Alison Furuto
‘Almighty Tree’ Proposal / Saraiva + Associados
In an effort to search for the city’s own identity, the ‘Almighty Tree’ concept proposal by Saraiva + Associados aims to give people the chance to experience the city of Almaty by hovering above treetops. As seen before in Kazakhstan, this unique style of architecture offers the opportunity to involve everyone in a place where the city, in combination with environmental values and modern design, shapes an exciting and memorable idea. Full architects’ description after the break.
University of North Florida Interfaith Chapel Competition Entry / OAD
In their proposal for University of North Florida’s Interfaith Chapel, OAD concluded that the main challenge was to create more than just an impressive chapel, but a place in and of itself that would highlight the unique character and seclusion of the site. The team’s response engages visitors by encouraging unscripted exploration and discovery, gradually revealing the site, chapel, and accessory buildings as the user experience unfolds. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Fire Shelter: 01 / SHJ Works
Designed by SHJ (Simon Hjermind Jensen) Works, Fire Shelter: 01 is a personal project located in at Sydhavnstippen in Copenhagen. Taking inspiration from architecture of ethnic and nomadic people, the starting point for the design emerged from a fascination of the place. It´s a temporary project and a design experiment that aims to celebrate the place. The project has public access, and it establishes experiences of spatial and social character. More images and architect’s description after the break.
Possible Mediums Conference
Taking place February 7-10, University of Illinois at Chicago School of Architecture, Ohio State University Knowlton School of Architecture, University of Kentucky College of Design, and University of Michigan Taubman College of Architecture + Urban Planning will be presenting the Possible Mediums Conference. Taking place in Columbus, Ohio, the event is composed of a series of workshops and panel discussions revolving around four “possible mediums” which places a group of designers in productive dialog, unpacking their collective foundations and futures. Challenging the boundaries of architectural convention, the invited workshop leaders employ exploratory processes rooted in mediums external to the discipline (such as film or comics) or developed from atypical applications of more conventional mediums (such as drawings or models). For more information, please visit here.
‘White Cube, Green Maze: New Art Landscapes’ Exhibition
Opening February 14, and on view until May 4, Yale School of Architecture‘s ‘White Cube, Green Maze: New Art Landscapes’ exhibition will examine emerging trends in museum design through six new art sites that share the common thread of moving beyond the traditional “white cube” gallery space, and that juxtapose the experience of culture, art, architecture, and landscape. Featuring newly commissioned photography of these sites by Iwan Baan, each site represents a unique expression of the ambitions and collaborations of patrons, architects, landscape architects, artists, and curators. For more information, please visit here.
Beijing Agriculture University Library Winning Proposal / Tongji Architectural Design and Research Institute
The competition winning proposal for the Beijing Agriculture University Library is a successful addition to the existing campus. Designed by Tongji Architectural Design and Research Institute, their design takes care of all the functions while providing a comfortable environment for students to study and research. With a construction area of about 49,000m2, the library includes a self-study area, a restaurant, an auditorium, several offices and some meeting rooms. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Martin Barry: Collaborative Ideas for More Livable Cities Lecture
Martin Barry, founder and director of reSITE in Prague and associate at W Architecture and Landscape Architecture in New York, will give an evening lecture at 6:30pm EST on February 7th. Taking place at the NYU Silver Center, his lecture will focus on how organization is advocating for more transparent, contemporary and sustainable urban planning in Czech cities. Martin will discuss the outcomes of reSITE 2012 and describe their plans for reSITE Festival and Conference to take place in June 2013. The event is presented by NYU Department of Art History & Urban Design and Architecture Studies with Czech House NYU. For more information, please visit here.
Vigdis Languages Center Proposal / OOIIO Architecture
Designed for the “Vigdis Foundation”, the Languages Center aims to be a rational building, where modulation is a key aspect. Designed by OOIIO Architecture, there is no architectural excess that might increase the budget, but quite singular and special at the same time, comfortable for users and interesting enough to get the pedestrians attention. Built to host exhibitions, a cinema-theater, café, library, and more, the construction of the building is efficient, quick and with a rational materials use. More images and architects’ description after the break.More images and architects’ description after the break.
Valenciennes Technopole for Sustainable Mobility Competition Entry / Mikou Design Studio
The Transalley Technopole is a metropolitan scientific and technological project of an international dimension, dedicated to transportation and mobility, located on a strategic site of the Valenciennes urban area. The competition proposal by Mikou Design Studio aims to be a real ecosystem of innovation, and it will host the Institut des Transports Durables (Sustainable Transport Institute), the Institut International de Management, and the head office of IRT Railenium, which will be a major research and development center dedicated to railway infrastructure. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Innovative, Bioclimatic, European School Complex Second Prize Winning Proposal / Various Architects
Designed by architects Costandis Kizis, Platon Issaias, Theodosis Issaias, and Alexandra Vougia, the second prize winning proposal for the Innovative Bioclimatic European School Complex in Crete develops around two fundamental elements of space: light and soil. In response to the intense landscape of the area of Voutes, the architectural gesture, derived from the cliffs and valleys of the region, takes advantage of the microclimatic conditions while at the same time underlining the presence of an educational institution, not by standing out, but by letting the natural landscape play the leading role. More images and architects’ description after the break.
New Culture Centre and Library Winning Proposal / schmidt hammer lassen architects
Designed to gather the city’s cultural functions under one roof, the winning proposal by schmidt hammer lassen architects for the new cultural centre and library in Karlshamn, Sweden will be the city’s new meeting place. The 5,000 square metre cultural centre will get a sculptural and flexible building containing a library, an exhibition area, a cinema, a tourist office and a café, which together work to embrace diversity. More images and architects’ description after the break.
INGLASS 2013 International Architecture Conference
Organized by the Order of Architects of Romania and ABplus Events, this year’s INGLASS International Architecture Conference, which takes place March 5, will feature Professor Wolf D. Prix, co-founder, Design Principal and CEO of Coop Himmelb(l)au, Austria, as the special guest. “Glass architecture and engineering”, will be the general topic in the discussion of glass construction, architecture and engineering, facade systems and solar energy. The event will also address the entire glass industry, architects, engineers, glass producers, processors, equipment providers. More information after the break.
Sports Hall Competition Entry / Studio EL
In search of the architectural and spatial form for the designed sports hall in Białystok, Studio EL, through their investigation of applied form typologies used in sports facilities, decided to use the coating system. This type of design is characterized by freshness, terseness and coherence in form and in contents of a function. The design consists of two-curvature, two-layered, steel space frames which will cover the space of the sports hall and will be based on the double buttresses located in its ambit. More images and architects’ description after the break.
modeLab Advanced Data Trees Webinar
Taking place February 1 from 2:00-4:30pm EST, Advanced Data Trees: The Art of Navigating and Manipulating Data Structures in Grasshopper will focus on how to effectively navigate and use multi-dimensional data in creative ways. Effective use of Data Trees cannot only help accelerate project development and increase productivity, but in many cases, implementing an advanced Data Tree strategy can lead to greater communication across a team. Through a series of short presentations and “live” case studies, learn to streamline your parametric workflows using advanced Data Tree strategies. To register, and for more information, please visit here.
Shanghai Cultural Center Competition Entry / BKK Architects + Brearley Architects & Urbanists
Designed by BKK Architects, in collaboration with Brearley Architects & Urbanists, Shanghai Normal University’s new Cultural Center aims to create an intensive and richly mixed-use building by applying the lessons of the city and drawing upon the cloister typology. Arranged around an activated central courtyard, the project will provide a new focus for campus life, accommodating a broad range of cultural, retail, hospitality, and leisure activities. More images and architects’ description after the break.
‘A Confederacy of Heretics: The Architecture Gallery, Venice, 1979′ Exhibition
Taking place at SCI-Arc‘s campus in downtown Los Angeles March 29-July 7, Pacific Standard Time Presents: Modern Architecture in L.A.: A Confederacy of Heretics: The Architecture Gallery, Venice, 1979 exhibition. The exhibition examines the pivotal role played by the temporary gallery held in the home of architect Thom Mayne for several weeks in 1979. An immersive showcase of spectacular models, drawings and media will be mounted in two spaces located on the SCI-Arc campus, the main gallery and the Kappe Library Gallery. More information on the exhibition after the break.
Doshisha Chapel Complex Competition Entry / BAKOKO + Structured Environment
Architects BAKOKO, in collaboration with engineers Structured Environment, shared with us their proposal for a new chapel and Center for Christian Culture at Doshisha University’s Kyoto campus. With structure, form, and function molded into a singular totality, their intention is not to draw attention to the form of the building, but rather, to merge floor, walls, and roof into an immersive experience prioritizing personal reflection and human interaction within the central sanctums. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Transiting Cities – Low Carbon Futures Competition Winners
Conducted by The Office of Urban Transformation Research (OUTR) at RMIT University as part of an ongoing research project, they recently announced the winners of the Transiting Cities – Low Carbon Futures competition. The challenge was to develop innovative visions for Latrobe City, in eastern Victoria, Australia to make the transition from a singular economy dominated by the power industry (coal mining and electricity generation) into a diversified economy and prosperous low carbon regional city. More images and information on the winning entries after the break.
Nam June Paik Library / N H D M
Designed by N H D M / Nahyun Hwang + David Eugin Moon, the Nam June Paik Library is a new public art library in Nam June Paik Art Center in Yong-In, Korea, which opened to the general public in 2011. Inspired by Nam June Paik’s artistic processes, the library was designed as a multi-functional spatial device, which redefines the relationship between library users and information. While the conventional library is characterized by the one directional transmission of the static, centralized, and predefined content, this library aims to promote non-linear and random access to information, and its production beyond the consumption. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Urban Park of Palouriotissa Second Prize Winning Proposal / ECONOMOU + Georgios Artopoulos
In an effort to achieve a more holistic development of Latsia, the participation of socially active, culturally motivated and eager to learn citizens is necessary. Therefore, this second prize winning proposal by ECONOMOU Architects & Engineers + Georgios Artopoulos was designed to accommodate and create spatially organized activities and lived experiences, in order to host actions of collective learning and creative occupations relevant to the local natural resources, always aiming for the generation of a new, shared identity of Latsia. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Jaarbeursplein Utrecht Winning Proposal / Witteveen+Bos, OKRA, and ZJA
Witteveen+Bos, OKRA, and ZJA have recently won the integral design for the Jaarbeursplein Utrecht and the underground parking. Their vision focuses on the realization of the perfect parking concept, with a comfortable, lively, and socially safe city square on top of it. Forming the face of the new Utrecht, their vital and highly dynamic proposal becomes a place where inhabitants and visitors can have a taste of the new city. More images and architects’ description after the break.
