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© courtesy of Atelier Thomas Pucher

The challenge in the competition for the Amstetten School Campus was to combine two existing secondary schools in one location and complement the program with a new music school and an additional gym. With the area being characterized by an extreme heterogeneous development, with a wide range of buildings with various functions and styles, the design by Atelier Thomas Pucher, which won the first prize, is comprised of a compact five-storey cube which rises in the surroundings as a distinctive landmark. Additionally, the building is combined with two lower volumes and three courtyards, within a chessboard formation. More images and architects’ description after the break. read more »

Courtesy of Bernheimer Architecture

Designed by Bernheimer Architecture for Syracuse University, the football practice facility along with a larger strategic masterplan for the Lampe Athletic Campus situated about 3 miles south of the Main Campus seeks to create an identity for this new “middle campus” by making an assemblage of disparate buildings into a strong collection. By creating an environment that would enhance the practice session, the architects stay true to one of Vince Lombardi’s favorite quotes, “Practice does not make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect”. More images and architects’ description after the break. read more »

Courtesy of GRAFT Architects

Designed by GRAFT Architects, Vertical Village is a residential, hotel and entertainment development in Dubai that harnesses the most powerful renewable energy source in the desert, the sun. Organized to reduce solar gain and maximize solar production, the buildings are massed as self-shading slabs at the north of the site on the east-west axis to reduce low-angle sun penetration. At the southern end of the site, a vast solar collector array optimally angles itself toward the sun and faces the main public strip as a potent gesture to the developments sustainable intent and minimum LEED Gold rated performance. More images and architects’ description after the break. read more »

Courtesy of Enforma + AIM Studio

The aim of Enforma and AIM Studio in their design of the Salt Tower, located in Budva, Montenegro, was to carefully analyze the specific location and the possibilities that this place offers to the users. Inspired by the old town of Budva, while integrating energy efficient strategies, their transformation from rectangular form to a tall crystal grain reflective structure on the Mediterranean coast justifies the project’s name. More images and architects’ description after the break. read more »

© Gerhard Murza/Bpk via Bloomberg

A powerful and expressive design it itself, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin is still admired as a concrete, steel, and glass landmark today. Dedicated to culture and the fine arts, the building will be going through a major renovation, which will  be overseen by British architect, David Chipperfield who has recently worked extensively in Berlin, finishing work on the war-ravaged Neues Museum on the Museum Island complex in 2009. The renovation will start in 2015 and last three years, during which time the museum will be closed. The building, completed in 1968, is Mies van der Rohe’s only work in Germany after World War II and is in need of thorough modernization after 40 years. Restoration of the glass facade, stone terrace and concrete and steel structure, along with new security and fire technology are included in the project.

Courtesy of WAU Studio

A complementary and mutual beneficial partnership, Hong Kong and Shenzhen will join the globalization as an integrated image and get benefit. With intimate collaboration, the proposal for the Hong Kong-Shenzhen boundary control point by WAU Design will serve as a symbol of close communication. The scheme concept comes from “link”: many single units can be twisted into a solid and integrated form. This scheme, a twisted link, indicates multi-level and deep cooperation between Hong Kong and Shenzhen on economic, cultural, and multi-faceted levels. More images and architects’ description after the break. read more »

Courtesy of Mecanoo

Mecanoo architecten, in cooperation with local partner Cafer Bozkurt Architecture, shared with us their proposal, one of the competition’s three winning proposals, in an international design competition for Yenikapı Transfer Point and Archaeo-Park Area in Istanbul, Turkey. Yenikapı, ‘New Gate’, consists in a railroad and maritime transfer centre that connects Europe with Asia, as well as the inner city with the surrounding megapolis and the rest of the country. More images and architects’ description after the break. read more »

Courtesy of Saltans Architects_International + Jaeger and Partner Architects

Chicago based Saltans Architects_Intl., ltd (SA_I) and Shenzhen based Jaeger and Partner Architects, Ltd. design collaboration was recently selected for the second stage international design competition for the Skolkovo Technopark District D2 Residential Area. Their master plan design envisions the “concept of the city at human scale with a strong relationship with nature”. Five distinct Districts comprising this planning strategy are separated and linked by natural landscapes, while each District’s master plan is designed specifically for function. More images and architects’ description after the break. read more »

Courtesy of Dominique Perrault Architecture

The design of the two high-rise towers for the Donau-City in Vienna by Dominique Perrault Architecture represents the concluding phase of a development extending over several decades: on what was originally a municipal rubbish tip the UNO-City was erected (1973–1979), tentative plans to hold the 1995 Vienna-Budapest EXPO here were soon abandoned, as a result architects Krischanitz and Neumann (commissioned by WED AG) produced an urban design masterplan for the area in 1992. The outcome is an entirely new urban district with a diverse range of functions. More images and architects’ description after the break. read more »

Siamese Towers / Courtesy of Alejandro Aravena

Alejandro Aravena, based in Santiago de Chile, will be giving a lecture at MIT on the theme of ‘Elemental Recent Projects: Monoliths and Trees’. After the 8.8 earthquake and tsunami that hit Chile in 2010, they have worked in the reconstruction by proposing a mitigation forest as the main infrastructural work, but also dealing with housing, public buildings, productive activities and transportation. In 2011 they were called to perform a similar redesign of an entire city in the Atacama desert, where the Chilean Copper Company, Codelco, commissioned them to intervene at the whole scale of Calama where they are proposing an oasis.

They have been also working in different buildings like the Angelini Innovation Center in Chile and the Mirador del Diablo in Mexico where architecture has become rather monolithic. The event, which is free and open to the public, takes place Thursday, April 19th at 6:30pm at MIT Building 10, room 250. For more information, please visit here.