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JAJA

JAJA Architects just shared the news of their competiton proposal for an extension of Falkonergården High School in Frederiksberg, Denmark.  The competition attracted over one hundred proposals, and JAJA’s placed third for its “…respectful relation to the existing buildings through its geometric formal language”.  The jury explained, “The shape appears logic with an interpretation of the buildings existing virtues. And the objective of capturing the warm glow of the surrounding buildings with new materials seems very convincing.”

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

UNStudio Furniture Designs

This year, I Saloni of Milan will be celebrating its 50th year! The cultural institution has grown dramatically over the years from an initial 328 exhibitors featured in 11,000 square meters to over 2,500 in an area now measuring over 200,000 square meters. The Salone Internazionale del Mobile is almost here and several architects will be presenting new furniture. Ben van Berkel of UNStudio has shared three new seating designs that will be featured this month: My Lounge Chair for Walter Knoll, the New Amsterdam Chair for Wilde+Spieth and the SitTable for PROOFF. “The architectural approach to furniture is different from that of the industrial designer as the architect begins with the space and the environment that the chair will become a part of.  All the details of the chair are considered for their spatial effects. This architectural approach to furniture is connected to a very personal ideology of space,” explained Ben van Berkel.

More about the chairs after the break. read more »

We were quite happy to receive a book on the Aga Kahn 1st prize and shortlist proposals as ArchDaily has followed the 11th award cycle. Beginning with an inspirational foreword, Farrokh Derakhshani explains the importance of such an award as it looks to highlight architecture rooted in an awareness of aesthetics and cultural aspects within the Muslim world. During the 11th award cycle of 2010, the shortlisted projects were shared with the public to promote further discussion.   With this in min t,The book offers an indepth look at the 19 projects, complete with the steering committee statement and master jury report.

More about the book after the break. read more »

Cooper Union by Morphosis © Iwan Baan

SCI-Arc, Los Angeles’ cutting edge architectural institute, has just announced Thom Mayne as the newest Trustee of the board.  Mayne’s addition to the board emphasizes SCI-Arc’s commitment to pushing the boundaries of traditional architectural form and theory.   Back in 1972, Mayne co-founded the institute along with seven faculty members and approximately forty students who left Cal Poly Pomona to form a “a college without walls.”  For the past nearly four decades, Mayne has been an integral part of the university, serving as a juror, lecturer and generous supporter of the school.   ”Thom Mayne is the quintessential SCI-Arc architect. His addition to the board is indicative of the fact that SCI-Arc continues to re-imagine the content of architecture,” said Director Eric Owen Moss.  According to SCI-Arc, this appointment complements a series of events that have prompted the school’s growth both physically and programmatically.

© UNStudio. Photographed by Kim Jong-Kwan

Our friends from UNStudio have shared their latest 66,000 square meter Galleria in Cheonan, South Korea, with us.  The Galleria attempts to re-define the traditional typology of such a place, as changing societal norms in Asia have led supermarkets to operate as “social and semi-cultural meeting places,” according to Ben van Berkel.   As a result, the project blends the functional aspect of a large scale commercial store, while placing emphasis on maintaining a sense of public space for social and cultural aspects.

More information and photos after the break. read more »

Dominique Ghiggi, a landscape architect and academic assistant at the Institute of Landscape Architecture in Zurich, has published a book examining the changing relationship between man and nature over the course of history. The work is perfect for those connected with the environment as it examines tree nurseries scattered across the world and their social, economical and contextual significance.

More about the book after the break. read more »

eNJoy

In 2002, the United States Department of Energy initiated the Solar Decathlon – an intense competition challenging collegiate teams to create residences that fuse the most sustainable technologies with functionality, comfort, and of course, aesthetics.  Over the course of the past decade, interest in the Decathlon has grown dramatically [be sure to read our previous Solar Decathlon coverage] as the competition has piqued the interest of students from top universities, as well as millions of public followers learning the advantages of energy-efficient, cost-effective housing.

Team New Jersey, a collaborative effort between the New Jersey Institute of Technology and Rutgers University, has designed a handicap accessible net-zero energy prototype featuring low-maintenance concrete construction and the latest green technologies, complete with a striking beach-inspired aesthetic.

More about the residence, including a great video, after the break. read more »

Ben van Berkel's New Amsterdam Pavilion in New York. Photographed by Richard Koek.

This weekend on April 2nd, Ben van Berkel of UNStudio will be presenting a lecture during the Smart Geometries 2011 Copenhagen – an event that focuses on the role of digital parametrics in architectural experimentation and design strategies.  van Berkel, an avid believer in computational design, will focus on his firm’s projects, such as the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart, the Raffles City mixed use development in Hangzhou and the Star Place Luxury Shopping Plaza in Kaohsiung, to illustrate their application of smart geometries.  ”"Parametric design is in itself not so interesting. It needs meaning. We need to combine the possibilities of the virtual with how we discipline the real in a new way,” explains van Berkel.   With digital modeling allowing for greater innovation, creativity and experimentation, van Berkel explains how such technologies improve communication on projects to such an extent that design and construction can be much more compact, accelerated and efficient.  “In the 90s we were fascinated with the potential of these emerging techniques and their ability to control geometry. However our interest was never solely focussed on the geometry, nor on the computational techniques themselves. Our interest lay largely in the possibility to carry out spatial experiments and to see how the resulting structures could actually be constructed,” states van Berkel.  For more information about the lecture, check out the Smart Geometries website.

© Karen Cilento

On a recent visit to Hamburg, we were able to see the progress of Herzog & de Meuron’s grand concert hall [check out our previous coverage here].  Although construction costs continue to escalate [almost 70 million Euro have been donated by private businesses for the project, and the project is well over its 240 million Euro proposed budget], once complete, it will be the highest inhabited building of Hamburg and bring even more life to the area’s harbor.

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

Shigeru Ban Architects Modular Partition System

A week ago, we shared our ideas about creating a system of temporary housing that could be rapidly constructed after a natural disaster.  Building upon that idea, today we are sharing Shigeru Ban’s cardboard partition system for the hundreds of people crowded into gymnasiums seeking refuge after the earthquake.  These simple partition shelters are a way to provide a sense of privacy to the families using a low cost, flexible and quick modular solution.

More after the break. read more »

© Morley von Sternberg

GS-CA has designed a weather-resistant canopy to shelter the clay tennis courts of the National Tennis Center. Developed by an international team led by George Stowell, the long span structure utilizes a low pressure air inflation system to provide a lightweight aesthetic and spacious playing atmosphere.

More images and more about the canopy after the break.

read more »

Via ArchRecord

Continuing our reporting on the Architecture Billings Index, the ABI score slighly increased from 50.0 in January to 50.6 this past month.  Although only a small jump, regional average for the  Midwest and South remained over 50 (55.3 and 50.1 respectively), and the West and Northeast reported scores of 49.1 and 46.4.  ”Overall demand for design services seems to be treading water over the last two months,” said AIA Chief Economist, Kermit Baker, PhD, Hon. AIA. “We’ve been preaching patience and cautious optimism for a full recovery because there continues to be a wide range of business conditions for architecture firms that are also influenced by firm size, practice specialties and regional location. We still expect the road to recovery to move at a slow, but steady pace.”

© WORKac

With the small Chinatown site proving to be too confining for the growing Children’s Museum of the Arts, the institution secured a new space in Hudson Square, New York.  Now that the new space is three times the size of the Chinatown site, WORKac has designed a museum where the activities are connected in a natural manner and are organized around a central colorful gallery.  This dramatic increase in square footage will allow the museum to reinterpret the best parts of their current museum and add the new programs they had long desired.

More about the project after the break. read more »

Photo via Flickr, user Melbow - http://www.flickr.com/photos/melbow/261578252/

Immediately, the plan was criticized for its monotony and, in particular, the 90 degree angles of the street intersections – which were designed in an economical fashion as right-angled houses were the most affordable to build.   While cities such as Washington DC had grand diagonal cross streets, Manhattan’s plan divided the island into repetitious compressed parcels with no attention paid to changing topography or location.  However, opinions of the system seem to be changing, as, over the course of decades, the grid’s logistical framework has proven beneficial and has allowed a magnificent modern city to rise.

More after the break. read more »

Courtesy of Architecture for Humanity

Earthquakes in Haiti and Chile, monsoons in India, and now the disasters in Japan.  Each has left thousands displaced from their homes, giving us, as architects, reason to re-think the idea of temporary housing. In Chile, strict building codes helped some infrastructure withstand the 8.5 quake; yet, there is a limit to the pre-disaster measures a country can take.  So, what are the steps for dealing with the after effects of the disaster, be it wind, water, or seismic damages?

Each world tragedy brings with it the opportunity for the creative to find solutions that will help give shelter to people.  There are many obstacles to overcome in Japan’s case – roads are completely destroyed which presents quite a challenge to collect and transport material, plus snow has covered much of the region.  Yet, if we could re-think the idea of a house and pool our efforts to create a system of rapid response temporary housing that can overcome such obstacles, think of the number of people in devastated areas that would benefit from such a project.

More after the break. read more »

Dédalo magazine, a student based publishing project developed by the Oporto University Faculty of Architecture, has organized a lecture series for March 31st through April 2nd.  The series, entitled dis:Place: Deviations on Architectural Practice, intends to explore the (de)contextualizations or (inter)relations within contemporary architecture, and thus understand the more complex issues of site/place, dissecting the meaning of movement and exchange, both physically and ideologically.  The lectures will be held in Oporto, Portugal, at the Architecture Faculty of Oporto’s University and offer a varied panel of international lecturers.

Check out the lecture schedule after the break. read more »

Photographed by MaCabe Brown

For the University of Southern Indiana’s new University Center, Holzman Moss Bottino Architecture designed a local landmark for the campus that aims to promote interaction among students, faculty and the community.  Constructed with mostly local materials, the project boasts a salvaged 28 ft.-tall, Indiana limestone arch to mark the main entrance and the exterior is clad in slabs of quarry-faced roughback limestone, which would have otherwise been used as scrap material.

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

© WORKac

For WORKac’s skyscraper design for the Shenzhen Metro Tower, the architects created a new a new kind of mixed density to promote a sustainable and a diverse stacked city.  This vertical city holds places places of intense urban interchange that combine infrastructure, mixed uses, and public space.  Located at an  intersection with a horizontal crossroads of major boulevards, this vertical interchange between the underground metro, ground-level bus station, shopping podium and the offices and hotel above will essentially be linking the metro with the sky.  ”We call this tower the Interchange – a vertical city that twists together natural green space with ecological systems, structural and functional efficiency with dramatic new forms and technology, while linking the underground to the sky,” added the architects.

More about the project after the break. read more »

© Foster + Partners by Methanoia

Foster + Partners’ City Park proposal has recently been selected for the 40-hectare masterplan for West Kowloon Cultural District.  Since this past August, we have been sharing the three competing shortlisted projects – OMA’s  Three Villages, Rocco Design Architects’ Cultural Connect, and Foster’s City Park – and your comments have sparked great discussion concerning the advantages and disadvantages of each.   The selection process for the cultural district was quite unique as the three projects, that were selected from 12 proposals, then entered a public consultation exercise.  For three months, the people of the West Kowloon district had the opportunity to review and comment on the projects, which then had a strong impact on the panel’s final decision.

Foster’s proposal is organized around a 23 hectare public par, with cultural buildings scattered along the edges to become a natural extension of the local community.  Foster commented, “This is fantastic news. I have been travelling to Hong Kong for more than 32 years, since the Hongkong Bank first brought us here. This project offers an extraordinary opportunity – it is unprecedented in its scale, scope and vision. City Park will be the catalyst to transform the city locally and regionally, as well as on the world stage. Our design is rooted in Hong Kong’s urban DNA, the distinctive character that makes it such a dynamic city. There really is no other project like it!”

Be sure to read more about Foster’s proposal on AD here.

Back in July, we first introduced Aarhus, Denmark’s  School of Architecture along with a cool temporary pavilion assembled from euro-pallets.   Recently, three of the university’s students – Johan Stoustrup, Gustav Kragh-Jacobsen and Martin Erlandsson – have shared a creative video-project which focuses on the abstraction of fragmentation.  Entitled ”Fragments of the Ideal City,” the video depicts the city as an constantly changing organism as different video clips project various images upon a lime plaster model set to music by Band Ane.