary prizes. In addition, the first place winner will be awarded a contract to execute the project.

First Place: BRT Engineering GmbH (Germany) + Design Core [4s] Architects (Iran)

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First Prize in the Mashhad Competition for BRT Engineering GmbH (Germany) + Design Core [4s] Architects (Iran)

Design Team:
Iran: Sam Tehranchi, Maryam Kompany, Ali Nabi
Germany: Hadi Tehrani, Ingo Hartfil, Heike Heister, Alice Pape, Manal Fakhouri, Zarko Serafimowski, Evgeny Stolyarov
Structure: Markus Maier, Angelos Tsirigotis from LAP
Renderings: Bloomimages

The formal concept of the building results from stipulated building lines and construction heights in addition to site axis and road alignments. Thus, it creates a monolithic shape that follows the heterogeneous character of the plot in a subtle way.

A continuous band folds down on one end and defines a gateway toward the Holy Shrine while enclosing the block. Its continuity and elongated form emphasizes the direction along the main northern boulevard toward the religious site.

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Rendering

Public, semi- public and private spaces are created within the curves and folds of the structure. Thus a variety of public spaces, from loud and lively to spaces of reflection are created that respond to the brief. The shape of the building, defines an entry to the quiet courtyard in the back. This courtyard is planted with tall trees and water features which emphasize its peaceful character. With the access to the café, and controlled entry via a water feature, it provides a quiet space to linger in.

The hotel is located in a prominent space along the eastern main road on top of the building and defines its presence on the main intersection. It has a central lobby within a glass envelope that is equally accessed from the crossroad and the courtyard.

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Elevation

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Section

The residential is located in the western wing of the building. It is an independent part of the complex; technically, statically and functionally it is self-sufficient and can be constructed and operated individually.

Commercial spaces are located on the ground and first floors along the main northern boulevard as well as around the courtyard and form a pedestal for the building. An arcade runs around the pedestal in front of the shops on all sides and allows visitors to stroll around the building throughout the year.

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Site Plan

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Floor Plan

Second Place: Bonsar Architecture Office (Iran), Guallart Architects (Spain), Delnaz Yekrangian (Iran)
(Mohamad Majidi, Vicente Guallart, Delnaz Yekrangian)

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Second Prize in the Mashhad Competition for Bonsar Architecture Office (Iran), Guallart Architects (Spain), Delnaz Yekrangian (Iran)

Design Team: Azar Farshidi, Vicente Guallart, Mehran Haghbin, Zahra Khaniki, Mohammad Majidi, Mehrnush Safdari, Hossein Salavati Khoshghalb, Delnaz Yekrangian
Structure: Mehdi Mirkhosravi
Sustainibility: Afsaneh Tafazoli
Renderings: Babak Taghikhani

A 5-star hotel, hotel apartments and a residential complex merge with a commercial center that contains in addition to shopping, opportunities for cultural, educational, health and religious promenades not only to accommodate but also to entertain the visitors. In a city where stroll in the city is the main tourist activity next to pilgrimage, the possibility of a stroll within the complex becomes a necessity.

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Rendering

Eight gardens within the project with individual characteristics defined by their location, activities, or their particular vegetation connected via public spaces compose this promenade as an extension of the city within the project. The strategy of the linked gardens provides an opportunity to combine pleasure with sustainability. The openness of the project and its permeability make natural light and ventilation accessible everywhere inside.

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Rendering

The structure of the building is derived from a decorative motif found on the entry courtyard to the Shrine. The decorative calligraphy is exaggerated in scale and defines the entire building. The interpretation is done in a subtle way to avoid an iconic presence for the project which tries to pay homage to the only icon of the city; the holy Shrine of Imam Reza.

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Close-up Rendering

The Zarih and the readings of it done by contemporary Iranian artists, in particular Tanavoli are inspiration for the simple orthogonal façades.

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Section

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Floor Plan

Third Place: Fluid Motion Architects
(Catherine Spiridonoff – Reza Daneshmir)

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Third Prize in the Mashhad Competition for Fluid Motion Architects (Catherine Spiridonoff – Reza Daneshmir)

Design Team: Pouria Khodaeiani, Mohsen Tajeddin, Ehsan Hasanpour, Mehdi Bakhshizadeh, Ahmad Khosravi ,Avideh Kamrani, Bahareh Alaei
Structure: Hooman Farrokhi
Mechanical & Electrical: Mohammad Reza Ghoddusizadeh

Land plats
The project begins with an evaluation of the 5 sites- that all together form the L-shaped site- based on geometry, views and sound pollution. Then it dedicates the brief’s different programs to each site. The plat along the main boulevard and away from the crowded intersection is dedicated to the 5-star hotel. The middle plat to the apartment hotel, the plat along the east boulevard to residential and the other plats are dedicated to the park and the multi-floor public parking, according to the brief.

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Rendering

Architectural Concept
Considering the similarity among the plats’ functions, the necessity of harmony in the project composition and in order to make an effective urban character, the design process is developed as below:

First, the potential occupied area and the demanded gross area of buildings on each plat, and the over-all massing are determined according to the brief and the master plan codes.
The permitted ground area and masses to build for each complex are extracted from the L-shaped site and transformed into an unshaped abstract and generic form.
The ground plate and the generic abstract form are sliced by the lines defining entrances and opening areas, and again revamped to the initial form.

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Rendering

Wall
The idea of a continuous wall, containing the 5-star hotel and small apartment units, is developed in a twisted form along the 3 plats of the site. The entrances and the inner courts emerge from the rotations and fractures of the wall. The wall, in addition to the variety in form, gives a distinctive urban identity to the project. All in all, the wall and the opening areas of the complex are connected to each other via the slicing lines, providing a single continuous landscape.

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Site Plan

Spatial organization
The first and second floors are dedicated to commercial and public activities as the codes demand these functions projected on the northern Boulevard. As a result, the 5-star hotel and the commercial spaces are connected and tied together on the first floor via two separated ramps, one emerging from the interior space of the hotel and the other from the outdoor space.

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Floor Plan

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Section

Honorable Mention: RAVAND-E-HAMAHANG [LINK] (Iran) + BIG (Denmark)

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Honorable Mention in the Mashhad Competition for RAVAND-E-HAMAHANG [LINK] (Iran) + BIG (Denmark)

Design Team:
Iran: Ali Hamidi Moghadam, Nima Farzaneh, Neda Heidary, Saina Majidi, Mahan Abolghasem Shirazi
Denmark: Bjarke Ingels, Doug A Stechschulte, Kai-Uwe Bergmann, Kuba Snopek, Cat Huang, Gaetan Brunet, Takumi Iwasawa

What is a hotel?

An accumulation of rooms tailored for individual visitors.

To reach the required density and respond to the city codes, the two buildings are bent into two V-shaped volumes creating three triangular urban spaces: a sunken market, an open courtyard and a public park in the middle. To meet the demands and desires of individual guests, the hotel has been designed inside out. As a result each V-shaped slab is composed of a fish bone structure of rooms looking towards the Holy Shrine of Imam Reza.

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Rendering

Considering that the site of the project forms the eastern gateway to the urban area around the Holy Shrine, the project proposes a building that shelters the residences and public spaces from the unpleasant noise and the crowd on the main Boulevard while opening up towards the religious area. Moving towards the shrine, one experiences a closed and simple façade respecting Mashhad’s Holy icon. The scale of the wall is broken down; it is an accumulation of single rooms of different types based on a specific geometric pattern. Moving in the opposite direction, away from the shrine, one faces maximum transparency as the facades open up towards the holy site.

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Rendering

The complex is designed to provide each pilgrim or tourist with an optimal experience of the religious site. Each unit is sheltered from the traffic noise, screened from the views of neighbors and by-passers and only opens up toward the view of the shrine. The resulting architecture is simultaneously calm and varied, well integrated and outstanding, traditional and contemporary.

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Model Photo

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Site Plan

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Floor Plan

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Section

Winners Announced at World Architecture Festival in Barcelona

Vanilla Hustler — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 10:10:08 -0800

Opening its doors to over 1,500 visitors is the biggest gathering of the global architectural community—the World Architecture Festival, just a few minutes outside Barcelona city center at the Centre Convencions International Barcelona (CCIB), started yesterday November 4 to 6, 2009. The festival, now in its second year, celebrates the work, concerns and aspirations of international architects. The curators have masterminded the exhibition and seminar program to respond to the common festival umbrella theme “Less Does More,” which in reflection of the current global economic climate will examine the challenges facing architects to produce more value for less cost.

Running alongside the main seminars is one of the world’s largest architectural awards program—the World Architecture Festival Awards. Unlike other award schemes, the WAF Awards give access to something more often reserved for a select few to see shortlisted architects present their schemes live to international judging panels, including the likes of Sir Peter Cook, Kengo Kuma, Renato Benedetti and Will Alsop and delegates, as they compete for the ultimate accolade of World Building of the Year 2009. Rafael Viñoly is chair of the super-jury which will choose the winner from 15 finalists announced at a glittering awards ceremony at the end of the festival this Friday, November 6.

House
Klein Bottle House, Rye, Australia by Mc Bride Charles Ryan, Melbourne, Australia - Previously featured on Bustler

Civic & Community
Emergency Terminal, Zagreb, Croatia by Produkcija 004, Zagreb, Croatia

Culture
Mapungubwe Interpretation Centre by Peter Rich Architects, Johannesburg, South Africa

Holiday
Restaurant Tusen, Ramundberget, Sweden by Murman Arkitekter, Stockholm, Sweden

Shopping
Havaianas Shop, São Paulo by Isay Weinfeld, São Paulo, Brazil

Housing
The Met, Bangkok by WOHA, Singapore, Republic of Singapore

Learning
Pearl Academy of Fashion, Jaipur by Morphogenesis, New Delhi, India

New & Old
TKTS Booth / Redevelopment of Father Duffy Square, New York by Choi Ropiha, Manly, Australia & Perkins Eastman, USA & William Fellows/PKSB Architects, USA

Office
Unileverhaus, Hamburg by Behnisch Architekten, Germany

Winners of RIBA Gulf Chapter Student Competition ‘Urban Exchange: The Souk’

Vanilla Hustler — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 09:22:52 -0800

The result of the student competition ‘Urban Exchange: The Souk’ was recently announced at a reception held at the British Embassy in Abu Dhabi, capital of the UAE.

The announcement coincided with the formal launch of the new Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) Gulf Chapter, which will provide local support for architecture, architects and co-professionals in the region.

The judges picked out five schemes which they felt gave the best response to the competition brief, and each student team will receive a prize of £500 and a Certificate of Commendation. They are:

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Shruti Gupta, Abu Dhabi, studying at the School of Planning & Architecture, New Delhi: “This scheme selected the once bustling markets of the Jama Masjid and Red Fort precinct in Delhi, a main aim being to revive the lost glory of Asia’s biggest Mosque. The judges noted the high quality presentation and especially appreciated the hand drawings. Although not fully translated into an architectural solution the scheme demonstrates a fascinating analysis, urban vision, and a strong response to the brief.”

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Haitham Mohammed Al Busafi, Aliya A Sattar Al Hashim, Ahmed Abdullah Al Muqbali, Adi AL Farei, Sultan Qaboos University, Oman: “The proposed site is within a beautiful natural park of mangroves behind Qurum beach in Muscat. The main idea is a mega-structure with a souk in the middle, under a multicultural cover of terraced roof gardens. The judges praised the daring quality of the scheme even though it fails to relate to an urban context and lacked depth in sensitivity to landscape and site context. However the judges appreciated its creative approach, the quality of presentation and visual impact of its striking graphics.”

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Nasreen Al Tamimi, UAE, studying at Institute of Advanced Architecture of Catalunya, Spain: “Set on the coastal edge of Fujairah, this scheme provides an interesting analysis in which the competitor has designed the conditions for a souk rather than a souk itself. The design focuses on creating an intricate shaded geometry linking a series of in-between spaces between scattered buildings on one edge of the city, and attempts to make a place for a bazaar that is accessible and hospitable. Although there is little focus on activities within, or with how people might use the spaces, this was an interesting response to the brief.”

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Esraa Ali Osman Mohammed, Marwa Ahmed, UAE University, Al Ain: “This scheme provides an imaginative new gateway area to Al Fahidi Fort in Bur Dubai. The theme is a contemporary solution focusing on the redevelopment of the area surrounding the fort, incorporating underground parking. Whilst the planning of the souk itself and its architecture remain largely unresolved, the competitor has demonstrated a good understanding of scale and some appreciation of the sensitivity of the site.”

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Navid Nikpour, Islamic Azad University, Dubai Campus: “This project on a city block adjacent to Dubai’s Al Bastakiya district, creates a perimeter souk to frame a neighbourhood. Although the souk is somewhat isolated and the scheme doesn’t successfully integrate of transform the fabric of the city, the scheme does create some potentially beautiful public spaces (though not part of the souk). Whilst urban and social issues are disregarded the scheme’s interesting ideas are well presented, with interesting analysis and detail.”

The competition judging panel was chaired by Peter Jackson, Architect Advisor in the HH Ruler’s Office, Sharjah, and included Principal Judge Sir Michael Hopkins CBE, Dr Yasser Elsheshtawy of UAE University, Dr Adil A. Al-Mumin of Kuwait University and George Katodrytis from the American University of Sharjah, plus two observers from RIBA Competitions.

Students had been set the challenge to explore new visions and develop design proposals for ‘the city’. It set the challenge of re-addressing the nature of street culture and its human activities in an urban context. Students were asked to choose a site in an urban context which they felt was in need of rejuvenation, and come up with ideas and concepts representing a modern interpretation of the Souk.

There were 19 student entries to the competition, and the judges were pleased to see a wide variety of responses to the brief. Schemes had tended to fall into three broad categories: those that focused on the urban grain; those that were primarily ‘building specific’; and others which had chosen to focus on the process and generic issues around the theme. The result was a great diversity of ideas and approaches and this made for an interesting assessment.

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Winning students with RIBA President Ruth Reed at the awards ceremony in Abu Dhabi

Although no single winner emerged, the judges felt there were some quality elements within each of the five schemes selected hence the decision to make five equal Commendation awards.

Jury chairman Peter Jackson commented: “While the entrants might be disappointed that no 1st, 2nd, or 3rd prizes were awarded, this was not an easy competition brief. Student architects are generally taught to focus a great deal on the form and function of individual buildings, and as a result often fail to see buildings in relationship to one another, and in particular to the spaces we can create between them. It was these special qualities of urban and architectural design that this competition sought to draw out.”

“It is also important to demonstrate that the RIBA, and RIBA competitions are seeking design of high quality, and I believe that many of these entrants show the skill and ability to achieve this. The competition must be a learning experience for those of us who wrote the brief, for the Jury and for the students and their tutors. The Gulf Chapter is very much looking forward to our next competition!”

Sir Michael Hopkins added “The bringing together of the Schools in the GCC region to think about issues of context, place and sustainability, in their related but particular areas, is a very valuable exercise, which it would be worthwhile to repeat ….. I will come back next year to help judge it!”

The judges were highly appreciative to all entrants for providing such an enthusiastic and diverse range of submissions, and for their high standards of presentation.

Images: RIBA

COBE and Public Architects Win Competition for the New Norreport Train Station in Copenhagen

Vanilla Hustler — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 09:11:24 -0800

A team lead by Danish architects COBE and Public Architects, in collaboration with Grontmij Carl Bro and Bartenbach LichtLabor, have yesterday been awarded first place in the international competition to design the new Norreport Train Station in Copenhagen, Denmark.

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1st Prize in the international competition for the new Copenhagen Norreport Train Station for Danish firms COBE and Public Architects. 3D rendering by Luxigon.

Norreport Train Station is the busiest train station in Denmark with around 250,000 persons passing daily. The new train station and surrounding urban space will be a new attraction for the area and a natural gathering place.

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3D rendering by Luxigon.

The project is conceived as a series of rounded, almost floating roofs covering individual transparent glass pavilions. All station facilities will be visible and easily accessible and the station will appear like an open and welcoming public space.

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3D rendering by Luxigon.

The project wants to show that Copenhagen is proud to be called the world’s best bicycle city. This is why all bicycle parking will be a visible and central element in the future urban space. In order to create a clear hierarchy between the area for bicycles and the area for city life, all bicycle parking is placed 40 cm below the city floor. The bicycle parking will be lighted by innumerable LED lights in the night.

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Model Photo

Furthermore 11 ventilation towers will be placed on the plaza surrounding the train station. They will provide fresh air to the underlying train platforms. The towers will also function as lighting on the plaza and as digital information pillars with fully integrated LED screens for information about train departures, cultural events, advertisement etc.

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Site Plan

“Norreport Train Station has a special significance for all residents in Copenhagen. We look forward to develop our proposal and deliver a new train station which will be a new useful urban space for all people in Copenhagen,” says Dan Stubbergaard, Partner-in-Charge, COBE.

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Section

Images: COBE

Taipei Pop Music Center Competiton Entry by JDS Architects

Vanilla Hustler — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 17:32:54 -0800

Last week, Bustler reported that the Taipei Pop Music Center competition had announced three finalists and four honorable mentions.

Here’s a first glimpse at the entry that won Danish office JDS Architects / Julien de Smedt an honorable mention in this international competition:

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Honorable Mention in the Taipei Pop Music Center Competiton for JDS Architects

Here a brief description from the JDS blog:

MORE THAN SYMBOLIC

The image of TAIPEI POP MUSIC CENTER should be able to present the innovative, vital and free essence of the unique lifestyle of the pop music scene. Differing from typical iconic buildings in Taipei City which symbolize only the appearance, we propose a space where events and activities are the symbol itself. The concept is to provide an open framework that generates its own creative space for constant flow of information exchange, performance, and activities.

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Rendering

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Model Photo

Images: JDS Architects

Australian Institute of Architects 2009 National Architecture Awards

Vanilla Hustler — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 15:25:33 -0800

The Australian Institute of Architects’ National Architecture Awards have recently been presented to Australia’s most inspiring recent architectural projects and architects at an award ceremony in Melbourne. A total 32 awards and commendations across 12 categories were awarded to projects in Queensland, Victoria, Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, Western Australia, South Australia, the United Arab Emirates and the United States.

Presenting the awards and commenting on this year’s winners, Jury Chair and award-winning architect Howard Tanner said: “2009 represented a strong year for architecture, with new benchmarks set in a number of key categories – such as commercial architecture. In public architecture, educational projects spanning primary to tertiary facilities were also outstanding, with many Australian universities now comprehending the need for world class facilities to attract students.”

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Award for Public Architecture & Award for Interior Architecture: National Portrait Gallery by Johnson Pilton Walker (Photo: Brett Boardman)

Topping the list of winners, is the recipient of Australia’s top annual national architecture award - the 2009 Sir Zelman Cowen Award for Public Architecture, awarded this year to the National Portrait Gallery in the ACT by Sydney-based practice Johnson Pilton Walker (JPW). In a double win for the firm, the gallery also received a National Architecture Award for Interior Architecture. The gallery is the most recent in a long list of major arts facilities designed by JPW, including the New Asian Galleries at the AGNSW and the Museum of Sydney, and is their first Sir Zelman Cowen Award.

Mr Tanner said: “The monumental concrete edifices of the National Gallery and the High Court dominate this precinct, to which the National Portrait Gallery is the new family member. Smaller, more precious, it seeks to resolve a public presence and public gallery with the intimate, often domestic-scaled nature of portraiture. He added: “The building, while a triumph in cultural terms and popular appreciation, is clearly too small for its public role and purpose – a reflection of contemporary governments’ aspirations and budgets. Government probably never foresaw that this would be an attraction to rival the National Gallery and the War Memorial.” Accordingly, the architects have designed the building for extension to the west in a series of pavilions.

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Award for Interior Architecture: Melbourne Recital Centre and MTC Theatre Project by ARM (Photo: John Gollings)

National Awards for Public Architecture were also presented to educational facilities in Sydney and Melbourne - the All Saints Primary School at Belmore in NSW by Angelo Candalepas Associates and the Monash Centre for Electron Microscopy by Architectus Melbourne.

Melbourne’s newest and iconic center for the performing arts – the Melbourne Recital Centre and MTC Theatre Project by ARM – was awarded the Emil Sodersten Award for Interior Architecture, with the jury saying “all three performing arts venues achieve a very high standard of architecture in terms of excellent functionality within distinctive and memorable interiors”. They said the complex contains the most significant new performing arts venues in Melbourne, with easy access and effective egress being givens, along with sizeable lobbies and public areas, and a functional back of house. They added: “The most important aspect of the development is the performing arts spaces, their adequacy, sightlines and acoustics. All three are effectively boxes within boxes, isolated from the outside world and the ground to minimize noise and vibration transfer.”

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Award for International Architecture: TKTS Booth/Redevelopment of Duffy Square, New York by Choi Ropiha, with Perkins Eastman, PKSB (Photo: John Saeyong Ra)

Australia’s top award for international architecture, the Jorn Utzøn Award for International Architecture, was awarded to a small project in one of the ‘largest’, most iconic theater locations in the world, New York’s Times Square – being awarded to the ‘red steps’ TKTS Booth/Redevelopment of Duffy Square, New York by young Sydney firm Choi Ropiha, with Perkins Eastman, PKSB. (see separate media release)

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Award for Commercial Architecture & Award for Urban Design: ivy by by Woods Bagot, in collaboration with Merivale Group and Hecker Phelan & Guthrie (Photo: Trevor Mein)

The jury noted the particular strength of this year’s Commercial Architecture, which set new benchmarks in terms of providing exemplary ‘social’ spaces, adaptive re-use, regional architecture and staff accommodation where ‘happiness’ is acknowledged as a business asset. The Harry Seidler Award for Commercial Architecture was presented to ivy on Sydney’s busy George Street by Woods Bagot, in collaboration with Merivale Group and Hecker Phelan & Guthrie. In a double win, the project also received a National Award for Urban Design, with the jury saying: “The popular palaces of culture – the cinemas, stadia, and pubs and clubs – have, in recent years, rarely presented themselves as high architecture. ivy is a remarkable exception. Part Roman baths, part smart restaurants, part urbane gathering place, it has been fused into the city’s fabric in a presentable and ingenious way.” They added: “Ash Street and Palings Lane (now relocated to advantage) have become vibrant pedestrian thoroughfares, lined with shops, bars and cafes. In a clever move, this open space has become an urban hub, giving access to both the existing City Recital Hall and the two ivy facilities.”

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Award for Commercial Architecture: Bendigo Bank Headquarters by BVN Architecture + Gray Puksand (Photo: John Gollings)

National Awards for Commercial Architecture were also presented to Headquarter Sussan Sportsgirl in Melbourne’s Cremorne by Sydney practice Durbach Block Architects and Bendigo Bank Headquarters in regional Victoria by BVN Architecture + Gray Puksand – with the jury noting that both achieved new benchmarks. Sussan Sportsgirl set new precedents for workplaces, being designed to provide “one place for the client’s family of businesses, her art collection and her love of gardens, where happiness is a business asset, gained through a combination of light, openness, views, art and gardens”.

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Award for Residential Architecture - Houses: Freshwater House by Chenchow Little Architects (Photo: John Gollings)

For the first time in four years, Australia’s most prestigious residential award returned to the nation’s biggest housing market – with the Robin Boyd Award for Residential Architecture - Houses, going to an innovative house on Sydney’s northern beaches – the Freshwater House by young Sydney husband and wife team Tony Chenchow and Stephanie Little of Chenchow Little Architects. In describing the project, a four-bedroom home for a young family of five on a small 332 sq m site, the jury said: “The design provides an outstanding solution for an elevated site, and achieves a private compound, screened from the neighbours, yet open and expansive towards an outdoor lawn terrace, the beach and sea.”

In a second major win for the couple, Chenchow Little Architects shared the National Award for Small Project Architecture for the Ang House in Sydney’s Mosman, with young Victorian firm Bellemo & Cat for their Polygreen House in the Melbourne suburb of Northcote.

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Award for Small Project Architecture: Polygreen House by Bellemo & Cat (Photo: Peter Hyatt)

In a double scoop for fellow young Sydney-based husband and wife team Rachel Neeson and Nick Murcutt of Neeson Murcutt Architecture, the couple received National Awards for Residential Architecture for two strikingly unique houses in NSW and Victoria - the Whale Beach House at Whale Beach in Sydney and Zac’s House at Sorrento on the Mornington Peninsular.

The Frederick Romberg Award for Residential Architecture - Multiple Housing was presented to Melbourne-based practice Wood Marsh for the 22-story Balencia Apartments on St Kilda Road in Melbourne. The jury said: “St Kilda Road, conceived as Melbourne’s grand boulevard, was once lined by imposing houses, now largely replaced by dull high rise buildings. Balencea counters this trend, recognizing the importance of its position on a corner site, and the opportunity to achieve intrigue through its fluted form and slenderness, when viewed from certain positions. The use of mysterious inky blue glass provides a heightened fragility to the sculptured skin. The architects have demonstrated sensitivity, skill and experience in negotiating an impressive balance between the commercial interests of the client, the comfort and amenity of the occupants and architecture’s responsibility to the public domain. They have created an exemplary model for sophisticated multiple housing in an urban setting.”

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25 Year Award for Enduring Architecture: The Sidney Myer Music Bowl by Yuncken, Freeman Brothers, Griffiths and Simpson (Photo: John Gollings )

The prestigious Lachlan Macquarie Award for Heritage was this year awarded to the St.Paul’s Cathedral, Conservation of the Fabric, by Falkinger and Andronas, Architects, Heritage Consultants. The jury said: “Gothic cathedrals are complex structures and constructions, requiring careful management and maintenance if they are to survive in good order and serve changing patterns of use. Falkinger and Andronas have been responsible for the conservation of both of Melbourne’s major cathedrals, and at St Paul’s have been involved for over nine years. The decay of the building has been slowed, stormwater failures have been addressed and the building surfaces cleansed, so that we can more readily appreciate the visual qualities of the cathedral as its designers intended.”

An iconic venue in Melbourne, The Sidney Myer Music Bowl by Yuncken, Freeman Brothers, Griffiths and Simpson, received the National 25 Year Award for Enduring Architecture, being described by the jury as “one of the great tent-like suspension structures of the world”, and “a clear indicator of the vibrant creative forces active in Australia circa 1960, that were allowed realization to great acclaim”. Conserved and upgraded in 2000 by Gregory Burgess Architects, the venue is a “much-loved icon, and part of the social fabric of Melbourne and the nation”. It “remains an architectural engineering triumph perhaps without equal in Australia”.

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Award for Urban Design: Armory Wharf Precinct at Sydney Olympic Park by Hargreaves Associates, Lahz Nimmo Architects and Lacoste + Stevenson Architects (Photo: Brett Boardman)

The Walter Burley Griffin Award for Urban Design has been awarded to the Armory Wharf Precinct at Sydney Olympic Park by Hargreaves Associates, Lahz Nimmo Architects and Lacoste + Stevenson Architects. “The Armory Wharf Precinct is a remarkably attractive park precinct with much-enjoyed, well-designed public facilities. It is a most agreeable place to visit, uncluttered, well resolved, and in harmony with the natural and man-modified landscape.”

The new headquarters for a state water agency based in Adelaide - VS1/SA Water Head Office by HASSELL – has received the National Award for Sustainable Architecture. “VS1/SA Water is the first building in South Australia to achieve a GBCA 6 Star Green Star design rating, delivered at competitive market rental. It sets a new benchmark in ESD, promoting best practice for a healthy office environment, with reduced energy usage, waste, and harmful emissions.”

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Colorbond Award for Steel Architecture: Snowy Mountains House by James Stockwell (Photo: Patrick Bingham Hall)

The Colorbond Award for Steel Architecture was presented to young Sydney-based architect James Stockwell for the Snowy Mountains House overlooking Lake Jindabyne. “James Stockwell’s commission to create a robust, economical house for an extended family carefully addresses issues of climatic extremes, simple maintenance, and sustainable objectives. It has its origins in simple alpine huts and basic ski lodges, but here delivered with a straightforward finesse. The house combines autonomy with reasonable construction cost, minimum maintenance, and good longevity, achieving excellent sustainable credentials.”

ACME’s Proposal for the Rathaus-Terrassen Competition in Weilburg, Germany

Vanilla Hustler — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 13:38:43 -0800

In September 2008, the historic city of Weilburg in Germany launched the “Rathaus-Terrassen” architectural contest as invited competition to design a replacement for an existing parking structure.

London-based practice ACME was one of the 13 invited offices and eventually won the 1st prize in the public voting process and was awarded the 2nd prize from the professional jury.

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ACME’s proposed concept for the “Rathaus Terrassen” in Weilburg, Germany

The project site is located below the dense medieval city center of Weilburg, in the steep landscape of the surrounding river valley.

The design of the Rathaus-Terrassen develops a typology of terraced landscape building as an integral part of the context, creating a very urban character towards the city while blending into the valley landscape on all other sides.

The horizontal stone fin facade varies to account for the differing demands of the building program of retail, restaurants, housing, and car parking by changing the form, density, dimension and frequency of the stone fins.

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Current situation of Weilburg’s city center

Here’s some more information from ACME:

The site is the largest continuous open space within the dense medieval city of Weilburg, where the stark and scenic contrast between the walled town and the surrounding sweeping landscape of the river valley remains clearly legible.

The design of the ‘Rathaus-Terraces’ originates from the Baroque terraced-landscape building typology, found nearby in the Weilburg Castle Gardens, and develops them into a contemporary form of landscape building.

A building as an integral part of the landscape allows the project to blend into the surrounding context while inviting inhabitation and managing to create specific urban character towards some if its city context. In this way, an active urban frontage can be created facing the old city centre, while the facade towards the river valley blends into the rhythm of rock cliffs and forested slopes along the Lahn river.

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Rendering

The project provides the required program of 19,200sqm of retail, surgeries, housing and car parking within a stratified massing, where vertical routes are carved in at specific moments to create connective visual sight lines and public routes between the city centre and river. In order to maximise activities within the project, functions like gastronomy and housing are dispersed widely within the overall massing. Access to each unit is provided through the new pedestrian cross-routes within the project and through lifts from the proposed public park landscape above. While the retail space orientates itself towards the city centre, the other functions differ in position and orientation to maximise south facing aspects, privacy and stunning views into the Lahn valley. The creation of new routes, public parks and a multitude of commercial and private programs ensures that the complex has a wide variety of uses, thereby maximizing its contribution to the regeneration of Weilburg’s historic core.

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Rendering

Similar to the strongly layered geological rock visible around the site, the building envelope is structured in horizontal layers. The fine scale of layers allows the envelope to change gradually from vertical to horizontal orientation, inviting different forms of use and inhabitation on its surface. The horizontally organized reconstituted stone fins filter daylight and natural ventilation to open areas such as corridors and the carpark while providing sun shading for other functions. Externally, the fins are used as steps, planters, benches and circulation spaces to create public routes and parks within the project. Variation of the fin thickness, spacing and position are used to form larger openings like entrances, balconies and windows where required.

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Rendering

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Plan

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Canyon Circulation Diagram

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Terrace Circulation Diagram

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Retail Access

Project Facts

Location: Weilburg, Germany
Client: City of Weilburg/ Nassauische Heimstätte (Projektstadt) in cooperation with a private investor
Functions: approx. 6,000 sqm retail, 2,000 sqm residential, 1,200 sqm Surgery/ Doctors Practices, and 280 parking spaces
Total GFA: 19,200 sqm
Project costs: approximately 15-19 Million Euro ($22-28 Million)

Credits

ACME: Julia Cano, Kelvin Chu, Sebastian Drewes, Deena Fakhro, Michael Haller, Daewon Kwak, Friedrich Ludewig, Isabel de la Mora, Andreas Reeg, Teresa Yeh

Images: ACME

RMJM Wins Islamic Architecture Award at Cityscape 2009

Vanilla Hustler — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 15:14:54 -0800

RMJM architects have recently been awarded a prestigious Cityscape Award in Dubai, UAE. Gordon Hood and Roger Klein of RMJM accepted the Islamic Architecture Award for their work on the Zliten Al-Asmariya University for Islamic Sciences in Libya.

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Award-winning university campus: the Zliten Al-Asmariya University for Islamic Sciences in Libya

The Zliten campus is a new branch of Al-Asmariya University, 120 km southeast of Tripoli. RMJM’s architects designed a campus master plan for the development of the 82-hectare site. Core academic functions are organized in four quadrants within a perimeter ‘habitable wall’ that contains faculty offices and academic support functions.

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Rendering of campus buildings

Gordon Hood, RMJM said: “We are absolutely delighted to win this prestigious award for Islamic Architecture. It is a true testament to the success of our Global Education Studio and emphasizes the strength that RMJM maintains in its understanding of local culture and traditions. We are particularly grateful to Dr Mustafa Mezughi of ODAC in Libya, without whose advice this project would not have been possible”

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Rendering of campus buildings

The success of the work on the Zliten Campus is largely down to the development of RMJM’s Global Education Studio. The studio allows for talents in educational architecture from across RMJM’s international network to pool together, providing architectural services which combine international and local expertise.

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Aerial view of the campus

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Close-up

Images: RMJM

Oslo’s Skyline Gets Three “Crystal Clear” Landmark Towers

Vanilla Hustler — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 09:10:38 -0700

Kristin Jarmund Architects in collaboration with C. F. Møller Architects, has recently won a major competition to design a spectacular new landmark project in the city of Oslo, for the client KLP Eiendom AS, one of Norway’s largest property investors. The project, which has been dubbed “Crystal Clear”, consists of three towers, which grow organically from the ground to form a sculptural cluster, and are composed of stacked, prismatic volumes.

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Competition-winning design for a new high-rise complex in the heart of Oslo

The development totals approx. 90,000 m² of offices, commercial space and possibly housing, located at one of Oslo’s most valuable sites, the former postal sorting office adjacent to the central station. ‘Crystal Clear’ ties in with the city’s skyline, and the string of developing landmark projects that will help turn Oslo into one of Europe’s most modern capitals.

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Rendering

Here’s some more info from the architects:

A high-rise development, located at Norway’s most important traffic hub in central Oslo, and with fantastic views of the waterfront and fjord-landscape beyond. The idea is to create a landmark sculptural ensemble of towers, yet observe the harmony with the surrounding, low-rise urban fabric of the capital. The three towers of approx. 110, 65 and 55 m height, are arranged along the edges of the site, and the tallest tower is aligned with the existing nearby Oslo Plaza and Postgirobygget towers, while the lower buildings form the link to the city.

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Rendering

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Rendering Interior

The three towers have clear-cut and vertical elevations to the exterior of the site, with large openings and setbacks forming windows to selected viewpoints. In contrast, the elevations towards the interior of the site are composed of stacked, glazed volumes, freely arranged to form a prismatic and crystalline appearance. The layout secures the views over the water, not only for the three new buildings but also the city beyond.

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Rendering Close-Up

In between the towers, a two-story base containing shops and restaurants forms an undulating landscape that connects to street level via ramps, plateaus and stairs. This base creates a calm urban garden, framed by the tall buildings, with recreational space and cafes for the city and the buildings occupants. The towers are designed with a high degree of flexibility to house offices, hotels and possibly housing.

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Elevation

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Section

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Aerial photo of the site

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Site Plan

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Floor Plan

Project Facts and Credits:

Address: Biskop Gunnerus gate 14 b, 0185 Oslo, Norway
Client: KLP Eiendom AS
Year: 2009
Year of competition: 1st prize in architectural competition, 2009
Architect: Kristin Jarmund Architects in collaboration with C. F. Møller Architects
Landscape : Kristin Jarmund Architects in collaboration with C. F. Møller Architects
Competition collaborators: ATKINS, Erichsen & Horgen AS, MIR (illustrations), Oslo Modellverksted (model)
Area: 92,000 m² (75,000 m² above ground)

Gensler’s HYDROGENerator Wins Spark Award for International Design Excellence

Vanilla Hustler — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 09:24:18 -0700

Gensler’s winning design, co-created with 4240 Architecture, transforms Chicago’s abandoned Bloomingdale rail line into a three mile long greenhouse and hydrogen generator that provides 10 acres of farm land year round, powers city schools, and creates a beacon for the city.

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Current state of Chicago’s abandoned Bloomingdale rail line

Chicago’s Bloomingdale railroad viaduct runs through the city’s heart, connecting neighborhoods, the city’s park system, and the Chicago River. The three-mile long elevated rail line was abandoned in the 1980s and currently sits neglected, overtaken by vegetation, garbage, and debris. It is at once an eyesore as well as a beautiful wilderness set against a dense urban backdrop.

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The proposed HYDROGENerator by Gensler in collaboration with 4240 Architecture

“Our city’s challenges are too significant and the Bloomingdale Line’s potential too great for it to be just another park,” said Gensler design director Brian Vitale. “The Bloomingdale Line is worthy of a greater purpose, one that will directly affect people in most need within the city.”

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In Gensler’s proposed solution, the greenhouse above produces food while the hydrogen generator below creates electricity to split water molecules into pure Hydrogen and Oxygen. This new fuel cell energy will be used to power nearby Chicago Public Schools, in turn helping the CPS reverse its budget shortfall from last year which resulted in teacher layoffs to offset rising utility bills. Simply put, Hydrogen = Teachers. The excess Hydrogen will be sold to alternative fuel vehicles at depots throughout the line.

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As it produces this much needed food and energy, the Hydrogenerator simultaneously releases oxygen as the by-product of photosynthesis and hydrogen production, a truly sustainable loop.

“A highly visible beacon day or night, the Hydrogenerator stands as a symbol for a new paradigm that involves examining abandoned and underused infrastructure for new energy bearing technologies,” said Vitale. “The more local, the more clean the energy, the more stable and healthy the society.”

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Images: Gensler

BIG Wins Competition for the World Village of Women Sports in Malmø

Vanilla Hustler — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 14:24:39 -0700

Danish architects BIG, in collaboration with British structural and civil engineering firm AKT, Swedish consultant Tyréns and German climate engineers Transsolar have just been awarded first place in a design competition in Malmø, Sweden for a 100,000 m2 first of its kind sports facility.

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Competition-winning design for the World Village of Women Sports in Malmø, Sweden by BIG, in collaboration with AKT, Tyréns and Transsolar

The World Village of Women Sports seeks to create a natural gathering place for the research, education and training in all areas connected to the development of women’s sports. Located in the center of Malmø, the 100,000 m2 facility will create a regional landmark and new attraction for the area. The winning design was chosen among five submissions by a jury, comprised of the founder and main financier of the World Village of Women Sports, Kent Widding Persson, the co-founder and entrepreneur Mårten Hedlund, City of Malmø Architect,Ingemar Gråhamn and Architects Mats Jacobson and Cecilia Hansson together with representatives from the City of Malmø.

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Rendering Close-up

“BIGs design places great emphasis on architecture tailored to women with an unconstrained atmosphere and a feeling of well-being. The architects see the WVOWS as a town within a town rather than just a sports complex. The decisive factor has been the holistic approach and the overall impression of the design – the ability to interact with the neighborhood and environment, and creating attractive housing and functions at the same time.” - Mats Jacobson, Jury Member, WVOWS

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Rendering

Composed as a village rather than a sports complex the WVOWS combines individual buildings with a variety of uses with open spaces and public gardens. The sloping roofscapes and alternating building volumes provide the complex with the varying identity of a small village thus reducing its scale to the adjacent neighborhood. The interior streets animated through public functions resemble a medieval downtown, supporting all aspects of human life – generous living, work and intensive play.

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Rendering

“Considering the special requirements of women of all cultures and all ages, special attention has been given, to provide the sports village with a feeling of intimacy and well being often lacking in the more masculine industrial-style sports complexes that are more like factories for physical exercise, than temples for body and mind.” - Bjarke Ingels, Partner-In-Charge, BIG

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Rendering

The central hall is large enough to accommodate professional football matches as well as concerts, conferences, exhibitions and flea markets. Rather than being an introverted sports arena shut off from the surrounding city – it appears like an open and welcoming public space, visible from all of the surrounding streets – generously offering its interior life to the passers-by. The pedestrian network around the main sports hall plugs into the surrounding street networks as well as the interior galleries of Kronprinsen, turning it into a complete ecosystem of urban life.

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Rendering Close-up

“The WVOWS fuses high levels of ambition within public space and private accommodation, living and working, health and recreation, sport and culture. Like a village rather than sports complex it merges the modern utopianism of the neighboring Kronprinsen with the intimate scale and specificity of the nearby historical city center of Malmø.” - Bjarke Ingels, Partner-In-Charge, BIG

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Rendering

“From the main football field at its heart, to the gyms and auditoria, from the handball halls of the university to the laboratories of the health facility, it is an entire village committed to sport.” - Nanna Gyldholm Møller, Project Leader, BIG

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Site Plan

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Ground Floor Plan

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Section A-A

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Section B-B

WORLD VILLAGE OF WOMEN SPORTS CREDIT LIST:

PROJECT: WVOWS
TYPE: Invited Competition
CLIENT: H-Hagen Fastighets AB
COLLABORATORS: AKT, Tyréns, Transsolar
SIZE: 100,000 m2
LOCATION: Malmø, Sweden
STATUS: 1st Prize
Partner-in-Charge: Bjarke Ingels
Project Leader: Nanna Gyldholm Møller
Team: Gabrielle Nadeau, Daniel Sundlin, Jonas Barre, Nicklas Antoni Rasch, Jin Kyung Park, Fan Zhang, Steve Huang, Flavien Menu, Ken Aoki

And here some more of BIG’s famous concept diagrams:

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Concept Diagram 1

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Concept Diagram 2

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Concept Diagram 3

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Concept Diagram 4

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Concept Diagram 5

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Concept Diagram 6

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Concept Diagram 7

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Concept Diagram 8

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Concept Diagram 9

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Concept Diagram 10

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Concept Diagram 11

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Concept Diagram 12

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Concept Diagram 13

Images: BIG

‘Design and Government’ Calls for German Architects to Submit their Projects

Vanilla Hustler — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 10:52:25 -0700

The foundation Design Den Haag invites German designers and architects to send in projects that are commissioned by the German government. Projects concerning design for public space, visual communication and architecture will be placed on Design Den Haag’s website.

Design Den Haag 2010-2018 researches the relation between Design and Government in Europe within an international context, from cultural, economic and social viewpoints. Starting summer 2010, Design Den Haag will organize a total of five public events biennially in the field of design, architecture and visual communication, with exhibitions, publications, lectures and debates, workshops and documentary films. Each edition will entail a collaboration between Den Haag and another European government Capital: Berlin, Stockholm, Rome, London and Paris. Every edition will be evaluated. The final evaluation of the five editions will be submitted as report to the European Union at the end of 2018. This report will contain recommendations concerning the betterment of relations between design and governance, and on governmental funds for the quality of design, architecture and visual communication.

Here are some ‘Design and Government’ examples from the Netherlands and Germany:

Embassy residence in Beijing, 2007, Client: Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Design: Kraaijvanger Urbis, Photo: Christian Richters

Dutch embassy in Berlin, 1997-2003, Client: Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Service for Buildings Abroad, Design: OMA, Photo: Christian Richters

Installation at an archaeological site, 2008, Location: Houten, Client: Municipality Houten, Design: JSA (Jeroen schipper Architecten bv): The installation is located at an archaeological site and represents what is hidden beneath the ground. Like a billboard the site advertises its identity by means of a pixel display: ‘working on history here, as time flies by, irreversibly’. The pixels are three-dimensional, and when passing by, the text becomes an image which shows the vague form of an old Roman dwelling. A staircase inside the installation leads visitors past reproductions of earlier excavations to a platform with a view of the field and its surroundings.

EXPO pavilion, 2000, Location: Hannover, Germany, Client: Foundation Holland World Fairs, Design: MVRDV

Sportdomes, 2007, Client: Atelier of the Chief Government Architect, Design: Willem van der Sluis, Customr: A movable domed sports and recreational venue for illegal refugees held at detention barques in Zaandam. The perforation pattern allows daylight to enter while at the same time hiding the refugees from public view.

Fire and police station, 2004, Location: Berlin, Client: City Government Berlin, Design: Sauerbruch Hutton

AIA Selects 2009 Upjohn Research Initiative Projects

Vanilla Hustler — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 10:10:35 -0700

The jury for the Upjohn Research Initiative, a joint program of the College of Fellows and the Board Knowledge Committee to support knowledge sharing between practitioners and academicians, has announced the four projects selected to receive grants.

The purpose of this grant is to provide base funds for applied research projects that advance professional knowledge and practice. The 18-month long project grant qualifies recipients to have their findings and outcomes published both electronically and in a nationally distributed publication. The annual grants range from $15,000 to $30,000. The following four submissions were selected for funding:

Sustainability Index: Designing a System of Performance Indicators to Measure and Manage Urban Developments

Principal investigators:
Bimal Mendis, assistant dean, director of undergraduate studies, Yale School of Architecture
Joyce Hsiang, critic and lecturer, Yale School of Architecture and Yale College

Summary: The research proposes to design and develop a sustainability index to measure and evaluate sustainable urban development using a transparent system of performance indicators. It will explore such issues as how sustainable development is defined, how it can be measured, and how an index could change the way we design cities.

Energy Efficiency Benchmarks for Housing

Principal investigators:
Joerg Ruegemer, assistant director, Integrated Technology in Architecture Center (I TAC), University of Utah
Ryan E. Smith, director, I TAC, University of Utah

Summary: Although several benchmark rating systems have been established in recent years to aid in achieving energy-efficient housing, the goal of designing and building net zero energy housing has been viewed as cost prohibitive, and the methods of achieving this goal are generally unknown. This research will study the following four rating systems for their capacity to achieve net zero energy housing and the associated costs: EPA Energy Star Qualified Homes, ICC 700-2008 National Green Building Standard, USGBC LEED for Homes 2008, and the Passive Home Planning Package 2007.

REIs: Renewable Energy Infrastructures

Principal investigator:
Chris Ford, 2008–2010 Steward Professor in Sustainable Design, College of Architecture, University of Nebraska

Summary: The research team will apply design-thinking skills to a problem that involves energy production, energy transmission, and urban living. REIs will generate renewable energy megawatts at an industrial scale through the simultaneous harnessing of wind, solar, and geothermal resources in an integrated, freestanding facility in an urban environment. The REI is conceived as a new building typology, not a retrofit of an existing building. The greatest impact of the REI research will be the formation of a cross-disciplinary, design-led team that delivers a plausible, cost-effective option for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from public power districts.

Responsive Field: An Active Environmental Control System

Principal investigators:
Rob Ley, principal, Urbana; design faculty, SCI-Arc
Joshua G. Stein, principal, Radical Craft; associate professor, Woodbury University

Summary: Responsive Field is an ongoing research endeavor that investigates the potential for emerging material technology to offer a responsive climate control surface that can mediate and negotiate the zone between architecture and the environment. Shape memory alloys (SMAs), a category of metals that change shape according to temperature, offer the possibility of efficient, fluid movement without the mechanized motion of earlier technologies. Operating at a molecular level, this motion parallels that of plants and lower-level organisms that are considered responsive but not conscious. Larger than the scale of nanotechnology, this research is a translation of existing, visible technologies that offer profound implications for the way we conceive of the built environment.

Scandinavian Architects to Build Urban Complex in Vilnius, Lithuania

Vanilla Hustler — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 08:55:03 -0700

Danish architectural company schmidt hammer lassen architects has won a 52,863 m2 mixed-use complex “Konstitucijos Avenue 21” in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania. The project is the result of a successful collaboration with Oslo-based Lund+Slaatto Architects, a strategic partner of schmidt hammer lassen architects. The client had requested cross-Scandinavian architect teams for the task which led Lund+Slaatto to invite schmidt hammer lassen to join them.

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“Konstitucijos Avenue 21” by Norwegian Lund+Slaatto Architects and Danish schmidt hammer lassen architects

“The inspiring cooperation with our colleagues from Lund+Slaatto has surely contributed to our winning the project. We would consider expanding our collaboration with them in future projects if they fit both our profiles,” said John Lassen, responsible partner for schmidt hammer lassen architects.

schmidt hammer lassen architects have targeted the Baltic countries for a while as a potential market for their architecture. In 2008, the company won a competition for the sustainable master plan project EcoBay in Tallinn, Estonia.

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schmidt hammer lassen’s competition-winning sustainable master plan project EcoBay in Tallinn, Estonia, 2008

The project is situated in the rapidly growing Snipiskes district in the north of Vilnius and comprises offices, apartments, shopping, fitness and conference facilities, and a hotel.
The complex has three high building volumes creating a dynamic composition both within the block and towards the future neighboring buildings. The buildings define the central space and the various passages and respect the objective of creating a coherent skyline in the region with four different height zones on the site. Each of the three constellations comprises individual units which can be built in separate building phases – and in any sequence one might find desirable at the time.

In the northeastern part of the site, an architectural peak has been added to the volume, whereby the height is escalated in a rotational movement from the lowest element in the south east towards the tallest element in the northeast. The buildings are situated displaced from each other resulting in interesting interactions with the other volumes within the block.

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Konstitucijos Avenue 21

The offices are located in the highest building, which gives an opportunity for company exposure due to its landmark character. The north-western building contains offices and residential units on the top floors positioned to receive good sunlight and views. The hotel is located in the foremost building and easy access towards Konstitucjos. On the ground floor, retail shops are directly accessible from the main streets to contribute to urban life along and through the city block.

Sustainability
The city block has a strong visual environmental profile with an extensive use of green roofs and accompanying brown-water handling. Resource and area efficient solutions are achieved through rational and flexible building volumes in particular in the interaction with sustainable use of materials. The design of the facades is developed from a principle that allows for flexibility in the degree of enclosed/ glazed surfaces and sun exposure/ cooling. The buildings are also oriented according to the passage of the sun to achieve a balanced thermal heating in relation to working hours and the need for cooling.

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Konstitucijos Avenue 21

Address: 21 Constitucijos prospektas, Snipiskes, Vilnius, Lithuania
Surface: 52,863 m2
Total built area: 72,303 m2
Award: 1st prize
Competition year: 2009
Competition type: Restricted, international
Client: UAB Sektor Real Estate, UAB Nodulus (through the company UAB Forumas)
Architect: schmidt hammer lassen architects/Lund & Slaatto Arkitekter, Oslo, Norway
Landscape architect: schmidt hammer lassen architects/ Lund & Slaatto Arkitekter, Oslo, Norway
Partner responsible architects: John Lassen and Kim Holst Jensen

Images: SHL

“Linked Hybrid” by Steven Holl Architects now also Named 2009 “Best Tall Building Overall”

Vanilla Hustler — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 15:45:12 -0700

In early July, Bustler reported that Steven Holl Architects’ “Linked Hybrid” towers in Beijing, China had been named 2009 “Best Tall Building” in the regional category ‘Asia & Australia’ by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH). Award recipients had to possess seamless integration of architectural form, structure, and building systems, as well as exhibit sustainable design qualities working to preserve the quality of urban life.

Now the council summoned again in Chicago at its annual CTBUH conference and awarded “Linked Hybrid” also with the highest praise of the title 2009 “Best Tall Building Overall.”

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Winner of the 2009 “Best Tall Building Overall” Award: “Linked Hybrid” by Steven Holl Architects. Photograph: Shu He

At the awards ceremony, CTBUH Awards Committee Chairman Gordon Gill stated, “This project is so rich in thought, both programmatically and architecturally. It presents an advances typology for dense urban living.”

CTBUH Executive Director Antony Wood said, “This project […] points the way forward for the intensified multi-use, multi-level connected cities of the future.”

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Photograph: Shu He

The 220,000 square-meter Linked Hybrid complex includes eight towers linked by a ring of eight sky bridges housing a variety of public functions. The complex is located adjacent to the former city perimeter of Beijing. To counter the current privatized urban development trends in China, the complex forms a new twenty-first century porous urban space, inviting and open to the public from every side. In addition to more than 750 apartments, the complex includes public, commercial, and recreational facilities as well as a hotel and school.

With sightlines around, over, and through multifaceted spatial layers, this “city within a city” has as one of its central aims the concept of public space within an urban environment, and can support all the activities and programs for the daily lives of over 2500 inhabitants. From the 18th floor a multi-functional series of skybridges with swimming pool, fitness center, cafe, gallery, tearoom, etcetera connects the eight towers and offers views of the city. Together with the ground level passages and public programs, the skybridges aim to constantly generate random relationships; functioning as social condensers in a special experience of city life for both residents and visitors.

Geo-thermal wells (660 at 100 meters deep) provide Linked Hybrid with cooling in summer and heating in winter. All the water in the project is recycled, using a grey water system that reuses an estimated 220,000 liters of water each day, resulting in a 41% decrease in potable water usage. These strategies make Linked Hybrid one of the largest green residential projects.

Taipei Pop Music Center Competition - Shortlist

Vanilla Hustler — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 10:59:13 -0700

The international competition for the Taipei Pop Music Center recently announced the three finalists and four honorable mentions.

The competition aims to build a large pop music performing center in northern Taiwan that also includes an outdoor performing plaza. The center seeks to support development of the pop music industry in Taiwan with the goal of becoming the leading center of the Chinese creative music development internationally and for industrial experiment.

The competition jury includes Lars Lerup, Dean, Rice School of Architecture, Houston (USA); Brett Steele, Director, Architectural Association School of Architecture (UK); Michael Speaks, Dean of the College of Design and Professor of Architecture at the University of Kentucky (USA); Kris Yao, Principal of Artech Architects (Taiwan); Shu-Chang Kung, Principal of AURA Architects & Associates (Taiwan); Monica Kuo, Dean/Chair, Dept. of Landscape Architecture, College of Environmental Design, Chinese Culture University Taiwan (Taiwan); and Wei-Gong Liou, Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, Soochow University (Taiwan).

The three finalists are:

Four honorable mentions were given to:

Morphosis Architects / Thom Mayne (USA) in collaboration with J.J. Pan and Partners, Architects & Planners / Chungwei Su (Taiwan)
Toyo Ito / Toyo Ito & Associates, Architects (Japan)
JDS Architects / Julien de Smedt (Denmark)
J. M. Lin Architect, P.C. / Jou Min Lin (USA) in collaboration with The Observer Design Group / Zhenguo Cheng (Taiwan)

Stage two tender submission deadline for the selected firms is now January 26, 2010, and the announcement of the final winners is scheduled for the end of January. Of course, Bustler will keep you informed!

Winners Announced for the Lavender Lake Art Factory Competition

Vanilla Hustler — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 09:10:16 -0700

The winning designs of the suckerPUNCH-curated Lavender Lake Art Factory competition have recently been announced. The international competition asked architects to submit concepts for an ‘art factory’ at the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn, New York that will contain private/shared art studios, a storefront gallery/bar, analog/digital shops, and live/work spaces for rotating artists in residence. Both the interior and exterior realizations of the project should rethink the white boxes of modern art work and display spaces and conceive a sequence of spaces that address the diversity of contemporary art and design at multiple scales.

The jury comprised Abigail Coover (Hume Coover Studio, suckerPUNCH), Nathan Hume (Hume Coover Studio, suckerPUNCH), Mike Szivos (SOFTlab), Jose Gonzalez (SOFTlab), Armand Graham (Asymptote), Serra Kiziltan (Gage Clemenceau Architects), and Philip Mana (Studio Daniel Libeskind).

And these are the winning designs:

1st Place: “Water Fields”
Pablo Esteban Zamorano & Marcos Cardenas (Santiago de Chile, Chile)

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Pablo Esteban Zamorano & Marcos Cardenas

An art factory, an open public space, a beach, a picnic field, a crop garden, a space for the community and for culture, a land open to the water, the city and the arts. The border condition (water-land) of this site made us think about how these limits could react with each other to create something new. An hybrid space product of a simple movement: the inundation of the site, the analysis of a close up view of the canal and the projection of that into the site as a geometry, to translate what used to be water into land but now as a construction of the memory of the canal. The Gowanus Canal is now a new public space for the city that brings the canal back to the people.

2nd Place: “Lavender Lake Art Factory”
David Jaubert (Brooklyn, New York)

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David Jaubert

Given the disparate relationship between the factory typology and public place exemplified by the surrounding context, the project seeks to explore the tension between the two as an impetus for a potential hybrid type. By shifting the ground plane on the site, the project’s parti allows for the multiplicity of the datum rather than it’s displacement, resulting in a site condition that aims to extend the synthesis between the public and private domain.

3rd Place: “Lavender Lake Art Factory”
Chiara Gambassi & Jan Kudlicka (Bucine, Italy)

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Chiara Gambassi & Jan Kudlicka

What or who influenced this project: Typical rude ambience of Brooklyn, train bridge on one side and the river on the other side. The urbanistic juxtaposition of the industry in the east and the living area in the west. Missing of the green places. So we tried to make a project which has got some similar story with the surroundings but with using new materials. Create the place with the symbiosis between the park/building.

Honorable Mention: “HydroCarbon Architecture”
Cesare Griffa, Davide Guerra + Federico Rizzo/r&d Architecture (Turin, Italy)

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Cesare Griffa, Davide Guerra + Federico Rizzo/r&d Architecture

The Gowanus site is A toxic body in which the degeneration of the space is a direct consequence of the industrial and criminal activities that took place here over time. The environmental clean up is a necessity. There is an hygienic problem that needs to be addressed, and social potential that need to be unveiled. A mere sterilization of the site is not enough, there is a need of oxygen to sustain life. The appearance of a Gowanus social movement can be the engine of renovation. Such a movement requires a specific space that embed also the dark and degenerated aspects of the area within an hygienic project.

Honorable Mention: “YMCArt Center on the Gowanus”
Vanessa Keith/Studioteka Design (Brooklyn, New York)

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Vanessa Keith/Studioteka Design

Our project emphasizes public space for the community, a YMCA with a twist: art spaces + community spaces + research spaces. The main building, located to the north along fifth street, combines space for art with an environmental research and remediation program, including offices and research labs, which makes the project economically sustainable. We were intrigued by the concept of industrial symbiosis and the notion that the site’s industrial legacy could be transformed into an amenity for local residents. By incorporating site remediation within the program and structure, the project serves as a demonstration of a new locally focused strategy.

Images: suckerPUNCH

Guggenheim and Google SketchUp Announce Winners of Design It: Shelter Competition

Vanilla Hustler — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 09:15:26 -0700

On the occasion of the exhibitions Frank Lloyd Wright: From Within Outward and Learning By Doing, the Guggenheim and Google SketchUp invited amateur and professional designers from around the world to submit a 3-D shelter for any location in the world using Google SketchUp and Google Earth. Over the course of the summer, nearly 600 contestants from 68 different countries submitted designs that met the competition requirements. Current Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture students then selected ten finalists for the People’s Prize award.

The two winning entries have now been announced: David Mares’s “CBS – Cork Block Shelter”, which won the People’s Prize after receiving 64,875 votes out of more than 100,000 votes submitted online by voters around the world; and David Eltang’s “SeaShelter”, which was selected by a jury of architecture and design experts for the Juried Prize.

People’s Prize Winner:
CBS – Cork Block Shelter
David Mares (Setúbal, Portugal)

People’s Prize Winner: “CBS – Cork Block Shelter” by David Mares

CBS is located at Vale dos Barris. It was designed to be an ecological and living block. In a microclimate that ranges from the dry heat to damp cold, the application of cork is a good way of thermally isolating the shelter and also providing acoustic insulation for study/sleep. The dynamic facade gives visual interaction when in living-studying mode; in rest-sleep mode it closes to provide privacy for its occupant.

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Juried Prize Winner:
SeaShelter
David Eltang (Aarhus, Denmark)

Juried Prize Winner: “SeaShelter” by David Eltang

SeaShelter is situated in the Wadden-sea, a unique coastline, with shallow water but tides of 1-3 meters and exposed seabed at low tide. It is habitat for a variety of birds and seals. SeaShelter offers opportunity to stay in the Wadden-sea even at high tide, and opportunity to discover wildlife and seabed when flooded. Interior Workspace: Horizontal view, ‘Tidal Stair’: Sea-level view, ‘Observation and resting Tower’: Non-flooded panoramic view.

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3LHD Finish Construction on Zamet Sports and Cultural Center in Croatia

Vanilla Hustler — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 10:45:35 -0700

Croatian architecture firm 3LHD recently finished the Zamet Center in Rijeka, an industrial port city in Croatia.

The center is a brand new building that will have a great impact on the local community. The project is a hybrid, with mixed use facilities: multipurpose sports hall, new library, civic center, local administration offices, bars, shops and a parking garage.

The design of Zamet Center is the result of an invited competition that 3LHD won the first price for.

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Construction on the 3LHD-designed Zamet Sports and Cultural Center in Rijeka, Croatia is now finished (Photo: 3LHD)

Here’s some information from 3LHD:

Situated in Rijeka’s quarter Zamet, the new Zamet Centre in complete size of 16,830 m2 hosts various facilities: sports hall with max 2,380 seats, local community offices, library, 13 retail and service spaces and a garage with 250 parking spaces.

One third of the sports hall’s volume is cut in the ground, and the rest of the Centre is fully fitted into the surrounding landscape. The building’s main architectural element are ribbon-like linear stripes stretching over the site in a north-south direction, functioning at the same time as an architectural design element of the object and as a zoning element which forms a public square and a link between the park on the north and school and B. Vidas street on the south.

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Photo: Domagoj Blazevic

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Photo: 3LHD

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Photo: Domagoj Blazevic

The stripes were inspired by “gromača”, a type of rocks specific to Rijeka, which the centre artificially reinterprets by colour and shape. They are paved with 51.000 ceramic tiles designed by 3LHD and manufactured specially for the centre. The steel construction, girder span of 55 meters and their varying height allow the natural light illumination of the sports hall.

The hall has been designed in accordance with the latest world sports standards for major international sports competitions. The concept is based on flexibility of space. Playground size is 46 x 44 meters, for two handball courts. The hall contains all the supporting facilities for professional training and competition, and the auditorium designed as a system of telescopic stands enables the transformation for everyday use as well as for other activities such as concerts, conferences and congresses. Selected interior materials - wood and acoustic panels, suggests that the hall is a large living room for athletes. The main access to the hall and other facilities is located west of the hall from the public square and from the underground garage.

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Photo: 3LHD

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Photo: Domagoj Blazevic

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Photo: 3LHD

Project name: Zamet Center
Program: public, cultural, business, sport
Status: completed
Project year: 2004
Project start date: 2004
Project end date: Jan 2008
Construction start date: 12/21/2007
Construction end date: 9/10/2009
Address: B. Vidas Street, Zamet
City: Rijeka, Croatia
Site area (m2): 12289
Size (m2): 16,830
Volume (m3): 88,075
Footprint (m2): 4,724
Entry level: 103
Budget: 20M EUR ($30M)
Client: Grad Rijeka / Rijeka Sport d.o.o.
Author: 3LHD

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Distribution of volumes on the site

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Site Plan

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Floor Plan

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Longitudinal Section

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Cross Section

Project team: Sasa Begovic, Tatjana Grozdanic Begovic, Marko Dabrovic, Silvije Novak, Paula Kukuljica, Zvonimir Marcic, Leon Lazaneo, Eugen Popovic, Nives Krsnik Rister, Andrea Vukojic
Colaborators: Mateo Bilus, Building Physics / Details; Berislav Medic, UPI-2M, Structural Engineering; Branko Čorko, IPZ-elektroinzenjering 22, Electrical Engineering; Mario Lukenda, Termoinzenjering-projektiranje d.o.o., HVAC; Slavko Simunović, HIT PROJEKT, MEP Engineering - Plumbing; Nenad Semenov, PASTOR, sprinkler installation; Rok Pietri, LIFT MODUS, elevators; Zeljko Arbanas, IGH PC Rijeka, diaphragm wall; Zeljko Stipković, Fire Protection; Ivica Babic, Zavod za zastitu na radu Rijeka, Safety at Work; Marija Babojelic, Special Consultant - Cost Consultant; Ines Hrdalo, Landscape Architect; Damir Bralić, Lana Cavar i Narcisa Vukojevic, signage and environmental graphics design; Nikola Durek, “Typonine Zamet” typeface design, Main contractor: GP Krk

Art Directors Club Announces ADC Young Guns 7 Winners

Vanilla Hustler — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 09:30:50 -0700

The Art Directors Club last night announced the 50 young creatives from 14 countries to claim the prestigious ADC Young Guns 7 title.

ADC Young Guns is the only international, cross-disciplinary, portfolio-based awards competition that identifies today’s vanguard of young creative professionals age 30 or younger. Selected from entries received from 84 countries (up from 46 countries last year), these ADC Young Guns 7 winners represent an impressive global roster of young talent in the fields of graphic design, photography, illustration, advertising and art direction, environmental design, film, animation & video, interactive design, product design and typography.

This year for the first time, ADC Young Guns-Moleskine grants were awarded to top winners. Based upon jury scores, Moleskine awarded $1,000 to Siggi Eggertsson, Germany, as the top-ranked ADC Young Guns 7 winner, and $250 to each to Fx&Mat, France and Mario Hugo, USA, as the two runners-up.

The complete ADC Young Guns 7 class is as follows:

North America:

• Wesley Allsbrook - Self-employed, USA
• Lindsay Ballant - Public Service Bureau, USA
• Nina Boesch - And Partners, USA
• Karim Charlebois-Zariffa - Sagmeister Inc., Canada
• Yong Choe - Ralph Lauren Media, USA
• Brian Close - Lifelong Friendship Society, USA
• Sylvain Dumais - Self-employed, Canada
• Yoko Furusho - Self-employed, USA

Yoko Furusho

• Timothy Goodman - COLLINS:, USA
• Jessica Hische - Self-employed, USA
• Mario Hugo - Hugo & Marie, USA

Mario Hugo

• Kitman Keung - Kitman Keung Ltd., Canada

Kitman Keung

• Mixtape Club - Self-employed, USA
• Oliver Munday - Oliver Munday Design, USA
• Sean Pecknold - Grandchildren, USA
• Qian Qian - McCann Erickson, USA
• Keren Richter - Self-employed, USA
• Dan Saelinger - Self-employed, USA
• Michael Schachtner and Julia Neumann - Y&R, USA
• Stewart Smith - Stewdio, USA

Stewart Smith

• Matt Smithson - Self-employed, USA
• Will Staehle - JibJab, USA

Will Staehle

• Ben Steiger Levine - Self-employed, Canada
• Isaac Tobin - University of Chicago Press, USA

Isaac Tobin

• Sam Weber - Self-employed, USA

Sam Weber

• Ben Wiseman - Rodrigo Corral Design, USA

Latin America:

• Danilo Boer - AlmapBBDO, Brazil

Danilo Boer

• Guiga Giacomo - AlmapBBDO, Brazil

Europe/UK:

• Bendita Gloria (Alba Rosell and Santi Fuster), Spain
• Dora Budor and Maja Cule, budor+cule, Croatia
• Laura Carlin - Self-employed, UK
• Siggi Eggertsson - Self-employed, Germany

Siggi Eggertsson

• Verónica Fuerte - Hey, Spain
• Fx&Mat - Self-employed, France

Fx&Mat

• Yves Geleyn - Self-employed, France

Yves Geleyn

• Raúl Goñi Fdez - Self-employed, Spain
• David Kamp - Kamp Music & Sound Design, Germany
• Johnny Kelly - Self-employed, UK
• PetPunk (Andrius Kirvela & Gediminas Šiaulys) - Lithuania
• Adam Simpson - Self-employed, UK

Adam Simpson

• Jim Stoten - Self-employed, UK
• Richard Vijgen - Self-employed, Netherlands
• Bianca Wendt - Bianca Wendt Ltd., UK
• Greg White - Self-employed, UK

Greg White

• Peter Michael Willer - MMIX, Denmark

Africa/Asia Pacific:

• Clinton Duncan - Self-employed, Australia
• Ivana Martinovic - Landor Associates, Australia
• NOSIGNER - Self-employed, Japan

NOSIGNER

• Jake Smallman - Paper Stone Scissors, Australia
• Joanne van der Linde - Net#work BBDO, South Africa

Joanne van der Linde

A selection of their winning work, comprised of both professional and personal projects, is being exhibited at ADC Gallery (106 W. 29th St., New York) from October 22 to November 6, Monday-Friday, 10:00 am – 6:00 pm.

This work will also be printed in a commemorative, limited-edition volume published exclusively for the Art Directors Club by Moleskine. The full body of winners’ submitted work will be available in November 2009 as part of ADC’s permanent collection online. Members of ADC Young Guns 7 class receive the iconic ADC Young Guns Cube, complimentary one-year membership to ADC, and an assortment of career-boosting benefits from ADC Young Guns sponsors.

Winners also get a chance to create original artwork for the recently opened New York location of Ace Hotel. Dubbed “the country’s most original new hotel” by The New York Times, Ace Hotel’s vintage-mod aesthetic caters to the urban nomad on a mission for experience. Ace Hotel will be selecting artists from the ADC Young Guns 7 winning class later this year.

This year’s 50 winners joins an elite group of past winners, including then-rising stars who went on to become leaders in their chosen fields such as Stefan Sagmeister and James Victore (graphic design), Deanne Cheuk (illustration), Jeremy Floto and Cassandra Warner (aka floto+warner, photography), Alexander Gelman (advertising), Rei Inamoto and Jerome Austria (interactive media), Mike Mills (film and video), Alex Trochut (typography), Todd St. John (animation) and others.

To elevate the spirit of competition among ADC Young Guns and encourage a strong sense of community, a panel of 23 past ADC Young Guns served as the jury for this ADC YG7 competition.

Images: ADC Young Guns

Super Colossal Wins Gold Coast Cultural and Civic Precinct Master Plan Competition

Vanilla Hustler — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 11:53:16 -0700

Our friends at Australian architecture and design studio Super Colossal have just been named winners in the Gold Coast Cultural and Civic Precinct Master Plan Competition.

Further commendations have been awarded to the entries by Gall & Medek Architects with the Queensland College of Art, GU, Masters of Design Futures program; as well as DC8 studio; LVO’ Architecture Pty Ltd; and Matt Drysdale.

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First Prize in the Gold Coast Cultural and Civic Precinct Master Plan Competition for Super Colossal

The Gold Coast is Australia’s sixth largest city and one of the fastest growing regions in our country. The city’s population is around 500,000 and, if as forecast, it continues to grow by 13,000 to 16,000 annually, it will be home to 900,000 residents by 2030. The 16.5 hectare site is located at 135 Bundall Road and is bordered on three sides by rivers and canals. Formerly a simple rural cane farm, the site is now at the heart of a growing city with views across the skyline of Surfers Paradise, Main Beach and Broadbeach.

The competition sought to generate creative new visions and ideas for the future of this key site and its facilities, stimulate community discussion about the future of the Gold Coast Cultural and Civic Precinct, as well as identify specific design features/strategies to be incorporated in the future development of the site.

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Rendering

The jury was chaired by Professor Michael Keniger and also included Professor Brit Andresen, Philip Follent, Rosie Kennedy, and Chris Gee. The competition was held by the Gold Coast City Council, with endorsement of the Australian Institute of Architects.

Super Colossal’s project provides new facilities for the Gold Coast Council, including a Performing Arts Center, Visual Arts and Heritage Center, cinema complex, restaurants, city council accommodation, significant park lands and an integrated pedestrian and bicycle network for the city.

The proud members of the Super Colossal team are Matthew Bennett, Erin Field, and Marcus Trimble.

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Rendering

From the jury report:

In common with many entries this proposal recognises that the site of the Gold Coast Cultural and Civic Precinct lies within the flood plain of the Nerang River and is therefore vulnerable to inundation from predicted future sea level rise; initially flooding low-laying land and later almost half the site.

Responsible approaches to meeting the danger of predicted flood events are to prepare either to defend the site or to retreat.

This scheme creates a decisive subdivision over the site to defend the land by both consolidating and raising the low-laying areas to form the precinct as an ‘Island of Culture’.

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Structure Diagram

By designing a defended cultural and civic precinct as a hybrid - “is it a building island or is it a landscape island?”- this bold scheme presents a new urban type for the Gold Coast whilst simultaneously recalling the ancient islands in the Laguna Veneta such as the Isola Murano and Isola San Michele.

The winning scheme proposes a civic square, located at the heart of the ‘Island of Culture’ envisaged as a grand outdoor place with a central address at the intersection of three bridging pathways that reach out from the island to the community.

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Site Strategy

The bridges connecting the city to the ‘Island of Culture’ can also extend pedestrian and bicycle routes through to the civic square creating the potential for a lively public place at the centre of this visible, iconic landmark.

By concentrating the civic and cultural functions on the ‘Island of Culture’ the remaining site is proposed as open parkland not only retaining the green edge at this point in the city but also extending the opportunity to link with a sequence of forest parks that would create significant linear landscapes stretching into the south-west hinterland.
With the scarcity of public open space for the future flood-free City of the Gold Coast these open park lands will make a significant contribution.

Images: Super Colossal

“Rebuilding 2.0” - The Low2No Finalist Entry by REX/Croxton Collaborative/NOW

Vanilla Hustler — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 09:58:52 -0700

Back in September, the Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra announced the proposal “c_life – City as living factory of ecology” by team ARUP/Sauerbruch Hutton/Experientia/Galley Eco Capital as the winning design of the Low2No Competition. The competition aimed at raising the interest of Helsinki’s decision-makers, developers, planners and constructors to carefully examine the inevitable changes they will be facing towards achieving a more sustainable future in Finland’s capital and the entire region.

Among the five finalists was also the very exciting entry “Rebuilding 2.0” by the team comprising New York architects REX in collaboration with Croxton Collaborative and NOW.

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Low2No Finalist Entry “Rebuilding 2.0” by REX/Croxton Collaborative/NOW (Image: Luxigon)

Here’s a closer look at the “Rebuilding 2.0” concept with a detailed description we received from REX:

Sustainability mandates systemic change. Systemic change requires doing more. Sustainability requires impacting less. REBUILDING 2.0 is a strategy for Finland to impact less by doing more.

Finland has a history of surmounting collective challenges with nation-wide rebuilding projects. Currently, Finland has one of the world’s largest per capita ecological footprints, and faces an extraordinary challenge in overcoming its environmental deficit.

Energy efficient buildings alone are not enough to meet this challenge. Only by changing behaviour— particularly mass migration to the suburbs and its accompanying carbon-intensive lifestyle—can Finland reach ecological balance. Finland must initiate REBUILDING 2.0, a new national project to make more Nature, more City and less Sprawl.

Built on Jätkäsaari, but learning from Helsinki’s core, THE REBUILDING is a tool for generating more density, more diversity, more City at the building scale. Two Residential Towers, repurposing Finland’s steel capabilities for sustainable and adaptable construction, provide light, air and views to its inhabitants. Its Headquarters unites the need for community-building with the seemingly contradictory demand for flexibility. Its Urban Infill offers 50.000 m3 of potential, capable of being “tuned” to meet the specific and changing needs of its neighbourhood, while affording greater stakeholder participation. Although it reduces energy consumption by 39% and carbon emissions by 50% relative to a comparable code compliant project, THE REBUILDING recognizes that urbanity itself is the embodiment of sustainability. It is dense, diverse, evolving and full of people—living and working, meeting and sleeping, growing up and making things.

A nation of immense financial, natural, infrastructural and intellectual wealth, Finland also possesses a unique catalyst to power systemic change: Sitra. It is time for Finns to galvanize these strengths to meet the challenge of carbon neutrality, to become a global exemplar.

REBUILDING 2.0 is the strategy.

THE REBUILDING is the first step.

From the competition boards:

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Currently, Finland has one of the world’s largest per capita ecological footprints, and faces a massive challenge in overcoming its environmental deficit. At first glance, there seems to be no problem. Finland has little population growth and Finns are moving toward cities. However, closer analysis reveals migration is to suburban belts around cities, leading to sprawl. (Image: REX)

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The energy efficiency of buildings is a relatively small factor when compared to the carbon intensive lifestyles that accompany mass suburban migration. Finland must decide if it is willing to change its behavior—to migrate toward more populated, more vital, more sustainable cities— to go from “low-” to “no-” carbon. Finland has a history of surmounting collective challenges with nation-wide rebuilding projects. It is therefore uniquely capable of galvanizing around a new, nation-wide project—“REBUILDING 2.0”—that funnels growth and migration to make more Nature, more City, and less Sprawl. (Image: REX)

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Repopulating the Urban Core: Evolving from Helsinki’s traditional perimeter block fabric, a new building typology re-injects population into the urban core, optimizing the city center’s underused infrastructure and amenities. (Image: REX)

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“THE REBUILDING” is the application of REBUIDLING 2.0 at the scale of a single site, where key strategies can be tested for their application to, and replication within, the greater Helsinki Metropolitan Area. Designed to generate more density, more diversity, and more City, THE REBUILDING includes the following three components: 1. Residential Towers, 2. Headquarters, 3. Urban Infill (Image: Luxigon)

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Two slender Residential Towers totaling 14,000 m2 replace Finland’s conventional concrete construction with highly sustainable and recyclable steel construction, whose lateral stability is provided by an exoskeleton that enables easy plan reconfiguration and solar optimization.
Contrary to conventional construction methods, the Residential Towers’ façades are composed of a permanent mullion “chassis” which supports interchangeable window and insulation cassettes that aid flexibility over time, and that can be easily maintained or replaced by new technologies. (Image: Radii)

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Manually operable façade panels update the typical Finnish exterior balcony. A simple mechanism common in minivans enables the operable panels to be opened horizontally. During summer, the open panels provide an identical experience to that of a typical Finnish balcony. During winter, however, the operable panels can be kept closed, increasing usable interior area and solar gain while reducing thermal loss. (Image: Luxigon)

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8,000 m2 of office space is dimensioned to accommodate different and evolving work styles and allows for proximity, interconnectedness, and future company expansion. Cohesion within the Headquarters is fostered by concentrating collective spaces and circulation within a highly transparent courtyard, thereby promoting interaction and resource-sharing. (Image: Luxigon)

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The resulting plan unites flexibility and expandability with community-building and elegance. (Image: Luxigon)

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50,000 m3 (13,200 m2) of Urban Infill—a hybrid between a building and a development strategy—retains conceptual coherence, while fostering evolution and multiple authorship. (Image: Radii)

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Drawing from the unmet needs of its surroundings, the Urban Infill is a laboratory for testing social, cultural, and market viability for future mixed-use buildings within Helsinki and its new development areas. (Image: REX)

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Should all the Urban Infill not be initially developed, interim public functions—or Urban Rooms—can anticipate amenities planned for Helsinki’s new development areas. (Image: Luxigon)

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By concentrating 22,000 m2 of program 14 meters above grade into two slender residential towers unified by a two story office ring… (Image: REX)

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…and allowing for an additional 13,200 m2 of fine grain development to occupy the street level frontage… (Image: REX)

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…THE REBUILDING becomes a paradigm of density and diversity. (Image: REX)

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Finland has immense financial, natural, infrastructural, and intellectual wealth at its disposal. The nation also possesses a unique catalyst to power systemic change: Sitra, the Finnish Innovation Fund. It is time for Finns to galvanize these strengths to meet the challenge of carbon neutrality, to become a global exemplar. (Image: Luxigon)

CLIENT: Sitra, The Finnish Innovation Fund
PROGRAM: Mixed-use sustainable development containing 14,000 m² of residential units, an 8,000 m² headquarters, and 13,200 m² of “Urban Infill”
AREA: 35,200 m² (378,900 sf)
PROJECT COST: NA
STATUS: Limited competition, second prize, 2009
ARCHITECT: REX | Croxton Collaborative | NOW
KEY REX PERSONNEL: Garrick Ambrose, Haviland Argo, E. Sean Bailey, Thomas Baker, Christopher Barley, Behrang Behin, Barrett Brown, Keith Burns, Wayne Congar, Juilanne Gola, Adam Koogler, Joshua Prince-Ramus, Jacob Reidel, Troy Therrien
CONSULTANTS: 2x4, Arup New York, Bureau Bas Smets, Front, Jonathan Rose Companies, Magnusson Klemencic, Transsolar