In times of crisis, hope is what we need. And hope is what the latest issue of Volume magazine explores under the title “Architecture of Hope”.

Once again, Arjen Oosterman writes a short yet provocative editorial, starting by why they choose to only use black&white images on this issue.  He brings back the subject of the welfare society during post-War, and compares the european and american models of sprawl/density which are key aspects of current crisis.

And since hope is the word of the day, “Yes we can” is also mentioned on the editorial and other articles related to Obama.

More about this issue after the break.

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Second part of the interview with japanese architect Sou Fujimoto, by 0300. Part 1 was featured yesterday.

In my opinion, the iPhone has opened a complete new world of interaction in our hands and for me has been a very valuable tool in terms of productivity. Thanks to its mobile broadband capabilities, it allows you to be connected almost everywhere and download content very fast. But one of the most amazing features is the built-in GPS, that allows you to get content related to your immediate surroundings.

But it´s not just maps or directions. For example, 29GPS Architecture (developed by 29GPS) makes a very good use of this feature, featuring a daily selection of contemporary architecture and telling you exactly how far you are from it.

For example, works like the Hollywood House by XTEN or the recently opened Standard hotel in NY are presented with a set of photos (and even a video), with a radar (green,yellow or red, depending how far you are from the building) and a view that allows you to see the building pin pointed over Google Maps.

A very good app if you are traveling around and want to discover new architecture around. And the best of all, is that you can download this app for free (it contain some ads, see screenshoots ). There are two different versions of the app depending which measure system do you use, with the distance in either kilometers (download with iTunes, free) or miles (download with iTunes, free).

Screenshots and more info after the break.
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The 24 architecture teams with the client, Almere city officials and the project teams of MVRDV on site, photo by © Xander Remkes

We all know that the Dutch are experts on reclaiming land from the sea. And with all this new land, come new cities. One of these is Almere, a city founded in 1984, which is growing fast into becoming the fifth largest city in the Netherlands. This growing city is now into the process of consolidating a new center, Olympiakwartier, envisioned on a larger master plan for a sustainable city by Mecanoo.

By 2030, Almere expects to grow into a city with a stronger identity and a total of 350,000 inhabitants, which involves the building of 60,000 new homes and the creation of 100,000 new jobs for the expected 150,000 new inhabitants. For this, Amsterdam based housing association Housing Stadgenoot commissioned MVRDV to be planner for 60,000m2 work space, 120,000m2 housing (1,000 homes), 15,000m2 education, 2,000m2 commercial space, 2,640 parking spaces and various public spaces. This total has been split into 93 volumes of which MVRDV will design 45. The plan demands individual development of the buildings: a dense mix of living and working leading to a complex urban condition. Retail, a public square and communal gardens are also part of the comprehensive plan which introduces inner city life to the mostly suburban typology of Almere. Flexibility is a key objective: All ground floors and part of the office and apartment buildings are designed to facilitate future change of use. In this way the owner, Stadgenoot, can adjust the district more and more to the needs of the growing new town and its inhabitants.

The remaining 48 buildings (500m2 to 5,000m2) are going to be designed by a selected group of 24 international practices, including established and emerging offices (see list after the break).

This project is very ambitious, with the potential of becoming a milestone on urban planning, apart from recent mega projects by groups of architects we have seen lately, which can be very innovative in terms of form or solving individual housing problems, but lack of a clear master plan that make all the individual architect’s efforts act as a whole. It sort of reminds me of the Weissenhof Estate, lets hope this one becomes an example for future architects.

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Architect: José Marini Bragança
Location: Leiria, Portugal
Client: Câmara Municipal de Leiria
Collaborator: Inês Vicente
Structures: Rui Matos
Water and sewage system: Rui Matos
Electricity, telephone and network system: Álvaro Lopes
Gas: Álvaro Lopes
Central heating: João Aguilar Ramos
Fire safety hazaards: Paulo Vasconcelos
Landscaping: Paula Simões e Catarina Patrão
Project year: 2001-2008
Photographs: Catarina Costa Cabral

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Architects: Mobil M
Location: Alicante, Spain
Architect in Charge and interior design project: Daniel Ferrer (YTRASD) for Mobil M
Graphic identity and furniture: Mobil M
Photographs: Pelut i Pelat

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Our green friends from Inhabitat had the chance to visit the recently opened High Line project in New York, and interviewed the lead design architect James Corner from Field Operations and Ricardo Scofidio from DS+R at the new elevated park.

This project is a remarkable example of infrastructure renovation, and in my opinion will be a case study for future urbanists and architects, not only in terms of design but also on how the community got involved in the process.

Also, props to Jill for making this video.

Bostjan Gabrijelcic from Arhitektura d.o.o. sent us this rehabilitation of an old apartment’s terrace in Slovenia.

More images and drawings after the break.

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Michael O’Connor sent us this single family house designed by Garry Miley for a rural site in Tipperary, Ireland. O’Connor + Shanahan architects prepared the detail drawings, brought the project to Tender and onto site for the clients due to Garry’s commitments at the time.

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Last week we gave you 5 reasons to follow @archdaily on Twitter. If you are following us, then you already know that we are attending the Pritzker ceremony today, and that we are going to interview an architecture master from Japan in a few weeks.

Remember to tell your friends to follow us on this #followfriday.

p.s.: if you don´t have any idea what #followfriday is: it is a Twitter meme on which people recommend people to follow on fridays, with a message such as “if you like architecture, make sure to follow @archdaily #followfriday”.

Capital Gate, the iconic leaning building in Abu Dhabi, reached halfway point. The building, designed by international architects RMJM, will lean 18 degrees westward, 14 degrees more than the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

To make this possible, the central core of the building slants in the opposite direction to the lean of the structure, and it straightening as it grows. It sits on top of a 7-foot-deep concrete base with a dense mesh of reinforced steel. The steel exoskeleton known as the diagrid sits above an extensive distribution of 490 piles that have been drilled 100 feet underground to accommodate the gravitational, wind and seismic pressures caused by the lean of the building.

A gigantic internal atrium, including a tea lounge and swimming pool suspended 263 feet above the ground, has been constructed on the 17th and 18th floors, the halfway point of the 35-story, 525-foot tall tower.

Capital Gate will house Abu Dhabi’s first Hyatt hotel – Hyatt at Capital Centre, a presidential-style luxury, 5-star hotel and will provide 200 hotel rooms for Abu Dhabi and will serve ADNEC’s (Abu Dhabi National Exhibitions Company) visitors and exhibitors as well as international business and leisure travelers.

As promised, the second part of the interview with Cameron Sinclair, Founder and Eternal Optimist of Architecture for Humanity.

Architects: Scott Edwards Architecture
Location: Hood River, OR, USA
Principal in Charge: Sid Scott
Project Team: Lisa McClellan, Jesse Graden, John Froning
Project year: 2008
Budget: US $2,000,000
Site Area: 43 Acre
Constructed Area: 762 sqm
Photographs: Pete Eckert

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Architecture film makers 0300 just released their latest video: Pezo von Ellrichshausen Architects, Context & Work System. They interview Mauricio Pezo and Sofia von Ellrichshausen at their office in Concepcion, Chile, and visit four of their houses: Poli House, Parr House, Wolf House and Fosc House.

Are you following us on Twitter? If you are not, here’s 5 reasons why you should:

• We Tweet every update on the site.
• We Tweet what´s happening behind the scenes at ArchDaily: Tweets from events we attend, links we share, buildings we are visiting, thoughts, etc.
• We re-tweet interesting tweets from architects and practices we folllow around the world.
• We announce future postings or interviews we upload to Vimeo, before featuring them on the site.
• We always take feedback and recommendations from the people we are following.

So what are you waiting? Go follow at @archdaily, and recommend us to your friends this #followfriday by tweeting: “I recommend @archdaily #followfriday #architecture“. Feel free to add anything else you´d like to recommend following on Twitter: other architects, practices, blogs, schools, etc.

An educational view on Architecture, 80s style (thanks Emilio!).

On May 22 and 23, as part of the “Il Genio Fiorentino 2009” event promoted by the Province of Firenze, Italy, Palazzo Medici Riccardi will host “Più Design Può” (lit. More Design Can). The symposium is dedicated to the most interesting experiences in the field of political, social and urban communication as they were carried out by institutions around the world.

Our cities manifest very often a total absence of any visual project and present themselves to citizens and visitors as places full of incoherent signs, all to be deciphered, discovered and interpreted. “Più Design Può” points out the importance of visual communication as a formidable instrument in the determination of society’s participative processes.

Visual communication represents a formidable instrument in the determination of society’s participative processes. The promotion of coherent applications of communication projects in the ambit of relations between institutions and citizens is one of the founding elements of the ethics of visual design.

This aspiration originates in the very DNA of graphic design and of Italian graphics in particular, which are, hardly by chance, well known for the particularly fertile years of “public utility” graphic design which characterized the Italian Seventies and Eighties of the Twentieth Century.

Read the full program here.

Zaha Hadid Architects and french company Lacoste collaborated to design this exclusive footwear. Limited to 850 pairs, the boots will be released next July in three exclusive stores from Paris, London and Milan.

“Featuring a digitized version of Lacoste’s famous croc logo and a pliable, coiled strap system, the styles bring Hadid’s signature look to footwear for men (an ankle boot) and women (a calf boot).”

One more image after the break. read more »

Architects: Sadar Vuga Arhitekti (lead architect); KSS, London (consultant in sports architecture); MYSI, Tel Aviv (shopping centre concept); OFIS arhitekti, Ljubljana (architect shopping centre)
Location: Ljubljana, Slovenia
Landscape Architects: AKKA, Ljubljana
Construction Engineering: Gradis; Atelier One, London
Mechanical Engineering: Lenassi; Jelen & Zaveršnik
Electrical Engineering: Elprojekt; UTRIS
Fire Engineering: EKOsystem
Client: Ljubljana City Municipality, Grep
Project year: 2007
Site Area: 182,000 sqm
Constructed Area: 460,720 sqm
Photographs: Sadar Vuga

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While in LA we had the chance to visit Standard, a small firm doing residential and retail projects. We visited their Tree House, featured earlier on AD, where i was able to see for myself the minimalism found in their works. A simple work, but with lots of well executed details and spaces designed to benefit from the views and the shadow of the tree.

The practice was founded in 1996 by Jeffrey Allsbrook (M Arch USC, studies at the at the Städelschule in Frankurt, Germany and at the Berlage Institute in Amsterdam) and Silvia Kuhle (Architect Technische Universität Darmstadt, Germany, M Arch Columbia University).

Completed projects include residential, retail, educational, office and manufacturing spaces for a diverse clientele of artists, writers, filmmakers, clothing designers, educators and entrepreneurs in California, New York, Las Vegas, Paris and Mexico. While Standard continues to grow, its partners insist upon maintaining a practice that is rigorous and attentive. Direct accessibility and sustained dialogue between clients and the firm’s partners are viewed as essential to project success.

It was a very good talk, and i really liked their point of view on an central aspect of the profession: the clients.
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