Did you know that Barack Obama wanted to be an architect? Thank god he didn´t, otherwise he wouldn´t be assuming as the US President tomorrow.

One of the reasons why we started ArchDaily is to empower architectural debate by connecting architects around the world. We think that our ArchDaily Facebook group can help us achieve this through its social layer, and you are kindly invited to join.

Guggenheim Bilbao, photo by envisionpublicidad

GEORGE: Besides, Steven Koren has the highest of aspirations. He wants to be… an architect!

Paris / NY based architects PLANDA designed this house based on the cover of Cross, the album by the french band Justice, by inserting a residential program on the iconic shape of the Cross. The Cross is placed on a cliff at Santa Catalina island, California.

More after the break.

Residential buildings have always been an issue among architects. From on side, you have a developer who wants the best out of his money, usually leaving behind what we think matters – which sometimes does, but most of the times doesn´t… out of several -complex- variables which at the end have to make a project feasible.

It´s not that i´m a  pesimist. Actually, there are great residential buildings, on which architects have dealt with this complex variables resulting in projects on which “architecture” is an added value.

On this panorama, which happens on every country, I´d like to share with you a residential project being built by Manuel Ocaña, a spanish architect we have previously featured on ArchDaily with some interesting works (Yaya House, Rota House).

This project for 53 dwellings between party walls can be described through its tectonic (Roca Port Aventura in the stereotomic plinth of the two first floors of housing, plus buildings that, resting on the former, are rounded off with canvas roofs with silkscreen-printed tiles), or through its virtues of “non-extrusion” and “non-metaphor”. But the best way to explain this bizarre, unbridled, dislocated and autistic project is with a generous text by Roberto González García:

The December-January edition of Mark Magazine features a new design, more clear and simple, but with the same quality content. A a very classy black and white composition with the skylights of Torafu´s House in Kohoku is featured on the over.

Now, lets head to the contents of this issue.

When we interviewed Jeffrey Inaba at the C-LAB, we had a great conversation as they were working on this issue, “Content Management”, something we are very into at ArchDaily – so we had the chance to discuss the implications of new media, globalization and architecture.

But back to this edition. It follows the tradition of Volume with a great editorial, this time by Inaba himself:

“At the close of this era of expansion and surplus C-Lab speculates on one of the period´s emblematic inventions: Content Management, or the collecting, organizing and sharing of digital information. Our retrospective appraisal of recent developments in the managing of information offers insight into the ability of Content Management to serve the current realities of digital abundance and material shortage, and to protect both vast and extremely limited quantities.

Like Content Management systems, Architecture arranges information and objects into a navigable environment using technology to configure the environment´s spaces and circulation routes. It embodies the values of the presentedd content, setting the tone for the visitor´s experience through the design of the public interface. Architecture is a structure of experiences involving interaction with numerous forms of content, introducing choice, connections, updates, human encounter and surprise, and in this respect is the precursor and operating blueprint of Content Management As you will see, some of the essays and interviews describe how architecture continues to inform the thinking behind Content Management, for better and worse“.

It presents an interesting reflection on the current state of globalization, on which we have infinite amounts of information available at the tip of our fingers, while facing massive shortfalls (energy, natural resources).

At some point it compares the created necessity of Content Management as a result of the amounts of information we publish, with the early architects of Koolhaas´Manhattan who legitimized the necessity of their profession by causing the irreversible  state of congestion which they then took as their mission to solve.

On this issue:

Augmented Reality is a new technology that is starting to spread. Basically, it consists on mixing 3D model with live footage in real time. This concept has been applied to futuristic interfaces, and it can be very helpful for architects as it allows you to take 3D Models a step further, placed on the real world and show it to your clients.

Thanks to the AR-media Plugin for Sketchup, you can start playing with Augmented Reality. This plugin allows you to place the 3D Model over live video from your webcam, and move it around as you can see on the above video. The plugin calculates the planes on the live footage thanks to a sheet you need to print out, which allows the software to calculate the distance and inclination.

So, all you need is Google Sketchup (free), a webcam, then download the trial version of the AR-Media Sketchup plugin (limited to 30 seconds), print the sheet and you can start playing with your models.

We just did it at the office with Aravena´s ORDOS 100 model, and it´s very impressive. Try to use a small model to start, since the 30 sec countdown starts running when the software launches and it can take a while to start completly, depending on the model.

Another video after the break.

Edtudio Mariscal did a complete work for H&M in Barcelona: Architecture, lighting, furniture, graphics… even the shopping bags.

Client: H&M Architecture, interiors and graphic design: Estudio Mariscal Location: c/ Portal de l’Àngel 22, Barcelona, Spain Area: 1.720 m2 Year: 2008 Contractor: Dula Bau Furniture and commercial equipment: Dula Ibérica Structural engineering: nb35

Our green friends over Inhabitat just tipped us on a new project by NYC/Napoli based office LOT-EK, a practice that has been doing an interesting job by reusing containers.

24 containers are put together to create a 3 storey store with over 11,000 sqf, including a bar/lounge area and 2 decks.

The store is currently at the Volvo Ocean Race 2008-2009, and it´s transported to each location (Alicante, Boston, Stockholm) and assembled quickly.

More pictures details after the jump.

Past laureates include Herzog & de Meuron, Frank Ghery, Zaha Hadid, Paulo Mendes da Rocha, Thom Mayne, Jean Nouvel, Rem Koolhaas, Norman Foster, Alvaro Siza… and a long list of prominent architects that you might already know.

A few days ago we featured an interview with Alejandro Aravena and his project for a villa in ORDOS 100, with more than 70 images. In order to further extend the possibilities of understanding this project, Alejandro shared with us a very detailed Sketchup model that is now availabe on Google Warehouse for you to download, explore, explode, modify, share back with us and all the possibilities that Google Sketchup offers.

Alejandro Aravena is a chilean architect, recently awarded with the Silver Lion at the Venice Biennale (Promising Young Architect) and selected as a one of the 20 most promising young architects by Icon Magazine, magazine which also features him on the cover of the january issue.

Interesting interview with David Chipperfield by Martha Thorne (Associate Dean for External Relations of IE School of Architecture and Executive Director of the Pritzker Prize). He shares his thoughts on new concepts in architecture.

The winners of the 10th edition of the AR Emerging Awards are being announced right now. In the past, the AR Emerging Awards have awarded the most promising young practices from around the world. Previous versions of this award confirms it: Sou Fujimoto, Miro Rivera, Plot (BIG) and more.

This time, we´ve got 3 winners, 6 highly commended, 4 commended and 12 honourable mentions.

As for the winners we have the BIP Computers building (Santiago, Chile) by Alberto Mozo (previously featured on ArchDaily), the Hotel Aire Bardenas (Navarra, Spain) by Emiliano López and Mónica Rivera Arquitectos and the the HOMEmade village family houses and DESI building (Vishnupur, Bangladesh) by Anna Heringer (in collaboration with BASE habitat, BRAC University and Dipshikha (NGO)).

Anna Heringer was also featured on the previous versions, and I recommend checking out her work, as she has been doing an amazing job in India, involving the community.

More pictures of the awarded projects after the jump.

Parkour is a sport on which you have to go from one point of the city to another as efficiently and quickly as possible, overcoming any obstacles in your way: walls, fences, trees, etc. This has made Parkour THE urban sport, included in recent pop culture music videos.

In the past, we have featured several architecture photographers, such as Cristobal Palma, Joao Morgado and Iwan Baan. But the web allows for much more than just images. This time, the guys over Duality Co -readers of our blog- shared with us their reel on architecture videos, a new service they are offering to architectural firms.