Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design (GSD) and John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have announced a new, collaborative program: the Master in Design Engineering (MDE) degree. Beginning in Fall 2016, the program, lasting for four terms over two years, will offer students the resources of both GSD and SEAS, combining skills and knowledge across fields to solve multi-scale, complex, open-ended problems.
With ideas ranging from floating homes to new mega-cities, New London Architecture has revealed 100 proposals to address the housing crisis in London. The ideas will be on display as part of the New Ideas for Housing exhibition at the NLA Galleries in the Building Centre in London. After an open ideas competition announced June 2015, over 200 entries from 16 different countries were received. Of the 100 shortlisted projects 10 finalists will be selected and have the opportunity to work with the Greater London Authority to implement their ideas. Read more about the entries and exhibit after the break.
Pershing Square Renew, a public/private partnership formed by Los Angeles City Council member José Huizar, has launched an international design competition to re-imagine the five-acre urban park at the heart of downtown Los Angeles.
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Penda's proposal for the New Bauhaus Museum competition features a transformable design that serves as an “extension of the city on one hand and as a connector to the surrounding park on the other.” The design features two rotating platforms that can open to connect the museum to the sculpture park during the day and close at night. Although not selected as the winning design, Penda's "Flexible Bauhaus" proposal was one of the finalists selected to participate in the second stage of the competition. Read more about their proposal after the break.
BIG’s first foray into North America, the West 57th Street (W57) Building in New York is approaching completion. After initial releases of renderings, and photographs taken two months after topping out, a new video has surfaced, exhibiting the gradual realization of the firm’s vision. This 32-story tower with 709 apartment units combines a courtyard block and a skyscraper, affectionately dubbed a “courtscraper” by its designer. Reacting to an unorthodox, thin plot of land, the building generates its geometry from a combination of providing natural light, views to the Hudson River and maximizing living space for residents. From one angle, its almost pyramidal structure is clear, and from another, it appears to be glass spire. See the most recent developments in this new video.
Prehype, a venture development firm, has released its latest in a series of podcasts by partner Henrik Werdelin, featuring Danish architect Bjarke Ingels. Having worked with Prehype on investments into tech development, Bjarke Ingels discusses his experiences and perspectives on the industry, drawing parallels between entrepreneurship, tech development and architecture.
Diller Scofidio + Renfro (DS+R) has shared initial photos by Iwan Baan of their new McMurty Building for Art & Art History at Stanford University, which will be officially unveiled to the public on October 6. The 100,000 square foot building will open for the 2015 fall semester, and allow students studying art history and students practicing fine arts to work together under the same roof for the first time at Stanford. See and read more about the soon-to-be opened project after the break.
Taliesin (or Taliesin East, following the construction of a Taliesin West in 1937) was the lifetime home and studio of distinguished American architect, Frank Lloyd Wright. Designed by Wright himself, the building was built in 1911, and underwent several changes before being finalized as its current iteration in 1937. For many years, the building has been open to the public, many of whom make a trip to Spring Green, Wisconsin for Taliesin alone. However, the building is also open to those without the means to travel to see it, thanks to a virtual tour by Tour de Force 360 VR.
After a sale of the Frank Lloyd Wright Archives in 2013, Frank Lloyd Wright's model of The San Francisco Call Building, originally residing at Taliesin and later, Hillside Home School, was moved to the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). The Organic Architecture and Design Archives, Inc. (OAD) believes that this model - a striking 8-foot tall replica built originally for the 1940 MoMA Exhibition - was "an integral part of the design of Taliesin."
London firm, Amos Goldreich Architecture and Israel firm Jacobs-Yaniv Architects have come together to design a new shelter for the No to Violence Against Women charity, which helps domestic abuse victims in Israel. This will be the charity’s first purpose-built shelter, replacing an overcrowded, makeshift building.
Located in a quiet neighbourhood, the site is surrounded by a mix of private homes and townhouses and is within reach of community resources like stores, jobs, clinics, schools, parks, counseling centres and recreational facilities. The shelter will include independent living quarters for up to 12 families, communal areas, a kindergarten, a computer room, laundry facilities, kitchens, a refectory as well as staff accommodation and office areas.
Open to any student of architecture or architect who has graduated within three years prior to their submission, the ISARCH Awards are international awards providing a platform for debate surrounding student solutions to architecture’s problems. The competition highlights avant-garde trends and recognizes new research emerging from university studies. By extending the traditional relationship of student to university, young people are encouraged to join the debate on architecture, contributing fresh new visions and opinions.
WVA's “Zhuhai JIANFENG Bridge East Square Landscape Tower” proposal received third place in the Zhuhai Doumen Observation Tower Competition, held in July 2014. Their project began with a rigorous analysis of the surrounding geographical, cultural and socio-political context. Located at the junction of two rivers in Zhuhai, China, the Zhuhai Observation Tower is sited in an intersection of neighbourhoods: a place of destination and circulation for locals and tourists.
UPDATE: The deadline for submissions for the Burnham Prize has been extended to September 7th, 2015 with the announcement of the winning entries to occur on September 30th, 2015. In addition, student entry fees have been reduced to $25.00.
Affiliated with this year’s Chicago Architecture Biennial, the Chicago Architectural Club has announced the 2015 Burnham Prize Competition: Currencies of Architecture. This year’s Burnham Prize was inspired by the Chicago Architecture Biennial’s title, “The State of the Art of Architecture,” and explores the question: what is the state of the art of architecture today? Entrants are challenged to create a single image that exemplifies a point of view on the current state of architecture – whether it is a celebration, a challenge, a statement or anything else.
The Royal Institute of British Architect (RIBA)'s Future Trends Survey results for July 2015 present a note of caution for architecture practices with a fall in both workload and staffing forecasts. However, optimism remains as staffing levels are higher than a year ago. Despite June’s record-high forecast, July 2015 saw a downturn in the RIBA Future Trends Workload Index from +44 to +22. Even so, practices reported an overall increase in workload at an annual rate of 8%, and staffing levels 6% higher than in 2014.
Vo Trong Nghia Architects has begun work on FPT University Ho Chi Minh City, a building set to begin a renewal of the natural landscape previously destroyed by mass development. In the city of Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam, only 0.25% of the city is covered in greenery, contributing to environmental stress on its infrastructure - frequent energy shortages, increased pollution, and rising temperatures are more common as the city grows. Read more after the break
With the cost of space rising in city centres everywhere, YO! Home by Simon Woodroffe provides a possible solution – a transformable, modular living space. Acting as a reinvention of the traditional studio apartment, YO! Home is a 40 square metre living space with movable features to create the impression of a much bigger home. Read more about this London apartment project after the break.
The Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (IKSV) is hosting an open call for proposals for the Pavilion of Turkey's exhibition at the 2016 Venice Biennale. The call is open to all people and institutions of relevant fields, including architects, designers, artists, historians, curators, theoreticians and critics.
Addressing the displacement of people by natural disasters, Designnobis has created Tentative – a compact, all-in-one, deployable emergency shelter. Designed by Designnobis founder, Hakan Gürsu, Tentative was honored with a Silver Award in the Social Design category of the A' Design Award 2014-2015 and has been nominated for the 2015 Design Index and World Design Impact Prize 2015 by ICSID. Read more about this emergency shelter after the break.
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