ArchDaily

© Armin Hess, Isochrom

Coop Himmelb(l)au has designed a temporary mobile performance space for the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, Germany.  The pavilion will house performances during the annual Opera Festival  in 2010, and once that festival is over, the pavilion will be reassembled in various locations.  Designed to “give the impression of a quieter environment,” the pavilion reduces the apparent noise  to create a ‘zone of silence’ where visitors can sense a change in the soundscape.

More images and more about the pavilion after the break.

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Situated on the southern bank of the Han River, Gimpo is a city in the process of transforming from an agricultural economy toward a consumer-based economy.   Seoul architects G.Lab*’s, of Gansam Partners, proposal for the Gimpo Art Hall embraces the fact that the city is emerging as a contemporary regional hub and the design also reflects upon the region’s history.

More about the project and more images after the break. read more »

G.Lab*, a department of Gansam Partners in Seoul, was awarded first prize for their design of a Navy Museum in Korea.  The design reflects “the turbulent history of the Korean Navy and the unwavering spirit of the men and women who serve this branch.”  Inspired by the unpredictability of the ocean,  G.Lab*’s form for the museum is an undulating mass that folds.  On the interior, the volume creates a circulation path which weaves and intersects in multiple spaces.

More images and more about the museum after the break. read more »

ProjektStudio has designed a multifunctional townhouse at the corner of Dlouhá a Zámecká in Moravian Ostrava.  The townhouse includes commercial spaces on the lower levels while the upper floors can be rented for residential or office purposes.   For the design of the townhouse, the architects have mixed the historical forms of the area with a contemporary expression.   Inspired by the historical horizontal emphasis of the facade treatment, the architects have shifted the facade to creating an irregular textured effect across the building.  This triangulated facade creates a new dramatic effect and provides a break from rows of traditional building faces in that area.  The historical regular window ordering as been modified as windows rotate and combine to form new rhythms in the fenestration.   “Dramatic effect by the view at the proposed new-building is reached with the minimum of devices but all at once in the classical way so that the new building is fresh and progressive, but at the same time it is  accepting  character of its neighbourhood,” explained the architects.

More images of the townhouse after the break. read more »

Arch Group shared their innovative SLEEPBOX design with us.  Intended to provide a comfortable night sleep, the mobile 3.75 m2 unit can be located anywhere people need a place to rest or relax such as airports, train stations, shopping centers, or even in the middle of the streets. “We believe that urban infrastructure should be more comfortable for people,” explained the architects.  Rented for between fifteen minutes and several hours, the SLEEPBOX provides moments of quiet sleep and rest from the city as clients can rest on foamed polymer beds, which are equipped with an automatic system that changes bed linen once the client leaves. But a bed is not the only accommodation the SLEEPBOX provides.  The unit is also equipped with a ventilation system, sound alerts, built-in LCD TV, WiFi, sockets for a laptop, charging phones and space for luggage.   After clients feel refreshed and leave the unit, the automatic change of bed linen starts and the quartz lamps turn on.   Clients can pay for the time spent in the unit at a shared terminal, which provides the client with an electronic key.

More images after the break. read more »

PATTERNS has designed a new three story cultural center for West Hollywood, California.  The center, known as Prism, will become a cornerstone of artistic experimentation, carving a new niche for the arts in Southern California.   The facade will be the first in the nation to be constructed entirely out of a resin based composite polycarbonate. Inspired by automotive design supple forms, streamlined detailing and plastic finishes; the façade has a dual aesthetic performance associated to its plastic materiality and responsive to the lively energy of its context: it behaves as a reflectively glossy surface during daylight and as a translucent skin at night.

More about Prism after the break. read more »

Ginseng Chicken Architecture P.C. has proposed a renewed identity for the St. Paul Church and Vadabus Square in Rakvere, Estonia by attempting to integrate three disparate elements of the site into a cohesive design strategy for a main concert hall.   With Arvo Pärt’s musical legacy and contribution to the genre of minimal music in mind, non-organization and non-sequentiality became the main driving force behind the design of the annex and were then translated into an architectural language.

More images and further project description after the break. read more »

Studio Nicoletti Associati’s design for an oceanic pavilion placed third in the Yeosu Expo.  The pavilion, which was conceived as a Great Blue Whale hurling itself out of the port, intends to represent the Expo’s theme: The Living Ocean and Coast. The pavilion draws attention to the fundamental influence of the planet’s oceans and coasts resources, and how dangerous it is for such a fragile ecosystem, to ignore them. The jury added that the pavilion has “a strong and powerful form that would become instantly recognizable. The theme of the Expo is symbolically represented with a shape drawn from marine life. The image of the pavilion is consistent with the theme of the ocean. Its fluid shape celebrates the nature of water and the marine life that has adapted to it. It makes a very simple but powerful metaphorical relationship. The exhibition space is very practical for post-use.”

More images of the pavilion after the break. read more »

A3+ Architects recently finished an urban renovation project in Marsala, Italy for an international competition.  The project is situated in Porta Nuova, where the historical center of the city is connected to the sea by an urban road and an archeological park.

More images and more about the project after the break. read more »

Jesus Robles, Dale Rush and Cade Hayes from DUST design build have designed a mountain retreat for a small family of three in Arizona.  The home attempts to preserve as much of the land as possible as a way to hold on to the “history and mysteries of the Sonoran Desert.”  Users must walk through a dense forest of saguaros, ocotillo and Paloverde trees before seeing the house unfold in the landscape and ultimately arriving at the sculptural entry stairs.

More about the home after the break. read more »

Bark Design Architects, a small Australian practice, have designed a studio for themselves that showcases their philosophy of design and provides a great space to work.  The “workhouse”, an elevated steel, glass and plywood studio, “explores the notion of a mixed work / house typology.”  The architects intended for the project to expresses lightness in its modular structural form, transparency, texture, and a seamless indoor to outdoor connection.

More about the studio after the break. read more »

Konyk Architecture has created a renewed identity for the International Flavors and Fragrances Headquarters in New York.  To uplift the corporation’s appearance, Konyk proposed a new laboratory addition entitled “Floating Gardens.”  These gardens are composed of a series of overlapping roofs with a variety of flowering plants. read more »

LAN Architecture’s Mirror Tower contains more than 30,000 identical facets that reflect 14 of the city’s monuments and are orientated to produce smooth transitions between these panoramic viewpoints.  “The starting point of the project was to imagine Beirut in all its complexity. We have imagined the city as an ‘un-finished’ superposition of histories, contexts, architectures and situations; Our project was conceived as an interface, an algorithm that generates new connections and that creates new view axis, ways of observing the history, the present and the future,” explained LAN architects.   The building’s complex envelope reflects changes in surroundings, the seasons and light.  The reflective façade works by globally defining the orientation of each facet of the cylinder’s surface to create the desired reflection.  With the help of specialists, LAN Architecture produced an automated 3D tool that allowed the team to visualize different instances of the facade by changing viewpoints at will, both the reflective area and the position of the reflected images on the tower.

More about the tower and more images after the break. read more »

© Coop Himmelb(l)au

Coop Himmelb(l)au’s House of Music in Aalborg, Denmark is a  shared hybrid space that becomes a center of inspiration, “both of the shared-synergetic behavior and of the form and expression of the architecture..” Cultural and educational functions are interspersed between shared public and performance spaces, creating a network of interaction among the public, artists, students and educators.  Situated in a dynamic urban grid, the House of Music becomes a full extension of the  city, linking the character of the city with the new opportunities the Music Hall provides.

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URBANUS was awarded with the 1st prize on the competition for the new integrated teaching building at the Chinese University in Hong Kong.  Entitled “Windows on Community,” the building strives the link the two parts of the campus together, while also providing a visual connection with those who approach.  Through the implementation of a Moebius Strip, the design mixes the inner circulation of the building with the exterior circulation of the streets.  “This loop of circulation and urban internal street for us is not only a vertical linkage but more the heart of the college-a lively community space at the center of it all,” explained the architects.

More about the University after the break.

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CENTER FOR SUSTAINABLE ENERGY TECHNOLOGIES; Ningbo, People’s Republic of China; Architects: MCA Mario Cucinella Architects srl; Associate Architects: Ningbo Architectural Design and Research Institute

Ninety seven projects and urban schemes have been recognized as part of this year’s International Architecture Awards program.   For the 2009 Awards, the jury received a record number of entries, from firms in Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and the Americas.  The International Architecture Awards has “become a global event of an unprecedented scale—an important barometer for the future direction of new architectural design and thinking today—celebrating, recognizing, and highlighting the world’s foremost architectural solutions for the designs of new skyscrapers, corporate buildings, institutions, arts facilities, airports, private homes, industrial structures, and urban planning projects from London to Singapore.”

Out of the 97 projects awarded, the United States received the highest number of thirteen awards, followed by China with eight, Japan and Great Britain with each seven and Germany having six awards. The Netherlands, Brazil, Italy, Canada won four awards each.  The winning projects all an innovative approach to design while providing buildings that attempt to respond to the problems of environment, social context, improving quality of life, and sustainability.

More images of the winning projects after the break. read more »

The Jerde Partnership’s Namba Parks, in Osaka, Japan, was just named one of the winners of the Urban Land Institute’s 2009 Awards of Excellence: Asia Pacific competition.  When asked to create a gateway to redefine Osaka’s identity, the architects responded with this project that would become a natural intervention in Osaka’s dense and harsh urban condition.  The rooftop park offers a sloping park plane that is “bifurcated by a sinuous, open-air ‘canyon’ path that reinforces the connection with nature while forming the primary circulation pattern.”

More about the park after the break. read more »

The city council of Weilburg, Germany, a dense medieval city, organized a design competition upon the demolition of an existing parking structure.  ACME’s terrace design is a contemporary spin on the Baroque terraced-landscape building typology found nearby in the Weilburg Castle Gardens.  The form becomes an integrated part of the landscape, allowing the project to blend into the surrounding context while inviting inhabitation and managing to create “specific urban character towards some if its city context”.

This project won the first prize from the voting public and the second prize from the professional jury.

More images and more about the project after the break.

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A young firm from São Paulo, Brazil received an Honorable Mention for their Paineiras Hotel Complex design in Rio de Janeiro.   The architects, Alexandre Hepner, Denis Cossia, João Paulo Payar, Rafael Brych, Ricardo Gonçalves, and environmental design consultant Ricardo Messano, designed a complex that would be functional and “allow perfect fruition of the beautiful panoramic view and the close contact with nature.”   The strategy reflects “the intention of harmonizing the intervention with the existing context, thought without denying the contemporary character of such intervention nor hiding its presence among the surrounding forest and the old hotel building.”

More about the hotel after the break. read more »