Between February 14th and April 14th the Architecture and Design Museum of Los Angeles will be exhibiting work from several designers that challenge the ubiquitous approach to environmentally conscious architecture and the normative application of technology to achieve sustainability. SOUPERgreen is a collection of five architectural propositions that explore technology as a means to promote the engagement between architecture and environment.
More on this exhibition and the proposals after the break.
OIII architecten were awarded the commission for the construction of a cluster of programs dedicated to education in digital media and digital creation by the Nord De France Chamber of Commerce. The location of the 18,800 square meter project is on a newly developed site on the banks of the River Scheldt, just outside of Valenciennes.
Mateo Arquitectura was awarded first prize in the public competition for the redesign of El Ninot Market in Barcelona, Spain. El Ninot market plays a key role in Barcelona’s food distribution network and is positioned accordingly, with a strategic central location. This winning proposal aims to maintain the existing facility and its intrinsic history while equipping it with contemporary services that keep its relevance in todays culture alive.
The project brief that inspired this work of architecture was for an artist’s field-station in Glen Nevis, Scotland, that would allow and encourage creative interaction between artists and the land and its history. The chosen site was anywhere in Glen Nevis and Malcom Frasier Architects chose a section of land in the dense woods that overlooks the natural expanse of Glen offering a view of the landscape with the interspersion of human interaction by means of roads winding up the hills and car parks and visitor’s centers.
More on this project in Outlandia after the break.
J.J. Pan & Partners, Architects & Planners present their design for the National Taichung Digital Library, a symbol of the constant stream of knowledge to which the digital age has exposed us. The theme of the architecture is one of a boundless leisure spot of creativity and the dynamic flow of information.
The masterplan competition for the Center of Promotion of Science in Belgrade, Serbia has produced another design, this time by architecture firm SADAR+VUGA. The design proposal is an urban development that incorporates the existing architectural programs on the site, while providing extensions and innovative additions to the site.
The urban project includes the existing Faculty of Drama Arts with its proposed extension, provides four new Faculties, a mathematics gymnasium, a science center with 50m tower, as well as the new building of the Centre of Promotion of Science. The buildings are arranged as eight islands on the site, among which five plazas are developed.
Sectionhouse is a public outdoor concrete sculpture, a fragment of a house that displays the ways in which daily life is enacted within architecture. The project is located in the small Dutch rural town of Oisterwijk and was designed by The Cloud Collective, a collaboration of young designers, architects, urban designers, artists and theorists, spread out all over Europe, working for different offices, schools and governments.
Portuguese office blaanc borderless architecture, in collaboration with Mexican-based architects CaeiroCapurso, have been awarded a $25,000 USD funding by the international competition Gamechangers for their Project dedicated to building a Rural Sports Center in San Pedro Apóstol in Oaxaca, México for its underprivileged community. The competition was promoted and financed by Architecture for Humanity in partnership with Nike Inc. in another initiative to increase social cohesion through sports. The project is scheduled for construction in 2011.
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), the New York-based architectural firm, has been selected to design New York City’s (and the State’s) first Net Zero Energy school building. PS 62 will be located in Staten Island, NY on a 3.5-acre site at the intersection of Crabtree Avenue and Bloomingdale Road. The primary school will have a 444-seat, 70,000 sq-foot facility that would include Pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten.
The Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce holds the annual Building Brooklyn Awards. Currently accepting nominations for the 11th Annual Buidling Brooklyn Awards, the event is a signature real estate industry event that recognizes recently completed new, and renovation construction projects, that have a positive impact on the borough’s economy and quality of life.
The event honors individuals who have made significant contributions toward enhancing the business conditions and economic climate of Brooklyn. This year’s awards ceremony will be held on Thursday, July 14, 2011, at the Steiner Studios in the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
More information and images from last year’s winners after the break.
YAJ Architects present a proposal for the future of industrial buildings in an atmosphere where environmental and sustainable practices are vital, yet largely focus on the construction of housing and offices. This design for the Future Train Depot focuses on a near zero energy performance by using ground water heating and cooling, solar panels, and sensor-driven natural ventilation.
Rotterdam-based office for urban design and landscape architecture West 8, in collaboration withSener & Gestec, have designed this entry for the Valencia Central Park Competition. Their proposal achieved a place on the competition shortlist. The design presented here is a concept for Parque Central inspired by the Valencian tradition of solid narrative and poetry.
More images and description of the project after the break.
The Center for the Promotion of Science proposal by Zürich based architecture studio Dürig AG is based on the concept of a New Belgrade composed of an orthogonal grid of a unified structural system that embraces rationality and clarity. The urban plan of the composition is to create defined individual building segments within the subdivided block of nine distinct segments. Within this development, Dürig AG has designed a Scientific Research Institute of which the Center for the Promotion of Science is an integral part.
The three fountains located in the Republic Square of Pilsen were designed by Ondřej Císler and constructed in 2010 following a 2004 two-stage competition. It took five years for local authorities to accept the design that jurors of the competition very positively received. When in 2010 Pilsen was announced to be a European City of Culture in 2015, the decision to finally construct the fountains was approved.
The Techno Box byLED Architecture Studiois a habitat structure designed to perform in emergency situations. The elements are modules that can be aggregated to serve different functions. Each unit is designed for a maximum of 5/6 people and is conceived to serve temporary housing problems for people facing natural disasters.
Jean-Paul Viguier has produced this design for the SFR Headquarters in Saint-Denis, France, a 130,000 sq. meter facility that will house four sectors of offices along a single spine. The building is scheduled for completion in 2013.
Nikola Enchev and Stefan Vankov shared with us their winning design in the student Green Design Award category for the Design Against the Elements Competition. Set in Manila, Philippines, the design addresses the disastrous consequences of climate change around the world, and propose an architecture that would end the cycle of destruction and rebuilding that occupies so much time and so many resources in countries that are most effected by extreme storms. The design focuses on affordable and resilient communities that use modern technologies to thwart the effects of such storms.
Read on after the break to read more on this project.
