Irina Vinnitskaya
Venice Biennale 2012: hands have no tears to flow / Austria Pavilion
The Austrian Pavilion for the 2012 Venice Biennale is a collaboration of Wolfgang Tschapeller, Rens Veltman and Martin Perktold, a team that consists of interdisciplinary fields of study, thought and action from architecture and art. The contribution, entitled “Hands have no tears to flow. Reports from / without Architecture” invites visitors to comprehend architecture as a social and cultural phenomenon and to experience it from different perspectives and views. It explores this year’s theme, Common Ground, with a discourse on the sociopolitical function of architecture. The exhibit will be on view at the Biennale until November 25th.
Venice Biennale 2012: Futura Bold? Post-City: Considering the Luxembourg case
The Luxembourg Pavilion for the 2012 Venice Biennale, entitled Futura Bold? Post-City: Considering the Luxembourg case, is a speculative exploration of the future issues that cities of the 21st century will be facing. Using Luxembourg as a case study, Post-City seeks an attitude toward the forces of the urban environment instead of concluding with an urban proposal. Post-City poses pertinent questions that arise from Luxembourg’s urban conditions today. Posed as a platform for discussion, the pavilion will be on view at the Ca’ del Duca as part of the 2012 Venice Biennale until November 25th.
Join us after the break for more on this project.
MoMA Exhibit: 9 + 1 Ways of Being Political: 50 Years of Political Stances in Architecture and Urban Design
MoMA‘s new installation 9 + 1 Ways of Being Political will exhibit works from the museum’s collection that offer fresh perspectives on the last 50 years of architecture that is a signature of the evolving conditions of our political context. The exhibit is in response to the general perspectives of today that consider architecture as having been overwhelmed by our economic realities. Through a range of media, including a performance piece by Andrés Jaque Arquitectos (at MoMA PS1 on September 16 and 23), 9 + 1 Ways of Being Political argues that architecture maintains its political influence with a variety of critiques that span decades. The exhibit is divided into nine sections and examines the blurs between social, political and public space in which architecture resides. 9 + 1 Ways of Being Political: 50 Years of Political Stances in Architecture and Urban Design opens tomorrow, September 12th, and will run through March 25, 2013.
The Movement Cafe / Morag Myerscough
Designer: Morag Myerscough of Studio Myerscough
Customized ice cream bicycle: Luke Morgan
Furniture: Morag Myerscough and Luke Morgan
Location: Waller Way, Greenwich, London Se10 8JA, UK
Project Year: 2012
Project Area: 140 sqm
Client: Cathedral Group
Amazon’s Seattle Headquarters / NBBJ
NBBJ’s design for the Amazon’s new headquarters in downtown Seattle, Washington, promises to consolidate the companies currently scattered buildings into a 3-block development that includes high-rise towers, a variety of open spaces, and landscaped plazas. The 3.3 million square foot design was presented to the city’s Design Review Board (DRB) in great detail outlining the division of the each of the buildings, their integration into the downtown urban fabric and the synthesis of the currently underdeveloped Denny’s Triangle.
Follow us after the break for more.
Update: The Hegeman / Cook + Fox
Architects: Cook + Fox Architects
Location: Brooklyn, NY
Project Name: The Hegeman
Client: Common Ground Comunities
Completion: 2012
Size: 64,469 SF
National Maritime Museum / Dok Architecten
Architect: Dok Architecten: Liesbeth van der Pol, Jan Jaap Roeten, Sonja Müller, Ellen Wolse, Christina Patz, Mirthe Kooy, Ieke Koning
Location: Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Programme: Museum, Library, Restaurant and Retail Facilities
Client: Rijksgebouwendienst, Haarlem
Construction Costs: €28.000.000 miljoen
Dome Design and Construction: Ney & Partners, Brussels (BE): Laurent Ney, Eric Bodarwé, Kenny Verbeeck and others
Start Design: 2005
Completion: 2011
Ghana: Nka Foundation announces 10X10 Shelter Challenge
The Nka Foundation has announced a new competition, open to all students and graduates of design, architecture, art, engineering and schools interested in rural community projects in Africa, that is a design-build challenge at the Abetenim Arts Village near Kumasi in the Ashanti Region of Ghana. The 10×10 Shelter Challenge is an on-site competition structured as a “design-build camp for learning-by-doing” in African Architecture. There are no fixed deadlines with 5 available month long periods to sign up, the first beginning this October, 2012.
Join us after the break for more details on this unique competition.
Greenland Migrating / Henning Larsen Architects
We’ve already introduced you to the Danish Pavilion exhibition Possible Greenland, on display at the 2012 Venice Biennale, featuring possibilities that lay in store for Greenland in light of geographic changes caused by the increased rate of ice and snow melt. Henning Larsen Architects has now shared with us their portion of the exhibit, Greenland Migrating, a project developed in collaboration with David Garcia Studio and KITAA Architects. Curating the exhibit are Danish-Greenlandic Professor in geology Minik Rosing and Copenhagen-based NORD Architects.
Join us after the break for a closer look at the project.
Village Health Works 40-acre Master Plan / Louise Braverman Architect
The village of Kigutu in Burundi, Africa is on its way to rebuilding a rural, off-the-grid medical site designed by Louise Braverman, Architect in collaboration with Village Health Works. The 40-acre master site plan is a feature of sustainable design that includes several new buildings, all of which embody East African cultural elements. To feature the progress of the five-year plan, Louise Braverman will also be presenting “Kigutu in Formation” at the 2012 Venice Biennale as part of Traces of Centuries and Future Steps event at Palazzo Bembo between August 29th and November 25th.
Join us after the break for more on Village Health Works Master Plan and the upcoming exhibit.
Dalian Planning Museum / 10 Design
The design for the new Dalian Planning Museum by 10 Design in Dalian, China is envisioned to become a new civic sculpture at the heart of the city’s main governmental district. The building is part of the first steps made by the Planning Bureau to promote landmark architecture in Dalian with an additional seven municipal civil projects, including a library, scientific center, urban planning exhibition, museum, and teenage activity center. The Planning Building will serve as a modern, first-class venue for offices and exhibitions, and more importantly, an addition of cultural engagement for the public within the city. The museum is also designed to be an example of technological innovation and sustainable practices.
Follow us after the break to read about the building’s advanced technology.
Mediatheek Delft / Dok Architecten
Architecture Firm: Dok Architekten
Architect: Liesbeth van der Pol
Location: centrum-Delft-Vesteplein 100-2611 WG Delft, The Netherlands
Design Team: P. Cannon, M. Hardonk, R. Bos, A. Koch, A. Derksen
Client: Gemeente Delft
Photographer: Arjen Schmitz
Community Board Approves SPURA Redevelopment Plan, What’s Next?
SPURA is one of the many adopted acronyms used to describe New York City’s division of neighborhoods. But unlike SOHO, NOHO, or Tribeca, SPURA is actually the name of a development site in Lower Manhattan, the Seward Park Urban Renewal Area, to be exact. The history of the site is a story of politics, economics and social pressures. After fifty years of debates between community leaders, activists and designers, the City Planning Commission has given a proposed development plan the green light. That means that following a land-use review process called ULURP, a city council vote and the Mayor Bloomberg’s final approval, the site may finally transition from a street level parking lot into a mixed-use development full of retail stores, offices, community facilities, a new Essex Street market, a hotel, a park and 900 apartments that will occupy 1.65-million-square-feet.
Join us after the break to read more on the development and to see other alternative creative proposals that this site has inspired over the years.
Diller Scofidio & Renfro’s ‘Granite Web’ Not Financially Viable for Aberdeen
The life of a city-funded project is a tumultuous one. After winning a design competition early this year and receiving public support to move forward, Diller, Scofidio + Renfro’s “Granite Web” design for the redevelopment of the nineteenth-century Terrace Gardens in Aberdeen, Scotland was recently rejected by the city council in a 22-20 vote. The project promised to bring a revived pulse to the heart of the city centre with a public space that would bring a year-round civic garden onto the “unattractive” Denburn dual carriageway and railway line.
More after the break.
Venice Biennale 2012: ‘Freeland’ and ‘Porous City’ / MVRDV + the why factory
By invitation of Director David Chipperfield, MVRDV and The Why Factory will participate in the 2012 Venice Biennale. The main contribution consists of the collaborative project ‘Freeland’ forming part of the single exhibition in the Central Pavilion at the Giardini. Further contribution is made by Winy Maas and The Why Factory with ‘Porous City’ to the EU CITY Program, initiated by the European Forum for Architectural Policies (EFAP) representing Europe for the first time at the Venice Architecture Biennale.
More details on the two exhibitions after the break.
Venice Biennale 2012: Danish Pavilion presents ‘Possible Greenland’
The Danish Pavilion for the 2012 Venice Biennale will feature a collaboration between Greenlandic and Danish Architects called “Possible Greenland”. The exhibition will address the current development of the Arctic Region as Greenland undergoes a shift towards political independence and business development in the midst of dramatic climate changes. “Possible Greenland” attempts to look optimistically at the climate changes that are causing ice melts throughout Greenland. The shifting planes result in the exposure of vast mineral resources that can kickstart new industries and allow new urban cultures to emerge. The team of architects that designed “Possible Greenland” were led by internationally renowned Professor in geology at the University of Copenhagen, Minik Rosing and the young Danish architect firm NORD Architects of Copenhagen.
Explore the possibilities with us after the break.
Venice Biennale 2012: StudioMK27 represents Brazil with “Peep”
Representing Brazil at the 2012 Venice Biennale will be StudioMK27 and Lúcio Costa‘s 1964 installation “Riposatevi”. The exhibit takes an intimate look at the lives of multi-generational households in modern Brazilian architecture. Curated by Lauro Cavalcanti, the Brazilian pavilion will investigate the intersections between traditional and contemporary artistic tendencies and will feature the movie installation, “Peep”, by Lea Van Steen and Marcio Kogan, with photography by Cleisson Vidal. The event will take place between August 29th and November 25th in the Giardini and Arsenale buildings in Venice.
More after the break.
Venice Biennale 2012: Poland Pavilion
The Poland Pavilion at the 2012 Venice Biennale will feature a design exploration into the interaction between sound and architecture in creating our environment. The project, by Katarzyna Krakowiak, is a sound sculpture that presents architecture as a primary system of listening. The sculpture collaborates with neighboring pavilions and echos the sounds that reach the Polish Pavilion, highlighting its acoustic qualities. The exhibit will be on view from August 29th through November 29th.
More on the exhibit after the break.
Exhibition: “Open City: London, 1500-1700
More after the break.
Modern Tide: Midcentury Architecture on Long Island
The relationship between social dynamics and architecture has always been intimate. It is a constant dialogue between social norms and politics, stylistic trends and aesthetic choices, individual preferences and the collective good. The Modernist Period was a time when architecture took on the challenge of many social problems. In all the arts – architecture, design, music and film – the period was highly politicized and the choices often gave way to a utilitarian ideal that was a hybrid of efficiency, simplicity and comfort. Jake Gorst’s new film Modern Tide: Midcentury Architecture on Long Island, supported by Design Onscreen, is a message of preservation that takes us through the history of the modernist housing boom that took place on Long Island, NY in the period between the Great Depression and the 1970s.
On August 14th, Cook+Fox Architects hosted a private film screening at their office on 641 Ave of the Americas, presenting the treasures along the island’s shore that have fallen between the cracks of history. The film looks at works from Albert Frey, Wallace Harrison, Frank Lloyd Wright, Marcel Breuer, Philip Johnson, Charles Gwathmey, Barbara and Julian Neski and many others.
Follow us after the break to catch up on the history of the development of these houses on Long Island.
An Erupting Stability: Tornado Proof Suburb / 10 DESIGN
“Erupting Stability: Tornado Proof Suburb” is a project being developed by Ted Givens, AIA, of 10 Design in Hong Kong. He and his team are researching ways to apply kinetic design to architecture in order to provide safe options for shelter in climatically unsafe environments. The goal is to break free from static ways of building and create a method of using technology that learns from and responds to the environment in a dynamic way. ”Erupting Stability” assesses the forces of tornadoes and high velocity winds, specifically, by the way that he and his team are thinking about architecture opens up a range of possibilities for applications in any disaster scenario.
Join us after the break for more on the project and a video that demonstrates how it works.
