Alison Furuto
Memory Cloud / RE:Site + Metalab
As an update to last year’s post featuring Memory Cloud as the winning commission awarded to RE:site and METALAB by Texas A&M University for the new Memorial Student Center 12th Man Hall, they have shared with us their most recent images upon the completion of their installation this February. Located in a place of deep traditions that are played out on the football field at every game and in the everyday lives of students, will create the imagery that will be played within the layers of the LED matrix at different speeds and durations. The gallery of images, and a video of the project can be viewed after the break.
Tian Tai County ChiCheng No.2 Primary School Proposal / LYCS Architecture
Designed by LYCS Architecture, their newly completed proposal for the Tian Tai County ChiCheng No.2 Primary School focuses on the relationship between architecture and site, site and city, form and function. Striving for a unique design to serve as a model school, their concept provides a beautiful environment for the cultivation of knowledge, culture, physical fitness, art and ethics for elementary school children. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Day Care Center Competition Entry / Uri Cohen Architects
With the city of Be’er Sheba standing out in the areas of education, architecture and environment, this proposal for the day care center, which won an honorable mention, is an opportunity for innovative thinking in social services and integration with the community. Designed by Uri Cohen Architects their plan suggests selective exposure to city life for the users, while keeping their privacy and giving the city areas for activities. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Pier 40 Parks and Housing Development Proposal / WXY Architecture + Urban Design
In an effort to saving the crumbling 15-acre Pier 40 on Manhattan’s Lower West Side waterfront, seven downtown youth sports groups have released a concept plan prepared by WXY Architecture + Urban Design to open up 40% more space for more fields and park space on the pier, mainly by creating a new development site for two new, 22-story residential buildings in an area along West Street directly in front of the pier. The development approach would open the existing 800-foot-long pier shed building that encloses the park fields to improve connections and access between the Hudson River, the pier, and the park. The result knits together leisure and recreation amenities with a premier waterfront destination. More images and architects’ description after the break.
7th Annual Cambridge Talks Conference: ‘Architecture and the Street’
Free and open to the public, the PhD program at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design is pleased to invite you to the 7th annual Cambridge Talks conference, which will take place on Friday, March 29, from 9:00am to 4:30pm. This year’s conference seeks to bring fresh historical themes and tools to bear on the problem of ‘Architecture and the Street’. New research promises to enrich and challenge perspectives pioneered by Spiro Kostof, Jane Jacobs, and William H. Whyte. You will be challenged to critically think about questions such as ‘How might we theorize and historicize modern streets as sites of cultural memory and nostalgia? And above all, what are the effects of such social, political, and technological forces on architectural form? For more information, please visit here.
Gold Coast International Design Competition
Launching Tuesday, March 26, Council of the City of Gold Coast is calling participants to compete for the opportunity to design a landmark cultural ‘heart and soul’ on 11 hectares of the stunning Evandale site on Australia’s Gold Coast. The Council’s vision for the site includes a Living Arts Centre, for performing arts and cinema; a New Arts Museum for media, art and design; a stunning outdoor garden Artscape and a green bridge to adjacent Chevron Island. Concepts will need to be distinctive and innovative and will have to respond to a comprehensive design brief. The winning design will evolve into the city’s creative commons, a place loved by residents and a must-see visitor destination. For more information, please visit here.
Competition to Design a Feature Space at Tent London
Tent London recently launched their call for entries for their 2013 Project Spaces where they will be offering 4 spaces in the show to architects and designers who have a design or concept they would like to present to their 20,000 visitors. Project Spaces should be about anything but products. Their goal is to punctuate the halls at Tent London with engaging, three-dimensional installations of all descriptions which challenge their design hungry visitors and offer a break from the furniture, lighting and interiors products found within the rest of the show. The deadline for applications is April 26. For more information, please visit here.
‘The Twist’: Tokyo Olympic Stadium Competition Entry / MenoMenoPiu Architects + FHF Architectes
Designed as not only a sports stadium, but as a city fragment, the design by MenoMenoPiu Architects + FHF Architectes is an attractor: innovative and a generator of vitality. Given the name The Twist, their proposal for the Tokyo Olympic Stadium is expanding in order to better reach users’ requirements: proximity, diversity, and accessibility. Their conept, unlike other conventional stadiums, is an elliptical spiral which is gradually unrolling and forming. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Pacific Ocean Platform Prison Competition Entry / Povilas Zakauskas, Tomas Vaiciulis, Kristijonas Skirmantas
Designed by architects Povilas Zakauskas, Tomas Vaiciulis, and Kristijonas Skirmantas their ‘Buoy Prison’ proposal for the Pacific Ocean Platform Prison competition consists of 3 main parts: bearing column, structural ring and regular rectangular modules, containing all prison areas defined in a design program, hanging under structural ring. Separate parts (modules) could be easily replaced by the others or new extensions could be added if needed. This makes the whole prison system flexible and adjustable to always changing requirements. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Hydroponic Pumping Station Winning Proposal / mode:lina
In an effort to revitalize an old pumping station in Pila, Poland, this first prize winning proposal by mode:lina successfully combines green thinking with eco-technology to turns a space into a place where you can learn, practice, and get accustomed to one of the best ways to help your environment - growing your own food. These three aspects: nature+mineral water+education are the base of their concept. By combining them with each other, they hope to once again promote the city and give back a pumping function to an old building. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Helsingborg Hospital Extension Winning Proposal / Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects
Located in the southern part of Sweden, the competition to design the 35,000 square metre extension to the Helsingborg Hospital has just been won by Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects. In cooperation with Aarhus Arkitekterne, NNE Pharmaplan and landscape architects Kragh & Berglund, the key to the whole design has been flexibility, a clear layout, variety, human scale, green courtyards and optimal conditions for daylight. The extension will include a new ward for adult psychiatry, an out-patient clinic and medical laboratories. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Leiden University New Science Campus / JHK Architecten + Inbo
Designed by JHK Architecten + Inbo, the construction of the first phase of the new science campus of the University of Leiden officially started just two weeks ago on Thursday, February 28th. The Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences at Leiden will at completion of the building project present itself in one building, promoting the cooperation between the different institutions housed within. Leiden University will have a modern, open and communicative building in which the various research institutes of the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences will be interconnected better than ever. More images and architects’ description after the break.
The Woolworth Building @ 100 Exhibtion
The Woolworth Building @ 100 Exhibtion, taking place at the Skyscraper Museum in New York City until July 14, 2013, celebrates its centennial year in the process of conversion, with office space remaining below and luxury residences planned for the upper tower. Still radiant on the lower Manhattan skyline, the landmark heralds both the past and future of New York as it became the preeminent silhouette on the New York skyline and took the title of world’s tallest office building in 1913 when eighty thousand incandescent bulbs illuminated the New York night. The brilliant spectacle was a career-crowning achievement for the tower’s owner, the five-and-dime store king Frank W. Woolworth, who paid for the skyscraper with his personal fortune and took a hands-on role in every decision of its design. For more information on the event, please visit here.
Update: WOHA’s ‘Breathing Architecture’ Exhibition
As an update to last year’s post on WOHA‘s ‘Breathing Architecture’ exhibition, their work has seen great success in Frankfurt and Taichung. Now on its last leg, it will travel to Taipei and be on display from March 22-May 10 at the “Mobile Museum – SEED project”. Reminding us of bold visions of the future, in which plants reclaim nature for themselves, the architects realize the permeation of buildings and landscape, and of interiors and exteriors in projects. WOHA’s tropical architecture is permeable, leafy and interspersed with community spaces, which truly capture the essence of how architecture is breathing. For more information, please visit here. More images can be viewed after the break.
Nach Hause Kommen Winning Proposal / Studio BANG
Studio BANG shared with us their winning proposal for the IBA Basel competition to design a settlement for commuters in Rheinweiler, Germany. With a strong focus on the last part of the commuters daily way back home, this new settlement is composed of 3 different row-housing units with 28 of them forming a structure that is slightly denser than the surrounding single-family house units. Thus, lower building costs and a closer community is enabled. More images and architects’ description after the break.
AIV-Schinkel-Wettbewerb Competition Winning Proposal / David Weclawowicz + Dagmara Sietko- Sierkiewicz
The architecture student team collaboration of Dagmara Sietko- Sierkiewicz and David Weclawowicz of the Wroclaw University of Technology shared with us their first prize winning proposal in the AIV Schinkel- Wettbewerb 2013 competition. With this year’s topic of “TXL transformation”, their challenge was to develop a quarter made from a new typology of hybrid-buildings, containing a manufacture (production hall), flats and retail services after closing the airport Berlin Tegel in the year 2014. This winning concept focuses on using the production facilities after hours as a leisure destination. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Re-Think Athens Competition Entry / Harry C. Bougadellis & Associate Architects + Georges Batzios + Martha Schwartz Partners
Designed by the collaborative team composed of Harry C. Bougadellis & Associate Architects, Georges Batzios, and Martha Schwartz Partners, their proposal for the Re-Think Athens competition, which was named as the 2nd runner up, is an urban landscape element which will characterize the entire center of Athens. Titled ‘Belvederes of Athens ‘, their design concept creates a high velocity urban corridor void of anchors or rest by structuring the street space into a series of terraces, expressive belvederes define individual urban spaces along this perpetual slope. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center, Center for Advanced Care Proposal / SmithGroupJJR
Currently being constructed adjacent to Advocate Illinois Masonic’s existing hospital, the SmithGroupJJR designed Center for Advanced Care is the first of a planned two-phase building program that will add 156,000-square feet dedicated to cancer care, digestive health, and ambulatory surgery services. With completion expected for early 2015, the architects are striving for a building that is a response to the needs of their community. Not only does this building reflect the personality of their organization, but it will give them a platform to transform how they deliver care to their patients. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Curatorial Opportunities’ Program at the CCA
Curatorial practice as it emerged during the twentieth century is being extensively recast. The tremendous change in the status of the object, culture, the various disciplines, information and education, implies an inevitable transformation of the curator’s role and competences. A renewed interest for curatorial practice has recently emerged within the field of architecture. For the third year, the CCA (Canadian Center for Architecture) offers two curatorial opportunities with the generous support of the Power Corporation of Canada: the Young Curator Program and the Curatorial Internships Program. More information after the break.
Culture Island: Public Library Proposal / UGO Architecture
Designed by UGO Architecture, their ‘Culture Island’ project is a model of a public library meant for small towns up to 15,000 inhabitants. The starting point for creating their concept was the research carried out in 2010 by the Office for Readership Research of the National Library and the Public Opinion Research Centre TNS OBOP. The research shows that 56% of Poles did not read a single book during the year. Thus, they started to think about how to make the citizens and the authorities of the municipality (the latter will finance the project) interested in the idea of model public libraries in spite of the poor readership. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Passive House “Bruck” / Peter Ruge Architekten
Setting new standards of sustainability through the design of the Passive House “Bruck”, Peter Ruge Architekten’s project is a model apartment complex, consisting of 36 one room staff flats, 6 two room executive suites and 4 three-bedroom model apartments currently being built in southern China. With a 95% energy savings over that of a conventional Chinese residential building, the project is the first housing of its kind to be realized in the countries damp, warm, southern climate. Construction just began last month and is expected to be completed within the upcoming months. More images and architects’ description after the break.
