Alison Furuto
Plabennec Gymnasium / Bohuon Bertic Architectes
The aim of Bohuon Bertic Architectes for their gymnasium in Plabennec, France is to create an efficient tool in regard to the building’s use as well as for the surrounding area, making the project friendly, enjoyable, serene and identifiable. Characterized by horizontality, the site is a vast, dominant plateau that immerses the user in the scenery. The project interprets and synthesizes the characteristics of the place and programmatic datum resulting in two fundamental elements: the base and the volume-signal. More images and architects’ description after the break.
‘CHANGE, Architecture, Education, Practices’ Conference
Co-Chaired by Xavier Costa from Northeastern University and Martha Thorne from IE University, the ACSA International Conference, ‘CHANGE, Architecture, Education, Practices’ will be held in Barcelona from June 20-22. The event will focus on schools and intellectual leadership as we transition to new economic scenarios and professional cultures in architecture worldwide. The relationship between schools and the profession can be very permeable and often imprecise. Each informs the other, at times leading to greater relevance, at other times leaving disconcerting gaps. The conference will focus on CHANGE, and will explore these issues in relation to seven themes, Civic Engagement, Academia, Practice, Technology, Cities, Globalization, Sustainability and one flexible open category. For more information, please visit here.
Piazza Garibaldi / Dominique Perrault Architecture
Located in Naples, the Piazza Garibaldi, designed by Dominique Perrault Architecture, is one of the most important and complex transportation hubs in the Neapolitan transportation system. This infrastructure project, which includes a metro station, offers the opportunity to upgrade this lively urban space bustling with activity. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Urban Creek / ATOL Architects
Located in the Tongzhou district of Beijing, Urban Creek is an attempt at having architecture merge within various spheres of public space. Designed by ATOL Architects, the project is focuses around the idea that architecture should be conceived as a cultural connective tissue that creates opportunities to link spaces and neighborhoods together. In redefining the very notion of mixed-use from a free standing commercial box/podium/tower typology, this design aims at creating an ever evolving city center to reconnect with its secret past. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Yongsan International Business District ‘Project 6′ / REX
YIBD ‘Project R6’, designed by REX, is an urban boutique residence for short-term business people, young urban professionals, and foreign residents in Seoul, South Korea. To meet the trends of its users and compensate for its small unit size, R6 must engender a strong sense of community and its residences must be highly attractive, providing generous views, daylight, and cross-ventilation. Maximizing daylight and cross-ventilation are also paramount to providing a highly sustainable residence. More images and architects’ description after the break.
TCH Boutique Hotel / Abramson Teiger Architects
Designed by Abramson Teiger Architects, the TCH boutique hotel, located in downtown Los Angeles, weaves the nature of the temporal society with the evolving art world. Reflecting the architects’ philosophy of a visually dynamic architecture which evokes a sense of peace, sanctuary, and productivity, the art gallery becomes a backdrop to viewed experiences while the hotel becomes a backdrop to the guests. They are both fortresses of collections: a collection of art and a collection of people. All spaces within the 47 rooms activate as a gallery resulting in a building that activates as an art piece. More images and architects’ description after the break.
‘Gerrit Rietveld – The Revolution of Space’ Exhibition
Taking place now until September 16, 2012, the Vitra Design Museum is exhibiting “Gerrit Rietveld – The Revolution of Space”. The Dutchman Gerrit Rietveld (1888-1964) was one of the most important designers and architects of the 20th century. Today his work is primarily associated with his two most famous designs, which have become icons of modernism: the Red-Blue Chair (1918/1923) and the Rietveld-Schröder House (1924). But this exhibition shows that Rietveld’s oeuvre contains many more facets that deserve to be rediscovered. This is the first major retrospective on Gerrit Rietveld to be presented to the German-speaking public since 1996. Comprising around 320 objects – including furniture, models, paintings, photographs, films and approximately 100 original drawings and plans – it offers a comprehensive overview of the Dutch designer’s work. For more information on the exhibition, please visit here.
National and University Library NUK II Proposal / Kamvari Architects
The design approach for the National and University Library NUK II by Kamvari Architects re-evaluates what a library could be in the 21st century. As a result, their concept allows the building to become an iconic symbol for Ljubljana. The library offers a variety of external and internal public spaces that caters for a range of formal and informal environments for social interaction and cultural exchange. It also becomes an active part of the city scape through its materiality and cultural relationship. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Museum of Arts / FORMA
The main idea behind FORMA’s design for the Museum of Arts is to fit the building into the fabric of an old industrial neighborhood. Signs of its history, such as the smokestack and the brewery’s facade are present on the project area. This respect to the building’s history consists not only in renovation and preservation of its remains, but also in an attempt to extend the history by bringing the building to life. This is achieved by reconstruction of the brewery’s original volume and involving it in the museum’s daily life. More images and architects’ description after the break.
‘Made-In’ Guimarães 2012 Competition to Transform Public Washhouses
Made-In, an international competition of ideas for public artworks, is destined to reconfigure 5 public spaces in the city of Guimarães, Portugal beyond 2012. This competition is aimed towards art and architecture professionals, to present ideas for 5 specific sites, 4 existing Wash Houses and a proposed new one. The proposed ideas should comply with quality, maintenance and accessibility requirements considering public of all ages and the specific use of the proposed sites. Registration is open until July 15. More information on the competition after the break.
Central Tirana Masterplan / Grimshaw Architects
Grimshaw Architects recently announced that they have been selected to masterplan a large expansion to Albania’s capital city, Tirana. Grimshaw proposed a robust sequence of public spaces threaded along the boulevard that responded geometrically to existing patterns of land ownership. Tirana is a Mediterranean city with an outdoor culture. Each space or ‘living room’ was presented with a different use and character; a new ‘symphony of squares’. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Green Climate Fund Headquarters / LAVA
The Federal Republic of Germany recently chose the Laboratory for Visionary Architecture (LAVA) as the designers for their bid to host the Secretariat of the Green Climate Fund [GCF] in Bonn, Germany. With a design inspired by the beautiful setting in the Rhine valley, and with curvilinear forms, nature light wells, roof top gardens and a large sunken terrace for the restaurant, the three level structure will comply with the latest energy and building ecology standards, meeting the highest demands in terms of sustainability (German gold certificate), ecology and energy efficiency (net zero energy). More images and architects’ description after the break.
Gymnasium ‘Palais des Sports de Loudéac’ / Bohuon Bertic Architectes
Located on the upper part of Loudéac, France, the site for the gymnasium, designed by Bohuon Bertic Architectes is a maximum space which has conserved the beauty of agricultural spaces, contained in planted trees. In the presence of a simple space, with a vast grassland which spreads throughout the south side of a hill, the choice of establishing the sports hall on the plot comes from a clear complementary relationship with the close existing sportive area. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Zaldibar Kindergarten / VAUMM
The proposal for Zaldibar kindergarten by VAUMM is composed of two buildings, connected by playgrounds. The plan responds to a simple strategy of settlement on the site, which is to get the most out of this relationship between full and empty. The diversity of color and interior cladding, which can be used in each room, make contrast with the external image of two buildings designed to provide an oasis of calm in the stridency and disorder in the external environment. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Block No.5 Residential Area in ‘Skolkovo’ Innovative Center / TOTEMENT | PAPER
Designed by TOTEMENT | PAPER, the residential area in Block No.5, as part of District D2 (“Science & Technology Park”) of “Skolkovo” Innovative Center, occupies a special area as it is the gate to the district and the main design point facing the Skolkovskoye Highway side. The architectural concept has been worked out to be presented at the second round of the competition. They took into the account close location of crowded housings of circles No.2 and 4 by closing our circle at their side. Bends of buildings allowed them to extend essentially the light front of the buildings and to get the necessary area for housing. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Metro Station 20 Proposal / NC-Office
Designed by NC-Office, the Metro Station 20 competition proposal establishes an identity as a market street station connecting the above ground activities with skylights down to platform levels while allowing for concentrated density and a transit oriented development. In this way, nature differs from ‘the tower in the park’ typology. The development of a mid-rise density in between Druzhba1 and Druzhba 2 stitches together the two neighborhoods. The intent of the project is to anchor the station entrances at major pedestrian traffic locations – on the plaza and near the pipeline park. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Convida Suape Masterplan / Broadway Malyan
The masterplan vision for Convida Suape, a new city in North Eastern Brazil, designed by Broadway Malyan, was just launched by the practice’s client, Moura Dubeux Engineering and Cone S/A. A sustainable urban extension of the city of Cabo de Santo Agostinho near Recife, the capital city of the State of Pernambuco, Convida Suape will result in the transformation of a 470 hectare area to accommodate up to 100,000 inhabitants. More images and architects’ description after the break.
“Step Inside a Creative Mind” Installation / Prodigium
Held during the Zagreb Fashion Industry Days, the “Step Inside a Creative Mind” installation by Prodigium allowed young designers to showcase their most intimate thoughts (their collections) and bring them to life for the public. It was up to the architect to design a highly flexible open space, where young designers would set up shop and random people could wander around and shop. A space that was inexpensive yet “hip” enough to attract passers-by that might be interested in fashion. The dome as a starting point reminded the architect of a giant head emerged in the vast plateau on the main square, and he felt that the dome should sub-serve as a beacon instead of merely a confinement of the exhibition space. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Photography: ‘Fiction’ Series / Antoine Mercusot
The ‘Fiction’ collection, by photographer Antoine Mercusot, features miniature worlds and figures to create spaces made of wood, cardboard, plastic, and paper. Inspired by his work as an architectural photographer, he then stages imaginary parts, inspired by real life characters and crossings without markings, arranged in his imagination. As Mercusot states, “These worlds refer to contemporary architecture, where simplicity of lines, righteousness of the form, the work of matter are the source of this discipline. Only the light is able to reveal and highlight these volumes. The environments appear to be empty spaces, sanitized, where time stopped, leaving room for attitudes and the psychological dimension of silhouettes that are emerging.” More photographs of his collection can be viewed after the break.
Infinity Loop Bridge / 10 Design + Buro Happold
Creating a gateway entry to south China’s new planned commercial hub, the winning competition proposal by 10 Design + Buro Happold for their Infinity Loop Bridge marks the connection of the Shizimen Canal to the Pearl River Delta. The 10 and Buro Happold team set out to create a simple and elegant structural solution for a bridge that would be a visual focal point both within the Shizimen District itself and along the Pearl River Delta coastline. More images and architects’ description after the break.
“How Architects and Landscape Architects Can Work Together” Talk by Frank Harmon
A nationally recognized leader in modern, sustainable, regionally appropriate architecture, Frank Harmon, FAIA, principal of the multi-award-winning architecture firm Frank Harmon Architect PA in Raleigh, NC, will present a talk entitled “How Architects and Landscape Architects Can Work Together” during the North Carolina chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects’ (NCASLA) 2012 Spring Conference. Harmon, will discuss the urban and rural landscape, how architecture fits into it, and how architects and landscape architects can combine efforts “to leave the landscape better than we found it”. His talk will take place Friday, June 15, from 3:15-4:15 p.m. More information on the event after the break.
